Understanding Publication Bias
In today's media landscape, every news publication has a perspective — whether that's a reflection of its ownership, editorial team, funding, or target audience. Being aware of a publication's political bias helps you become a more informed reader, allowing you to seek out multiple viewpoints on the same story rather than relying on a single source.
That's why we display a bias rating alongside every news item on this site.
How mediafeedr Calculates Bias Ratings
mediafeedr doesn't use AI or automated tools to determine bias. Instead, mediafeedr's ratings are manually sourced from three of the most respected and widely used media bias research organisations:
- AllSides — AllSides uses a multi-partisan, blind bias survey methodology combined with editorial review and community feedback to rate media outlets across the political spectrum.
- Ad Fontes Media — The team at Ad Fontes Media employs a rigorous, multi-analyst approach to rate news sources on both political bias and reliability, producing their well-known Media Bias Chart.
- Media Bias/Fact Check — One of the most comprehensive media bias resources available, rating thousands of sources on political orientation, factual reporting, and credibility.
Where ratings are available from multiple sources, mediafeedr combines them to produce a single normalised score. This score determines where a publication falls on the mediafeedr spectrum, ranging from Extreme Left through Neutral to Extreme Right.
mediafeedr Bias Scale
| Rating | What It Means | |
|---|---|---|
| Extreme Left | Strong and consistent left-wing perspective, may prioritise ideology over balance. | |
| Left | Clear left-leaning editorial stance across most coverage. | |
| Leans Left | Generally left-of-centre but with reasonable balance in reporting. | |
| Neutral | Broadly balanced reporting with no strong consistent lean either way. | |
| Leans Right | Generally right-of-centre but with reasonable balance in reporting. | |
| Right | Clear right-leaning editorial stance across most coverage. | |
| Extreme Right | Strong and consistent right-wing perspective, may prioritise ideology over balance. |
Why Your Experience Might Differ
You may look at a rating and feel it doesn't match your own perception of a publication — and that's completely understandable. Bias can be subtle, and our personal experiences with a publication naturally shape how we perceive it.
It's worth remembering that the organisations we use to source mediafeedr ratings take a wide range of factors into account, including:
- Word choice and framing — how stories are described and contextualised
- Story selection — which stories are covered and which are ignored
- Headline tone — whether headlines are neutral or loaded
- Source diversity — whether a range of voices and experts are quoted
- Opinion vs. news — how clearly opinion content is separated from straight reporting
A publication may report factually and accurately while still exhibiting a consistent lean in which stories it chooses to cover or how it frames them. This is what bias ratings are designed to capture.
Bias Doesn't Mean Wrong
It's important to stress that a bias rating is not a measure of accuracy or trustworthiness. A left-leaning or right-leaning publication can still produce excellent, factually sound journalism. Similarly, a neutral rating doesn't automatically mean a source is reliable.
mediafeedr always encourages you to read widely, compare coverage across publications, and use the mediafeedr bias indicators as one tool among many when forming your own view of the news.