Apple News App Gains '2018 Midterm Elections' Section in the U.S.

[MacRumors]

Apple has announced a new section in the Apple News app dedicated to providing coverage of the U.S. midterm elections from now through to November.

Apple says the new section is designed to help readers follow the latest on the 2018 Midterm Elections with breaking news, exclusive highlights and analysis from trusted sources curated by Apple News' team of experienced editors.

Special features will include "The Conversation", a collection of opinion columns about hot-button issues from sources they may not already follow, and "On the Ground", which highlights issues that matter to local constituents on the most important races.

"Today more than ever people want information from reliable sources, especially when it comes to making voting decisions," said Lauren Kern, editor-in-chief of Apple News. "An election is not just a contest; it should raise conversations and spark national discourse. By presenting quality news from trustworthy sources and curating a diverse range of opinions, Apple News aims to be a responsible steward of those conversations and help readers understand the candidates and the issues."

In addition to presenting coverage from Fox News, Vox, and other publishers, Apple says its News app will offer exclusive features, including:
The Washington Post's "Election Now," a dashboard that brings to life important primary races by contextualizing key data like current polling, what pundits are saying and survey data on voter enthusiasm.
A weekly briefing from Axios, featuring analysis of the most important developments as the primaries unfold.
Politico's "Races to Watch," which looks at a collection of races offering important themes and trends to voters.The new section is available to readers in the U.S. only, and can be accessed within the News app from a banner across the top of the For You tab, as well as through Top Stories and the Spotlight tab.

Note: Due to the political nature of the discussion regarding this topic, the discussion thread is located in our Politics, Religion, Social Issues forum. All forum members and site visitors are welcome to read and follow the thread, but posting is limited to forum members with at least 100 posts.

Article Link: Apple News App Gains '2018 Midterm Elections' Section in the U.S.

 

[vaxes]

This totally won't have any Bias...

AE

 

[ginkobiloba]

The new section is available to readers in the U.S. only, and can be accessed within the News app

Actually, the entire News app is still US only. You can’t download it in the rest of the world ( at least in France you can’t ) , and all you get is a tiny 4 or 5 headlines ( mostly trash* news collected by some local intern ) in the widget section ( lock screen) of your iOS device.

* i mean, literally, one of the 5 headlines of today is : “ un chat déclenche un incendie et meurt dans les flammes “ which translates as “ a cat provokes a fire and dies in the flames”
I mean, I’m very sorry for the cat, but really ? Is that among the 4 or 5 most pertinent things that happened today in France and worldwide ?

 

[Bryan Bowler]

Less politics please and more focus on designing solid Operating Systems!

 

[Kaibelf]

Less politics please and more focus on designing solid Operating Systems!

It’s an aggregation feed. Do you think the manpower used on it would make ANY difference on MacOS base code?
[doublepost=1529925141][/doublepost]

This totally won't have any Bias...

AE

If only this subsection of the specialized news app wasn’t compulsory!

 

[Rogifan]

This totally won't have any Bias...

AE

I just pulled it up and one of the first articles I saw was from Fox News so...

 

[nwcs]

I want the option in Apple news to exclude all political articles. But while they are at it, maybe they could add a new section called “civil discourse” where articles are published without extremist rhetoric where not every topic is about winning and losing for your point of view.

 

[mozumder]

Always vote Democrat.
[doublepost=1529927662][/doublepost]

Less politics please and more focus on designing solid Operating Systems!

Throwing in a bunch of engineers isn't going to automatically make your operating system better. There is an art to OS design that is independent of resources, and largely based on leading talent quality.

 

[BMcCoy]

Confirmation bias.
People tend to read only the articles/sources that align with their beliefs.

I remember a speaker wisely suggesting that everyone should challenge their thinking by reading/watching news with the opposite political beliefs/bias to their own.. and be able to come up with a rational and rigorous critical appraisal, highlighting valid comment as well as misleading or mistruth.

 

[progx]

This totally won't have any Bias...

AE

You set up your own feed through the News app. I'm wondering if this is a bot?

News is an aggregator app. Tt will take a survey upon set up, then understand your reading habits from usage, and populates articles similar to your content. It's your own echo chamber.

For example, you like Fox News, it will give anything similar to it. Same with CNN, HuffPost, Wall Street Journal, etc.

