Getting Educated Before You Vote!

Early voting has started, and if all goes to plan, we’ll know who will be the President on Tuesday, November 5th. Realistically, it’s more likely that you’ll know who you think the President is ... but the country may still be officially undecided.

It has gotten more challenging to exercise truly educated decision-making through the fog of fake news and the growing echo chambers of noise surrounding the candidates (and their policies).

The reality is that most of our news sources are tinted by the lens of their ideology - which is okay. That means they’re appealing to their targeted audience. 

That being said, it may also be worth looking at the same news story from a comparative news source from the other spectrum - or even better, a primary source when it comes to science/economics. I found two tools that help me do this kind of comparison easily – Ground News and Particle.

Ground News is a news aggregation platform that makes it easy to compare news sources, read between the lines of media bias, and break free from algorithms. Key features and benefits include:

• Source comparison: Allows users to see how different news outlets cover the same story, grouped by political leaning (left, center, right)
• Bias distribution: Shows the breakdown of political orientation for news sources covering each story
• AI-generated summaries: Provides summaries of coverage from different political perspectives
• Blindspot feature: Helps users identify stories not widely covered by their preferred sources
• Ownership information: Shows the ownership/financial interests behind news outlets.

Particle is a news reader app that delivers AI-powered news summaries to help you understand more, faster. It was created by an ex-Twitter alumni. The Particle app lets you browse a personalized list of stories to get you up-to-speed at a glance ... or go infinitely deeper to understand various perspectives, broader context, and how a story has unfolded over time. They’re still in private beta. You can sign up for the waitlist here.

Here’s a chart that shows where news sources rank. You can click the image for an interactive version with more details. And, if you’re curious about their methods, click here. 

via Ad Fontes Media

On top of reading various news sources, there are a couple of other tools I like: 

• FiveThirtyEight - Uses graphics to tell visual stories on valid statistics. Named after the number of electoral votes. Also has a visual presidential forecast. 
• RealClearPolitics - Aggregates news from various sources, as well as writing their own opinion pieces. Also has a good visual on the current state of the presidential, senate, and house races. 
• Brittanica ProCon - Tracks the stated positions of politicians on various issues. It can be sorted by candidate and by issue. It also has a quiz you can take to assess which candidate you actually resonate with. 
• Politifact & FactCheck - Both sites fact-check presidential statements, party statements, and more. We know politicians often lie by omission or focus only on the specific stats that are relevant to their point. Fact-checking helps you gain a more holistic picture. 

You are probably sick and tired of all the noise surrounding the election. However, our democratic system thrives on the intricate system of checks and balances powered by information sharing and continuous debate. This process compels the government to remain responsive and accountable to the people. 

Remember, choosing not to vote is still a choice ... and getting out to vote is the only way to make sure that your voice is heard - whether or not you believe in the health of America's democracy.