How RatedNews works

Every article on RatedNews is analysed by AI and rated by the community. Here's what each score means and how to read them.

The process

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1. Ingestion

Articles are pulled hourly from RSS feeds across 21 major news outlets spanning the US, UK and international press.

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2. AI analysis

Each article is analysed by Claude (Anthropic's AI) for accuracy, partisan intensity, political lean, headline fairness, and topic category.

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3. Community rating

Readers can rate articles with 1–5 stars and vote on accuracy, bias, and headline quality. Outlets can also be rated directly.

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4. Outlet scoring

Outlet trust scores are recalculated every hour from all scored articles. The weight of community votes grows as more ratings arrive — protecting against early manipulation.

How the trust score is weighted

An outlet's overall trust score is a weighted blend of AI analysis, community ratings, and an editorial baseline. The community's influence grows gradually as more votes arrive — this prevents a small number of early votes from skewing the score.

No community votesAI-led

■ AI 70%■ Editorial 30%

1–4 votesEarly

■ AI 50%■ Editorial 30%■ Community 20%

5–19 votesGrowing

■ AI 40%■ Editorial 25%■ Community 35%

20+ votesFull weight

■ AI 35%■ Editorial 25%■ Community 40%

The editorial baseline is a neutral 50/100 applied equally to all outlets. It will be replaced by independent editorial reviews as the platform grows.

Score breakdown

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Accuracy Score

0 – 100

How factually reliable an article appears based on its headline and summary. Mainstream outlets with clear, well-sourced reporting typically score 70–85. Lower scores indicate potential inaccuracies, unsupported claims, or fabricated content.

80–100Highly credible

60–79Generally reliable

0–59Use caution

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Partisan Intensity

0 – 100

How opinionated or one-sided the writing style is — regardless of which direction it leans. A calm, fact-based article scores low even if it has a political perspective. A heated opinion piece scores high even on a neutral topic.

0–30Objective reporting

31–60Some framing detectable

61–100Strongly opinionated

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Political Lean

Left · Centre · Right

The political direction of an article's framing — left, centre, or right. This is entirely separate from partisan intensity. A left-leaning article can be calm and objective (low intensity), or heated and one-sided (high intensity).

← LeftProgressive or liberal framing

◉ CentreBalanced or no clear lean

→ RightConservative framing

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Headline Verdict

Fair · Misleading · Clickbait

Whether the headline accurately represents the article content. Only non-fair verdicts are flagged — fair headlines are the expected default and aren't shown to reduce noise.

✓ FairHeadline matches content

⚠ MisleadingHeadline implies something unsupported

✗ ClickbaitExaggeration or withheld info to drive clicks

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Community Score

1 – 5 stars

The average star rating given by RatedNews readers. A single early rating carries limited weight — influence grows as more votes arrive, reaching full weight at 20+ ratings. This protects outlets from being unfairly boosted or buried by a handful of votes.

Important note: AI scores are based on article headlines and summaries only — not the full article text. Scores reflect patterns in language and framing, not independent fact-checking. They are one signal among many and should be read alongside community ratings and your own judgement.