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Category: Interviews

How Lazaro Gamio of the New York Times visualized the COVID-19 death toll

As the number of Americans who have died of COVID-19 has climbed beyond 500,000, it’s become increasingly difficult to conceptualize this number. The New York Times has been tracking COVID […]

March 4, 2021March 4, 2021 Raina Levin Behind the scenes, Insights, Interviews

How the Parametric Press explains the environmental cost of digital consumption

Have you ever wondered how much carbon dioxide is released when you stream or download eBooks or videos? How about when you opened this article on your phone or computer? […]

March 1, 2021 Maaisha Osman Interviews

The New York Times’ Stuart A. Thompson on opinion writing and making a career in journalism

Even during this golden age of technology, many journalists struggle to find a place for technology within print stories. The New York Times did just this, publishing an opinion piece […]

February 16, 2021February 28, 2021 Ella Witt Insights, Interviews

The creator of Slow Burn and Fiasco on why you should try podcasting

Leon Neyfakh, the host of hit podcasts Slow Burn and Fiasco, made it into the podcasting world at just the right time. While speaking at “Pizza, Press, & Politics,” a […]

February 16, 2021February 16, 2021 Elana Lane Insights, Interviews

Behind the scenes at ‘How to Save a Planet,’ a climate solutions podcast

Climate change can be overwhelming to think about. But Gimlet Media’s new podcast, How to Save a Planet, is informing listeners about tangible climate solutions. The show is hosted by […]

January 29, 2021February 4, 2021 Julia Hong Insights, Interviews

How Reuters visualized the influence of K-pop on social justice issues

For the past several years, racial injustice in the United States has been trending on social media and in the news. Movements such as Black Lives Matter have increased awareness of racial injustice across the […]

January 26, 2021February 4, 2021 Samuel Chuan Behind the scenes, Insights, Interviews

How the podcast ‘Science Vs’ investigated a 1971 virus conspiracy

In November, Gimlet Media’s podcast Science Vs published a two-part story on a viral outbreak in Cuban pigs in 1971. The Cuban government had ordered all their pigs burned to […]

January 11, 2021January 11, 2021 Julia Hong Behind the scenes, Insights, Interviews

How IndyStar’s Emily Hopkins helped break a nursing home scandal in Indianapolis

Emily Hopkins, a data reporter on the Indy Star Investigations team, spoke with Storybench about their reporting on improperly funded nursing homes in the time of COVID-19. Hopkins spoke about […]

November 23, 2020November 23, 2020 Mark Kobzik Behind the scenes, Interviews

How the Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism is reporting on water access around the world

There is nothing more vital to life on Earth than water. Yet from rural, sub-Saharan Africa to Asia’s crowded megacities, there is a global water crisis with one in 10 […]

November 12, 2020November 12, 2020 Maaisha Osman Behind the scenes, Interviews

How Cultural Survival is mapping the impact of the pandemic on Indigenous communities

As the Covid-19 pandemic unfolds, Indigenous communities across the globe are finding themselves excluded from case data. In response, a Cambridge-based human rights group called Cultural Survival has created a […]

November 12, 2020November 12, 2020 Delainey LaHood-Burns Behind the scenes, Interviews

How Nature magazine visualized 150 years of scientific discovery

In honor of the 150th anniversary of the seminal scientific journal Nature, the publication spent months producing a special “cover” for the 21st century. Through a colorful interactive tool, a […]

November 9, 2020November 10, 2020 Anna Campbell Behind the scenes, Interviews

How interactive, visual storytelling helps readers better retain information

Earlier this year, you may have seen the Washington Post’s wildly popular coronavirus simulator explaining how pandemics spread exponentially. But have you played the Financial Times’ Uber Game? What about […]

November 6, 2020November 6, 2020 Maaisha Osman Behind the scenes, Interviews

How Kate Sosin told the story of transgender individuals in California prisons

How often do transgender people get the opportunity to tell their own stories at major media outlets? According to Kate Sosin, LGBTQ+ Reporter for The 19th, organizations with a particular focus […]

November 5, 2020November 5, 2020 Ollie Steinberg Behind the scenes, Interviews

How the Boston Globe’s Mark Shanahan made a podcast about his battle with prostate cancer

In a recently published six-part podcast series, Mr. 80 Percent, Boston Globe entertainment writer Mark Shanahan went into granular, personal detail about his treatment journey with a disease that affects […]

