Where do you get your news? A few suggestions...

Staying informed and aware is a vital necessity for survival in today's society. Print media may have been responsible for stirring our appetites, but now the internet offers us an All-U-Can-Eat buffet of information.

Unfortunately, with all the disinformation being spread across the centralized media corporate oligarchy, we often find ourselves in an echo chamber. So where can we go to find emergent information that is based in truthful reality?

Over my years seeking to answer this question I have found a few great sites, some of which utilize a decentralized model to their content sourcing. This allows for many different perspectives from around the world to appear before you in a single location. So without further ado, I would like to share some of my top 5 favorite news sites with you, the SteemIt community!

Note: I have no affiliation to any of the sites listed below and am presenting them for your consideration as a simple recommendation.

1 ) What Really Happened - General World News and Events
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/

• Run by Mike Rivero, who hosts a weekly podcast. Mike is very forthcoming about his history and journey to becoming an alternative media figure. His personal story is fraught with the sort of intimidation that is now commonplace among alternative media figures residing or operating in the USA. Absolutely great site, the veracity and importance of the stories he brings to us on the site's feed, are validated by regular hacking events that seek to disable people's access to them. Mike keeps everyone updated with regular announcements as well, and has taken several steps to improving the site's security, meaning it's now extremely rare that the site is down. I strongly recommend this site.

2 ) Information Clearing House - Insightful Op-Eds with verifiable sources and links
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/

• Run by Tom Feeley, another great American who risks his personal safety to bring us insightful, critical pieces on world news and events. I have been visiting Tom's site for news info since 2003, and I have seen it go through a lot of changes. I have also seen his early updates pertaining to the specific instances of intimidation that were occurring regularly by unnamed government spooks. This is the reality of life in the States. Tom's site is one of the first true alternative media sites, and has remained stalwart in its promise to deliver the truth. Be advised the Op-Eds usually appear towards the top of the center feed, many international news stories appear below that, so scroll around, or better yet just join the newsletter.

3 ) ZeroHedge - World/Financial News
http://www.zerohedge.com/

• Run by an anonymous admin going by the pseudonym Tyler Durden, he has been featured (in voice only) in interviews on many popular alternative podcasts including the X22 report. According to him, "Tyler" is from the investment world (presumably enjoying the many benefits of his career), and finds it necessary to separate himself from his alternative media personality online. Given the stories of harassment and intimidation from the first two admins in this list, I would say he is probably right. His site maintains a focus on financial news, but this is often correlated to world events. The site is updated very frequently and I recommend it.

4 ) Investment Watch Blog - World/Financial News
http://investmentwatchblog.com/

• Run by an anonymous admin, Investment Watch Blog boasts a decentralized approach, more so than Zero Hedge. This means that despite the investment/financial focus of the site, you will find a wide cross section of topics and articles. The updates of this blog occur very frequently and can be very insightful and responsive to world events. Many stories that break on the preceding sites mentioned, actually break first on IWB. I give them credit as a news site despite being labeled as a "blog". Check it out and decide for yourself.

5 ) RT - World News
https://www.rt.com/

• Ok, I'm sure you've all heard of RT. What you may not have done is actually explore it as a source of world news. RT has been under mainstream media and US regulatory attack since it found its way onto American airwaves in 2010. This organization is actually quite fascinating. If you look at its foundation, in 2005 it was created as an autonomous non-profit organization, rather than a subsidiary of TV-Novosti, the biggest news channel in Russia. This allowed for a decentralized platform where a plethora of contributors such as Max Keiser, Larry King (formerly of CNN), even Jesse Ventura and Ron Paul could have a voice. So many great and insightful interviews with world leaders can be heard, many of whom are snubbed on other mainstream Western channels. Today, it is one of, if not the best televised news channel in the world. Their balanced coverage makes them the only non-alternative media site in this list, and one that I strongly recommend you look into.

Thank you so much fellow Steemians, I hope this list presents you with new insights and sources to keep yourself informed in our changing world! If you have some sources that present as hidden gems of truth that you'd like to share with others as well, feel free to add them in the reply section below so readers of this post can find it.

As always, your upvotes, engagement, and conversations are most appreciated!