Inspired by the article series "Media Diet" by Mr. Fang kecheng, I also record my media diet.
This blog only discusses the popular media, the professional side of the words, or carefully looks at the documentation, online classes, technical sites, etc.
1. Newsletters
Firstly, I'm not going to post all the newsletters I subscribe to here, because with the increase in the number of newsletter creators in China, the number of newsletters I subscribe to has come to dozens, and it's unrealistic to show the links one by one. Secondly, as many creators have expressed, in the beginning, we can try to subscribe to a large number of newsletters. And as the number of unread in our mailbox grows, we will find that some newsletters we are not so interested in, and some newsletters we are not so patient to read. As time goes by, we may unsubscribe from some newsletters, or some newsletters are not updated. After some time, we will be left with our subscription list.
1.1. Newsletters Market
In this section, I will list some collections of newsletters. It’s worthwhile to increase the number of your subscribed newsletters at the beginning.
1.2. Newsletters Staple Food
I would recommend newsletters that I read every issue and gain a lot from. They are usually very informative and inspiring. However, reading these newsletters also requires me to stay focused for some time and can take some of my energy, so they may not be easy to read.
1.2.1. Technology
From time to time, this newsletter releases information related to AI. The topics are about technology, business, etc. Since my research requires the use of deep learning, I will pay extra attention to the relevant information.
Author: Kevin (the senior director of International Expansion strategy at GitHub)
Internet's only bilingual newsletter on the intersections of tech, business, money, geopolitics, and US-Asia relations.
Kevin’s experience is outstanding! He offers a bilingual version of each newsletter and shares his insightful perspective on it.
1.2.2. Design
Author: DINGYI
DINGYI subscribes to my newsletter!
1.2.2. Media
Author: Kecheng Fang (associate professor of School of Journalism and Communication, CUHK)
Professor Fang provides a unique analysis of topical social news. I don’t think I need to introduce more details, as even my mom knows his reports.
1.2.4. Social Science
唯理教育简报定期呈现我们对于教育新闻、评论与研究的精选，希望为读者提供独特视角的教育动态。
Since both of my parents are teachers, I have been receiving education-related information almost all the time since I was a child, whenever I was with my parents. But after reading the Veritas Newsletter, I start to realize how little I know about education.
主要关注记录、挖掘科学创造、社会思想和个体生活。 我相信每一个人物、思想、事物的背后都有一段精彩的故事，启发当下，看向未来。
Each issue covers the experience of one celebrity. I believe that every reader will be amazed by the host's content coverage, information gathering and organization, and the organization of the output. At the end of each newsletter, the author recommends several podcasts, which are just my taste! Right now, every time I read this newsletter, I look at the podcast recommendations at the end first.
1.2.5. Curation
Author: Steve and some guests
Author: Neo Zhang
Author: 文浩
Author: 炜晨
Author: Jimmy Wang
It is the first newsletter I read that included an interactive session with readers in each issue
Author: 陆屿
The author is the same age as me and is currently studying for his master's degree in the United States. I admire his connections and his self-reflection on things
- 草稿拾遗
Author: 潦草学者张宇
潦草学者的思考与感受 长期关注效率工具，互联网商业。
The author is the same age as me and is working for his living. The author is very widely read and the maturity he shows in his understanding of things has always made me wonder about his age.
Author: 桌沿
The author is also the same age as me and he also works in Guangzhou! What a coincidence! He studied social science in college and what he shared made me feel very close to him. Also how he uses the Internet tools such as Notion and Figma is quite impressive.
1.3. Newsletters Desserts
I'm looking forward to the update of these newsletters which keep informative while being easy for me to read!
Author: Young
The only newsletter that is completely stress-free for me to read.
Author: 南百城
Author: 肉饼 & 花生酱
The two authors seem like an anomaly to the contemporary youth who are always complaining (like me). Even though they share unhappy things, the emotions they convey are still warm.
Author: Happy Xiao
This newsletter is famous for being short and concise. The author is very straightforward at the beginning about what you can gain from it, and the message is very clearly divided into points. However, I feel that sometimes the author is a little bit biased.