 

[Ishayu]

Always vote Democrat.
[doublepost=1529927662][/doublepost]

Throwing in a bunch of engineers isn't going to automatically make your operating system better. There is an art to OS design that is independent of resources, and largely based on leading talent quality.

No, however perhaps throwing any engineers at all on the Mac, particularly the desktop, would help get a product out inside of a 4 year timespan. Just saying.

 

[djlythium]

This totally won't have any Bias...

AE

Yea, I don’t use it for that reason. AN is curated, and an appropriate question is “by whom?”

I’ll curate my own stories and sources, TYFM.

 

[Glockworkorange]

It’s an aggregation feed. Do you think the manpower used on it would make ANY difference on MacOS base code?
[doublepost=1529925141][/doublepost]

If only this subsection of the specialized news app wasn’t compulsory!

There is human curation. There is bias.

No, it's not "compulsory," however, it is a very pretty app and I've love to be able to use it; however, I have found the aggregation for political content to be heavily slanted to the left and I am sure that will continue with the Midterm 2018 section.

As a side note, I dislike the sharp turn Apple has taken politically--not its institutional stance, which has always been liberal, but its attempt to jam it down the throats of its users. Every time I opened the app store this past weekend I was deluged with homosexual dating apps.
[doublepost=1529931636][/doublepost]

You set up your own feed through the News app. I'm wondering if this is a bot?

News is an aggregator app. Tt will take a survey upon set up, then understand your reading habits from usage, and populates articles similar to your content. It's your own echo chamber.

For example, you like Fox News, it will give anything similar to it. Same with CNN, HuffPost, Wall Street Journal, etc.

In theory; not in practice. I have tried to set the app to gather as many center right and right sources as possible, but I am still pushed to publications I find to be less savory.

I've begun using Flipboard more (oldie but goodie) and Microsoft News is not bad. Love the dark mode.

 

[nfl46]

I don't think America can deal with "Elections" talk anymore. 2016 drained us for at least 8-10 years. The day after Midterms, all we will hear is the 2020 Presidential talk.

 

[78Bandit]

Apple is going to have to walk a fine line with this one. Almost every issue has become red vs. blue with extreme rhetoric on both sides. There are pretty much no news organizations that are unbiased. The unfortunate side effect of this polarization is that no matter what an article says at least one side is going to be offended.

Rather than a separate mid-term election section that will undoubtedly be accused of bias and designed to influence the election rather than just report on it (and likely not unreasonably given Apple's liberal stances on most issues) they should instead just keep things in the political section of the existing news feed. It's bad enough as it is.

 

[autrefois]

Great, now that primaries — often the most important part of midterm elections — are already over in almost every state, now is the time they come out with this.

Primaries are how voters get to determine what direction they want their party to go in. In many cases unless there's a major upset, you can already predict whether or not the general election is going to go blue (Dem) or red (Rep). The primaries determine what shade of blue (for example, progressive or neolib) or red (for example, conservative or neocon) you're going to end up with. Not every race, but many of them.

So it's great that people have another source to make informed decisions about how they vote, but it really should have been available sooner — it's not like the midterms were entirely unexpected. If people had more of a chance to make informed decisions in the primaries about who they'd like to vote for in the general election, they'd be more likely to vote, instead of in many cases just being stuck again with a choice between the lesser or two evils...

Hopefully this will at least help people with any remaining primaries and the general elections in November, and it should all be in place already in the Apple News app to (re)launch for the primaries in 2020.

 

[citysnaps]

Less politics please and more focus on designing solid Operating Systems!

It seems you are not aware you can choose the aggregated news sources, according to your tastes.

Don't like politics? Change the channel. Easy.

 

[fivenotrump]

We have the News app in the UK: disappointed not to be getting the midterm section.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

For a laugh, ask people you know if they're voting in the primaries and see how many of them even know there is more than one election every four years to vote in. It's not a happy laugh, but...

Ideally everyone having a receiver in their pocket jabbering on about who said what in our glorified high school popularity contest will make up somewhat for the absence of a basic civics class in their education.

edito: lol

 

[Wiesenlooser]

I'm not even American, but Apple getting involved in politics (and even news) makes me feel uneasy.

 

[justperry]

The new section is available to readers in the U.S. only, and can be accessed within the News app from a banner across the top of the For You tab, as well as through Top Stories and the Spotlight tab.

Why U.S. only, this affects the whole world, I am always interested in American politics even though I think the System stinks big time.

I'm not even American, but Apple getting involved in politics (and even news) makes me feel uneasy.

