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# Exploring data and digital storytelling. Northeastern's School of Journalism Storybench

Exploring data and digital storytelling. Northeastern's School of Journalism

## Sitemaps

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## Posts

- [Talking journalism and media innovation with Northeastern’s new J-school director Jonathan Kaufman](https://www.storybench.org/talking-journalism-media-innovation-northeasterns-new-j-school-director-jonathan-kaufman/) - Storybench sat down with Jonathan Kaufman, incoming director of Northeastern University’s School of Journalism, to chat about his ambitions for the program and what he’s brought from past positions at The Boston Globe, The Wall Street Journal, and Bloomberg News. He most recently served as Bloomberg News executive editor where he oversaw a team of over 300 reporters and editors worldwide. We asked the
- [How Mother Jones built a Donald Trump insult generator](https://www.storybench.org/mother-jones-built-donald-trump-insult-generator/) - The media is on a tear sifting through presidential hopeful Donald Trump's speeches to find his most noxious and memorable quotes. Some outlets, like Time and Mother Jones, have built interactive applications that allow a user to input her name and be personally "insulted" by Trump. We spoke with Ben Breedlove, a web developer at Mother Jones, about
- [Digital help filing your FOIA request](https://www.storybench.org/digital-help-filing-your-own-foia-request/) - A recent Gallup poll reaffirmed what we already know-the public's trust in the media keeps sinking. So what's a committed reporter to do? One answer is to take advantage of the Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, to request public records to bolster one's story. Agencies at the local, state and federal level produce thousands of records every day, most of
- [How a radio producer and a filmmaker made an interactive documentary on the Confederate battle flag](https://www.storybench.org/radio-producer-filmmaker-made-interactive-documentary-confederate-battle-flag/) - The Confederate battle flag is a symbol that has long outlived the Civil War. Logan Jaffe, a multimedia producer for WBEZ's Curious City (See Storybench coverage of that public radio news experiment here) set out to investigate reactions to the flag, a deeply emotional flashpoint for Americans. Envisioning the project as multimedia and web-based, she teamed up with
- [Using BuzzFeed's listicle format to tell stories with maps and charts](https://www.storybench.org/using-buzzfeeds-listicle-format-tell-stories-maps-charts/) - “I may be the second oldest person on the editorial staff,” says Peter Aldhous, 50, a science journalist and coder at BuzzFeed News. Aldhous, who teaches data visualization at University of California, Berkeley’s School of Journalism and science communication at University of California, Santa Cruz, joined BuzzFeed’s science desk after working for Nature, Science and
- [NewsPix: A Chrome plugin that streams news pictures with each new tab](https://www.storybench.org/newspix-a-chrome-plugin-that-streams-news-pictures-with-each-new-tab/) - If you run an online news organization, you face a problem reaching readers: How do you keep your brand in front of readers? How do you remind them that you exist and get them to return regularly? It’s not easy. But we have a free app — NewsPix — that can help. NewsPix is a Chrome browser extension that
- [Curious citizen photographer corroborates a <i>New York Times</i> Story](https://www.storybench.org/curious-citizen-photographer-corroborates-new-york-times-story/) - In July The New York Times published a profile of a hardluck McDonald's in midtown Manhattan sometimes referred to by locals as the “zombie McDonald’s” for its regular customers, many of whom are drug addicts. I was intrigued by the writer's description of what she found here: “People openly buying, selling, and consuming drugs and alcohol inside a
- [How the Australian Broadcasting Corporation used a reporter's cell phone data to track and tell the story of his every move](https://www.storybench.org/behind-the-scenes-of-the-australian-broadcasting-corporations-cellphone-tracking-interactive/) - This article originally appeared on Back Story, a blog dedicated to telling the stories behind the stories told by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's News division. The author, Simon Elvery, is a developer practising journalism and telling stories with data. Since the NSA spying scandal, governments across the world have been grappling with issues around telecommunications data retention
- [Six NPR stories that breathe life into a neighborhood scene](https://www.storybench.org/six-npr-stories-that-breathe-life-into-a-neighborhood-scene/) - Alison MacAdam is a senior editorial specialist with the NPR training team, where she coaches NPR staff and member stations in audio storytelling. For the past decade, she has edited and produced All Things Considered. Follow her on Twitter and at the NPR Storytelling blog. For scenes to succeed in any medium, they have to
- [Surveying The New York Times’s refugee crisis coverage](https://www.storybench.org/analyzing-the-refugee-crisis-coverage-in-the-new-york-times/) - This year millions of people around the world have been uprooted from their countries and are now part of what the United Nations calls “the worst migration crisis since World War II.” The New York Times has responded with meticulous coverage of the situation, especially in Europe, where the number of those seeking asylum has exploded.
- [How to use CartoDB to visualize animal tracking data](https://www.storybench.org/use-cartodb-visualize-animal-tracking-data/) - This tutorial was written by Peter Desmet for LifeWatch INBO, a biodiversity observatory based in Belgium, and is released under the CC BY 4.0 license. It originally appeared on the LifeWatch INBO blog on September 1, 2015. Peter Desmet is LifeWatch INBO’s the team coordinator. Follow Peter on Twitter or on his website. Mapping novice?
- [The toll: Mass shooting data visualizations around the web](https://www.storybench.org/mass-shooting-data-visualizations/) - President Obama issued a rare challenge to news organizations last week when he responded to last week's mass shooting in Oregon by asking them to do some data homework: "Tally up the number of Americans who've been killed through terrorist attacks over the last decade and the number of Americans who've been killed by gun
- [What journalists need to know about code](https://www.storybench.org/journalists-need-know-code/) - Here at Northeastern’s School of Journalism, we’re a few weeks into our Media Innovation studio, the thumping heart of our Media Innovation program, where we expose our talented journalism graduate students to fields outside journalism–like game design, interactive documentary and computer science–and apply their lessons and best practices to journalism. But before getting into the nitty gritty
- [How Jenifer McKim reported on child abuse and neglect deaths in Massachusetts](https://www.storybench.org/jenifer-mckim-reported-child-abuse-neglect-deaths-massachusetts/) - The New England Center for Investigative Reporting (NECIR) recently published a data-driven investigation into the stories of children–generally under the age of three–who are killed or abused by caretakers. In collaboration with The Boston Globe, NECIR senior investigative reporter Jenifer McKim made a public records request for information on child abuse and neglect deaths in Massachusetts and spent
- [Using GIFs to tell the story of Oakland’s black barbershops](https://www.storybench.org/using-gifs-tell-story-oaklands-black-barbershops/) - The motion of a barber buzzing the nape of a man's neck. The fluttering of a pair of scissors mid-haircut. These are the kinds of moments captured in the GIFs turned art and digital storytelling in the hands of Brandon Tauszik, a visual artist in Oakland, California who recently published a series of artful GIFs to document the city's
- [Revolutionizing the work of news organizations by making citizen videos searchable](https://www.storybench.org/how-computer-vision-will-revolutionize-news-organizations-by-making-video-searchable/) - A high school student is thrown to a classroom floor by a school resource officer in South Carolina, a tsunami destroys homes after the 2011 Japanese earthquake, a horrifying stampede kills hundreds of pilgrims during the 2015 Hajj outside Mecca. These events were all captured by amateur filmmakers. The footage, all captured on cell phones, made international news. “As billions of people come to own smartphones,
- [How to build an animated heatmap in CartoDB](https://www.storybench.org/build-animated-heatmap-cartodb/) - CartoDB is a fantastic tool for visualizing geographic data. The following is a tutorial for building an animated heatmap using temporal data. We’ll be mapping Asian tiger mosquito data, collected between 1964 and 2014, which formed part of the Nature Scientific Data paper “The global compendium of Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus occurrence.” The data
