Radius — News Diversity Dashboard & Cognitive Analysis Layer

A Chrome extension (Manifest V3) that tracks your news reading habits and provides real-time epistemic transparency. Radius scores your news diet across political leaning, outlet type, topic breadth, and source concentration — then helps you break out of filter bubbles.

Features

Dashboard (New Tab Override)

• Diversity Score — 0–100 composite score across four dimensions
• Concentric Ring Visualization — political spread, outlet variety, topic breadth, source concentration
• Political Lean Spectrum — 7-point scale with left/centre/right breakdown
• Gemini-Powered Recommendations — personalized article suggestions that challenge your reading pattern
• Beyond the Radius — blindspot detection showing what perspectives you're missing
• Algorithm Exposure Transparency — tracks how content reaches you (algorithmic vs. direct search vs. shared)
• Reinforcement Velocity — detects whether algorithmic filtering is tightening over time
• Light/Dark Mode

Article Overlay (Content Script)

Activates on news articles and provides real-time analysis:

• Multi-Axis Ideology — Economic, Social, Institutional Trust, Globalism (radar chart)
• Framing & Emotional Bias — tone detection, certainty language, moral foundations
• Evidence Quality — source counting, argument strength, speculation density
• Rhetorical Device Detection — loaded language, appeal to fear, false dichotomy, etc.
• Missing Context Detection — flags potential gaps in historical, economic, or opposing perspectives
• Narrative Comparison — Gemini-powered cross-outlet article discovery
• AI Content Detection — heuristic likelihood scoring
• Reflective Prompts — cognitive tools to encourage critical thinking

Popup

• Quick-glance diversity score and rings
• Political lean mini-spectrum
• Algorithm exposure indicator
• Top outlets this week

Installation

From Source (Developer Mode)

1. Clone this repository
2. Open chrome://extensions/
3. Enable Developer mode (top right)
4. Click Load unpacked
5. Select the repository folder
6. Open a new tab to see your dashboard

From ZIP

1. Download Radius-Extension.zip
2. Extract to a folder
3. Follow steps 2–6 above

Architecture

Radius/
├── manifest.json          # Manifest V3 configuration
├── background.js          # Service worker — visit tracking, exposure logging
├── outlets.js             # Database of 35 news outlets with classifications
├── scoring.js             # Diversity scoring algorithm (4 dimensions)
├── exposure.js            # Algorithm exposure transparency module
├── gemini.js              # Gemini API integration (recommendations, comparison)
├── theme-init.js          # Theme detection (CSP-compliant)
├── newtab.html/js/css     # Dashboard UI
├── popup.html/js/css      # Extension popup UI
├── content/               # Article overlay system
│   ├── lexicon.js         # Keyword dictionaries & pattern databases
│   ├── parser.js          # Article detection & text extraction
│   ├── analyzer.js        # NLP analysis engine
│   ├── overlay.js         # Floating panel UI renderer
│   ├── overlay.css        # Overlay styles (namespaced)
│   └── content.js         # Entry point controller
└── icons/                 # Extension icons

Tech Stack

• Vanilla JavaScript — no frameworks, no build step
• ES Modules — for extension pages and service worker
• Chrome Storage API — all data stored locally
• Gemini 2.0 Flash — personalized recommendations with Google Search grounding
• SVG — all charts and visualizations rendered client-side

Privacy

• All browsing data stays local in chrome.storage.local
• Only recognized news outlet visits are tracked (35 outlets)
• No browsing data is sent to any server
• Gemini API calls send only aggregated reading patterns (topics, leanings), never URLs or article content
• No analytics, no telemetry

Scoring Methodology

Dimension	What It Measures	How
Political Spread	Range of ideological positions	Standard deviation of leaning values
Outlet Variety	Diversity of outlet types	Weighted count across 5 categories
Topic Breadth	Coverage of subject areas	Weighted count across 7 categories
Source Concentration	Over-reliance on single outlets	Inverse HHI (Herfindahl–Hirschman Index)

Configuration

Radius uses the Gemini 2.0 Flash API for personalised recommendations and narrative comparison. To enable these features:

1. Get a free API key from Google AI Studio
2. Open gemini.js
3. Replace YOUR_GEMINI_API_KEY_HERE with your key

The extension works without a key — the dashboard, scoring, overlay analysis, and all other features run fully offline. Only the "Recommended Reading" and "Compare Coverage" features require the API.

License

MIT