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Category: Research

Ears to the pavement: What Bostonians are saying about the 2018 midterm elections

If you haven’t heard already, this midterm election cycle could be the most contentious yet. Many who oppose the choices of the current administration are praying for the prospect of […]

October 22, 2018November 15, 2018 Daniel Hentz Insights, Research

For journalism students reporting on climate change, a self-taught lesson in teamwork

Recently I was faced with a dilemma. A speaking engagement I had agreed to was scheduled during the same time as my journalism class. How could I plan something more […]

October 19, 2018October 18, 2018 Dan Kennedy Climate Journalism Lab, Insights, Research

“Oftentimes our voices aren’t represented.”

Martha Durkee-Neuman, an organizer for Mass Alliance, a coalition of political and advocacy organizations, called on young people, especially college students, to vote in the midterm election on Nov. 6. […]

October 8, 2018October 9, 2018 Nancy Ping Research

“Sources notice persistence and news organizations reward persistence.”

Jennifer Smith, news editor for the Dorchester Reporter, says community newspapers act as a local voice, raising issues that may not be covered by larger media and can create stronger […]

October 1, 2018October 11, 2018 Ha Ta Research

“The heart of everything great in journalism is good editing”

Michael Workman, a former senior interactive designer at the Boston Globe, urged an audience of student journalists and designers to try new things beyond writing and editing and to challenge […]

October 1, 2018October 2, 2018 Rou Zhang Research

“Make every single sentence a sentence that couldn’t have been written until now”

Last week, David Filipov, who was a foreign correspondent for The Boston Globe and The Washington Post, shared tips about what it was like to cover stories and travel through […]

September 18, 2018October 2, 2018 Nancy Ping Research

How I created Accio Data, a data-driven visual guide to all things Harry Potter

The wizarding world created by J.K. Rowling is full of complex characters, magic, creatures, adventures and more. I grew up having the stories read to me, reading them myself countless […]

June 11, 2018June 11, 2018 Olivia Rouse Research

How I simulated the public school selection process in Chicago to show segregation

School segregation is an issue that we as a society have created and maintained for decades. But despite desegregation programs from the 1970’s showing positive outcomes – including higher median income for black […]

May 16, 2018May 16, 2018 Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee Research

Podcast: Northeastern alumni weigh in on the challenges facing local TV news

There’s no denying that local television news is at a crossroads. Traditional broadcasts face increasing competition from the internet, forcing stations to either adapt or face the possibility of losing […]

May 7, 2018May 7, 2018 Shraddha Kakade and Veer Mudambi Reinventing Local TV News, Research

How Northeastern’s oldest print publication is keeping up with the digital landscape

If you’re a regular reader of The Huntington News, you might have noticed something different about their recent story on what Roadside America flagged as notable attractions around Boston. “Instead […]

April 17, 2018April 17, 2018 Megan O'Brien Research

Back to the inbox: How campus publications are making a media trend their own

Email newsletters have been declared everything from dead, to not dead, to the future of online media over the past few years. Nevertheless, it seems that many media publications are […]

April 17, 2018 Erica Yee Research

Northeastern University radio station to release four biweekly podcasts

Ever since Northeastern University’s WRBB went on air in 1962, the student-run radio station has run a variety of music, sports and news programming. Although its primary outlet is 104.9 […]

April 17, 2018 Josh Brown Research

Is virtual reality accessible to Northeastern students?

“Nobody has access to VR and AR equipment or if they do it is very hard to get into it,” said Peter Abbondanzo, president of NUVR, a student club at […]

April 17, 2018April 23, 2018 Delaney Lanker Research

The #ARforChange Project: Using immersive technologies and data for social change

Here at Northeastern, we’re exploring new platforms for civic engagement and social change using immersive media, from 360 video to data storytelling to virtual reality. The School of Journalism, in […]

April 5, 2018April 6, 2018 Aleszu Bajak ARforChange, Research

How The Pudding structures stories as visual essays

“We don’t tell 10,000-word stories like the New Yorker,” says Russell Goldenberg, one of the four minds behind the visual storytelling site The Pudding. “We try to examine complex topics […]

March 2, 2018March 7, 2018 Paxtyn Merten Interviews, Research

What can data visualization learn from feminism?

