A news app aims to burst filter bubbles by nudging readers toward a more “balanced” media diet

Nieman Lab:

Designed to help people diversify their news consumption habits, Read Across the Aisle tracks how often users read stories from roughly 20 news sources across the ideological spectrum, with The Huffington Post at the far left of the spectrum, Fox News at the far right, and others like The New Yorker, NPR, and The Christian Science Monitor in between. A slider bar at the bottom of the screen moves from left to right based on how much time users spend reading news from certain sources, and how ideologically extreme the app deems those sources to be.

The app is designed to help users escape their news consumption bubbles. When the user’s reading habits skew too far to either side, the app triggers a notification recommending that they switch things up.

One of the dangers of the ability to personalize everything on the internet is that we sequester ourselves in walled gardens. We get information that is not only tailored to our wants and needs but also actively blocks out and ignores even slightly “dissenting” opinion. This app can help combat that.