AllSides Urges Readers To Recognize Bias And Think For Themselves

A new news site is taking a unique approach to media bias. It admits it, it exposes it, and it asks you to curate it.

The team at AllSides scours the web for breaking news, and posts curated articles that carry a very explicit bias rating, from far left to far right.

We’ve been seeing efforts across platforms to increase transparency in media by acknowledging biases. The founders of AllSides believe this transparency is critical for the future of journalism and civic engagement.

Without hidden bias and what they call “dysfunctional polarization” of society, AllSides thinks “we can work together and solve problems.”

AllSides filters stories into five categories to scale their political leanings: Left, Lean Left, Center, Lean Right and Right. At the top of the homepage, a single news topic is introduced with three stories listed beneath it: one from the right, one from the center and one from the left. Here’s the top story from today, March 20th.

There are actually six standout topics. You can see those listed below the three stories about Comey. Beneath those are three columns which contain a collection of other news stories in the Left, Center, and Right categories. These columns don’t necessarily follow one topic across the spectrum, but rather provide a mix of everything going on in the news world.

AllSides states that it aims to “free people from filter bubbles so they can better understand the world and each other.” The organization hopes to expose bias and provide multiple perspectives on stories so that readers can get the full picture, according to its website.

Part of the reason for its importance? Polarization, which AllSides says is causing people to disengage from the media and block out opposing perspectives. These perspectives travel beyond the traditional three categories seen in the picture above. In AllSides Editorial Philosophy statement, they note that they try to include the smaller voices as well.

Even the site’s founders and advisers report their own personal political leanings. It appears everything on this site is transparent.

Rating stories is done by crowd-driven research. Visitors of the site are asked to take two quizzes to provide insight into their own personal biases. The first asks you to rate your own bias.

After taking the quiz, you’ll receive a self-rated bias category. This is important for the next quiz, which asks you to state that category and then rank a variety of headlines on their political leaning.

These results are then added to the rest of the crowd data, which is then “statistically normalized to represent a balance of the American public.”

Readers are also given the chance to “Agree” or “Disagree” with ratings already given to articles on their site.

The categories do show some patterns. If you’re looking for an article in the column, “From the Left,” you’ll find many posts from The Guardian, Huffington Post, Washington Post, The New York Times and Daily Kos (a self-described “weblog with political analysis on US current events from a liberal perspective”). In the Center, you’ll find much of the content from CNN, Politico, Christian Science Monitor and USA Today. On the Right, you’ll find high volumes of content from Breitbart, Townhall (self-described as “the top source for conservative news”), The Washington Times and Fox News.

The debate over media bias isn’t new. In fact, 74% of U.S. adults think that news organizations tend to favor one political side, according to a 2016 Pew Research Survey. Trust in mass media also sunk to a new low last year according to Gallup, who found that only 32% said they had a great deal in the accuracy and fairness of reporting done by mass media outlets.

And while several surveys and studies have been done to determine the political bias of specific media organizations, including by Pew Research Center, AllSides appears to be the only organization dedicated to presenting daily news in a way that clearly outlines them across a sort of political bias spectrum.

It is unlike a survey focusing solely on the outlets overall coverage because it rates stories and posts individually as they are released. It is unlike a normal news outlet because it is not producing its own content, only rating others.

We have yet to find another of its kind in our research.

Is style of filtering on the rise? Will it one day expand past political bias and ultimately incorporate other biases that might effect the media? We’re not quite sure.

We have contacted AllSides in hopes of learning more about their efforts to demystify media bias and will update this story when we hear back.