- [Five things The New York Times learned using a drone on assignment](https://www.storybench.org/five-things-new-york-times-learned-using-drone-assignment/) - Josh Haner, a New York Times staff photographer, recently wrote about his experience shooting frigid rivers during a visit to Greenland, which is mostly covered in glacial ice. One photo made the front page this week while nytimes.com ran an interactive story using Haner’s drone footage. Here are some of the takeaways he shared with The New
- [How we built an interactive graphic using carcinogen data from the W.H.O.](https://www.storybench.org/how-we-built-an-interactive-graphic-using-carcinogen-data-from-the-w-h-o/) - Jeremy Scott Diamond is a developer and designer with the graphics department at Bloomberg News. Storybench previously covered his contributions on a Hillary Clinton timeline. If there’s one thing I’ve learned working with data visualization, it’s that you don’t want your work to be boring. It’s easy to get so caught up in facts and figures
- [How a museum unveiled Pixar’s creative process to teach the art and science of digital storytelling](https://www.storybench.org/how-a-museum-unveiled-pixars-creative-process-to-teach-the-art-and-science-of-digital-storytelling/) - Pixar, the celebrated animated film studio that first made it big with Toy Story, is famous for building worlds from scratch and breathing life into characters fashioned from pixels like Buzz Lightyear and WALL-E. All that animation magic comes from major technological muscle. In the film Cars, Pixar artists and engineers modeled thousands of buildings
- [14 innovative journalism courses to follow this Fall](https://www.storybench.org/innovative-journalism-courses-to-follow-this-fall/) - With classes back in session, we wanted to highlight a few forward-looking courses being taught at journalism schools across the country. But first, to introduce these syllabi, we recommend “Those Who Do, Also Teach: David Carr's Gift to Journalism Schools,” by Molly Wright Steenson for Storybench. It's a look at Carr's inspiring syllabus, Press Play,
- [How Scientific American makes its infographics](https://www.storybench.org/how-scientific-american-makes-its-infographics/) - Flip through the pages of a scientific journal and you’ll find numerous figures, charts, and diagrams visualizing important scientific discoveries. But interpreting those visuals may leave you scratching your head. It’s important to remember that scientists present their data in ways that their fellow scientists can comprehend. Technical jargon and statistical error bars can efficiently communicate the
- [How I used data-driven journalism to reveal racial disparities in U.S. nursing homes](https://www.storybench.org/how-i-used-data-driven-journalism-to-reveal-racial-disparities-in-u-s-nursing-homes/) - In 2009, while at The Chicago Reporter, I took a deep look at racial disparities in the quality of care in nursing homes in Chicago, Illinois and nationally. For a project that the Center for Public Integrity published in November 2014, I brought together Medicaid cost reports, self-reported staffing figures, testimonies from advocates and lawyers, and personal
- [Emily Cooper says illustrating science means teaching science](https://www.storybench.org/meet-your-maker-emily-cooper-says-illustrating-science-means-teaching-science/) - Emily Cooper is a freelance scientific illustrator whose work has been published in books, on websites and in magazines like Scientific American, National Geographic Adventure, IEEE Spectrum, and The New York Times Magazine. She has illustrated everything from how mosquitoes become genetically modified and how woolly mammoths could be revived to how electronic ink works. To convey science
- [If you're not going to win at fast news, can you win at deep news?](https://www.storybench.org/if-youre-not-going-to-win-at-fast-news-can-you-win-at-deep-news/) - Ethan Zuckerman, known as a guru of Internet activism, is the director of M.I.T. Media Lab's Center for Civic Media. He's also the author of Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection. He spoke last night to a journalism class I teach at Northeastern University with David Tamés, a documentary filmmaker. The course, StoryLab, is
- [Adopting a digital-first mindset at the University Daily Kansan](https://www.storybench.org/adopting-a-digital-first-mindset-at-the-university-daily-kansan/) - Katie Kutsko is the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper at the University of Kansas at Lawrence. She recently shared some thoughts on Medium about how she would restructure the student newsroom and reposition the paper for the digital age. We are reposting them here on Storybench. From training staff to file directly into the C.M.S.
- [How citizen journalists tap Silk, a new visualization platform to tell underreported stories](https://www.storybench.org/how-citizen-journalists-tap-silk-a-new-visualization-platform-to-tell-underreported-stories/) - Want to triangulate that photo of Russian tanks barreling down the streets of Donetsk? Check out the citizen journalism being done at Bellingcat, a U.K. website focused on investigating and verifying underreported issues worldwide. Started by Eliot Higgins, a blogger, and funded in a Kickstarter campaign launched last summer, Bellingcat crowdsources and verifies photographs and reports on contentious and difficult
- [Why the WSJ used a virtual roller coaster ride to bring stock prices to life](https://www.storybench.org/why-the-wsj-used-a-virtual-roller-coaster-ride-to-bring-stock-prices-to-life/) - Hold on for the ride. You bump along through the 1990s with the rise of Yahoo and eBay and then start a steep climb in 1999. As the dot-com bubble bursts in 2000, you fall with stomach-dropping speed into a valley of stunted economic growth. In 2008, you fall once again into an historic recession. By 2015, you're back at the precipice. Will
- [Primer Stories wants digital storytelling to be beautiful](https://www.storybench.org/primer-stories-wants-digital-storytelling-to-be-beautiful/) - “Tell me the story. Make it look beautiful.” That’s all Joe Alterio, an artist and designer, says he asks of digital storytelling. When he did not find enough online that met his own standards, he started publishing his own. He and a co-founder have published twenty narratives set within vivid graphics and simple animations that borrow aesthetics
- [A roundup of visualizations on Baltimore, race, and policing](https://www.storybench.org/a-roundup-of-visualizations-on-baltimore-race-and-policing/) - Baltimore broke out into riots and looting last week following the funeral of 25-year-old Freddie Gray. In an effort to better describe the racial inequities in life expectancy, education and policing among blacks in American inner cities, news organizations across the country visualized data. The graphics help contextualize the demonstrations. A portrait of Freddie Gray's neighborhood
- [How AlJazeera plans its interactive storytelling projects](https://www.storybench.org/how-aljazeera-plans-its-interactive-storytelling-projects/) - AlJazeera has built several long-form storytelling projects that have infused investigative journalism with digital technology and allowed users to experience stories in engaging ways. See The War Across the River about refugees from the Central African Republic, or Freedom Denied, an interactive exploration of what happens to some Palestinians after they're arrested by the Israeli military. Palestine Remix, one of the largest interactives
- [How to add meta tags to optimize your news article for social media](https://www.storybench.org/add-meta-tags-optimize-news-article-social-media/) - Don't you love those tweets or Facebook posts that include a photo and a brief summary of the article you're about to click? Do you wish you knew how to bake that meta-information into your news article? We put together a brief tutorial on how to insert meta tags to optimize your news article for
- [How to make a simple virtual reality data visualization](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-make-a-simple-virtual-reality-data-visualization/) - The following tutorial was written by Roger Kenny, an interactive designer at the Wall Street Journal. After Storybench covered his 3D virtual reality tour of the Nasdaq, Kenny offered to guide us through building a simple virtual reality data visualization. Find Kenny on Twitter here. We now live in a magical time of virtual worlds full of unicorns and
- [ViewFind is betting on crowdfunded photojournalism](https://www.storybench.org/viewfind-thinks-theres-a-market-for-a-la-carte-photojournalism/) - “Help us save photojournalism!” is the less than understated headline of ViewFind’s fundraising campaign on Kickstarter. The new photojournalism startup is trying to raise $25,000 to send five photographers across the United States and the world to capture underreported stories through photography. Last week, ViewFind announced that photographers Ruddy Roye, Beth Nakamura, Sara Lewkowicz, Matt Eich, and Benjamin Lowy
- [Oh the places you'll go: Tapping Periscope for reporting](https://www.storybench.org/periscope-enrich/) - Since the latest wonderkind app Periscope, which allows anyone with a smart phone to easily live stream video to followers hit smartphones in March, media makers from YouTubers to talk show hosts have been experimenting with how best to use it. They’ve taken us inside of people’s fridges, onto the soccer field, and into the thick of the recent Baltimore uprising.
