The current way we consume news is not ideal. Over and over, studies are showing we are increasingly restricted in how many perspectives we are exposed to. If you want fair and balanced news, or see what most people are reading, here are a few ways to do that.

All the websites in this article focus on free-to-read news and not those whose sources are behind paywalls. There is an argument to be made that news outlets with paid subscriptions offer better quality. But given the low number of paid subscribers in the world, we wanted to focus on free news options only.

1. Their News (Web): See Politically Left and Right News Articles on Any Topic

Their News lets readers see how the same is being reported by news organizations from the left to right political spectrum

It's no secret that news organizations tend to have a politically left- or right-leaning view these days, which creeps into how they write about any event. This slowly makes you biased too, creating a news bubble that isn't exposing you to balanced reportage. Their News wants to help you break through these biases.

The project uses the monthly-updated media bias rankings from adfontesmedia to chart the political stance of several popular news outlets. You'll see several dots on a political scale of extreme left, left, skews left, skews right, right, and extreme right. Click a dot and Their News will populate its feed with articles from those types of news outlets.

You also need to choose a subject or topic. You can type this in yourself, or use the randomizer button to generate different types of topics that are in the news. The idea is to stay on the same topic and see both sides of the story from different political perspectives and arrive at your own conclusion. Their News is truly one of the best ways to filter biases and find objective news.

2. Improve The News (Web): MIT Researchers Break News Filter Bubbles

Improve The News is a project by MIT researchers to find political and establishment biases in news media using machine learning, and filter news accordingly

A team of MIT researchers has been studying how machine learning can help in news classification, and thus improve news for readers. Improve The News (ITN) tries to serve readers with different news perspectives from their own, and summarizes it for quick reading.

The summary provides key facts (where all articles agree) and key narratives (where articles differ based on their leanings). The machine-learning in ITN analyzes for left and right political biases but adds a more interesting "establishment bias" too. With this, the algorithm identifies views that all parties and powers agree upon and classifies them as "establishment views." You can thus find articles from pro-establishment and establishment-critical media.

The sliders for political bias and establishment stance aside, ITN leverages machine learning for other ways to classify news articles. You can set writing style (provocative to nuanced), depth (breezy to detailed), shelf-life (short to long), and recency (evergreen to latest).

And of course, you can choose to browse headlines or skip to a certain section of news. ITN also lets you choose which news sources you want to include by toggling publications on and off.

3. Jest.one TV (Web): Channel-Surf for Live-Streaming World News TV

Jest.OneTV shows you live streaming world news from different channels across the globe, like surfing the TV

Online news aggregators generally focus on written publications. But if you prefer watching news on TV, there are plenty of free streaming news channels to watch online. Jest.oneTV is a convenient portal to flip through several world news channels just like watching TV.

This is a minimalist website with nothing but a streaming player and a list of channels. The channels include both famous news outlets (ABC News, CBS News, Sky News, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg) as well as those you might not have heard of (CNA, DW, EuroNews, Africanews). It's a mix of "World News" TV channels from different regions of the world, such as the USA, UK, China, Russia, Germany, Singapore, Turkey, Africa, Australia, and Latin America.

While the regions vary, please note that these are all primarily English-language channels. Given the different time zones and areas, you will also find different perspectives on the same global issues. And yes, these are all legally available to air for free.

4. Sumi News (Web): All Headlines From Internet's Favorite News Outlets

Sumi News is a simple aggregator of news with a wide variety of sources to see headlines from everyone

Sumi News is a massive news aggregator that gathers the latest headlines from most of the internet's favorite news outlets. The list includes Hacker News, VICE Culture, Slashdot, NPR, BBC, NYT, TechCrunch, Techmeme, Product Hunt, Mashable, Open Culture, Polygon, and several other top publications. You can filter the publications by categories such as Business, Culture, Entertainment, Gaming, News, Politics, Science, and Tech.

Sumi News offers three ways to display the news. The first is a grid of news outlet and their latest headlines. The second is a simple, headline-only chronological feed of news, not grouped by outlet. And the last is a chronological feed with headline, accompanying image, and a short blurb. You can also switch between today's news or yesterday's news.

The aggregator also offers customization options if you register for a paid account ($22 per year). In that, you can change the news sources and add your own, as well as reorder them. Sumi News also supports newsletters in the premium version.

5. Murmel (Web): Most Shared Articles and Linked News on Twitter

Murmel shows you the most popular news currently trending and being shared on Twitter

One of the best reasons Twitter is good is how it serves as a source of news. People unfailingly share articles and news links on the social network, and Murmel makes it easy to find the most-linked news.

In the free method, the Murmel Top Stories section tracks the most widely shared news and articles across a range of Twitter lists maintained by the site. These are likely going to be the news articles that Twitter is currently talking about. And this is the version we would implore you to stick to, instead of the paid version.

For each article, you'll see a short blurb, as well as who it was shared by recently. Clicking "Show More" will display the top tweets it was shared in. Murmel marks articles with two logos: "worth reading" for pieces that are recommended and in-depth, or "trending on Twitter" for pieces that are actively being discussed.

In the paid method of Murmel, you'll be able to sign into your own Twitter account and find the top stories being shared among the people you follow. It's a personalized version of Murmel's top stories, analyzing your timeline and up to three Twitter lists. However, this is a sure-fire way to get into that "news bubble" of a particular narrative and worldview you're already accustomed to.

Don't Use Only Social Media for News

Social media organizations want you to stay on their apps as long as possible. It's in their best interest to serve information that you agree with, rather than data that challenges you. In a quest to appease you, you are not being given a fair and balanced diet of news.

While social media is a great way to stay up-to-date with news, don't rely solely on it. There are various ways to avoid fake news on social media, but the best way is to get your news from multiple news outlets that are widely trusted by millions.