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With all the noise and political bias out there, it can be challenging to find a reliable media source — MarketWatch aside, of course — for coronavirus news these days.
That’s where The Factual, a service for evaluating media outlets, comes in.
Phillip Meylan, a researcher at the firm, explained in a blog post this month how his team has taken a deep dive into the recent daily output of more than 1,500 articles related to the pandemic to discover which sources have most consistently delivered the best content.
Of note, not a single major news outlet cracked the top 10. “That’s not to say you can’t get great information from major news sources,” Meylan wrote. “But it means there may be more variability and noise from which the great stories need to be identified and extracted.”
He also pointed out that a lack of bias helps. Only three of the top 10 lean one way or another on the political spectrum. “In a world that is ever-more divided,” Meylan said, “reliable, neutral news is something we can all benefit from reading.”
To determine the credibility of each article, The Factual comes up with a 100-point scale by taking into account the author’s expertise, the site’s publication history, the quality of the cited sources, and the tone of the writing. Articles above 75% are regarded as highly likely to be credible.
Smithsonian Magazine tops the list with an overall score of 85.5%. “Its coverage during the COVID-19 crisis has focused on critical science questions related to the virus, as well as how the disease will impact science, education, and national heritage sites at home and abroad,” Meylan said.
The magazine’s highest-scoring story, which covered Egypt’s closing of its museums and archaeological sites to slow the spread of coronavirus, garnered 95% on the scale.
Here’s the rest of the sources, along with their top articles:
2. Undark: “In the American South, COVID-19 could find fertile ground”
3. Ars Technica: “Florida bucks social distancing trend as COVID-19 cases skyrocket”
4. MIT Technology Review: “Forget Zoom — children are using Facebook Messenger Kids to deal with coronavirus isolation”
5. Lawfare: “Congress needs a coronavirus failsafe — Before it’s too late”
6. Poynter Institute: “Coronavirus deniers are real, even if their message isn’t”
7. The Conversation: “Anti-Asian racism during coronavirus: How the language of disease produces hate and violence”
8. Gizmodo: “Teenager who died of COVID-19 was denied treatment because he didn’t have health insurance”
9. Grist: “Democracy on hold: States are canceling public meetings amid coronavirus crisis”
10. Defense One: “Can better boarding procedures slow the spread of coronavirus?”