- [Have we come too far with digital photography?](https://www.storybench.org/have-we-come-too-far-with-digital-photography/) - Bennett Cain is a freelance writer and photographer in New York City. He has worked for years as a digital imaging technician in film, documentary, and television shows and writes the blog Negative Spaces. Cain offered to adapt a blogpost about digital photography for Storybench. His question: With digital images often looking too pristine and too perfect, have
- [How The Daily Show sifts through hundreds of hours of TV to find the funny](https://www.storybench.org/daily-show-sifts-hundreds-hours-tv-find-funny/) - When New York State Senate majority leader Dean Skelos and his son were indicted on federal corruption charges of extortion comedian Jon Stewart was quick to poke fun at the pernicious corruption in New York in a recent episode of The Daily Show. “Up in Albany, this whole case must come as a real shock,” he intoned before cutting to
- [Six data visualization tools you should know](https://www.storybench.org/bu-storytelling-data-session/) - The following are notes from a BU storytelling with data workshop led by Storybench editor Aleszu Bajak. The full presentation can be accessed here. Google Spreadsheets Public health expenditure (top countries) Digiday, for example, is using embedded interactive charts from Google Spreadsheets. Chartbuilder Public health expenditure (top countries) Plot.ly Raw CartoDB Adobe Creative Suite (free
- [Under the hood of the NYTimes' "Illuminating North Korea" and "In Flight"](https://www.storybench.org/hood-nytimes-interactive-stories-illuminating-north-korea-flight/) - The New York Times recently published two artful, immersive interactive stories: Illuminating North Korea, a photo essay by David Guttenfelder about his trip to the elusive country and In Flight which tracks a commercial airline flight from London to Tokyo from the perspective of the pilot. To tease out the planning and design of the interactive stories, Storybench spoke with Rodrigo de Benito Sanz, a multimedia editor
- [Key takeaways from 7 SRCCON sessions we loved](https://www.storybench.org/key-takeaways-7-srccon-sessions-loved/) - SRCCON is a conference organized by Knight-Mozilla OpenNews launched in 2014 for developers and interactive designers that work in the news business. Last weekend, Minneapolis was host to SRCCON. (Full schedule here. Attendee list here.) Michael Grant, a digital designer and developer, and Aaron Williams, an interactive editor, from the San Francisco Chronicle shared their favorite
- [How journalists visualized cancer risk from workplace chemicals](https://www.storybench.org/how-cpi-journalists-visualized-cancer-risk-from-workplace-chemicals/) - “Little did I know that the whole time I was working there, I was killing myself.” That's what Rick Luzaich, a former construction worker who was exposed to asbestos on the job and now suffers from mesothelioma, an aggressive type of cancer linked to asbestos exposure, told the Center for Public Integrity. Last week, the investigative news
- [Visualizing the fragmented politics of Israel](https://www.storybench.org/visualizing-the-fragmented-politics-of-israel/) - Today, Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu celebrates his decisive win in the Israeli elections, with 30 seats going to his right-wing Likud party in the next Knesset, Israel's legislative assembly. Now comes the messy part: forming a ruling government with various fractious parties. To contextualize this most current election, The Economist recently published a visualization that shows the
- [Vance Jacobs on taking his audience behind the lens](https://www.storybench.org/meet-your-maker-why-vance-jacobs-started-taking-his-audience-behind-the-lens/) - Vance Jacobs, a San Francisco-based photojournalist and filmmaker whose work has appeared in The New York Times, National Geographic Books and Esquire magazine, recently started a YouTube channel. So far, he has published nine videos in a series he calls "Behind the Lens" that provides an inside look at how Jacobs captured photographs for specific projects
- [Tapping digital tools to study how the west was won](https://www.storybench.org/tapping-digital-tools-to-study-how-the-west-was-won/) - The U.S. postal system remains an exceptional feat, a system in which a letter can travel thousands of miles in a few days for a fraction of a dollar. Its network of post offices, distribution centers, and mail carriers is the quintessence of modern infrastructure and a public good that many take for granted. But
- [The Seattle Times interactive of the Oso landslide, one year on](https://www.storybench.org/the-seattle-times-interactive-of-the-oso-landslide-one-year-on/) - It's been one year since the Oso mudslide killed 43 people in Washington state. The neighborhood of Steelhead Haven, which was engulfed by the landslide on March 22, 2014, was precariously located under an unstable geological formation. Indeed, the hill above Steelhead Haven that gave way had a long history of repairs and warnings. The neighborhood should never have been built,
- [Looking back at great digital storytelling in sports journalism](https://www.storybench.org/looking-back-at-great-digital-storytelling-in-sports-journalism/) - Given my previous incarnation as a 25-year sports journalist, I’m a sucker for a great sports story. I gravitate toward those that delve beyond the score or a pivotal play or the impact on a team’s playoff chances. I truly enjoy stories that dig deep into the human element, those morsels that add flavor to
- [How to make your images interactive with audio, video and links](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-make-your-images-interactive-with-audio-video-and-links/) - Have you ever wanted to embed a link into a specific region of an image? What about several links in one image? What if you could embed additional photos, video and audio in the image to provide extra context? Thinglink is a service that allows you to turn any image into an interactive experience. Thanks to Dan
- [Matteo Moretti on bringing design to journalism](https://www.storybench.org/meet-your-maker-matteo-moretti-on-bringing-design-to-journalism/) - Matteo Moretti is a designer and researcher of visual journalism at the Free University of Bozen in Bolzano, Italy. He recently crafted “The People's Republic of Bolzano,” an interactive project that explores the issues facing the small, vibrant Chinese community in the northern Italian city of Bolzano. Moretti led a team that included design students, a journalist,
- [Podcasting hits Mexico](https://www.storybench.org/podcasting-hits-mexico/) - Miguel Melgarejo is a designer focused on social innovation based in Mexico City. He is the cofounder of Fuera de Contexto, a podcast about design and creative culture in Latin America that recently started a collaboration with the podcast Radio Ambulante. Melgarejo described to Storybench how he stumbled upon podcasting, if there’s an appetite for experimental podcasting
- [How Bacteria in New York City’s Subways Brought Scientists and Journalists Together](https://www.storybench.org/how-bacteria-in-new-york-citys-subways-brought-scientists-and-journalists-together/) - Hop on the New York City subway at 57th street in Midtown and you may unknowingly be inviting some additional passengers along on your travels. They won’t introduce themselves, but they are known as Pseudomonas putida, a species of bacteria that thrives on chemicals found in urban pollutants like oil, car exhaust, and cigarette smoke. In fact, this
- [How an interactive comic explained the Blackwater debacle in Iraq](https://www.storybench.org/how-an-interactive-comic-explained-the-blackwater-debacle-in-iraq/) - Four former military contractors were sentenced this week to lengthy prison terms for killing 14 unarmed Iraqis in a crowded Baghdad square on September 16, 2007. The Blackwater security contractors had been part of a heavily-armed convoy patrolling through a traffic circle in Baghdad’s Nisour Square when they stopped and fired at several cars with
- [FOLD wants to help add context to your stories](https://www.storybench.org/fold-wants-to-help-add-context-to-your-stories/) - FOLD is a digital publishing platform for creating modular, multimedia stories by blending a vertical story layout with horizontal "cards" to provide context. It is currently being developed at the M.I.T. Media Lab by Alexis Hope, Kevin Hu, and Joe Goldbeck, a team of designers and coders. It launches this Wednesday. By integrating contextual photos, videos, and text in-line, FOLD is able to
