Where do you get your news?

Where do you get your news?

A filter bubble occurs when someone is only exposed to news that confirms his or her beliefs, or solely interacts with like-minded peers. The result? A society where people only see one side, leading to a highly polarized political environment.

With the sheer amount of content available today — online, in print and on TV — we have to filter most of it out. We often do this by blocking information that is hard to process or digest — information that doesn't align with our current beliefs.

A great deal of this is unintentional. Social media platforms and search engines use advanced algorithms to provide users with information that specifically aligns with their political preferences. They "feed" users by "pushing" information and content that they will like, based on their interests, location, past searches, click history, and more. 

In addition, the 24-hour news cycle serves more to inflame than to provide balanced news. Media bias is the norm, and both right-wing and left-wing outlets build loyal customer bases with highly partisan reporting, because people keep coming back to hear what they want to hear — or, more accurately, are "taught" to hear.

Some examples of media bias are: spin, unsubstantiated claims, opinion statements presented as facts, sensationalism/emotionalism, mudslinging, mind reading, slant, flawed logic, bias by omission, omission of source attribution, bias by story choice and placement, subjective qualifying adjectives, word choice, negativity bias, photo bias, and elite vs. populist bias.

Everyone is biased — and that's okay. There's no such thing as unbiased news. But hidden media bias misleads, manipulates and divides us. So everyone should learn how to spot media bias. Far-right Republicans read and listen to only one side of the story — Trump's incessant lies — and eventually they begin to believe those lies. Then they vote, and that's why we have a mentally deranged and unhinged person like Trump for president. Don't let Trump keep you ignorant of what's really going on in America with his fake, biased, and censored news. Get a balanced viewpoint!

So where do you go for factual news?
Go Here:
AllSides Unbiased & Balanced News: https://www.allsides.com/unbiased-balanced-news
The American Prospect: https://prospect.org/
Associated Press: https://apnews.com/
The Atlantic (Home to 167 years of wisdom, insight, and brilliant writing. The American Society of Magazine Editors awarded The Atlantic its top prize, for General Excellence, in 2024—a third consecutive win.): https://www.theatlantic.com/
Christian Science Monitor: https://www.csmonitor.com/
The Contrarian: https://contrarian.substack.com/
Daily Kos: https://www.dailykos.com/ (An independent, progressive news site that fights for democracy, with news you can do something about)
Democracy Now!: https://www.democracynow.org/
Fenn Daily: https://fenndaily.com/
Goods Unite Us: https://www.goodsuniteus.com/ (see how your purchases align with your politics)
Greg Palast Investigative Journalism: https://www.gregpalast.com/
Ground News: https://ground.news/
The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/us
The Lever: https://www.levernews.com/
PoliticsGirl: https://iampoliticsgirl.substack.com/
Popular Information: https://popular.info/
ProPublica: https://www.propublica.org/
Robert Reich: https://robertreich.substack.com/
Stop the Presses: https://www.stopthepresses.news/
This American Life: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/

For the perspective from Heather Cox Richardson, a noted historian and professor of American history at Boston College who believes in American democracy, despite its frequent failures, with a daily newsletter about the history of today's politics (with over 1.8 million subscribers). Richardson teaches courses on American history, including the American Civil War, the Reconstruction Era, the American West, and the Plains Indians. She previously taught history at MIT and the University of Massachusetts Amherst:
Letters from an American: https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/

NPR: https://www.npr.org/
PBS News: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/
Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/