Bridge the Media

Bridge the Media is a nonpartisan tool that exposes online news readers to opposing viewpoints. From the comfort of the viewer's current reading routine, Bridge the Media will recommend an article on a similar topic from a contrary angle. The United States is experiencing a stark political divide, which is exasperated by distrust in the media, journalistic bias, and the self-perpetuating insularity of our internet groups. Bridge the Media has set out to help citizens understand all sides of an issue. We built Bridge the Media to encourage citizens to be more informed participants in American democracy, and we do this by providing them with a far richer picture of relevant political issues online. Political conversations can be guided like negotiations; through mutual understanding, we can come to well-informed conclusions. There are a confluence of underlying causes including the shift from homogeneous print media to fragmented digital media, journalistic bias, social media echo chambers, fake news, and news reading devices. These mediums have been ill-suited to providing a holistic perspective on the news. Enter Bridge the Media. Our Google Chrome Extension is powered by a non-partisan recommendation algorithm that works to broaden users’ news intake. When you hover over the headline of a news story, a bubble appears recommending an article from a contrary angle. Our algorithm matches inverse levels of bias with equivalent levels of reliability in order to uphold the reputation and trust of our tool. In our research, we have aimed to approach each publication with as little bias as possible, taking into account human error.