- [Andrea Zagata on sports news design](https://www.storybench.org/meet-your-maker-andrea-zagata-on-sports-news-design/) - Andrea Zagata is lead sports designer at the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Ohio newspaper that keeps a strong digital presence perhaps especially because it is only delivered to homes four days a week. Its news design is so inventive that it recently won 94 awards from the Society for News Design’s Best of News Design
- [How to build an embeddable interactive line chart with Plotly](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-build-an-embeddable-interactive-line-chart-with-plotly/) - Recently, and mostly for fun, we were looking at what was happening in major league baseball in 1941. Specifically, we were trying to compare Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio, legendary outfielders for the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, respectively. The following tutorial is a guide through our process, from story idea to ethics to data
- [Some of the best #AdviceForYoungJournalists](https://www.storybench.org/some-of-the-best-adviceforyoungjournalists/) - Yesterday, Felix Salmon of Fusion doled out some grim advice for young journalists, namely that "life is not good for journalists" and that jobs in journalism, like his, are a combination of luck and privilege. Don't do it, he says. Vox's Ezra Klein offered a rebuttal encouraging young journalists to trade prestige for opportunity, to outwork their
- [Gonzalo Gironés Sarrió on the power of illustration](https://www.storybench.org/meet-your-maker-gonzalo-girones-sarrio-on-the-power-of-illustration/) - Gonzalo Gironés Sarrió is an illustrator and graphic designer from Valencia, Spain who freelances for magazines, websites and newspapers. His work has accompanied, and highlighted, pieces on medical malpractice, marital issues, and environmental activism. Sarrió, who goes by Gong, spoke to Storybench today following the brutal attack in Paris on Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical newspaper, about
- [How to make your video go viral... It's not black magic](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-crack-the-viral-formula/) - You know when you’re scrolling through an article about climate change and then, whoops, before you know it you're watching "Mutant Giant Spider Dog" again? In fact there's no whoops about it. It’s the job of marketing technology companies like Unruly to embed those advertisements as seamlessly as possible to facilitate views. Liquid layout technology, which
- [The revolution will be Instagrammed](https://www.storybench.org/the-revolution-will-be-instagrammed/) - Last February, when Ukraine erupted into violent civil unrest, the Internet was flooded with photos from Kiev. As the revolution was being documenting in real-time on Instagram, among other platforms, a team in New York City was wondering how social media differed from the pictures traditional media reports were painting. The results they found were
- [Northeastern Student gives us a sneak peek at micro-influencing](https://www.storybench.org/northeastern-student-gives-us-a-sneak-peek-at-micro-influencing/) - Maria Jose Salazar is a college student turned sensational micro-influencer. She was born in Argentina and was raised her whole life on the island of Puerto Rico. She came to Boston to study business and communication with a concentration in marketing at Northeastern University, she is a dedicated student but began making content on the
- [<strong>Why We Should Cheer, Not Fear, More Visual Storytelling in the News</strong>](https://www.storybench.org/why-we-should-cheer-not-fear-more-visual-storytelling-in-the-news/) - No one should be upset that text-based journalism is dying. While this may be hyperbolic, it is undoubtedly the case that the future of media consumption lies away from the written word. New forms of media are taking us away from the practice of deep reading, and it is no longer an essential part of the news business. Visual storytelling is the revitalization the industry desperately needs for a
- [From Words to War: A Text Analysis of Trump’s Week in Three Speeches](https://www.storybench.org/from-words-to-war-a-text-analysis-of-trumps-week-in-three-speeches/) - On Tuesday night February 24, President Trump stood before Congress and said "great" 41 times to describe his policies and the state of the country. Over the course of the following five days, the president's language in his official speeches changed in significant ways. An analysis of three official speeches – his State of the
- [WNYC analyzes traffic tickets to find speed cameras](https://www.storybench.org/wnyc-analyzes-traffic-tickets-to-find-speed-cameras/) - New York City officials won't tell journalists where they've installed cameras to issue speeding tickets. So to locate the cameras, the data news team at WNYC recently analyzed 471,625 speeding tickets. Based on where and when the tickets were issued, they were able to pin down the following camera locations: The WNYC team found the
- [How to keep the user in the picture, some design tips from Vox](https://www.storybench.org/how-vox-media-teaches-user-centered-design/) - As our news world has gone digital, the role of strong design has never been more important. Last month in Indianapolis, judges for The Society for News Design gathered on the downtown campus of Ball State University to pore over submissions from newspaper and news sites from around the world at one of the organization's
- [Boston Globe launches interactive timeline and podcast for bombing trial](https://www.storybench.org/boston-globe-launches-interactive-cards-and-podcast-for-bombing-trial/) - This week marks the start of the Boston Marathon bombing trial. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is accused of killing three and injuring 260 people after setting off bombs on April 15, 2013. As part of its coverage, The Boston Globe has deployed an interactive timeline of the trial's proceedings. Their coverage also includes a podcast, produced in
- [Emerson College newspaper builds an app to calculate the cost of snow days](https://www.storybench.org/emerson-college-newspaper-builds-an-app-to-calculate-the-cost-of-snow-days/) - Boston has been hit by punishing, record snowfall this winter and some days the resulting white out has shut down public transportation, workplaces, schools and and universities. Emerson College, in downtown Boston, has been forced to cancel five and a half days of classes due to snow. As one snowstorm began to run into the
- [How to build a clustered bubble chart without Javascript](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-build-a-clustered-bubble-chart-without-javascript/) - Mike Bostock is one of today's leading data reporters. He was hired by The New York Times after building D3.js, a Javascript library for turning hard data into beautiful, interactive visualizations. Hundreds of people in (and outside of) journalism use D3, as it's known, to visualize data. D3 stands for data-driven documents. Bostock's website has plenty of examples
- [A digital long-form experiment in Slovakia](https://www.storybench.org/a-digital-long-form-experiment-in-slovakia/) - In 2013, Tomas Halasz, a freelance photojournalist in Bratislava, got together with three other Slovak journalists to try to build an online platform to explore the kind of digital storytelling techniques they were inspired by in outlets like the The New York Times. The new digital magazine they have created is a rarity in Slovakia, a
- [The Sound of Scoring: Fusion heads to Berklee College of Music](https://www.storybench.org/fusion-goes-to-berklee-college-of-music-to-find-students-to-score-a-video-trailer/) - Thumping techno beats, Caribbean percussion, and the occasional Latin riff are being woven into a new trailer for the news venture Fusion. Last month, Fusion asked Berklee College of Music in Boston for help scoring a trailer for a new project. They called it a "Scorathon" and student composers from the college worked overnight to score the music
- [Tana Oshima on comics in journalism](https://www.storybench.org/meet-your-maker-tana-oshima-on-comics-in-journalism/) - Tana Oshima is a journalist who discovered she had a knack for illustrating while reporting for El Mundo, one of Spain’s top newspapers. After El Mundo's art department encouraged her to draw for the paper, she started illustrating for the op-ed page, exploring visual metaphors and capturing the essence of each opinion piece. Oshima eventually began experimenting with intricate
