kburk1997 / trustnews

An Open Source Chrome Extension that determines if a news source is trustworthy.

TrustNews

A Chrome extension that determines if a news source is trustworthy. Created at HackRPI 2015 by Kathleen Burkhardt and Alex Lin.

##How do I use this extension?

• First, enable this extension under "Extensions".
• Then, go to any news site and click the TrustNews icon.
• A popup should appear determining if the extension could determine what news site you were on, if it is a satire site, and the reliability of this site with an explanation.

How do we determine if a news source is trustworthy?

We ask the following questions:

• How long has it existed?
• Has it won major awards or the favor of journalistic bodies like Poynter?
• What are the potential conflicts with its corporate parent?
• What are the backgrounds of its writers and editors?
• How much original reporting is this site doing?
• How often are its basic facts in agreement with similar coverage elsewhere?
• Does this news source contain any political or corporate bias?

##Where do you get data for determining whether a news source is trustworthy or not? We based some of the trustworthiness off of personal opinion, however we discovered that our opinions would be biased.

In order to combat this bias, we crowdsourced this data using CrowdFlower. Respondents were asked to evaluate a small, randomized section of a database of over 60 major news outlets on whether or not they were trustworthy using the criteria.

During our crowdsourcing process, we had a few "test" questions thrown in (e.g. "Is 'The Onion' satire?", "Is Fox News reliable?") to prevent trolling or spamming.

##Where can I download this extension? You can find this extension here on the Chrome Web Store.