How it works?

Akhbar Meter

Akhbar Meter is the first digital media observatory in Egypt and the world, evaluating the content of media websites. In accordance with its credibility and commitment to professional and ethical standards since 2014, the Observatory is an initiative founded by a group of young Egyptians in response to the spread of unprofessional and unethical practices in the media landscape. The observatory seeks to identify unprofessional and unprofessional coverage, which in turn impacts the integrity and accuracy of the information provided to the public, ensuring it is free of misinformation, propaganda, and human rights violations.

The "Akhbarmeter" team monitors and evaluates the credibility and professionalism of the most prominent news stories covering issues of public interest within the content published by the ten most-read news websites in Egypt, according to SimilarWeb, a website specializing in website statistics, and based on the number of followers of these websites on social media. These websites are updated once a year, in January.

The team evaluates content based on a scientific methodology developed based on local and international media codes of ethics, under the supervision of academics and practitioners in the field of media work. The team deduced a number of questions that determine the extent to which a news editor adheres to three criteria: "professionalism, credibility, and respect for human rights."

The team answers these questions, explains any errors made by the content editors, and provides the public with links to primary sources so they can review the steps taken and verify and review the content. Each piece of content is scored according to each question, and based on this, the website automatically calculates the percentage of the digital newspaper's adherence to professional and ethical standards.

How is news selected from the monitored sites?

The team selects content based on its importance and relevance to readers' daily lives, or with the aim of pointing out professional errors that readers have become accustomed to reading without paying attention to due to their lack of expertise. The content also contains fallacies and errors that may amount to human rights violations or be taken out of context. Accordingly, Akhbarmeter followers find that the content varies across all genres of journalism, including politics, economics, local news, art, and culture, in an effort to address readers' interests.

The team selects one news item daily from each news site as a random sample, ensuring that the news and reports cover an equal number of the same sections (local, arts, politics, variety, sports, events and issues, and economy) on the monitored news sites throughout the month. Through this, the team aims to achieve a fair balance in selecting the number of news items from each section on each news site.

If the news item contains incorrect information, the site places a warning label highlighting the presence of some incorrect information in the news content so that Akhbarmeter readers are alerted. The site guarantees the right to respond to journalists whose content has been evaluated by the team, and these responses are published on the evaluation page itself.

The News Meter team provides a monthly analysis of each media site's performance, based on average news ratings, in addition to three in-depth reports representing the best, worst, and average-performing news content. The aim is to detail professional and ethical practices and identify sources of rising or falling news content.

Frequently asked questions
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How are articles rated on AkhbarMeter?
The team evaluate news articles by answering a series of questions (19 questions) that are available here. These questions are derived from international and local media code of ethics and professional standards . The questions are categorized into three sections, the first section is concerned with violations of law conduct and human rights. The second section is concerned with manipulation techniques used by media channels, whereas the third section is concerned with professionalism in news reporting and content writing. For more information click here.
What does the rating percentage refer to?
Each piece of content receives a score ranging from 0 to 100%. This score reflects the extent to which the content meets standards of professionalism, credibility, and respect for human rights. The higher the percentage, the more reliable the content.
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How do methodology criteria affect the final evaluation score?

The relative weights of the evaluation criteria were arranged in ascending order, taking into account the difference in the impact of each criterion from the other. Accordingly, the relative weight of the professionalism criterion is one (1), followed by the credibility criterion, with a relative weight of two (2), while the third criterion, observing human rights, had the largest relative weight, which was three (3).

Professionalism
The skill of preserving the intellectual property rights of sources of quotations, transmissions, images, and video clips, and identifying information sources by accurately documenting the news and information transmitted, in addition to avoiding confusion between them and media commentary.
Credibility
Providing content with a high level of objectivity and integrity, by carefully examining sources' statements, verifying the accuracy of information, and providing sufficient context to understand events. We also strive for neutrality in presenting information, ensuring appropriate sources, and balancing viewpoints.
Human Rights
The media professional selects words and expressions that may harm individuals, minorities, or those of various sectarian affiliations, and indicates what should be selected without falling into the trap of human rights violations.
What questions do we base our evaluation on?
Does the author refer to the source when quoting or paraphrasing?
Is there any false information in the article?
Did the editor balance between different point of views?
Did the editor present sufficient information about the topic?
Is there any tampering with information or its context in the article?
Is there any insult, defamation or slandering for individuals or groups in the article?
Does the author refer to the source of the images used in the article clearly?
Is there a violation of privacy in the article?
Is there a conformoty with the right of presumption of innocence in the article?
Is there any hate speech in the article?
Is there any violence-instigation message in the article?
Is there any discrimination or/and stereotyping against individuals or groups in the article?
Did the editor refer to the sources of the information used in the article?
Do the sources represent more than one point of view?
Did the editor use relevant sources in the article?
Did the editor mix between facts and his/her personal opinion?
Did the editor get a permission from the owners of the visual/written content before publishing?
Is the headline objective and precise?
Does the visual content match with the article?
How do we evaluate articles and news websites?
Download our news report today.
Below you can download AkhbarMeter's handbook for reviewing news articles. The handbook illustrates the methodology in full details with examples that helps to understand each question and its answers