2. Podcasts
Many anchors say that the biggest role of podcasts is companionship, followed by the transfer of knowledge. Because podcasts are linear, they force the listener to listen down the timeline. As podcasts are not very dense with information, they are very suitable for listening to while commuting or dining. As mentioned above, I also recommend subscribing to a large number of podcasts at the beginning, and just choosing the ones you're interested in by title in the software when you want to listen to them.
2.1. Podcasts Market
Recently, everyone's favorite podcast map is the podtown which I highly recommended you to check. The 小宇宙APP releases a yearly report of listeners’ favorite podcasts where you could find a few amazing podcasts. By the way, it’s a good start to listen to the daily recommended podcasts of the app.
2.2. Podcasts Staple Food
I will focus on the following podcasts and listen to almost every one of them. While their content is not necessarily in the science and technology category that I am familiar with, the anchors try to make the information as easy to understand as possible. And this time, the disadvantage of the low information density of the podcast turns out to be an advantage. I was able to learn new things and broaden my horizons in a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere without the usual pressure of studying.
2.2.1. Academic
As described in 学术疗养院, these four podcasts are my charging station. I could hear on the podcast how the PhDs fail, succeed, and spend their spare time. Not only could I get happiness and relaxation, but also I learn a lot from the anchors and guests.
Anchor: Yiqing Xu (Assistant Professor at Department of Political Science, Stanford University)
Anchors: Ph.D.s 和燕燕, 心安, 正正, 爬爬
Anchor: Yingdan Lu (Ph.D. at Standford University)
Anchor: Ph.D. 柯紫
2.2.2. Random Talk
Anchor: Journalist 徐涛
The anchor often invites experts as guests, such as Kecheng Fang and 董晨宇. I will watch the shownote of each episode carefully. If the guest is a university teacher, I will go to the teacher’s homepage to see his research and roughly search his (her) papers in academic databases.
My favorite anchor is 猫猪喜. I feel that she has a very similar point of view to me, who also takes an exam-oriented education. But she can express her confusion, overwhelm and distress very well, which makes me resonate with her.
2.2.3. Economy
Anchors: 肖文杰, 许冰清 (chief writers of magazine YiMagazine)
It may seem like the two anchors are inadvertently outputting some business analysis in their casual ramblings, but some guests have revealed in other podcasts that their conversations are carefully prepared, and even what places to use exclamations are marked, just to give listeners a smooth listening experience.
The first podcast I listened to. Though in English, this podcast is not that hard to be understandable. And to their credit, the show's commentary on the event is relatively neutral, without biased reporting or false content.
Anchor: Gareth (Ph.D. at Peking University)
Gareth often asks questions about economics to the guests, which can give listeners a deeper understanding of the topics discussed on the show.
2.2.4. Technology
Anchor: Kevin Scott（Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft）
The show is mostly a conversation between Kevin and well-known experts in the tech world, such as Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian and computer vision expert Feifei Li.
Anchors: 半只土豆、感冒、瓜大爷、巧克力爱巧克力、慕容甜甜、白鸟、莫奇……
The anchor and science writer 半只土豆 could be considered the bad boy in podcasts. But his disruptions always make the podcast lively and interesting while still running smoothly, and make the knowledge told by the guests become more relevant to life and more attractive.
Anchors: Designer JJ Ying、Leon Gao
我们的目标是让你的听觉更懂视觉。
When I first started listening to this podcast, I felt that the phrase at the beginning of the introduction was contradictory. How can the sense of hearing relate to the sense of sight? Even now I don’t fully understand it. But I do experience the enthusiasm of the two anchors.
2.3. Podcasts Desserts
Attention, do not listen to it in places like library and office. Trust me, you can not help laughing.
Anchors: 包江浩、李挺、江轲
Anchors: Wei、Michelle
3. Blogs
The number of existing blogs is much higher than the newsletter. On the contrary, I don’t read and collect most of them. In my opinion, the blog is more like a personal online diary for each blogger, and a bit like a tree-hole article written by the blogger to himself, or like a whisper to his best friend.
