I just found this great little widget, developed by Slate, that – in a press of a button – can determine how conservative your online news reading habits are. And how open-minded you are. And whether you can see both sides of an issue.
Get your reality check here. Fun! (Don’t we just love a test that tells us something about …us?)
Slate writes:
Maybe democracy will survive the Internet after all. Many hands have been wrung over the supposed tendency for consumers of online news to seek out sites that validate their own political opinions. Like minds, the theory goes, surf alike. But, as David Brooks noted, this may not be the case. A recent paper by two researchers from the University of Chicago suggests that, when it comes to online news, we aren’t nearly as isolated as we think.
I write:
I emerge from the test as having a 27% liberal lean…the fact I’ve been checking out Michelle Maulkin’s (91% conservative) site lately has kind of kept things a bit balanced. Which I do think is a good thing. I have very righteous lefty friends who can bang on in one direction with no awareness of the other side. Or the grey areas. This drives me mental.
I’ve always had a foot in the left camp. And another in the mainstream, which tends toward the reactionary conservative line (mostly because I’ve worked for big, mass-market media organisations like News Ltd). I listen to Ray Hadley (I’m obsessed by the guy…check out my Twitter) and I read Miranda Devine. I draw the line at Piers Ackerman. Because I think he’s a twat.
But my personal politics are very left. Far more left than my lefty mates, I suspect. I guess I just like to hear the other voices. And to have compassion for their views.
As many a Tao philosopher says, you see your own light when you step into the dark.
PS: don’t worry, this test only checks for sites listed in the study—embarrassing Google searches are not applicable.