- [Under the hood: Ebola coverage at The New York Times graphics department](https://www.storybench.org/under-the-hood-ebola-coverage-at-the-new-york-times-graphics-department/) - Last week, The New York Times published an in-depth multimedia feature, How Ebola Roared Back. It details the origins of this most recent Ebola outbreak and how top international health officials and experts missed the signs of the coming catastrophe. Several weeks ahead of publication, The New York Times graphics department was handed a detailed outline of
- [Elaine McMillion Sheldon, director of the interactive documentary "Hollow"](https://www.storybench.org/meet-your-maker-elaine-mcmillion-sheldon-director-of-the-interactive-documentary-hollow/) - This interview with Elaine McMillion Sheldon was conducted by documentary filmmaker and media technologist David Tamés and originally published on Kino-Eye.com, his blog on documentary, new media and video art. Tamés is a digital media instructor in the College of Arts, Media, and Design at Northeastern University. Hollow is an interactive documentary that examines the future of rural
- [How to get started with Python](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-get-started-with-python/) - Learning to program is both fun and frustrating. The key is to just play in the sandbox. Don't be afraid to mess up. To get started with the programming language Python, several tutorials suggest using Anaconda, a free distribution of Python that includes 195 of the most popular Python packages which contain helpful mathematical and
- [How Federica Fragapane visualized organized crime in northern Italy](https://www.storybench.org/how-federica-fragapane-visualized-organized-crime-in-northern-italy/) - Federica Fragapane is a freelance information designer living in Milan, Italy whose work has been published in United Nations reports, and magazines and newspapers including Wired Italia and La Lettura. She recently won Honorable Mention in Data Visualization at the Kantar Information is Beautiful Awards. We spoke to Fragapane after stumbling across her ambitious and elegant master’s thesis
- [Berliner Morgenpost's interactive bus ride through Berlin](https://www.storybench.org/berliner-morgenposts-interactive-bus-ride-through-berlin/) - Last week, the German newspaper Berliner Morgenpost published an interactive following one bus route that winds its way "through the social universe" of Berlin. The newspaper visualizes statistics from each neighborhood visited by the M29 bus, including migrant makeup, rent increase, income and burglaries, among other data. Income Bismarckplatz, near Berlin's Grunewald forest, has some of the highest
- [Hackathon reimagines how we create, disseminate and consume news video](https://www.storybench.org/hackathon-reimagines-how-we-create-disseminate-and-consume-news-video/) - One hundred people gathered in the New York City offices of Condé Nast this weekend for a hackathon to “rethink how we create, disseminate, and consume video news” in the digital age. It was a mix of journalists, developers, designers, and storytellers of all stripes and was organized by Hacks/Hackers’ Jeanne Brooks, M.I.T.’s Matthew Carroll,
- [Mikey Burton on how illustrations complement journalism](https://www.storybench.org/meet-your-maker-mikey-burton-on-how-illustrations-complement-journalism/) - Mikey Burton is an illustrator and graphic designer whose work has been published in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Money Magazine, and ESPN. He talked to Storybench about his creative process, how he stumbled into illustrating for magazines and newspapers, and the role illustration plays in complementing journalism. How did you
- [Laura Amico takes us under the hood of Chasing Bayla, an immersive story from The Boston Globe](https://www.storybench.org/laura-amico-takes-us-under-the-hood-of-chasing-bayla/) - Laura Amico is editor of data and multimedia projects at The Boston Globe. In the newsroom she sits between graphics, photos, video, illustration, and print and helps coordinate those groups for cross-media projects. In 2010, she founded Homicide Watch, a site originally launched in Washington, D.C. and currently up-and-running in Boston, Trenton and Chicago that covers homicide from crime
- [Poll: Where do you get your journalism news?](https://www.storybench.org/poll-where-do-you-get-your-journalism-news/) - Earlier this month, we sent out a poll on Twitter asking journalists to tell us where they get their journalism news. Our sample size was only 18, but here are the results. Where do you get your journalism news? Which industry shifts do you feel warrant more coverage? What newsletters
- [Eleanor Lutz on drawing science](https://www.storybench.org/meet-your-maker-eleanor-lutz-on-drawing-science/) - Eleanor Lutz is Seattle-based freelance designer whose illustrations and animations have been featured in National Geographic, Popular Science, The Huffington Post and Slate, among others. Lutz, who has an undergraduate degree in cellular, molecular and developmental biology from the University of Washington, spoke with Storybench about her mission: tapping the power of art to communicate the workings and
- [Blizzard of 2015 visualizations and news apps](https://www.storybench.org/blizzard-of-2015-visualizations-and-news-apps/) - Today's storm coincides with a flurry of related visualizations and news apps. Here are a few that caught our eye. WNYC's Data News team was quick to provide embeddable radar, transit trackers and traffic maps. The New York Times built a dashboard to track the status of airports, trains, and schools in the
- [StoryLab's micro-conference on journalism, interactivity, design and civic engagement](https://www.storybench.org/storylabs-micro-conference-on-journalism-interactivity-design-and-civic-engagement/) - Northeastern University's new Media Innovation program, a graduate program in digital journalism, is currently teaching an experimental interdisciplinary course in partnership with Esquire magazine. It's called StoryLab and the class is made up of journalism, computer science, and information design and visualization students. Their mission is to reimagine Esquire long-form features for the digital age, reworking how they
- [Takeaways from the Reported.ly team’s #wjchat session on Twitter](https://www.storybench.org/takeaways-from-the-reportedly-teams-wjchat-session-on-twitter/) - Reported.ly is a news reporting outfit that lives on social networks like Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, Medium, and Storify. It’s run by former NPR social media strategist Andy Carvin and funded by First Look Media. Last night, Reported.ly team members Andy Carvin, Kim Bui and Wendy Carillo took to Twitter’s #wjchat forum to answer questions on workflow,
- [Digital tools lead to teachable moments in the social studies classroom](https://www.storybench.org/digital-tools-in-the-social-studies-classroom/) - Jake Little, a seventh grade social studies teacher at Lakeview Junior High School outside Chicago is tapping digital tools like Google Docs, Twitter, Coggle, and Chromebooks not just to keep classwork more organized, but to transform how he teaches. We found that interesting, because as journalists are scrambling to learn new tools, so are teachers. "[inlinetweet prefix="" tweeter="" suffix="#edtech"]Our
- [Vasco Pimentel: The Listener](https://www.storybench.org/vasco-pimentel-the-listener/) - The Listener is a profile of Vasco Pimentel, a Portuguese sound director who believes what a film sounds like can convey the story as much as, if not more than, its cinematography. The piece was originally published in Spanish in August 2014 in Etiqueta Negra, a Peruvian magazine for narrative journalism. It has been translated and republished on Storybench with the permission
- [A roundup of measles outbreak visualizations, maps and interactives](https://www.storybench.org/a-roundup-of-measles-outbreak-visualizations-maps-and-interactives/) - The Council on Foreign Relations built a map allowing one to explore vaccine-preventable outbreaks across time and geography. The Guardian published a visualization of how measles spreads by looking at several cases of outbreaks. Medium.com's The Nib published a comic on the measles outbreak and Disney. The Huffington Post drew up some
- [Damien Van Achter on launching a mobile newsroom to road trip around Europe](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-launch-a-mobile-newsroom-and-road-trip-around-europe/) - Damien Van Achter, a Belgian journalist and digital literacy activist, and four of his students recently set out on a road trip to test the limits of mobile storytelling. They piled into a van at Van Achter’s media innovation lab in Éghezée, Belgium and traveled south through eastern France, ending in the foothills near Lyon.