Besides, I’m not in the habit of using RSS, so reading blogs is more like an exploration for searching for information. Since I already have quite a few high-quality sources of information, I generally don’t read blogs actively unless the blog is like a weekly magazine.
3. 1. Blogs Market
After so many years of development of the Internet, there have been many collections or recommendations of blogs. I occasionally enter these collections, with the expectation of having fun, clicking on a random link, and entering a digital garden.
3.2. Blogs Staple Food
Even though I stated above that I don't actively read blogs, there are a few blogs that I find both beneficial and enjoyable. Usually, I'll get into these blogs on the weekend and browse around.
- 科技爱好者周刊
Host: 阮一峰
This blog is serialized from April 22, 2018.
Host: 费照君
4. Websites
The frequency of viewing the website is much higher than the blog. Generally, every night I will enter the website to see what’s new happened, but reading is far less careful than the blog, much less than the newsletter. Usually, I only read titles. If the title is attractive enough to interest me, I may check the full text, but it also depends on whether I am energetic and I have enough spare time at that time.
When I was in the first year of my postgraduate, I was relatively free. I occasionally take time to browse sites such as NEXTDRAFT, Slashdot, Insider, Sixth Tone, etc., but now I rarely open them.
The information has MIT endorsement and is of very high quality. I recommend checking the Chinese website and the English website at the same time, the two websites have different focuses on the geographical attributes of the technology news. The Chinese website focuses more on Chinese technology information, while the English website focuses more on foreign ones.
It’s the Chinese version of The Atlantic where experts and scientists use understandable words to introduce awesome knowledge.
5. Videos
I am a heavy user of bilibili and subscribe to hundreds of UPs. Though I mostly watch videos such as vlogs and digital gadgets video introduction for recreation, I also pay attention to videos related to study like lectures and online courses. Besides, 睡前消息 is the only news studio I subscribe to. I do watch its videos before I go to bed. For me, it’s like an amateur version of Network News Broadcast.
The anchor of 睡前消息 can reach the deeper point of the social news and share his critical views.
6. Social Media
Although I do play multiple social media apps, I rarely use them as a source of information. Recently, I only star two accounts on WeChat, that is 正面连接 and 一时半刻.
正面连接 is a self-media made by 曾鸣 who once worked in Southern Weekly. Its articles warm my heart and my favorite is 和衡水中学在一起的2557天. 一时半刻 is also a self-media from my hometown, Dongguan, whose articles are mostly about the cultural activities and the cultural news about the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Even though I have lived in my hometown for about twenty years, articles from 正面连接 always let me know something about my hometown that I am not aware of.
7. Others
I will browse the navigator websites every night like 今日热榜 which concentrated displays the tops news from 知乎热榜, 36氪, 虎嗅网, 第一财经, etc, normally. But I also mostly just glance at the titles without checking the full content.
I seldom read other sources of information. When I just finished the postgraduate entrance examination, I sometimes go to the library to read magazines like Science, TIME, Fortune, etc, but I rarely have the time right now. After that, I know media such as 澎湃, 新京报, 端传媒, and 南方系, but they seem to get mixed reviews on the Internet. Considering that I have subscribed to some newsletters as information resources, I seldom check other media.
I hate short videos!
8. What’s More?
8.1. The Way I Know Newsletters
WeChat was almost my only information input during my undergraduate period. Later, I switched to 轻芒杂志 whose design and user experience are fantastic for a better reading experience. But it was a pity that the firm behind this app finally went bankrupt, after which I start to read blogs and newsletters.
The first time I know about newsletters was when I was checking Melodie’s blog.
The blog is lovely and there is a newsletter subscription function. The word newsletter appeared in some English articles that I have read before, so when I saw the subscription option, I felt both familiar and unfamiliar.
After simply searching, I subscribe to her newsletter which has warm words. But the links in her newsletter mostly link to foreign websites which always gives me a 404 response. When I was in the second year of my undergraduate, Melodie stops writing newsletters.
