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 112 news outlets spanning the US, UK and international press. Promotional and sponsored content is automatically filtered before analysis.
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2. AI analysis
Each article is analysed by Claude (Anthropic's AI) for quality, 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 quality, bias, and headline fairness. Outlets can also be rated directly.
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4. Outlet scoring
Outlet scores are recalculated every hour from all scored articles in the past 90 days. Below 20 community ratings the score is pure AI; at 20+ ratings, community input is blended in at 20% weight.
How the quality score is calculated
An outlet's score starts as the 30-day average AI quality score across all of its articles. Once 20 or more community ratings are recorded, reader input is blended in at 20% weight.
■ AI analysis 80%■ Community 20% (once 20+ ratings)
Below the 20-rating threshold, scores are 100% AI-derived — this protects outlets from being skewed by a handful of early votes.
Score breakdown
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Quality 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.
80–100High quality
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 · Factual
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). Articles with very low partisan intensity (under 25) are labelled Factual instead — indicating straightforward reporting where political framing is not meaningfully present.
← LeftProgressive or liberal framing
◉ CentreBalanced or no clear lean
→ RightConservative framing
✓ FactualPartisan intensity too low to assign a direction — consistent with factual reporting
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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.
✗ 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.