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Comment on Why are people downvoting the MediaBiasFactChecker not?

aleph@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

I used to be a fan of it, but in the past few years I’ve seen MBFC rate sources as “highly credible” that are anything but, particularly on issues involving geopolitics. That, plus the inherent unreliability of putting a media source at a fixed point on a simple Left <> Right spectrum, has rendered it pretty useless, in my opinion.

There days I’m much more of the opinion that it’s best to read a variety of sources, both mainstream and independent, and consider factors like

is this information well-sourced?
is there any obvious missing context?
is this information up to date?
what are the likely ideological biases of this writer or publication?
What is the quality of the evidence provided to support the claims made in the article?

And so on instead of outsourcing your critical thinking to a third party who may be using a flawed methodology.

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Wrench@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
I find it useful at a glance, specifically when I don’t recognize a niche source. There’s a lot of “alt” media under random names. This helps flag them.

For mainstream, you can easily make your own call. You should be exposed to enough of it.

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Artisian@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
Would you then be posting your conclusions? Like, if you’re gonna do that work on some of these posts anyway… may as well share.

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- aleph@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  When I was on in Reddit I used to do it all the time, but writing everything out, organizing it and including citations etc. can be rather time-intensive.
  
  These days, I’ll leave a quick comment on a post if I have enough time, but nothing major.
  
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  - otp@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    
    writing everything out, organizing it and including citations etc. can be rather time-intensive.
    
    That’s why I like MBFC. It’s a lot of effort, and even if I don’t agree with them on everything, it gives an idea.
    
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    aleph@lemm.ee ⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    Just don’t take it too seriously, I would say. Not every news piece from the same source is going to be of the same quality or bias.
    
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