November 4, 2020November 9, 2020 Claire Yates Behind the scenes, Interviews

How Stuff.co.nz told the story of New Zealand’s coronavirus lockdown

Felippe Rodrigues creates data visualizations for stuff.co.nz, New Zealand’s largest online news publisher. One of his recent pieces, “The story of New Zealand’s COVID lockdown, in graphs,” uses smoothly animated […]

October 30, 2020October 30, 2020 Taylor Blackley Behind the scenes, Interviews

How the Allen Coral Atlas is mapping and monitoring coral reefs worldwide

Although coral reefs occupy less than one percent of the ocean floor, their importance extends well beyond their size. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that 500 million people […]

October 20, 2020October 20, 2020 Sharmila Kuthunur Behind the scenes, Climate Journalism Lab, Interviews

How The New York Times visualized racist historical redlining and urban heat

In late August, The New York Times published “How Decades of Racist Housing Policy Left Neighborhoods Sweltering,” a visual reckoning on historical redlining, persistent racial inequality and who feels increased […]

September 17, 2020September 17, 2020 Julia Hong Behind the scenes, Climate Journalism Lab, Interviews

How The New York Times is tracking Covid-19 cases in the U.S.

Published June 30, 2020. The New York Times’ map of U.S. cases of Covid-19 is a living webpage that changes with the numbers and relies on a team of over […]

September 1, 2020September 15, 2020 Julia Hong Behind the scenes, Interviews

How Circle of Blue investigated freshwater issues in Texas

While 70% of our planet’s surface is covered in water, only 3% of it is fresh water – and most of that is packed away in glaciers and polar ice […]

August 27, 2020August 28, 2020 Sharmila Kuthunur Behind the scenes, Climate Journalism Lab, Interviews

How NASA’s Earth Matters blog sparks conversations with satellite images

Exploring NASA’s Earth Matters blog is like walking into a candy store. The various categories featured on the blog include photographs of Earth by astronauts, news and research roundups, and […]

August 19, 2020August 19, 2020 Sharmila Kuthunur Behind the scenes, Interviews

How FlowingData’s Nathan Yau thinks about data stories

Nathan Yau, the founder of the website FlowingData, has been creating and discussing data visualization projects since 2007. Browsing through the site reveals no single theme; instead, there is a […]

August 17, 2020August 17, 2020 Sharmila Kuthunur Behind the scenes, Interviews

How The New York Times produced a visual explainer of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus

The novel coronavirus is much more than a sphere wrapped in spike proteins. Back in April, The New York Times published a visual explainer of the proteins and genome of […]

June 22, 2020June 24, 2020 Julia Hong Behind the scenes, Interviews

How The New York Times visualized trends in white extremist attacks

In April 2019, The New York Times published an interactive article on white extremist killings from New Zealand to Norway to the United States. Using maps and a timeline to plot […]

June 15, 2020June 15, 2020 Mihir Patil Behind the scenes, Interviews

How Gimlet’s Science Vs podcast produced a season on Covid-19

Science Vs host Wendy Zukerman begins every coronavirus episode with the reassurance that she’ll bring some clarity through science. In tackling Covid-19 for its eighth season, the popular science podcast […]

June 9, 2020June 9, 2020 Julia Hong Behind the scenes, Interviews

How Radiolab produced “Gonads,” a podcast series on human reproduction

Listening to Radiolab’s “Gonads” series is a lot like hearing a science documentary about human reproduction and having an epic narrative play out in your mind’s eye. The podcast series, […]

May 27, 2020May 27, 2020 Julia Hong Behind the scenes, Interviews

How Paraguay’s El Surti is adapting to the age of Covid-19, boosting its fact-checking on Whatsapp and launching a new podcast

Four years ago, Paraguayan media outlet El Surtidor — known as El Surti — was created to address deep-seated issues of media accessibility and information inequality in the country. The […]

May 20, 2020May 20, 2020 Maria Silvia Aguirre Behind the scenes, Interviews

How Núcleo Jornalismo is tracking Brazilian politicians on Twitter

Late last month, Brazil’s justice minister Sergio Moro resigned in protest after President Jair Bolsonaro fired his police chief. According to Moro, a prominent politician who may be seeking a […]

May 6, 2020May 20, 2020 Aleszu Bajak Behind the scenes, Interviews

Behind the Sports Illustrated COVID-19 Issue

This story originally appeared on Game Plan, a publication exploring the future of sports journalism from Northeastern University’s School of Journalism. When NBA star Rudy Gobert announced he had contracted […]

