Reporting
Does structured journalism work? Evaluating the feasibility of structure for consumers and reporters
Does the traditional news article still make sense as the primary unit of news in the age of the Internet and smartphone? That was the question I asked in my first blog post as an RJI Fellow in July 2015. My fellowship has focused on evaluating a proposed alternative unit of news: the structured story, … Continued
Can structured news reinvent archives and reimagine objectivity?
In earlier posts I have reviewed the long-term potential of structured journalism to make newsrooms economically sustainable, empower news consumers and future-proof journalism as a profession. However, journalism is not just another business. Its economic and market success is important not only to its shareholders, customers and employees, but also to society in general. Journalism, … Continued
Sarah Hill: VR Journalism: One Startup’s Collab Culture
Sarah Hill, StoryUP Sarah Hill is the chief storyteller and CEO of StoryUP, a VR journalism startup based in Columbia, Mo. A former interactive news anchor and chief storyteller for Veterans United Foundation, Hill creates with human media, pushing the transition of text-based storytelling to a three-dimensional world. She was the first person to use … Continued
Mark Horvit: The Power and Peril of Collaboration
Mark Horvit, Investigative Reporters & Editors Mark Horvit is the executive director of Investigative Reporters & Editors. He oversees training, conferences and services for more than 5,000 members worldwide, and for programs including the National Institute of Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR) and DocumentCloud. Horvit also is an associate professor at the Missouri School of Journalism, where he teaches … Continued
FL#142: Enlisting product managers and automating more complex stories
This week we explore the role of product managers within news organizations, and we find out how more complex stories might be written by computers. PART 1: Product managers for news Borrowing from the tech and business worlds, several large news organizations have integrated the role of product manager into their workflows. The result can … Continued
FL141: Faster fact-checking and nonprofit partnerships
This week we find out how automation might speed up political fact-checking, and we learn what goes into successful partnerships that involve nonprofit news organizations. PART 1: Faster fact-checking It takes time to investigate whether claims made by politicians are true, but technology might help speed up that process. We get some ideas from PolitiFact … Continued
Reporting into structure: How journalists, crowds and robots can work together
In previous posts, I’ve written about structured journalism’s potential to improve newsroom economics by rebundling news as networks of structured information, and to provide new value to consumers by giving them more control over the news they consume. But what does structured journalism do for journalists? Will structure merely contribute to the tech-driven weakening of … Continued
Could digital stories, written by journalists, be good medicine for the health care industry?
How can health care and journalism organizations work together to create digital stories that improve both the health care system and an individual’s health? As I seek answers during my RJI Fellowship at the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, I’ll rely on two life experiences: I’m an ex-health care administrator who later got a Ph.D. … Continued
Talk Story, Write Story helps financially disadvantaged children write their way into college
RJI Fellow to pilot a version that newspapers can introduce to local communities
Leadership and culture are linchpins of digital transformation in the newsroom
Little has proven more challenging for newspaper newsrooms than their transformation to digital news and information providers. It takes much more than learning new skills, although those are important. It’s a matter of re-engineering journalists’ attitudes and their relationships with news consumers, as well changing newsroom workflows and priorities. It takes significant culture change; both … Continued