- [How to do super simple textual analysis](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-do-super-simple-textual-analysis/) - The following tutorial was adapted from an in-class exercise used by Derek Willis in his data reporting class at Georgetown University. Willis works at The New York Times with its data-driven reporting arm The Upshot. Willis tells Storybench that he uses a very simple web-based tool called Web Frequency Indexer for this textual analysis exercise because
- [How Deutsche Welle started a community engagement project](https://www.storybench.org/how-deutsche-welle-started-a-community-engagement-project/) - “Jean Claude doesn’t know his father. All he knows is that he was conceived 20 years ago during the Rwandan genocide, when his mother was raped by several Hutu militiamen.” These are the opening words of a report by Deutsche Welle, a German news service that broadcasts in Europe and around the world on television
- [Noah Veltman, WNYC's newsroom developer](https://www.storybench.org/meet-your-maker-noah-veltmans-newsroom-is-his-sandbox/) - For much of his life, Noah Veltman thought of coding as a hobby. But after five years as a software product manager and web developer at various tech companies, Veltman is part of a news nerd SWAT team at New York City's primary public radio station, WNYC. He now gets to play around in what
- [Leon Morimoto, from hip-hop DJ to sound designer](https://www.storybench.org/meet-your-maker-leon-morimoto-from-hip-hop-dj-to-sound-designer/) - Leon Morimoto was driving around San Jose, California late one night when he happened to tune into "Snap Judgment," a weekly storytelling show on National Public Radio that feels like "This American Life," but with more music and sound effects. It's “storytelling with a beat,” as Glynn Washington, the show's host, intones at the top of
- [Is there such thing as emoji-journalism?](https://www.storybench.org/emojis-in-journalism/) - As this is an ongoing debate, we'll be continually updating this story. Please scroll down for the original post. Update: July 9, 2015: Quartz recently released an app containing emoji flags of the world's countries. On a related note, in an effort to quantify the popularity of emojis, Instagram analyzed its users' comment threads and
- [Scrolling Sideways: Reimagining the future of magazine journalism with Esquire magazine](https://www.storybench.org/storylab-reimagining-the-future-of-magazine-journalism/) - In 2011, journalist Luke Dittrich set out to walk the 1,933-mile U.S.-Mexico border from the Pacific Ocean to the Gulf of Mexico. Along the way he and his pimped-out baby carriage encountered mountains, deserts, and border agents. A contributing editor for Esquire magazine, Dittrich chronicled his grueling journey in a story for the magazine. We're glad he did,
- [How to build a simple narrative web layout](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-build-a-simple-narrative-web-layout/) - This tutorial was written by Nitesh Gupta and Nick Pfosi, executive online editor and executive photo editor, respectively, of The Tufts Daily, the student newspaper at Tufts University. They offered to write a tutorial on their process of conceiving and coding a story layout for a recent Tufts Daily piece on a multimedia dance performance featuring live music and Sarabande, a
- [Island17: How a college student made a gamified metaverse to explore diversity, equity and inclusion](https://www.storybench.org/island17-how-a-college-student-made-a-gamified-metaverse-to-explore-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/) - Island17 is a gamified metaverse that bridges youth to the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals through skilled gameplay. 18-year-old changemaker and Northeastern University student Bonisha Maitra makes a commitment to social entrepreneurship, purpose-driven technologies and youth-centered innovation through her unique project. In 2022, Maitra and two other high school students won a Social Innovation
- [How to pull hashtagged photos from Instagram into Wordpress](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-pull-hashtagged-photos-from-instagram-into-wordpress/) - Taking a cue from David Yanofsky's Pilots of Instagram story on Quartz, we wanted to write up a How To on pulling your own set of hastagged photos from Instagram. Using the Wordpress plugin Alpine PhotoTile, we embedded the most recently-uploaded Instagram photos hashtagged #pilotlife. The featured image above was made by throwing six of these photos
- [How to build a chart with Medium's Charted.co](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-build-a-chart-with-mediums-charted-co/) - I started playing around with Charted.co, the online charting application that Medium recently released. It's pretty nice. Here's their tour. Gut reactions Cool branding, but you can't store data at Charted.co and therefore you can not embed a chart you've made with it unless you install it on your own server. Hack update: We
- [Welcome to Storybench](https://www.storybench.org/welcome-to-storybench/) - There’s nothing cheesier than a mission statement unless, of course, you have a mission. And we do. In fact, it's emblazoned on the walls of our office: “We don’t have to reinvent journalism. We get to reinvent journalism.” It reminds the faculty, the students, and the working journalists at the core of our Media Innovation program at Northeastern
- [Steller and the art of mobile storytelling](https://www.storybench.org/steller-and-the-art-of-mobile-storytelling/) - When Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine in July, Woj Treszczynski, a CNN cameraman, raced to the scene. In addition to setting up a live broadcast with professional camera equipment, he snapped photos of the wreckage with his phone. After a few days, he packaged up the photos into a narrative about
- [How The New York Times visualized the decline of clinics offering abortions after Dobbs](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-new-york-times-visualized-the-decline-of-abortion-clinics-after-dobbs-v-jackson/) - When Amy Schoenfeld Walker of The New York Times began reporting on abortion clinics after Roe v. Wade was overturned, she and her colleagues were shocked by how drastically the abortion landscape had changed, mere months after the decision. It began with “the Pink House,” the abortion clinic featured in the Dobbs v. Jackson case.
