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Ranking the credibility of online news, NewsCred goes live

Posted: 20/08/08 By: Laura Oliver

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NewsCred, a website aimed at gauging the credibility of online news, has been launched in beta.

The site, which aims to help users find 'the highest quality and most credible news online', has created a digital newspaper of aggregated articles, which are voted on by users.

Readers of the site, which was launched as invitation-only in April, are asked to select whether articles, journalists and news sources featured are credible or not.

The readers' responses are then analysed by NewsCred's algorithms to present a picture of online news 'based on quality, not popularity'.

Users can also see how individual journalists, news sources and bloggers have been rated and view graphs of credibility ratings.

Content from mainstream news providers and bloggers will be assessed by the site.

The site was created as a response to both the growth of alternative news sources online and a recent study by Sacred Heart University, which suggested that only 19.6 per cent of Americans believed what they read in the news.

"Every single person we've talked to has told us that they've come across articles or news content that they thought were biased or factually inaccurate. This is exactly the problem we're trying to solve," said Shafqat Islam, co-founder of NewsCred, in a press release.

"Access to credible and accurate news is a cornerstone of democracy and it's absolutely essential that news readers can trust the news they read. At NewsCred we're providing the transparency and accountability to ensure this trust is maintained. Giving news readers a platform to voice their opinions and building an online track record for journalists is the first step towards restoring some of the news media's lost credibility."

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