Tag: Futures Lab
FL#176: NowThis innovations: Chatbots and Facebook Live
NowThis has been a pioneer in delivering video news exclusively on social platforms, and it grew quickly thanks to an ability to find new ways to reach young audiences. Now the company is pushing forward with technologies like chatbots and Facebook Live. Reporting by Hailey Godburn For more information: NowThis did away with publishing content … 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
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
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
Columbia Missourian covers True/False Film Fest using 3-D imaging
The Columbia Missourian took a new tack on “in-depth journalism” by offering its readers 3-D images of costumed participants in the True/False Film Fest in Columbia, Missouri. Missourian photographer Mike Krebs used a Structure Sensor 3-D scanner from the MU3D project to create detailed images of festival participants just before the event and then shot … Continued
Futures Lab update #96: Tips for mobile news delivery, and remixing with Trio
This week we get tips on what works when delivering news via mobile devices, and we check out a new app designed for remixing content. PART 1: Mobile insights As part of Al Jazeera’s Research & Development lab, the recently launched app AJ+ serves as an ongoing experiment in ways to deliver news via smartphones. … Continued
Futures Lab update 84: Engagement using text messages, and corrections via social media
This week we learn about a platform for engaging with audiences via text messages, and we explore how to handle corrections to social media posts. PART 1: Groundsource A new platform called Groundsource seeks to help newsrooms interact with their communities outside the confines of smartphones and social media, instead relying on more basic text … Continued
Futures Lab update #40: News tailored for mobile platforms
This week we bring you three examples of how news is being reengineered for people on the go. PART 1: Circa The mobile app Circa has received a lot of attention for its effort to redefine the experience of keeping up with the news via smartphone. The operation is half newsroom and half tech start-up … Continued