- [How to shoot a stop-motion Star Wars Lego film](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-shoot-a-stop-motion-lego-film/) - When the new Star Wars movie trailer came out last week, YouTuber Snooperking recreated the 60 second teaser shot-by-shot--with Lego. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpfWrh1scZU Here's the original: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMOVFvcNfvE We wondered, how does one make a stop-motion Lego film? Some digging revealed this tutorial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukFWYe-ZeTw Ingredients to shoot a stop-motion Lego film: A good camera
- [Roundup of Ferguson visualizations](https://www.storybench.org/roundup-of-ferguson-visualizations/) - The above, from #FergusonNext, pulls in community voices from Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and other sites. The FergusonNext website was built by The Guardian, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch Editorial Page, Ebony.com, Colorlines, The St. Louis American and The St. Louis Riverfront Times. Colorlines drew up an infographic on law enforcement and accountability. They ask "Can law
- [How newspaper stories went viral in the 19th century](https://www.storybench.org/how-newspaper-stories-went-viral-in-the-19th-century/) - Ryan Cordell wants to know how news went viral in 19th century America. Cordell, a professor in the English department at Northeastern University, performs this pop culture archaeology by investigating the culture of reprinting, a practice which was rampant in 19th century newspapers. Back then it was not only news, but poems, articles, serialized fiction, and anecdotes that were reprinted--or
- [Reddit: A guide for journalists](https://www.storybench.org/reddit-a-guide-for-journalists/) - With its massive traffic and engagement potential, Reddit should be a haven for journalists. Yet Reddit has not exactly welcomed reporters, leaving many confused as to why their reception has been blasted and contributions slighted. So what exactly is the role of journalists on Reddit? PRI The World's Tory Starr outlines the common pitfalls of the social media
- [Curious City’s Jenn Brandel on news experiments](https://www.storybench.org/meet-your-maker-curious-citys-jenn-brandel/) - When Chicago public radio station WBEZ put out a call for story ideas, many of the suggestions revolved around the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 that left 100,000 people homeless and utterly changed the trajectory of America’s great industrial capital. Did a cow really start the blaze? Did Chicago try to ban the use of
- [Unorthodox reporting of the C.I.A. torture report](https://www.storybench.org/unorthodox-reporting-of-the-c-i-a-torture-report/) - The following are some interesting ways of getting readers to care about the C.I.A.'s torture report. The Daily Dot turned the "horrific read" that was the C.I.A.'s torture report to into a bunch of memes. The New Republic made a detailed infographic of how the new torture report "diverges sharply from the C.I.A.'s
- [‘Reeling’ in your audience: Emily Schario discusses The B-Side’s social media strategy](https://www.storybench.org/reeling-in-your-audience-emily-schario-discusses-the-b-sides-social-media-strategy/) - The B-Side, Boston Globe Media’s witty daily newsletter covering local news, has been reeling in readers with an engaging social media presence on Instagram and TikTok. The B-Side is led by Emily Schario, head of content and lead writer. The “Daily Dose of News” newsletter launched in Oct. 2022 and has since gained quite a
- [How to use IFTTT](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-use-ifttt/) - 'Put the Internet to work for you' is the tagline for IFTTT.com, also known as 'If this then that.' IFTTT automates tasks between apps that would otherwise be very time-consuming. In programming jargon IFTTT is what's known as a macro which makes a defined sequence of instructions into a single program statement. Why is IFTTT useful to
- [David Yanofsky mines Instagram for sources](https://www.storybench.org/yanofsky-mines-instagram-for-sources-in-network-of-fashionistas/) - When Quartz deployed an interactive chart back in September analyzing the connections between fashionistas on Instagram, the news site revealed something valuable to journalists: a list of industry sources with clout. Quartz had somehow managed to quantify the influence of 1.8 million Instagram users in the fashion world through an analysis of who-follows-who in the network. Whether fashion
- [Newsroom infographic portfolios](https://www.storybench.org/newsroom-infographic-portfolios/) - Visualoop has just compiled 30 must-see infographic galleries from newsrooms around the world. Another source for great infographics is the New York Times' 2013 year in interactive storytelling. Here's a presentation from Alastair Dant, formerly of the Guardian (h/t Chrys Wu's blog Ricochet). Want resources for creating your own? Here's 10 from Creative Bloq including Visualize.me, Infogr.am, Visual.ly, and Easel.ly.
- [How to make a bar chart with Chartbuilder](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-make-a-bar-chart-with-chartbuilder/) - Quartz's digital guru David Yanofsky was tired of building a branded chart every time a reporter asked him. So he built a dashboard so any novice coder could design and tweak their own. Then, Quartz open-sourced the dashboard for anyone to use. (Medium's developers just released Charted.co which can visualize a spreadsheet you supply to it via
- [Year-end listicles we're clicking](https://www.storybench.org/year-end-listicles-were-clicking/) - Predictions for 2015 Nieman Lab's top predictions for journalism in 2015: Melody Kramer on crowdsourcing, Alberto Cairo on visualization, Philip Bump on news notifications, Zeynep Tufekci on getting creeped out by algorithms, Latoya Peterson on how communication is changing, among others. Best-of lists Interactive storytelling The New York Times roundup of its best interactive storytelling,
- [A lot of hubbub about Serial storytelling](https://www.storybench.org/a-lot-of-hubbub-about-serial-storytelling/) - In case you're not one of the five million people who has downloaded the Serial podcast, let's get you up to speed. It's from the producers of This American Life and it's a murder story told in weekly doses. Why the buzz? Serial is engaging, it has teachers saying they'll teach Serial instead of Shakespeare. But (Serial) storytelling is
- [How to map with Google My Maps](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-map-with-google-my-maps/) - Earlier this year, Google released a simplified mapping engine to make custom maps. If all you need are pinned markers and a simple text box, Google My Maps will work and you can embed it on your site. Here's the Storybench how-to for building a map on Google My Maps. (Northeastern's Dan Kennedy wrote a how-to of
- [How to build your own headline generator](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-build-your-own-headline-generator/) - Try this out Now to decode it Before I try to code anything, I do a quick Google search for prior art. Typing in "headline generator GitHub" rendered some simple code written by Jeff Hobbs in Javascript and all housed on one webpage. Not the most elegant, but not complicated, and therefore good for
- [Unearthing the devastating earthquake strikes in Morocco](https://www.storybench.org/unearthing-the-devastating-earthquake-strikes-in-morocco/) - The Reuters article “Buried under the bricks” effectively communicates the impact of an earthquake that devastated Morocco in early Sept. 2023 showing the fundamental weaknesses of mud-brick constructions in the High Atlas mountain areas. The piece emphasizes the risks associated with old construction techniques, which are vulnerable to seismic natural disasters such as earthquakes. By
- [What Works: How Dan Kennedy and Ellen Clegg offer solutions to the local news crisis](https://www.storybench.org/what-works-how-dan-kennedy-and-ellen-clegg-tackle-the-local-news-crisis/) - As local journalism continues to struggle for survival, Dan Kennedy, a veteran journalist and professor at Northeastern University, is spreading the word that there are solutions out there. Kennedy and co-author Ellen Clegg's WhatWorks site and podcast are full of information about the local news crisis and potential solutions, as well as updates from projects
- [How CNN’s guide visualized real-world impacts of a government shutdown](https://www.storybench.org/how-cnns-guide-visualized-impact-of-a-government-shutdown/) - The latest near shutdown of the government confused a lot of people across the United States. Many don’t know or understand what exactly happens during a shutdown and which federal agencies shut down with it. Amy O’Kruk, a CNN data and graphics editor on their Digital Visual News team wrote, created and led a guide
- [How an intern’s “Dadaist” economic skits took over NPR’s TikTok](https://www.storybench.org/how-an-interns-dadaist-economic-skits-took-over-nprs-tiktok/) - Legacy news outlets like NPR are historically concerned with maintaining a consistent brand. But when Jack Corbett, a former intern at NPR’s Tiny Desk, started making explanatory skits for the outlet’s TikTok account in 2020, they were happy to “hand off the reigns,” Corbett said. “It felt like the stakes were lower,” Corbett said. “Because,
- [From radio to TikTok: How Matt Shearer has transformed WBZ's coverage](https://www.storybench.org/from-radio-to-tiktok-how-matt-shearer-has-transformed-wbzs-coverage/) - If the new frontier of reporting is on TikTok, Matt Shearer of Boston's WBZ Radio is a pioneer. His short-form videos highlight the best Massachusetts has to offer, from the Water Country Jingle to the impassioned followers of Market Basket. An Emmy-nominated reporter, Shearer was awarded the National Murrow Award for Excellence in Media Innovation.
