Extreme rain: New research predicts wetter, riskier storms for much of U.S.

In the news Extreme rains are expected to increase significantly across nearly the entire continental United States, according to a government study that provides a highly detailed picture of wetter storms to come with climate change. Back story Researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research said in the Dec. 5 study that extreme precipitation … Continued

FL#175: Shortcut from This American Life

Sharing audio with a new tool called Shortcut A new tool called Shortcut from This American Life allows listeners to share clips from episodes of This American Life. Users can select text from episode transcripts, which the app turns into short videos that can be downloaded or posted to social media. Reporting by Hailey Godburn … Continued

FL#174: Mobile news app Discors

Discors Mobile app Discors is a news aggregator that licenses content from premium, often subscription-based, news organizations. The app pairs news stories with analysis, commentary and insights. Reporting by Jon Doty For more information: The Discors app is available on iOS and Android platforms. The newsreader and background information features are free. To access the … Continued

What is a head of innovation labs?

Gone are the days when news organizations had just copy editors and page designers. Today, there are newsroom titles like digital optimizer, audience analyst and executive mobile editor. As social media platforms have evolved so have job titles, along with the tools journalists use to communicate with audiences. In this series, RJI will learn more about these titles and the people who hold them.

How The Washington Post built a publishing platform accidentally on purpose

The Elizabethan dramaturge John Webster gave one of his characters these immortal words: “There’s nothing of so infinite vexation/As man’s own thoughts.” Of course, he was lucky enough to live nearly 400 years before the first content management system was invented. In early 2013, The Washington Post found itself in a particularly vexing situation: The … Continued

FL#173: Comparing live-streaming apps

Comparing live-streaming apps It’s never been so easy to just hop on a live video stream and broadcast to the world from wherever you are. So now that anyone with a smartphone can do this, the question is which tool makes the most sense to use? In this episode, we compare three different live-streaming services … Continued

COP22: UN climate gathering falls under Trump shadow

In the news President-elect Donald Trump’s surprise election victory has unsettled a major global warming treaty, just as diplomats gather at a major United Nation’s climate meeting in Marrakesh, Morocco. During his campaign, Trump threatened to “cancel” U.S. participation in last year’s Paris climate agreement, which went into effect Nov. 4. More than 100 nations … Continued

FL#172: Engaging News Project

Engaging News Project research Shannon McGregor and the team at the Engaging News Project believe analytics data can do a lot more than just help newsrooms attract audience. Through academic research out of the University of Texas at Austin, the Engaging News Project seeks to find ways newsrooms can use data to better understand what … Continued

What gap? Study compares online news consumption of millennials and baby boomers

The perceived generational gap between millennials and baby boomers’ online news media usage is much smaller than previously assumed, according to a study by 2015-2016 RJI Fellow Harsh Taneja and other collaborators. Preliminary findings show this is due to the way online news is currently structured and how comfortable each generation is with these specific … Continued