With the prevalence of smartphones and tablets, we rely more are more on news feed from social media and news aggregators that are collecting information from various feeds and news sources for display on a single platform.
Using social media as a news outlet is the lazy way to get information as it helps us relieve the hardships of navigating through several websites and articles to find information, but it’s chock full of misinformation coming from Putin, Xi, lying politicians and a bunch of conspiracy theorists.
A better way is to use news aggregators like Google News, Apple News or smaller ones like Smartnews, but even with these, we’re faced with news and information that often contradict each others and make it hard to sort out truth from lies, as well as the ideological orientation of the aggregator. Obviously, not all news aggregators are neutral.
Algorithmic bias is used by news aggregators like Google News or Apple News, through algorithms to personalize content based on user behavior and search history. This can lead to "filter bubbles" where users are primarily exposed to news they like and that confirms their existing beliefs.
There are ideologically motivated aggregators with platforms designed to cater to specific political viewpoints, ideologies and promote news stories that align with their agenda. Examples include some right-wing (Breitbart, Fox News) or left-wing (Move On, Daily Kos) sources.
To use news aggregators more critically, it’s important to keep in mind that even those that claim neutrality, might still have some bias in their selection or presentation. Rely on more than one news aggregator representing different viewpoints, to get a well-rounded picture of current events and don’t just trust sensational headlines as they’re often misleading.
Above all, always check the source to make sure it originates from reputable news organizations, and if still in doubt, fact-check it by using resources like Media Bias/Fact Check.
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