Who says Apple is involved, it developed the News App but are they curating news!?

 

[jonblatho]

I remember a speaker wisely suggesting that everyone should challenge their thinking by reading/watching news with the opposite political beliefs/bias to their own.. and be able to come up with a rational and rigorous critical appraisal, highlighting valid comment as well as misleading or mistruth.

News shouldn’t even have “political beliefs.”

 

[tshrimp]

Actually, the entire News app is still US only. You can’t download it in the rest of the world ( at least in France you can’t ) , and all you get is a tiny 4 or 5 headlines ( mostly trash* news collected by some local intern ) in the widget section ( lock screen) of your iOS device.

* i mean, literally, one of the 5 headlines of today is : “ un chat déclenche un incendie et meurt dans les flammes “ which translates as “ a cat provokes a fire and dies in the flames”
I mean, I’m very sorry for the cat, but really ? Is that among the 4 or 5 most pertinent things that happened today in France and worldwide ?

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Apple is not known for being unbiased, so not sure how accurate it would be except maybe the final outcome results. I can give you a summary of everything....Bash Trump, bash him some more, bash a conservative, praise the liberal candidates, final midterm result. Saved some space on your iPhone .

 

[macduke]

Confirmation bias.
People tend to read only the articles/sources that align with their beliefs.

I remember a speaker wisely suggesting that everyone should challenge their thinking by reading/watching news with the opposite political beliefs/bias to their own.. and be able to come up with a rational and rigorous critical appraisal, highlighting valid comment as well as misleading or mistruth.

This is how I went from being conservative to moderately conservative to moderately liberal/independent. I was in a bubble in my suburban mid-western high school, conservative family and republican-only southern baptist church. Going out into the world, volunteering at homeless shelters, fixing up inner-city fire stations, talking with people with different backgrounds than I have and making friends with some of them, trying foods and music from different cultures, reading international news, double and triple checking facts on news stories to determine bias, joining a non-denominational church that is more inclusive and caring, and just plain listening to what others have to say and trying to be more empathetic have made a world of difference for me.

I screw up right and left but I've found that when you approach something from a place of love the outcome is always better and that has allowed me to slowly grow as a person. And no, some of you reading this might think it was college professors ramming liberal ideology down my throat that changed my mind. I hardly saw any of that and often the opposite going to school in the Ozarks, lol. But higher education in general has taught me a lot about considering different points of view and why someone might hold them and be motivated to pursue a certain line of thought. There are always two sides to a story (often even more as issues are varied and complex) and the one that disagrees with you isn't always "evil" or "wrong." Sometimes you even learn that you're the one who is wrong and when you're able to do that, then you can do anything! It's quite freeing to be able to be wrong—to let go of a prideful mind. It's also quite freeing, albeit frustrating, to be more independently minded politically. Neither side is 100% right. My advice is to vote for what is good and just—not for what is red or blue.

 

[justperry]

This is how I went from being conservative to moderately conservative to moderately liberal/independent. I was in a bubble in my suburban mid-western high school, conservative family and republican-only southern baptist church. Going out into the world, volunteering at homeless shelters, fixing up inner-city fire stations, talking with people with different backgrounds than I have and making friends with some of them, trying foods and music from different cultures, reading international news, double and triple checking facts on news stories to determine bias, joining a non-denominational church that is more inclusive and caring, and just plain listening to what others have to say and trying to be more empathetic have made a world of difference for me.

I screw up right and left but I've found that when you approach something from a place of love the outcome is always better and that has allowed me to slowly grow as a person. And no, some of you reading this might think it was college professors ramming liberal ideology down my throat that changed my mind. I hardly saw any of that and often the opposite going to school in the Ozarks, lol. But higher education in general has taught me a lot about considering different points of view and why someone might hold them and be motivated to pursue a certain line of thought. There are always two sides to a story (often even more as issues are varied and complex) and the one that disagrees with you isn't always "evil" or "wrong." Sometimes you even learn that you're the one who is wrong and when you're able to do that, then you can do anything! It's quite freeing to be able to be wrong—to let go of a prideful mind. It's also quite freeing, albeit frustrating, to be more independently minded politically. Neither side is 100% right. My advice is to vote for what is good and just—not for what is red or blue.

Bit off topic, travelling for 1 or more years around the world also changes persons/humans, it is mostly students doing this before they start a job or before university, it makes quite the difference too.