It’s about time to infuse feminism into data science and visualization. At least, that’s what Emerson data visualization and civic tech professor Catherine D’Ignazio says based on her research into […]

February 14, 2018 Paxtyn Merten Insights, Research

How I designed a journalism course around email newsletters

Can cannabis help address the opioids crisis? What is Northeastern University’s relationship with the environment? What about the university’s role in gentrification? And what is the future of digital storytelling? […]

February 12, 2018February 12, 2018 Aleszu Bajak Insights, Research

Meet the Media Innovation student who builds Boston Globe data stories

Growing up in an “underdeveloped suburb” in China’s Hebei Province, Yan Wu pored over every page of the newspapers that her father took home from work. Wu’s family couldn’t afford […]

February 5, 2018February 5, 2018 Sukee Bennett Interviews, Research

Media Watch: Seung Min Kim on covering Donald Trump

Last month, Politico reporter Seung Min Kim spoke at Northeastern University’s School of Journalism about how the press is and should be covering Donald Trump. Media Watch: Assessing the Press […]

December 28, 2017December 27, 2017 Aleszu Bajak Media Watch, Research

Northeastern graduate students launch website and magazine covering social justice issues

This semester, students in Dan Zedek’s graduate Media Innovation studio wrote, designed, photographed, coded, and published a web site and print magazine looking at social justice issues. This new publication, The Margins, was […]

December 27, 2017December 27, 2017 Sukee Bennett Research

Build it, hack it, share it: Lessons from MIT’s Civic Data Design Lab director Sarah Williams

Build it, hack it, share it. This was the message that Sarah Williams, director of MIT’s Civic Data Design Lab and a professor of technology and urban planning, hoped to […]

December 18, 2017December 18, 2017 Paxtyn Merten Insights, Research

Media Watch: Robert Faturechi on covering Donald Trump

Last month, ProPublica reporter Robert Faturechi spoke at Northeastern University’s School of Journalism about the journalistic perils of interviewing Donald Trump. Media Watch: Assessing the Press in the Trump Era is […]

December 18, 2017December 19, 2017 Aleszu Bajak Media Watch, Research

Seven projects that Northeastern’s journalism graduate students produced this semester

Before we break for the holidays, we wanted to highlight some of the stellar work our graduate students have done here at Northeastern’s School of Journalism as part of courses taught by […]

December 15, 2017 Aleszu Bajak Research

Six ways Alberto Cairo thinks you can improve your data visualizations

There’s a pesky little number that many in the data visualization community would just as soon ignore – one-third of Americans can’t properly read a scatter plot. Newsrooms and other […]

December 8, 2017December 8, 2017 Paxtyn Merten Insights, Research

Northeastern J-school alumna Rachel Zarrell makes Forbes’ “30 under 30”

Rachel Zarrell, an alumna of Northeastern’s School of Journalism, was recently named to Forbes’ “30 Under 30” list, which celebrates the innovators who are defining and driving the world of media. Zarrell, […]

December 4, 2017December 4, 2017 Guest Interviews, Research

Former Washington Post and Boston Globe editors recall Pentagon Papers ahead of “The Post” film premiere

Anyone with a knowledge of First Amendment legal history might look at “The Post” and ask why a movie about the Pentagon Papers focuses on The Washington Post when the […]

November 30, 2017November 30, 2017 Paxtyn Merten Research

Catching up with Tableau’s Midori Ng about data visualization, finding inspiration and combating fake news

Representatives from data visualization company Tableau recently held a workshop at Northeastern University to walk students through simple charting, mapping and interactivity with the program. Midori Ng, academic programs coordinator […]

November 22, 2017November 21, 2017 Paxtyn Merten Interviews, Research

Tips and takeaways from last week’s investigative journalism conference

Last Friday, Northeastern University’s School of Journalism invited an all-star roster of journalists and editors to discuss investigative reporting in the Age of Trump. Entitled “Is Trump Making Investigative Reporting […]

November 20, 2017November 20, 2017 Aleszu Bajak Insights, Research

Media Watch: Charlie Pierce on covering Donald Trump

Last month, Esquire politics blogger Charlie Pierce spoke at Northeastern University’s School of Journalism about how the press is and should be covering Donald Trump. Media Watch: Assessing the Press […]

November 15, 2017November 15, 2017 Aleszu Bajak Media Watch, Research

Media Watch: Ethan Bronner on covering Donald Trump

Last month, Bloomberg News senior editor Ethan Bronner spoke with students at Northeastern University’s School of Journalism about the job of covering the Trump administration. Media Watch: Assessing the Press […]

November 7, 2017November 7, 2017 Aleszu Bajak Media Watch, Research

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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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