Crowdsourcing spin detection

Over the course of this seemingly endless, Bataan Death March-esque, election season even the most innocent and trusting members of the public have come to notice the deliberate and outrageous spin doctoring both parties are engaged in (though from my viewpoint the Republicans seem to be doing more of it and better than the Democrats).

My favorite election spin of the last few weeks was when the Republicans lied, bare-faced, about Sarah Palin’s position and actions concerning the Alaskan “bridge to nowhere” – a truly remarkable and for that matter shameful exhibition of spin doctoring.

If only all spin was so transparent and downright obvious but alas, much of it is far more cunning than that and this is where this week’s focus, SpinSpotter, comes in.

I’ll let SpinSpotter introduce itself: “Spin doesn’t belong in the news. It’s like putting motor oil in the mojito. We have tremendous respect for journalists, but who would argue that the media circus isn’t out of control? A full 66% of Americans think the press is one-sided. Now there’s a Web site and software tool that exposes news spin and bias, misuse of sources, and suspect factual support. At SpinSpotter, you’ll experience the news in a profound new way. Yes, the truth is back in town.”

So what does SpinSpotter actually do? Once you have registered (free) and you’ve installed their toolbar – they call it “Spinoculars” which is currently only for Firefox 3 (Internet Explorer 7 support is promised “soon” – a term that is, in itself, considered spin in IT circles) you’re ready.

Using the toolbar and its alter ego, a submenu in the right click context menu , you can highlight and comment on any spin you discover on any Web page and you can also view spin highlighted by other users. The toolbar also allows you to share the spin you find using through social networking tools such as Del.icio.us, Digg, and Reddit or email the page complete with spin mark up to other people.

Using you Spinoculars you can select the level of spin displayed (SpinSpotter doesn’t define exactly how the levels are defined) and whether just the highlighting is shown or whether the comments of the user who created the highlight are shown.

To flag something you consider spin you select the text and then right click or use the controls on the SpinSpotter tool bar.

Spin flagged by users has to be consistent with the service’s definition of what they mean by the word “spin” (they call this definition “The Seven Deadly Spins”) and they claim an advisory board of journalists and adherence to the Code of Ethics of the Society of Professional Journalists. The bar also shows how many SpinSpotter markers are on the current page and how many are shown (that’s controlled by the display level selected).

I went to Fox News and in a Sept. 19 article I found a SpinSpotter marker in the following paragraph (I’ve indicated where the SpinSpotter marker is with “>” but the real marker is white text on a red background):

“Of course any story about Obama and the women’s vote has to include an obligatory reference to Hillary Clinton – this one included. > if Obama’s kicking himself for letting that ship sail, but today Obama reiterated his support for his choice of experience in Joe Biden …”

The spin here is “Biased Source / Definition: The reporter quotes a source that has a definable point of view, or works for an organization with a clear point of view, but the reporter does not disclose the source’s view or affiliations.” Very nice.

But let’s be clear, SpinSpotter describes itself as “very beta” and it is; there’s lots of detail missing and a few minor but obvious bugs. But what an concept! The wisdom of crowds applied to detecting spin doctoring is a great idea.

The big question is will it work? To be successful SpinSpotter needs lots of smart, well-informed people to drive the service and increase the amount of spin spotted to the point where a wider public would learn about the service virally and understand the value.

Much depends on how the service matures and how much money and effort are put into promoting SpinSpotter especially with political bloggers. Keep an eye on this clever and focused take on crowdsourcing. Whether it succeeds (which I think it has a good chance of doing) or fails, there will be a lot to be learned from the concept and its execution.