Why compare news side-by-side?
In today's digital media ecosystem, search engines and social algorithms trap us in personalized echo chambers. When we search for a controversial topic, we are fed headlines designed to confirm our existing bias.
NewsDivision queries official news outlets across the political landscape concurrently, allowing you to see how different sides frame the exact same story in real-time.
How we categorize bias
The classification of our 70 news organizations is based on cross-referenced, public ratings from three independent organizations:
- AllSides (blind reviews, editorial panel reviews)
- Ad Fontes Media (multi-partisan rating boards)
- Pew Research Center (trust statistics among partisan audiences)
Technical Architecture ($0 Budget)
This app is designed to be lightweight and infinitely scalable for $0/month in operations:
- Static Hosting: Runs on Cloudflare Pages CDN.
- Edge Database: Reads a single compressed JSON feed from Cloudflare R2 Storage (free tier, $0 egress).
- GitHub Cron Scraper: An automated GitHub Action scrapes all 70 RSS/YouTube feeds in parallel every 4 hours, updates the archive, and writes it back to R2.
- Instant Client Search: Searches are calculated client-side in your browser, bypassing database queries and avoiding rate limits.
Frequently Asked Questions
How is the political bias of each source determined?
The classification of our 70 tracked news organizations is based on aggregated, cross-referenced ratings from three independent, non-partisan media watchdogs: AllSides, Ad Fontes Media, and the Pew Research Center. These organizations run blind bias tests and editorial panel reviews to map outlets across political biases.
What feeds and sources are included in this app?
We track 70 U.S. and international news outlets across all 5 political bias categories. This includes text-based reporting (via RSS feeds) and video journalism (via public YouTube channels) to compare print and broadcast framing side-by-side.
Does the app store my search queries or track my reading history?
No. This app operates completely client-side in your browser. The entire database is loaded locally, and searches are run within your browser sandbox. Your queries are 100% private, never sent to a server, and no cookies or tracking scripts are used.
Why do some columns show empty results for certain queries?
We query real-time feeds representing the last 24–48 hours. If a column shows empty results, it means those outlets haven't published articles containing your search keyword within that time window, or they focused their coverage on different topics.
How often is the news database updated?
The aggregator runs automatically every 4 hours via GitHub Actions, scanning all 70 RSS and YouTube feeds in parallel to fetch new articles and video releases.
Can I suggest a new source to be added to the directory?
Yes. We welcome suggestions to expand our source list. Proposed outlets must have established reporting track records and verified media bias ratings from AllSides or Ad Fontes Media to ensure bias classification accuracy.