I acknowledged and restart subscribing to newsletters until I started my postgraduate period and read this article below.
8.2. The Way I Know Podcasts
I know podcasts much earlier than the newsletter. Unexpected, right!
When I was preparing for the IELTS exam, I wanted to find something to practice my listening ability. In the beginning, I listened to VOA English. But after a few months, I find it a little bit boring. Luckily, I found podcasts.
The first podcast I subscribed to was Planet Money. Besides, I also listen to The Tim Ferriss Show, This American Life, TED, etc, whose episodes I usually listen to more than twice as it’s almost impossible for me to understand the content for once.
That was about 2018, I also found there existed some Chinese podcasts even though the number of them was limited. But I seldom listened to the Chinese podcasts as I was preparing for the exam.
8.3. Media Eating Habit
Usually, I will keep my email running. When I'm tired of studying, I'll pick a short Chinese newsletter to read and relax, or I'll go to a news aggregator to see what's hot on each platform.
I open blogs and news websites much less frequently. I sometimes check them while listening to music as a way of relaxation.
I listen to the podcast every day when I wash, eat, and walk on my commute.
I will check bilibili to see whether there are some new videos. Normally I will add interesting videos to the watch later list and watch them on weekends. Oh, I watch every 睡前消息 before going to bed.
I rarely watch articles on my phone. I use flomo to send the links to articles from my phone to my laptop and read the articles on my laptop.
8.4. Organize
I have five organization tools. They are archives of outlook, collections of Edge, Cubox, Guardo, Notion.
If a newsletter inspires me, I will save it to the archive of Outlook. Then save the original page to Notion, do a brief extended reading of the parts that inspire me by searching, and organize them in Notion.
If I find the articles recommended by the newsletter or other channels inspiring, I will save them directly to Notion and make some notes. If I don't have time at that time, I will save the English articles to Guardo and the Chinese articles to Cubox. If I skim the article and consider it interesting, I will save it to the collection if I am sure I will re-read it seriously in a short time.
I will also send the link to my favorite podcast to my computer, read the shownote, and save my notes to Notion. Also, I will use 飞书 to recognize the voice of the podcasters and guests to see how their language is organized.
Rarely do I encounter videos that I have the urge to bookmark. The videos that I like in the knowledge category will be saved to Notion, while others such as movies and tutorials will be saved to bilibili's favorites.
I usually send the WeChat article link to the computer for viewing via email or flomo. I just don't like the WeChat reading experience. I feel that the user experience at WeChat is bad and the searching is inconvenient.
8.5. Focus
The focus will now be on authors, especially academics or experts who are passionate about knowledge dissemination. For instance, Kecheng Fang, 董晨宇, 温铁军, 翟东升, Kevin Scott, pluskid, etc. I'm more concerned about how to explain by using understandable words in the field of research or professionalism. The experts and scholars who have been recognized for their knowledge dissemination through the media have done a great job in this regard!
I know that research and visualization are often incompatible, but even for the neural networks I'm studying, there are many websites that make visualization very intuitive and beautiful! I learned the C language in my undergraduate. Though I could use C to control STC chips and implement some algorithms on PC, the visualization is only applied on the terminal. I also learned Java and C# later. As a consequence, I could make some Winform programs, but it looks like the design of Windows XP. Fluent Design and Material Design seem hard to be achieved, but I hope to find successful combinations when surfing the Internet.
8.6. Self Cultivation
As I grow older and am more educated, my understanding of the world and society is progressing. It’s wrong to underestimate the complexity of things. As many scholars and experts say, it is crucial to read information with a critical aspect.
As mentioned in the article 世纪大通胀中，一场金融战打响了！, the author said limiting the electricity is a way to seize pricing power. I was shocked by this thought and felt that the article's logic is self-consistent. But later this opinion is widely discussed and the truth is released.