April 16, 2020May 1, 2020 Kade Krichko Behind the scenes, Interviews

How Tifo Football is making soccer analytics easier to digest

Soccer –  or football, as most of the world calls it – is the most popular sport in the world. As in other major sports, advanced data analytics are being […]

April 14, 2020April 15, 2020 Seamus McAvoy Behind the scenes, Interviews

How Reuters Visualized the Chilean Economic Crisis

Ally Levine has a firm grasp on what it takes to turn meaningful data into a compelling story. Having jump-started her journalistic career as an intern on the graphics team […]

April 14, 2020April 22, 2020 Ellie MacLean Behind the scenes, Interviews

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What is Storybench?
Storybench takes an “under the hood” look at the latest in digital storytelling, from data visualization and investigative journalism to virtual reality and the digital humanities. In addition to in-depth features and interviews with industry practitioners, we offer hands-on tutorials that can be “downloaded” right into the newsroom or classroom.

We also publish research we're running at Northeastern's School of Journalism along with collaborators in data science, communication studies, computational social sciences and information design. These projects include the Co-Laboratory for Data Impact, the Climate Journalism Lab, the 2020 Storybench Election Coverage Tracker and the Reinventing Local TV News project.

Want to contribute to Storybench? Pitch us or join us for a graduate degree in the Media Innovation program at Northeastern University’s School of Journalism.
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Storybench 2020 Election Coverage Tracker

The Storybench 2020 Election Coverage Tracker intends to keep tabs on the political coverage of the 2020 presidential election by covering media trends and using various data sources to explore media narratives.

Instead of keeping track of who’s ahead in the horse race, we’ll be turning our focus to those covering the horse race – the media outlets themselves and various proxies for public attention. Follow along here.

Best of Storybench

How the Wall Street Journal visualized 500+ conflicts of interest of the Trumps

Women on the 2020 campaign trail are being treated more negatively by the media

Getting started with data visualization in R using ggplot2

Understanding what makes a visualization memorable

Using French wine reviews to understand TF-IDF, a measure of how unique a word is to a document

 

Projects

Over the next two years we’ll be surveying the media’s coverage of the candidates and the issues. Follow along here.

 


The Reinventing Local TV News Project, from Northeastern’s School of Journalism, is analyzing the formats and practices of local news stations, and suggesting new ways of telling stories that can better engage diverse audiences. Read our inaugural post here.

 

The Climate Journalism Lab

The Climate Journalism Lab aims to examine and unpack the trends, tools and techniques employed by reporters and organizations covering climate change.

 

Join us at Northeastern!

Want to write for Storybench and probe the frontiers of media innovation? Apply for one of our graduate programs at Northeastern University’s School of Journalism.

Rolling admissions, no GREs required and financial aid available. Email here.

Interviews

Pizza, Press & Politics is our weekly speaker series at Northeastern’s School of Journalism. Watch interviews with David Filipov, Mike Workman, Jenn Smith, Martha Durkee-Neuman, Susan Labandibar, John Ward, Marc Fortier, Carol Gregory, Ling-Mei Wong and Elana Gordon.

Collaborative, Open, Mobile

Over the last three years, Storybench has interviewed 72 data journalists, web developers, interactive graphics editors, and project managers from around the world to provide an “under the hood” look at the ingredients and best practices that go into today’s most compelling digital storytelling projects.

They boil down to three key areas of emphasis: 1) highly networked, team-based collaboration; 2) an ethos of open-source sharing, both within and between newsrooms; 3) and mobile-driven story presentation. Read our paper here.

Storybench on Twitter
What is Storybench?
Storybench takes an “under the hood” look at the latest in digital storytelling, from data visualization and investigative journalism to virtual reality and the digital humanities. In addition to in-depth features and interviews with industry practitioners, we offer hands-on tutorials that can be “downloaded” right into the newsroom or classroom.

We also publish research we're running at Northeastern's School of Journalism along with collaborators in data science, communication studies, computational social sciences and information design. These projects include the Co-Laboratory for Data Impact, the Climate Journalism Lab, the 2020 Storybench Election Coverage Tracker and the Reinventing Local TV News project.

Want to contribute to Storybench? Pitch us or join us for a graduate degree in the Media Innovation program at Northeastern University’s School of Journalism.

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