RJI news
How to build data capacity in your newsroom
Introducing DUG, our beta data unit guide Forget the gist of the photo up there—the one reading “data has a better idea.” I don’t buy it. (Lovely photo though, no?) Data rarely has a better idea, because data doesn’t think. People think. Sometimes data can help people think a little better. The problem is that … Continued
We’re building a better system for tracking source diversity
Chalkbeat and the Reynolds Journalism Institute want your help to develop the future of source auditingEvery news organization should be able to answer the question: “Does your journalism accurately reflect the communities you serve?” Historically, we know that disproportionately white newsrooms and the journalism they produce have not been inclusive of Black, Latino, Hispanic, Indigenous … Continued
Collaborative community ‘zine’ wins top news engagement idea at RJI Student Innovation Competition
A student team that partnered with L.A. Taco, a digital-only news source in Los Angeles, to create a collaborative community ‘zine’ (short for magazine) to help with engagement, won the 2020-21 RJI Student Innovation Competition. “Remains to be Zine,” which was made up of Caitlin Hernandez, Astrid Kayembe, Laura Gonzalez and Melody Waintal of the … Continued
RJI’s 2021–2022 fellows named
The Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute has awarded eight fellowships for the 2021–22 academic year that address a range of topics, from building collaborations around new kinds of content to inventing newsroom tools to exploring innovative ways to think about ongoing challenges. “These projects are a terrific mix of efforts to solve problems and explore … Continued
How should publishers change their messaging when paywalls aren’t one size fits all?
Optimizing content limits on a user-by-user basis Should publishers communicate content limits to their audiences? The question becomes more pressing as the products that manage paywalls become sophisticated enough to make predictions about who likely subscribers are. We decided to test this idea with the Reynolds Journalism Institute this year in a partnership project where … Continued
How to become a ‘harmless linker’ in three easy steps
You’ll probably also become a big fan of the Wayback Machine Mis- and dis-information are spread a number of ways and the thought of trying to free the news ecosystem of misleading, disingenuous and fraudulent news items can be overwhelming and disillusioning. But former RJI Fellow Barrett Golding is advocating one small step for mankind … Continued
Improving negotiation skills to fight inequality in newsrooms
A toolkit for Latina journalists and training sessions to reduce the pay gap Discrimination against Latino journalists in the United States affects the environment of freedom of expression and access to information for the Hispanic communities they frequently report on and write about. This is the main conclusion of the research conducted by Fundamedios in … Continued
Getting a source to ‘yes’
We have to put in the work. The first stage of my project was getting newsrooms on board with making their reporting more reflective of the communities they cover. Next, my media partners and I had to answer that age-old question: “How do I find and-or curate more diverse sources?” With those two things accomplished, … Continued
Everything you need to run a photo workshop in your community
Let’s say you want to run a photo workshop for teenagers. It would let you pass along some valuable skills, give people from underserved areas a voice, work as a great community engagement tool for your news organization, and help you find hidden stories. Nice idea. But a lot of work. Just handing young people … Continued
Descript, overdub: Q&A with Tamar Charney
Innovation in Focus is a series exploring emerging technology and methods of storytelling for newsrooms worldwide. We interview experts, test tools and provide our findings on a different topic each month. For Innovation in Focus this month I spoke with Tamar Charney, managing director for personalization and curation at NPR, about the ethics of redubbing, … Continued