How to consume the news

I think there are are number of issues you are skirting around. I have paid attention to the news for 50 years, but I ignore a lot of it now 

1. News is business. People make money from it. There is a lot of competition, so people need you to look. This encourages the US approach of sensationalist language. Effectively dramatisation of events.
2. This encourages being first, the details are not important, they can be corrected later. A balanced view becomes your problem, not theirs.
3. News has been changed to make it more relatable. Things are put in terms of human interest stories. For example if there is a fire, they don't tell you there was a fire, they talk to the people affected, they get witnesses. It is to trigger your emotions. It is not just about the facts. There are plusses and minuses to this approach.
4. News is entertainment. There are rolling news feeds. This means they have to find things to show. It can give you a distorted impression that bad things are happening all the time.
5. News in a tool of activists. Stories can be promoted or ignored, facts can be cherry picked, an agenda can be put forward, items can be framed, to create an impression. If it is a regulated outlet it can be pure propaganda, but it can still be manipulative.
6. News is often not just news. It is presented with an interpretation. They tell you what it means, what you should think about it and why it matters. Think about why they do that and how open that is to interpretation.
7. News is sometimes not news at all. They tell what is going to happen. E.g. they tell you what someone will say on the future, what will be in a budget, what a company ids going to do. This is prediction. The need to be first has even changed the definition of what news is.
8. News has been globalised. You can see stuff that you would never have known about 30 or 40 years ago, or would be a couple of lines in the paper. There is always something bad to report.
9. It is biased towards bad news. There's limited food news reported. It is scandals, wars, disasters, death, crime, etc. You either have to become numb or switch it off.
10. There is a lot of single issue stuff where things are taken out of context.
11. Big stories are often presented superficially due to time or space. Nuance and detail is missing.

All of these things affect your perception.

I don't know if you read Steven Pinker's book, "Enlightenment now". I don't agree with all of it, but the idea is sound. The world is considerably less bad than it was. Famines are rare or don't happen (unless in war), indeed more people are overweight than underweight. When I was a child we were all supposed to be starving by now.

There are few wars, not more. War has always been present. It won't go.

There is less poverty.

The idea everything is bleak is not really true.

Arguably, the vast majority of news is irrelevant to you and your life. You can live in your house, go shopping, eat, work, play, live your life without knowing it. It doesn't affect you, and won't affect you, and you can't influence. This is not selfish this is just self preservation.

How to consume it? In moderation. Look for facts and figures, not emotions. Check they are true. Worry about things that will affect you. If you don't understand treat it with suspicion, look out for other views or reports, or buy reputable books on the subject to become more informed about the nuance and detail.

If you want to be knowledgeable, recognise you can't know everything about everything. Pick a few things that are important to you.that gives you something to talk about, but you can defer on the things you don't.

If you know something about finance and business it covers most things, as everything boils down to money in the end.

I think there are are number of issues you are skirting around. I have paid attention to the news for 50 years, but I ignore a lot of it now 

1. News is business. People make money from it. There is a lot of competition, so people need you to look. This encourages the US approach of sensationalist language. Effectively dramatisation of events.
2. This encourages being first, the details are not important, they can be corrected later. A balanced view becomes your problem, not theirs.
3. News has been changed to make it more relatable. Things are put in terms of human interest stories. For example if there is a fire, they don't tell you there was a fire, they talk to the people affected, they get witnesses. It is to trigger your emotions. It is not just about the facts. There are plusses and minuses to this approach.
4. News is entertainment. There are rolling news feeds. This means they have to find things to show. It can give you a distorted impression that bad things are happening all the time.
5. News in a tool of activists. Stories can be promoted or ignored, facts can be cherry picked, an agenda can be put forward, items can be framed, to create an impression. If it is a regulated outlet it can be pure propaganda, but it can still be manipulative.
6. News is often not just news. It is presented with an interpretation. They tell you what it means, what you should think about it and why it matters. Think about why they do that and how open that is to interpretation.
7. News is sometimes not news at all. They tell what is going to happen. E.g. they tell you what someone will say on the future, what will be in a budget, what a company ids going to do. This is prediction. The need to be first has even changed the definition of what news is.
8. News has been globalised. You can see stuff that you would never have known about 30 or 40 years ago, or would be a couple of lines in the paper. There is always something bad to report.
9. It is biased towards bad news. There's limited food news reported. It is scandals, wars, disasters, death, crime, etc. You either have to become numb or switch it off.
10. There is a lot of single issue stuff where things are taken out of context.
11. Big stories are often presented superficially due to time or space. Nuance and detail is missing.

All of these things affect your perception.

I don't know if you read Steven Pinker's book, "Enlightenment now". I don't agree with all of it, but the idea is sound. The world is considerably less bad than it was. Famines are rare or don't happen (unless in war), indeed more people are overweight than underweight. When I was a child we were all supposed to be starving by now.

There are few wars, not more. War has always been present. It won't go.

There is less poverty.

The idea everything is bleak is not really true.

Arguably, the vast majority of news is irrelevant to you and your life. You can live in your house, go shopping, eat, work, play, live your life without knowing it. It doesn't affect you, and won't affect you, and you can't influence. This is not selfish this is just self preservation.

How to consume it? In moderation. Look for facts and figures, not emotions. Check they are true. Worry about things that will affect you. If you don't understand treat it with suspicion, look out for other views or reports, or buy reputable books on the subject to become more informed about the nuance and detail.

If you want to be knowledgeable, recognise you can't know everything about everything. Pick a few things that are important to you.that gives you something to talk about, but you can defer on the things you don't.

If you know something about finance and business it covers most things, as everything boils down to money in the end.