Online news has become the target of a good deal of deserved complaints. Many sources still existing or derived from paper papers are cutting journalists as ad revenues have dwindled. Online only sources have proliferated, but get by without actual “on the streets” journalists and often focus on a shallow approach similar to those publications you see while waiting to check out at the grocery store. Add to that AI-powered offerings provided what I would describe as summarization engines.
I have been exploring a new source with a unique approach, I believe, that makes a unique and useful contribution, as long as you understand how it works and what I believe your responsibilities should be in using it. I am a paid subscriber to the NYTimes, a local Minneapolis paper, and the resources I can access through Apple News+. I am sticking to these commitments, but I have subscribed to the service described below.
Ground News is a Canadian company offering an approach to news aggregation intended to make readers aware of the bias and misinformation in the news sources they use. Let me say clearly that the system can’t identify bias or errors in individual articles, as the history of the sources is used for these classifications. Ground News relies on independent organizations that rate the political bias and historical accuracy of the huge number of news sources from which it pulls sources. What it does offer are multiple sources for a given story each classified according to the historical take of each source. You are then encouraged to sample from these offerings, sources likely to put a different spin on a given story. You use the link associated with each story you select to get to the original story. You can’t go behind paywalls, even though pay-walled stories may be identified. This is one reason I would not get rid of the ways I access paywalled content.
Ground News aggregates content from over 60,000 sources globally, including major national publications, as well as regional and international outlets. The following image should give you a feel for how this works. When a major breaking story occurs, a summary first lays out the main points for what might be called a “story cluster”. Access to different takes can then be achieved with a reminder of each source’s spin (second image).
Ground News offers multiple ways to find stories. The most basic allows a user to select topics/sources.
Classification Systems
The Ground News bias ratings are based on the average rating of three independent news monitoring organizations: AllSides, Ad Fontes Media, and Media Bias Fact Check. The Ground News Factuality Score reflects the average of two trusted rating systems: Ad Fontes Media and Media Bias Fact Check. The links in this paragraph are to previous posts I have offered on media bias.
Identification of Blindspots
Ground News defines a blindspot as a news story that has political undertones and is disproportionately covered by media sources on one side of the political spectrum. In other words, if you rely on MSNOW or FOX, you may be unaware of certain stories not given much attention by your favorite source.
Other Features
Sort and filtering options. The “sort and filter” settings allow the reader to select the orientation they want to explore. You can select “center” if you want to read accounts of a story from sources with the least historical bias. Educators could use the system to identify stories most likely to be authored from a left- or right-leaning perspective, and then ask students to contrast how similar facts can be slanted by writers.
Local – Local is like a mini version of Ground News’s approach, focused on a specific location. I live in a suburb of Minneapolis, but I could set local equal to any location. I thought it was interesting that the tool identified a couple of local news sources that were new to me.
Cost
Ground News offers multiple subscription tiers from free to $100 a year. I pay $10 a year (the lowest paid tier) and this low price offers a perfectly adequate experience.
Summary
Ground News has been around a while which surprised me. It is important to understand what Ground News is and what it isn’t. I think it is best to understand the platform as a news aggregator for readers who seriously want to understand events, recognizing that sources present news with a spin. As long as readers are willing to do the work, Ground News provides the opportunity to compare the takes on the facts offered by sources with different biases and, from such comparisons, to understand both the facts and how the powers that be in disseminating the news want you to interpret them.
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