A media analysis platform rates news reliability and bias

The company seeks to reduce community polarisation and improve content quality

Spotted: From a one-off analysis of general media content came Ad Fontes Media. A chart plotting the position of media outlets for reliability and political bias was so popular that its creator, Vanessa Otero, decided to build it into a media analysis platform that helps everyone better understand where their news is coming from.

Latin for ‘from the source’, Ad Fontes Media provides products for individual consumers, educators, students, brands, and publishers. There is a static and interactive version of the media analysis chart, and consumers can purchase them for different prices depending on the intended use.

The methodology of the analysis is reproducible, and the team of analysts performing the work are politically balanced. The company’s news literacy course can be adapted to a range of learners, and brands can check the reliability of more than 1,600 news outlets—including podcasts and websites—before committing advertising and marketing budgets.

And to help publishers of high-quality journalism maintain their credibility in an increasingly confusing and complicated media landscape, Ad Fontes provides Independent Content Audits. Companies that prove a certain level of reliability achieve an Apex Certification.

The threat of fake news has been growing for several years, with an app spotted by Springwise five years ago helping consumers broaden their intake of sources. More recently, a crowdsourcing platform is building a library of confirmed facts to get ahead of the wave of falsities inundating social and other media outlets.