Ground News

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Ground News
Type of site
News aggregator
Available inEnglish
Headquarters,
Canada
Country of originCanada
OwnerSnapwise Inc.
Founder(s)
  • Harleen Kaur
  • Sukh Singh
Key peopleHarleen Kaur (CEO)
URLground.news
CommercialYes
Launched2018; 6 years ago (2018)
Current statusActive

Ground News is a news aggregator service that allows users to compare media coverage from across the political spectrum. The service is available through a website, mobile apps, and browser extensions.[1]

Overview

When searching for a news topic, a user is served with a selection of articles. Rather than show results based on popularity, the Ground News algorithm is meant to serve results based "on a number of factors like length of existence, citations in other publications, what they [the news organization] have published already, and social media presence."[2] Articles are labeled to indicate a publication's ownership, an assessment of the publication's typical reporting quality, and possible political bias on a left-right spectrum. Users are meant to compare headlines from publications of differing ideological biases, as well as compare how coverage changes based on location (from local or international news sources) and time.

"Media Bias Ratings" of news publications are sourced from Ad Fontes Media, AllSides, and Media Bias/Fact Check. Publications can be given ratings ranging from "Far Left" to "Center" to "Far Right." The "Average Bias Rating" is meant to reflect an average of the three ratings, and can be edited by users subscribed to the "Pro" tier. "Factuality" ratings reflect how frequently a publication uses credible sources, gives adequate context to articles, word choice in articles, and how quickly inaccuracies are corrected. Scores include "Low," "Mixed," and "High." Media Bias Ratings and Factuality ratings are determined for publications, not individual articles.[3]

Ground News maintains a "Blindspot" feed, as well as a "Blindspot Report" newsletter, which highlights news topics that are largely being reported by publications on only one side of the political spectrum.[4]

The Ground News app has a citizen journalism feature that allows users to verify the content of reports that happen locally.[5]

History

Ground News logo, 2018–2022

References

  1. ^ "Databases". databases.lib.wvu.edu. Retrieved 2024-03-02.
  2. ^ Sampathkumar, Mythili (February 25, 2020). "We all live in a media bubble. This app wants to burst it". Digital Trends. Archived from the original on March 18, 2020. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
  3. ^ "Methodology". Ground News. Archived from the original on July 14, 2023. Retrieved February 24, 2024.
  4. PMID 38363749
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  5. ^ Barth, Brian (June 17, 2020). "Toronto would like to be seen as the nice person's Silicon Valley, if that's not too much trouble". MIT Technology Review. Cambridge, Massachusetts. Archived from the original on July 6, 2020. Retrieved February 28, 2024.