✦ Dive Deeper
How Dive Deeper Decides Which Sources to Trust
Not every retrieved article makes it into a Dive Deeper report. Here is the scoring system that decides which sources are worth citing.
By Headlinne Editorial Team · Updated on
More candidates than the report needs
Between Headlinne's own database and live web search, a single dive can surface far more candidate sources than a readable report should cite. Dive Deeper scores and ranks every candidate before deciding which ones make the cut.
The four signals behind every score
Each candidate source is scored on a blend of:
- Relevance — how directly it relates to the story
- Freshness — how recently it was published, weighted so newer coverage counts more
- Credibility — the publisher's track record and reputation
- Diversity — whether it adds a genuinely different source, not another article from an outlet already well represented
Diversity caps prevent one outlet from dominating
Even a highly relevant, highly credible outlet is capped in how many sources it can contribute to a single report. This keeps the Sources section from turning into a list of five articles from the same publisher and one from everyone else.
Only the highest-ranked sources get cited
After scoring, Dive Deeper keeps the strongest, most varied set of sources and drops the rest. This is also what powers the numbered citation chips — every number in the report corresponds to one of these ranked sources.
Key takeaways
- ✓Sources are scored on relevance, freshness, credibility, and diversity, not relevance alone.
- ✓A cap on how many sources one outlet can contribute keeps the report from feeling one-sided.
- ✓Only the highest-ranked, most varied sources are kept and cited.
Frequently asked questions
Does a bigger, more famous outlet always win?
Credibility is one of four factors, not the whole score. A smaller outlet with a highly relevant, fresh, and unique story can outrank a large outlet whose coverage is older or repeats what another source already said.
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Freshness, Credibility, and Diversity: How Dive Deeper Scores Every Source
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