With the 2012 run of college about to kick in, there comes the early and late hours of courses, studying morning through night, part-time jobs and trying to squeeze in as much fun between to remain sane.

But with that need for release balanced with work comes the big old world crashing in with the events taking places all across it, involving all those other folks who exist the same as you do, struggling to get by; some the same, some better and some worse.

With those events comes media coverage. And I’ll say now, there is rarely — if ever — something in the media, large or small, that receives “full coverage.” It isn’t that the media are plotting like evil villains to mislead you, but it is due to how business works — it simply isn’t feasible to cover every detail.

What you get instead is a piece of the story that is supposed to draw attention of viewers and stimulate the senses enough for the viewer to do further research. When the job is done to a more professional level, the media outlet even offers information as to where to learn more or where to get the “full” story.

Unfortunately, exciting the public into wanting to look further into a topic is not how the story plays out. Many look only to the headlines or catch a headline with maybe a sentence or two and then move on to more “entertaining” things.

The result of this being: Media have scaled back their coverage to the juiciest bits they can toss together in the shortest span possible, while many people see just those sound bites and take what is said at face value.

You can blame media if you want for selling out their integrity, but they are a business run by folks trying to make money; there is no getting around that. If media outlets didn’t have to compete with the latest sitcom or reality TV show, I’d be the first to shake my finger and smack the media on their noses.

You can also blame people for being so wrapped up in their own pursuit of entertainment, rather than devoting the hours necessary in the week to “study up” on events. But then, people often have enough trouble fitting a little “play” time in with working for a living and family, that studying a topic instead of listening to a 10-second blip doesn’t seem feasible.

The reality of it is, one builds on the other like a bad case of circular logic; so much so I am surprised by the level of coverage and attention that is occurring currently.

Nevertheless, letting attention and information continue to play out as it does is not what we can allow to continue. The “newer” generations have attention spans decreasing by the year but with the ability to multi-task increasing rapidly.

With our talent comes a responsibility to cut out more of the “down” time to allow for being informed citizens.

When in class, you already know you aren’t going to be paying attention the whole time, so consider surfing the news sites for stories you heard a quip about but wouldn’t have otherwise looked into. No, I’m not saying to ignore the professor, but using your multi-tasking talents to read up on pertinent information, rather than tweets, Facebook statuses or the latest meme, is a better use of your time.

Following that, when you are on the bus or waiting for one, take out your robotphone to read the news. There are apps for about every media outlet of note in the world. Instead of playing five minutes of some random game that serves only to fill your time and flash advertising your way, try learning. You’d be surprised how much news you can fit in just during bus rides and the like.

Now here is the tricky part: Once you have read more news, you need to question it. When you find a topic that makes you ask a question or one that seems to give an absolute, you should look further into it. There are two sides to every story, and more angles than can be understood. So try to be informed enough to not be one of the drones out regurgitating uninformed blanket statements about topics.

This idea extends right back into the classroom. When your professor speaks on a topic, don’t just take it to be the final word. Professors aren’t all-knowing — they have opinions or information they add or omit as well. Don’t just ask obvious questions to seem like you are paying attention; try challenging the professor’s logic the same as you would challenge the far-too generalized sound bites in media.

Don’t be afraid the professor will bite your head off for questioning. It is their job to have you do so. And don’t worry about the other people in your class snickering about the “stupid” question you might ask. Odds are they didn’t know either but weren’t bright enough to realize the angle you are coming at, or are too afraid of being noticed to speak up.

The greatest lesson you should learn in college is not to be a part of the herd. Math, science and the arts are all fine and dandy, but if you don’t learn while in college to stand out, you will end up graduating with a degree that is little more than a piece of paper with your name. Degrees no longer get jobs on their own.

So there you have it. Don’t let the media blurbs be all that you know, and in doing so, you let the media know — through Web hits and chat boards — there is reason to keep producing more encompassing coverage. With that, make certain to continue challenging “authorities” on a subject. Often enough, those authorities are leaving out parts that can change the entire story.