Expat Living – How Do You Get Your News?

Over the last couple of weeks we have started buying the Sunday Times again, not for the news (all papers can only really print old news in this digital age), but for the aesthetic pleasure of sitting down and reading an article in a café while enjoying a cup of café con leche, a chat and the inevitable buzz that is Spanish Café Life, or as the perfect accompaniment to a Sunday Brunch.

Today we opted for a Sunday Brunch at home, and as we are both on a bit (well a LOT in my case) of a health drive at the moment that meant fresh grapefruit, smoked salmon, scrambled egg, and grilled tomatoes, with a cup of coffee to finish.

As an Expat getting the news can be expensive, for example The Sunday Times in Spain costs 5€, and the news is often ‘out of date’, although to be fair as Anne Robinson said on the Andrew Marr program this morning the newspapers just can’t keep up with the news these days, and somewhat skeletal in that the ‘Spanish Version’ of the papers are usually somewhat slimmed down versions of the original.

So what are the alternatives? Personally I am a huge fan of Really Simple Syndication (RSS) as a means of getting the latest information sent to me as soon as it is published. Reading the news off a computer screen, whether it is a pair of 23″ Apple Cinema Displays or a iPhone isn’t ideal I agree, but the flexibility and convenience far outweigh any minor inconvenience as far as I am concerned.

Pick ‘n’ Mix

One of the largest benefits for me is the ability to select feeds from a variety of papers and effectively create a personalised newspaper. For example when we lived in the UK we preferred the Telegraph during the week, but the Sunday Times on errr …. Sunday. There are a number of columnists from both papers that I enjoy reading, so with RSS I can select their individual feeds and create my own group of columnists from across a number of papers

So every week I happily read the views and comments of the following without having to buy any of the papers they write for:

• Boris Jonson
• India Knight
• Jeremy Clarkson
• Rod Little
• Simon Heffer

When it comes to daily news I tend to scroll through a number of online papers from time to time e.g.

• The Telegraph
• The Times Online
• The Sun
• The Mirror

but mainly I use their respective RSS Feeds (The Times RSS Feeds, The Telegraph UK Feeds, The Sun RSS Feeds, and The Mirror RSS).

Focussed

Another huge attraction to me of RSS is the fact that the feeds I select are very focussed to what I am doing. As such I am able to have specific feeds set up for sites I want to monitor regards this site, while at the same time keeping an eye on my favourite sports, teams and interests. For client work I am able to monitor their sites, and their competitors.

Convenience

Being able to pick up all the feeds on the iPhone means that I can wake up and effectively browse through my own personalised newspaper every morning before getting out of bed. Reading an article is an option, but generally only happens as an exception on the iPhone but it is convenient to have the option. I tend to settle for a quick overview which helps me with the initial prioritising of my day.

Of course the iPhone option means that I can keep up to date with all my feeds at anytime of the day, and from any place, so I never feel that I ‘need’ to catch the news, or buy a paper anymore.

As I said above reading on a screen isn’t great, even with the size and quality of screens that are available these days, but it sure is convenient! As I tend to sit at the Mac for long hours every day it means that I am always receiving the latest news (great for relevant content for the site), and if I want to write an article regarding something that I have read having it on the Mac already makes it so much easier.

Social Interaction

Personally I find that the above all contribute to a greater level of social interaction. I tend to find that it is much more sociable to sit down and discuss items in the news over a coffee, rather than both be reading a paper (as an aside I hate being interrupted when I am reading an article or watching a news item) in silence.

There are a couple of dangers to be aware of though. One is information overload, you can get carried away with your subscriptions and end up with more information than you could possible take in, but there is always the delete button. The second problem is one I have written about on my blog and relates to how much we actually know when we are surrounded by so many snippets of information. Personally I now find it hard to concentrate on a detailed article, and I have a concern that being surrounded by headlines and sound bites may mislead us to think we know more than we actually do.

Another modern favourite as a means of getting news for us is the Podcast. This is a great way of getting audio (and video) information ranging from hobbies, friends lives and news from a variety of amateur productions to professional productions. Most major broadcasters i.e. BBC now publish podcasts of segments of their programs, which means you can listen to your favourite bits at your own time, in your own place (on a computer or MP3 player), without having to listen to the whole show.

Current favourites of mine are:

The Economist
Mark Kermode & Simon Mayo’s Film Reviews
BBC NewsPod

The most frequently used source of podcasts, and the one we use all the time is iTunes, a free application that runs on Windows and OS X (Macs). Indeed our very own Almerimar Life Podcast can be subscribed to in iTunes!

Some Terms Explained

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. It can include either full or summarised text of the content, along with metadata relating to the content i.e. date, author etc.

Expat. An expatriate (in abbreviated form, expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person’s upbringing or legal residence.

Podcast. A podcast is a series of audio or video digital-media files which is distributed over the Internet by syndicated download, through Web feeds, to portable media players and personal computers.

As a Mac user I use Net News Wire to aggregate my RSS feeds, primarily because it syncs so well between the Macs and the iPhone. It also has a great option to allow you to post directly to a blog, which is something I use a lot with my client work! There are a whole bunch off free options available though. If you want any advice please feel free to email me or leave a comment (always worth doing as you get a chance to win FREE meals in Almerimar when you do) and I will happily try and help, and if you are based here I will happily set it all up for you and show you how it works (reasonable rates apply!!!)

So as an expat I would certainly suggest taking a look at the use of RSS and Podcasts as an alternative to a newspaper to get your news, and keep up to date with life back on your home country!

Our Feeds

As you would suspect we have a number of feeds for the various online activities that we are engaged in:

Almerimar Life Podcast
Almerimar Life Blog Content
Almerimar Life Blog Comments
Almerimar Life Flickr Account
Almerimar LIfe Flickr Account Comments
Almerimar Life Twitter
Almerimar Life QIK Videos
Almerimar Life Strays Blog Content
Almerimar Life Strays Twitter
Chris Marshall Blog Content
Chris Marshall Blog Comments
Chris Marshall Twitter

As a British Expat you may find the British Expats site a useful source of information.

About Almerimar

Almerimar is located in the region of Andalucia, Spain. The nearest airport is 30km away in Almeria. Other airports that are within 3 hours include Malaga, Murcia, Granada, and Alicanti. Other holiday resorts in the region include Mojacar , Aguadulce and Roquetas de Mar

Almerimar is also one of the largest marinas in Spain with over 2,000 berths and excellent boatyard facilities.

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