Each project arrives with its purpose, milestones and first tasks written out. Here is how the first three read.
Home-country news source map
Most people abroad follow home through whatever lands in the family chat, which means the same three stories and a lot of noise. A one-page map of the main dailies, broadcasters and radio stations for your country, for example the Gleaner and the Observer in Jamaica or the Express, Guardian and Newsday in Trinidad and Tobago, gives you a base to read from instead of reacting to forwards.
First tasks
- List the papers, TV stations and radio stations you remember from home
- Find the current website or app for each one and note any paywall
- Bookmark one print, one radio and one TV source on your phone
- Ask a relative at home which outlet they trust most and why
Regional news sources beyond your own island
Decisions taken in another capital land on your family quickly: a regional airline folding, a CARICOM free movement change, a court ruling in Port of Spain that shapes law in the Eastern Caribbean. Adding two or three regional sources, such as a regional news agency, a cross-island news site and the CARICOM and OECS press pages, lets you see those stories before they reach your island's front page.
First tasks
- Find a regional news agency and a cross-island news site and bookmark them
- Save the CARICOM and OECS press release pages
- Read one regional story each week for four weeks
- Write down which regional source tells you most that home outlets miss
Official government and agency channels list
When a rumour about a curfew, a water lock-off or a storm warning goes round, the fastest way to settle it is the agency that would actually announce it. Listing the government information service, the met office, the disaster management office, police, ministry of health and your consulate or high commission, with their verified pages and numbers, gives you a place to check before you believe or forward anything.
First tasks
- Find your country's government information service and save its page
- Add the met office, disaster office, police and ministry of health channels
- Confirm each social account through a link on the government's own website
- Pin the list where you can reach it from your phone in one tap
- Test that every official link on the list still works @recurring(yearly)
