Very little news needs to be followed to be a good citizen of a democracy. Local news, sure, on perhaps a weekly or monthly basis (i.e. you probably don't need

Very little news needs to be followed to be a good citizen of a democracy. Local news, sure, on perhaps a weekly or monthly basis (i.e. you probably don't need to check in every day). National, state level (at least for states that aren't so tiny that state news is local news), and international, perhaps quarterly, but you don't really need much of that. A better use of time for someone wanting to be a good citizen would be reading major books and papers in political philosophy, political science, international relations, public policy, economics, statistics, media studies, history, et c. Not the news.