RJI Fellowships
AL.com’s news deputy program: A fledgling success despite obstacles, missteps and hiccups
My RJI Fellowship project, dubbed the Deputy Program, has had its share of kinks. But it’s also yielding tips, information and insights that would be nearly impossible for the AL.com newsroom to come up with on its own. It’s creating engagement and connections with people who might otherwise believe they don’t have a stake or … Continued
RJI Fellow receives investment from Missouri accelerator fund for chatbot tool
GroundSource, a community engagement platform founded by RJI Fellow Andrew Haeg, recently received a $50,000 investment from the Missouri Innovation Center Accelerator Fund. Haeg is completing an institutional fellowship in August with the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute. He spent a year developing bots to deepen engagement at various news outlets. The funds will allow … Continued
Open the Room Project helps journalists, citizens and towns broadcast on Facebook Live
This week we launch the Open the Room Project, which provides community journalists, citizen activists and town administrators with step-by-step directions to build a scalable, affordable system for streaming public meetings, events and sporting contests. The project was inspired by citizen activists who are streaming town council meetings via smartphones to Facebook Live. Our work … Continued
RJI Fellow expands work on mobile news app for smaller news organizations
Push notifications from The New York Times, the Guardian, BuzzFeed and The Washington Post alert us every day to scandal, horror, scientific achievement and grief. However, this capability lies mainly in the realm of large news organizations. Without a 24-hour news desk, smaller news outlets — especially weeklies and investigative centers — struggle to remind users … Continued
Newsletter optimizer Opt In allows newsrooms to improve newsletters or create one from scratch
Eighth in a series to help newsrooms curate effective newsletters.
Class is in session: Join me to create mobile learning in digital skills for journalists
Second in a series introducing our 2017-2018 RJI Fellows and their projects.
RiskMiner: A test case for information access and revenue streams
First in a series introducing our 2017-2018 RJI Fellows and their projects.
Journalism, the intelligence community and technology
Editor’s note: The author, who spent a year as an RJI Fellow exploring ways to report and create news stories using databases, has recently received funding to develop intelligence applications of his Structured Stories journalism database. The funding is being provided by the U.S. federal government’s Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program.
Media Innovation Summit raises challenges, solutions for student innovators
Student founders of color face unique challenges to creating sustainable ventures in the media innovation space. These include advertiser biases, lack of technological development support and plain old-fashioned racism. Top innovators of color in media entrepreneurship — from broadcast media and education to online and hyperlocal enterprises — came together April 22 to advance solutions … Continued
Top 5 best newsletter pop-ups
Seventh in a series to help newsrooms curate effective newsletters.