If I were playing this game, I wouldn't mind having a good solid source of background information. So long as it was written out in a way that didn't make it necessary to plod through great blocks of text to find out a particular little thing about the world. And the news entries from outside are a good idea. Just to give it flavor.

I ran a game set inside a blockade once that used similar techniques. Information about what led up to the blockade, what kinds of people were likely still within it, and then continuing news from "outside" while people did their thing.