At Newslaundry, we have always believed no one is completely unbiased or objective. All of us, including journalists, have biases, prejudices and leanings. Far from claiming to be unbiased, good journalists are conscious of their biases but let facts dictate their reporting. 

In fact, we have a deep dive podcast where we dissected objectivity in news. 

Presenting the Media Biascope

As an organisation, through our shows and reader interactions, we have been transparent about our biases. Fun fact: Hafta, our flagship podcast, was started as an exercise in transparency – helping listeners understand where our editors stand on key issues. Now, we want to do the same for the news ecosystem. 

The all new Media Biascope will allow you to plot news professionals on how you see their ideological inclinations and hopefully make them self-aware of how discerning news consumers view them. The overall result may help you track your own biases as well.

How does it work?

Journalists are placed on the Biascope grid based on the cumulative average of all votes on two axes – the socio-political spectrum and economic spectrum. 

Help us make this better 

While it took us a while to develop this, what you see now is only the first edition of the interactive tool (big shoutout to our subscribers Himanshu Jangir, Sneha Narayanan and Krishna Chaitanya Acondy for helping us put this together). It’s not perfect, it’s not as nuanced as we’d like, and it’s potentially reductionist – but it’s better than nothing.

Tell us what you feel; your feedback, suggestions and ideas. We’re all ears. 

While anyone can see the Biascope; only subscribers will be able to vote. This is the first of our long line of subscriber-only products scheduled for this year. So if you’re not a subscriber, what are you waiting for? Click here to subscribe to access the Media Biascope. 

Try out the Media Biascope.