Category: Behind the scenes
A look inside the Boston Globe’s immersive Cape Cod project
In late September, the Boston Globe published an in-depth report on how climate change is affecting Cape Cod. Nestor Ramos, the writer, said the intent of the article was to […]
How Vox explained China’s Belt and Road Initiative
China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is an infrastructure and development plan that will connect China to the rest of the world — an attempted renaissance of the historic Silk […]
How the Wall Street Journal made the College Board’s adversity scores interactive
The world of higher education reporting got more than its share of news coverage in 2019. Actress Felicity Huffman was sentenced to two weeks in jail for paying Rick Singer, […]
How The New Yorker’s augmented reality feature gave voices to ordinary items
Augmented reality is set to transform media as we move into a more networked society. News organizations are continually shifting into digital formats where AR can enhance coverage and offers […]
How the Times’ Conor Dougherty tells the story of California’s trillion-dollar housing crisis
The San Francisco Bay Area is known for tech, liberalism, and now a raging crisis of homelessness. The housing crisis has reached an all-time high with more jobs flooding to […]
What the Covid-19 pandemic looks like through the lenses of 18 Latin American photographers
While the novel coronavirus outbreak has created uncertainty for many in the journalism industry, it has also created an opportunity to tell powerful stories about the effects of the pandemic. […]
The Guardian wants to know what global sustainability goals you would prioritize
In 2015, the United Nations released 17 sustainable development goals centered around people, prosperity and the planet. So far, 193 countries have committed to this transformation by 2030. Now 10 […]
How the Washington Post logs fatal police shootings in the U.S.
The Washington Post first began examining fatal police shootings in the United States in 2015. The newspaper’s investigation that uncovered that the FBI was undercounting half the number of fatal […]
Telling stories on Instagram: A Q&A with Neil Shea
Neil Shea, a contributing editor for The American Scholar and The Virginia Quarterly, is also a writer who has worked for National Geographic for more than 15 years, a role […]
Behind the scenes of the Vox web series “Borders”
Filmmaker and video journalist Johnny Harris travels the world to tell compelling and moving stories. Harris is based out of Washington, D.C., and works for Vox Media. His style combines […]
How the Wall Street Journal developed its make-your-own hedcut feature
As of December 2019, the Wall Street Journal has been offering all members the opportunity to create their own portrait “hedcut,” a drawing made of dots and hatched lines. At […]
The challenging — and delicious — adventures of producing the first America’s Test Kitchen podcast
Kaitlin Keleher, America’s Test Kitchen TV & podcast producer, believes the most powerful stories are the background tales about food: the discoveries, mysteries, history and everything that happened before any […]
How Northeastern’s Samuel Scarpino built a live map tracking the coronavirus outbreak
Samuel Scarpino, an assistant professor in Northeastern’s Network Science Institute, built a map that monitors the outbreak of the coronavirus. He has collaborated with many other scientists to track the […]
How The New York Times is visualizing the smartphone tracking industry
A phone application company you have never heard of before likely knows where you are right now. That information is being bought and sold right now. Those apps and their […]
How The New York Times broke down the history of the NYC subway map
For the 40th anniversary of the New York City subway map, The New York Times created an interactive story that all but places you directly inside the map. Using a […]
How I visualized hundreds of ballot proposition outcomes with R Shiny
Most years, San Franciscans vote on ballot measures determining whether or not police should carry tasers, to allocate $50 million a year for homeless services, or to impose a fee […]
How The Boston Globe is using a suite of niche products to cover the booming business of marijuana
Last December, The Boston Globe launched a marijuana section – three months before the first recreational dispensary opened in Massachusetts. The section wasn’t the Globe’s first foray into the world […]
How PopSci’s “The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week” podcast is making science accessible
Death By Rainbow, Face Blindness, Watermelon Snow. These are just three of the many weird things recently addressed in a podcast titled The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week. Currently […]
How Vox visualized segregation in the United States
Vox data journalist Alvin Chang, an alum of the Boston Globe and ESPN, has been writing stories about segregation for most of his career. Earlier this year, Chang looked at […]
How The Pudding visualized the prevalence of hyphenated names in sports
At first glance, a hyphenated name is bound to catch your attention — take NFL player Ha Ha Clinton-Dix’s name, for instance. For Clinton-Dix, who plays for the Chicago Bears, his […]
How the New York Times visualized auto carbon emissions in the U.S. and your city
When data visualization guru Alberto Cairo visited Northeastern University in October, he said data visualization is not so much about simplifying a complex issue or set of information. Rather, it’s […]
How designer Nadieh Bremer teaches herself new skills to continue visualizing data in new ways
If you are passionate about telling data-driven stories more engagingly, you should not miss out on Nadieh Bremer, a freelance data visualization designer and artist with a background in astronomy […]
How The Washington Post built a game to demonstrate how autonomous cars work
If your autonomous car is headed into oncoming traffic, what should it be programmed to do? Swerve or hit the vehicle? Chris Alcantara, Youjin Shin and Aaron Steckelburg, members of […]
How The New York Times transformed its “Diary of a Song” series with FaceTime and social media
Think of your favorite song and imagine calling the artist on FaceTime to ask them how they made it. The New York Times series “Diary of a Song” puts viewers […]
How Nicky Case designed the game “Adventures with Anxiety”
Mental disorders are often considered “invisible illnesses,” as the symptoms aren’t always visible. Illustrator and game developer Nicky Case wanted to shed more light on one of the most common […]
How Adrian Zaw produced “A Journey Back to Myanmar” to lift up stories of his country of birth
Imagine taking a 20-hour flight from California to Myanmar every single month. For Adrian Zaw, that was a reality during the production of his film “A Journey Back to Myanmar.” […]
How the Boston Globe reported on hip hop’s fascination with quarterback Tom Brady
Everyone had questions for Tom Brady at Super Bowl LIII media day, as the then-41-year-old NFL quarterback closed in on his sixth Super Bowl ring. How would the New England […]
How Mother Jones reported “The Nightmare of Getting an Abortion in the South”
It’s no secret that abortion laws have been a point of contention in the United States over the past few years, with several states recently introducing new laws that make […]
How The New York Times predicted your politics using a quiz
Can your race, religion and education predict your political party affiliation? Last month, Sahil Chinoy, a former graphics editor for the opinion section of The New York Times, published an […]
How The New York Times produces its television series “The Weekly”
Nobody can accuse The New York Times of putting all of its eggs in one basket. The news organization has published written stories, produced photo essays, created a well-known podcast, […]