old women over their tea?

I think I might be sort of addicted to the news. Is that strange? Do you ever watch the news in the evening and no story is actually new because you’ve read about all the day’s events already? And you’ve read the analysis of the events, not just the unbiased (ha) BBC website reporting so you feel like you’re a step ahead? It’s probably just habit - a routine, and if my life changed (ie: i left the country for a few months as I will in June...) it might change again. I don’t know why, but I just have to get my daily fix of news at the minute. My main news stops at the minute are http://www.bbc.co.uk/ (especially the Africa section), http://www.timesonline.co.uk/, http://www.guardian.co.uk/, http://www.drudgereport.com/, http://www.politico.com/, (the last two taken with a pinch of salt - obviously showing my interest in the pointless media pontificating regarding the US elections as if there wasn't already enough in the first 3 sites!). Is it just knowledge for knowledge’s sake and largely a waste of time? Generally, I don’t think so. If it takes up too much time, then yes - but I think I have a better perspective on the world and my place in it because of the news. But I know that every newspaper/news website has a different perspective and interpretation of events, some with specific agendas (many of which may be wrong)... but that doesn’t mean I should stop reading them altogether.

Henry David Thoreau's view was that "news, as it is called, is gossip, and they who edit and read it are old women over their tea."
On the other hand, Dr Pete Lowman puts it this way which I’ve found helpful:

“The newspaper may be a selective mirror, and a distorting mirror, but for many issues and events it's the most in-depth mirror we have; it gives us perceptions that are admittedly as seen from particular angles, but are still often the most in-depth clues we have about the issues in terms of which we must live our lives....
...There are things we can do. One is to liberate ourselves by educating ourselves; learning to decode what we read. A trick loses its power once it's revealed for what it is. Once we've truly perceived the one-dimensional character of the picture our newspapers present, we're able to complement it with other kinds of awareness; if we see that we're being brainwashed into ignoring or marginalizing the most ultimate aspects of reality, that very awareness can turn our attention back towards those vital aspects.
It will not be easy; the picture coming at us from the papers can seem so vivid, so authoritative. So we will need to expose ourselves in depth to the alternative and 'entire' world-picture of the Bible, prayerfully and reflectively, if our thinking isn't going to be swamped, day by day. We will need to be reminded, in depth, 'what the world is really like', if we are to `decode’ rather than be deceived by the partial pictures from the news media.”
Check out the rest of his article here.

The question though, is how does what I read move from me being informed to it actually transforming how I take action, pray, or engage with the culture / world around me?