If you are reading this, we might be in the same news bubble

[Recursion]

https://medium.com/jigsaw/if-you-are-reading-this-we-might-be-in-the-same-news-bubble-cb697270c698#.66ysu3k8b

In Myanmar we met two journalists who, during a period of military rule, had smuggled newspapers in duffel bags to carry news between their country and the outside world. Their story stuck with us as a sort of personal challenge: these reporters had regularly risked their lives to read a just a few pages of news from outside their country; while we, with all our connectivity, rarely make the effort to do the same.

...

Search engines, social media and news aggregators are great at surfacing information close to our interests, but they are limited by the set of topics and people we choose to follow. Even if we read multiple news sources every day, what we discover is defined by the languages we are able to read, and the topics that our sources decide to cover. Ultimately, these limitations create a “news bubble” that shapes our perspective and awareness of the world. We often miss out on the chance to connect and empathize with ideas beyond these boundaries.

That made us wonder: what might it look like to explore global news without these filters?

We’ve just released a new experiment related to this idea: a data visualization called Unfiltered.News. The viz uses Google News data to show what the daily news topics are being published in every region. Headlines for these topics can be viewed from around the world, with translations provided in 40 languages. We hope the viz can become a useful tool to explore what shapes our different perspectives, and to help users discover topics and viewpoints they would have otherwise missed.

http://unfiltered.news

Very very cool

[elleng]

1. and NECESSARY!

[Kalidurga]

2. It shouldn't be

But, it is our media is bought. I hope this isn't an international thing.

[Recursion]

4. Some of the results are really interesting. The most under-reported news category in the US is

soccer results. In India it's Syria. In Sri Lanka, it's Russia.

[haikugal]

3. Thank you!

[Spider Jerusalem]

5. Weird and US-centric

"topics less reported in United Kingdom: Hillary Clinton, Merrick Garland, Supreme Court of the United States"....well, yes, most people here are approximately as interested in the weird minutiae of American politics as Americans are in the weird minutiae of British politics, of course they're "less reported"! And also "less reported in United Kingdom": "politics". Which, ahaha, no, sorry, unless by "politics" you mean "the US presidential primaries"; George Osborne (the chancellor) has just announced the budget, which includes disability benefit cuts, which a lot of people including some Tory MPs are not happy about, so yes, politics is very much a reported topic in the British media at present.

[Recursion]

6. Huh? The less-reported stories in the UK are

Egypt
HRC
China
Terrorism
Lula de Silva

Only one of those is American, and it just means they cover HRC less than other countries do, on average.

[Spider Jerusalem]

7. ...

Topics less reported in: United Kingdom

Egypt
Hillary Rodham Clinton
China
Terrorism
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva
Politics

Apparently you're not seeing what I'm seeing, and considering that every single front page of every national newspaper (except for a couple of exceptionally rubbish tabloids) is all about "Tory revolt over disability cuts" or similar, then the idea that "politics" is "less reported" is an absurdity.

[Cassiopeia]

8. That's pretty cool.

I'll need to fool with it a bit more, but I already wish it would zoom down to local news. Hopefully this is just the start of something really big.

Thanks!

[JDPriestly]

9. I speak and read several languages and started the World Forum but it wasn't visited very much.

Could you post some of this information there? And on GD also?

I kind of lost interest because so few people visited the World Forum.

I speak and read German, French and a little Spanish.

I'd love to get that going but it takes more than just a couple of people interested in world news. Recursion, your posts would be most welcome.

I do not like removing posts so there really aren't any limits beyond what the admins set.

[Journeyman]

10. Thanks. I look forward to exploring this in greater detail . . .

k & r

[Odin2005]

11. This is why I like listening to the BBC World Service.

Minnesota Public Radio airs it during the overnight hours and I listen while getting ready for bed.