Does anyone use Ground News?

Nope. And to explain part of the reason why, here's a comment I made about Ground News from last time someone mentioned it:

The one thing to keep in mind with Ground News is that it uses Ad Fontes, AllSides, and MediaBiasFactCheck to determine the lean of every news org. But those three are all American media ratings companies, and so they're a bit biased themselves, IMO... I suspect due to the Overton window in the US having gradually moved so far to the right. So while they may be relatively accurate for rating the lean of news orgs from an American's perspective, they're not all that accurate for rating the lean of those same news orgs for anyone living outside the US.

E.g. They rate the majority of mainstream Canadian news sources as "Left leaning" or outright "Left" despite most of them (like CTV, CityTV, CBC) being considered largely "Centrist" media by Canadian standards. And on the opposite end of the spectrum, Ad Fontes rates the National Post as "Centrist", which is hilariously inaccurate. AllSides and MBFC at least have National Post as "Leans Right" but even that is not entirely accurate, IMO. National Post are basically the Fox News of Canada, and 100% openly, unashamedly, full-on Right wing, and even regularly cross into "Far Right" territory when it comes to their op-eds in particular.

And I think arch's reply to that comment is also worth pointing out:

MediaFactBiasCheck has to say about the Associated Press. I personally don't find the analysis to be trustworthy based on this alone.

Overall, we rate the Associated Press as left-centered biased due to left-leaning editorializing of news stories and frequently conducting fact checks on conservatives. We also rate them High for factual reporting due to proper sourcing and a reasonable fact-check record.

Fact checking a conservative is a form of bias? I would argue the opposite, that not fact checking them is a form of bias. If they wanted to argue they don't fact check liberals as a form of bias that would be a valid logical argument at least.

I wouldn't admit if I were a ground news reader! Who wants to hear their food's been prechewed? I don't trust any digest operator, in the long run. Their advertising suggests I have blind spots in my reading because I'm not listening to my ideological enemies' reporting? How rude.

Yes, edit, more on topic -- if you're trying to stay current and meaningful, you should restrict your reading away from big services that would ever send you notifications. Trust your in-person world to inform you of anything worth hearing about, and use your news-time and attention for the specific voices whose writing you recognize from your own. There is absolutely no large outlet news source worth your taking an interruption at home, in my opinion!

I use it mainly because it has a good mix of national, international, and local news. Other aggregators like Kagi News don't have anything local. Though I also browse Google News and News Minimalist.

I pretty much ignore the "bias" meter though. Basically all Canadian sources are labeled left wing, which is nonsense. This false sort of forced "balance" is not helpful when the right wing is consistently wrong about everything.

Also there's no need to install an app or allow notifications, just use your browser.

I don't use Ground News myself - I prefer to just pick my sources and email subscriptions - but I have a friend who swears by it as a great way to get sources.

For a more bite-sized form of kind of the same idea, I've enjoyed kagi news - it's sanitized summaries of what they estimate as the day's top stories. Here's the introductory blog post if you missed it when it was posted to tildes.

I struggle with this. I have used it but I'm a relatively left-leaning guy.

On the one had, it platforms and normalizes what I view to be some pretty abhorrant views. Particularly in the United States. As others have pointed out (e.g., "enlightened centrism").

On the other hand, I do not have any faith in people I know and love from being pulled out of their cult of MAGA or the likewise unless systems like these are in place to hopefully expose them to more positive stories. It feels like it's not meant for someone like me, but the rather the people I think it would benefit are chugging Newsmax every night.

I know that may sound egotistical, but I don't and never will agree with things like what I.C.E. is doing in the United States. There just is not a way to "sanely" portray that, nor should it be.

I’m going to go against the grain of the thread and say I like it, specifically for the bias feature. I also enjoyed reading the points everyone has made and I don’t necessarily disagree. I just use it moreso as a utility than relying on it as my news aggregator.

I find it to be a valuable tool because I have a lot of alt-right people in my life unfortunately, due to where I grew up.

This helps me understand the alt-right talking points, and why they don’t see things from the side I’m on based on their media consumption. If I can understand the pieces of the story they are missing and where the bias originates from I can use it in conversation to leverage my side and low key provide education for the full picture.

Of course, if I didn’t have rapport and I was trying to slam dunk a rando in a debate this would not be helpful, they’re just going to bare down further. But peppering information in conversation with folks I have rapport with actually does make their gears turn.

I don’t expect to convert anyone overnight, but the seeds I plant do cause growth over time.

I know it can feel hopeless in this political climate, but some people really do grant you respect when they realize that you did take the time to understand why they own the values they carry on their sleeve. It is intimate in a sense, and that opportunity for vulnerability is the secret sauce to get people to be more open minded.

The person who inspired me to pursue this effort is Daryl Davis- a black artist who spent years engaging in conversation with KKK members. He had befriended many of them and has even led to dozens if not more members leave the hate group entirely

Davis described to the audience how he eventually found that communication and respect are an important part of breaking down the barriers of racism, even with those with whom you fundamentally disagree.

"Talking with people is the key," says Davis, who showed a few of the many robes and hoods given to him by former KKK members. "We need to get out of these echo chambers and begin talking with each other."

Ground News is good to know of things, as in headlines, but not great for in depth reading. I gave it a try for about a month. Honestly, I would encourage you to look into RSS Readers. I have feeds from everyone I wish except the AP who sadly ended their RSS support.

I'm interested in this as well. The concept seems great, and I've seen this advertised by a bunch of "content creators" I generally consider trustworthy, but I'm always hesitent to spend money based solely on sponsored content.

I do -- you'll see my comment as the one @cfabbro replied to. I use to find multiple sources writing about the same topic. I don't really rely on their bias meter as I have my own sense of which sources have what bias, but it can be helpful in finding local sources for stories which usually have some context the national sources miss. It's an aggregator at the end of the day

I used to use ground news but it became a bit much. It was a lot if reading on top of my uni work. Also you really have to give a damn about the framing of an issue to get the benefit of seeing it from both sides. These days I'll just look at 3 big news sources that I know have opposite biases and take it from there.

Also I noticed a lot of stories just came from associated press so I guess just read them.

I like the concept and tried it a few times, but it’s far too centered around the US. It does feature “international” news but from what I remember, it didn’t provide a lot of sources outside of the US and I think those weren’t rated.

I might be misremembering these details though, but I definitely remember them being mainly about the US

I use AP News and NPR primarily, I have Ground News but I don't use it for the bias thing at all, I use it for one category and one category only: "Offbeat". It's the only thing displayed in the app at all for me, everything else is turned off, because I get most of the rest of the news from the above two near all encompassing sources and I like weird/offbeat news and it's a good finder of that.

I also pretty much don't allow any app to send me notifications, so you can just disallow that as well and keep with the single most neutral news source I've ever seen: AP News

It's interesting to me primarily as a way to make headlines less clickbaity and hyperbolized, which I'm finding unfortunately necessary with almost no regard to sources in the modern engagement-driven media landscape. While I appreciate it when news articles provide potential implications and long-tail effects of an event, that needs to follow a brief, non-editorialized opening about what happened and have minimal impact on the headline.

It sometimes does a poor job of summarizing, however, and I find the quality of the app lackluster. I'll be evaluating News Minimalist and Kagi News as alternatives.