8.7. Force Myself To Read The English Information
Even though I struggle to read and understand English articles, I have to listen to English podcasts many times before I can understand them. But I still force myself to receive English content every day, as I hope that my English level will not regress too much even if it does not improve.
9. Q & A
9.1. How Much Time Do I Spend On Reading?
Average of 2 hours or more. I spend more time on weekends when I read the articles saved in the archive, collection, Cubox, and Guardo and make some notes at the same time. Also, I usually watch videos in the watch later collection of bilibili. If my friends don’t invite me to hang out, I normally spend my weekend in front of my laptop.
9.2. Could I Absorb All The Information While Having So Much Information Resources?
I can’t.
I am a little bit confused by the FOMO. But after listening to podcast 017. 我的 RSS 订阅就像是我的个人图书馆, I attempt to make some changes.
9.3. Is It Inappropriate For An Engineering Student To Absorb So Much Unrelated Information?
Yes, it is.
9.4. Are There Friends That I Can Talk To?
No.
I used to have frequent contact with one of my high school classmates. He reads a lot and loves to share his inspiring opinion. But now he is working in Shenzhen and he is so busy that he seldom replies to the newsletter I share with him.
Other people I found very rewarding to chat with are two elders, one a university teacher and the other working in the finance field. But I am quite different from them in age and generation, and the knowledge and information I have are still very shallow in comparison, so I usually don't dare to speak up when I get along with them, listening is rewarding enough.
By the way, I've recently interacted with the newsletter host by replying to emails.
9.5. Am I Confused After Widely Reading For Such A While?
I've always wondered about this, what is the point of the information I'm ingesting?
Though professor 刘擎 said:
好像价值观没有用了，利益有用。但如果没有价值观，你都不知道什么才是自己的“利益”。
But it is true that I have neither made any real friends nor gained anything substantial, such as money, through sharing. If I say that I have deepened my understanding of society and the world and that I have improved myself, then I have to ask "So what?
9.6. Do I Highlight Any Kind Of Media?
No.
There is a sentence I like form newsletter 地心引力:
粗暴地抵制抖音和无脑地吹捧 RSS 都是一种狭隘，希望那些朋友们可以像李如一一样去思考一下为什么不需要刷抖音，为什么我们要放弃一些「便捷」。
And teacher 董晨宇 said, even though the book Amusing ourselves to death is blaming the TV, it does not blame the phone.
电话出现的时候，人们谴责其让人们见面联络感情的机会减少了，但是没有指责更早出现的 ATM 机；电视出现的时候，人们大喊电视节目”娱乐至死“，但是没人指责电话；互联网出现的时候，也没人指责电视和电话。想指责短视频的短平快为什么不同时谴责微信推文让大家都不去读书呢？
He said that the emergence of new technologies is inevitably accompanied by both utopia and anti-utopia. I think an analogy can be drawn to this issue. Yes, people are used to TV, the Internet, and WeChat. And these formats have correspondingly suitable content. There is no problem to watch young lady dance in short videos.
So I think the form can not distinguish between good and bad, but the content can. Teacher 罗翔 said:
有三种类型的内容，分别是小黄书、郭德纲的相声、莎士比亚全集，如果给你来看，大概率会选郭德纲相声。但是如果只能选一项放入图书馆，大部分人一定会选莎士比亚全集。
What if a person writes a newsletter, publishes a podcast, has his own website, and keeps an eye on the "noble" media while having the hobby of playing TikTok?
9.7. What’s My Aspect About Non-fiction?
I used to in kind of reading articles from 人物, 正午故事, 真实故事计划, 故事FM, etc. But I am not that interested right now.
Yes, I know that writing good non-fiction stories requires strong skills and very solid writing as well as a certain amount of talent. But I find that I actually don't seem to care that much about other people's lives, nor am I that easily moved. The bravery, perseverance, optimism, and cheerfulness of the story's main character ...... did bring me inspiration, but again, it really doesn't make a substantial difference in my life.
But recently I like 正面连接, I can’t explain why.
PS
Recommended by Steve说每周通讯, I found the Media Diet articles collection by Kecheng Fang.
