17 September 2018
SAGE Publishing has announced sponsorship worth $50,000 for Public Editor to enable evaluation of the news at scale. Public Editor is a high-scale content analysis tool that involves digital volunteers in multi-layered, simultaneous assessments of news articles. A nonpartisan project, the tool uses transparent, neutral criteria to pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses of news articles resulting in credibility scores for the news.
Volunteers’ assessments are turned into credibility scores for articles, journalists, news publishers, and public figures quoted in the news. Identified mistakes are also labelled so that news readers understand the quality of the news through a colourful overlay of the text. The product is intended to help content platforms use Public Editor’s credibility scores to promote higher quality journalism while reducing the quantity of sloppy content appearing in news feeds.
Public Editor is a project from Goodly Labs, which develops and shares tools to help individuals co-operate more effectively. It uses Thusly's TagWorks, a web-based content analysis software for researchers.