- [Why TV executives should listen to their interns](https://www.storybench.org/why-tv-executives-should-listen-to-their-interns/) - Internships are more than just a learning experience and an occasional coffee run. NBC Chicago interns are part of the team making some pretty important decisions on behalf of the company. If someone had told me I was going to make a mark on NBC on the first day of my summer internship, I would’ve
- [These tools will take your data to a new level — or decibel](https://www.storybench.org/these-tools-will-take-your-data-to-a-new-level-or-decibel/) - As data visualizations become more prevalent in news coverage, more and more people are looking to data sonification as a new frontier. Sonification is a process that translates data, such as numbers on a chart, into musical notes and sound. Organizations like the Financial Times, BBC, The New York Times and the Tactical Technology Collective
- [New to the World Cup? Here's a Guide to Understanding it Through Data](https://www.storybench.org/new-to-the-world-cup-heres-a-guide-to-understanding-it-through-data/) - The 2026 FIFA World Cup has 48 teams. If you are an American sports fan who doesn’t follow soccer closely, that can feel overwhelming — you need a team to root for. But instead of picking by jersey color or whoever has the most famous player on a trading card, there is a better way:
- [Does your next data story need a social media bot? Here's how to build one.](https://www.storybench.org/does-your-next-data-story-need-a-social-media-bot-heres-how-to-build-one/) - The age of AI chatbots is upon us, but news innovators have been experimenting with the idea of chatting to get your news for decades. Social media bots, accounts that post automatically, are an intriguing option to explore in an era of vibe-coding and social media fragmentation. Combining my interests in global soccer and data
- [KSL-TV is proving news organizations can make money on social media. Here’s how.  ](https://www.storybench.org/ksl-tv-is-proving-news-organizations-can-make-money-on-social-media-heres-how/) - When KSL News, one of Utah’s top ten outlets, asked Christie Taylor to build them a social media team, she was hesitant. Taylor, who was working in project management at the time for KSL’s parent company, Bonneville International, felt that managing an entire team would be “a bit of a lift,” but her digital and
- [Your start of the year updates on artificial intelligence in journalism are here](https://www.storybench.org/your-start-of-the-year-updates-on-artificial-intelligence-in-journalism-are-here/) - This is third in our series of round-ups on the latest in artificial intelligence and journalism. Here are some recent links you might want to read. These insights are brought to you by Northeastern University data professor Rahul Bhargava. Public understanding of AI and news There is growing public concern about the impacts of AI
- [How Brian Romer approaches data visualizations](https://www.storybench.org/how-brian-romer-approaches-data-visualizations/) - With the endless information in the media every day, creativity almost seems like a necessity. That includes crafting data visualizations to tell stories that are easy-to-read and impactful. Brian Romer, who previously worked on data and design projects at Reuters, is accustomed to producing meaningful insights from complex data sets. Now as a freelancer, some
- [How OpenAI is changing the way we process information](https://www.storybench.org/how-openai-is-changing-the-way-we-process-information/) - “Is AI another Gutenberg moment for journalism?” Jill Abramson asked. The Gutenberg printing press was a significant turning point in the history of journalism. Before Gutenberg, only wealthy people could afford to read due to the complicated and costly printing process. The new and affordable printing technique marked increased accessibility to reading and knowledge for
- [Spring updates on artificial intelligence and journalism](https://www.storybench.org/spring-updates-on-artificial-intelligence-and-journalism/) - Here's the fourth in our series of round-ups on the latest in artificial intelligence and journalism. These insights are brought to you by Northeastern University data storytelling professor Rahul Bhargava. Budding uses of AI in newsrooms The Online News Association launched a new AI in Journalism Initiative to support journalist's explorations of how AI technologies
- [How ProPublica’s Craig Silverman uncovers Big Tech deceptions](https://www.storybench.org/how-craig-silverman-uncovers-big-tech-deceptions/) - The rise of Big Tech and social media has led to a wildfire spread of misinformation. As fact-checking tools across platforms like X, Facebook and Instagram continue to be misused and ill-prepared, concerns surrounding the power of these platforms linger. Craig Silverman is a journalist for ProPublica, formerly the media editor of BuzzFeed. He works
- [How Hidden Brain Media shares short-form serendipitous stories](https://www.storybench.org/how-hidden-brain-media-shares-short-form-serendipitous-stories/) - When asked about the inspiration behind “My Unsung Hero” –– a two- to five-minute podcast detailing stories of everyday heroes –– Tara Boyle, executive producer and head of content, was quick to call it “delightful serendipity.” What began in 2016 as a way to show gratitude to colleagues who supported the Hidden Brain podcast turned
- [Learning from TikTok: Lessons for TV News in How #BookTok Broke Big on Social Media](https://www.storybench.org/title-from-page-to-screen-lessons-for-tv-news-in-the-revitalization-of-books-on-social-media/) - Growing up, Kayla Agnoli’s head was always buried in a book. She spent hours immersed in different worlds, captivated by different storylines. While her time was spent transporting herself through literature, her classmates couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t just watch TV. Joining TikTok gave her a community of over 6,000 followers and 627.4k likes, where
- [Breaking a New Dawn: Investigative Journalist Chai Jing's New Chapter](https://www.storybench.org/investigative-journalism-and-social-media-chai-jings-new-chapter/) - It was late at night, and my reporting partner and I were sitting at our desk, eagerly and anxiously waiting for a call from Spain. A few minutes later, we were speaking with Chai Jing, one of the most prominent figures in Chinese investigative journalism now living in Spain after her blockbuster documentary “Under the
- [Finding humanity: How Josh Neufeld uses comics journalism to form empathic connections](https://www.storybench.org/finding-humanity-how-josh-neufeld-uses-comics-journalism-to-form-empathic-connections/) - What is comics journalism? In the hands of award-winning cartoonist Josh Neufeld, it uses comics and illustrations to offer fresh perspectives on everything from health care to the influence of the media that engage readers. Neufeld is a Brooklyn-based award-winning cartoonist known for his nonfiction narratives of political and social upheaval, told through the voices
- [Your Early Fall AI+Journalism Updates](https://www.storybench.org/your-early-fall-aijournalism-updates/) - Welcome back from the summer. So much has happened at the intersection of AI and journalism while you've been at the beach. Here's my latest summary of what caught my attention. Skill Building The Online News Association (ONA) has launched a huge new effort to build AI skills in newsrooms with support from various funders.
- [Decoding the Debate:  Analyzing the text of the Harris-Trump Face-off](https://www.storybench.org/decoding-the-debate-analyzing-the-text-of-the-harris-trump-face-off/) - From heated exchanges to subtle digs, the Harris-Trump debate on September 10 left plenty to unpack. The debate offered a window into the distinct communication strategies and policy priorities of both candidates. Here at Storybench, we love a good data-driven debrief. Theatricality and noise aside – let’s dig into what the candidates actually said. Are
- [“AI is transforming music faster than we think.” The Washington Post’s Yan Wu explores the intersection of AI and creativity.](https://www.storybench.org/ai-is-transforming-music-faster-than-we-think-the-washington-posts-yan-wu-explores-the-intersection-of-ai-and-creativity/) - As artificial intelligence continues to reshape various industries, its influence on the music world has been profound, sparking excitement and controversy. AI-generated music tools, such as those developed by companies like Suno, are making waves in the creative process. However, they also raise questions about authorship, copyright, and the future of musical identity. Yan Wu,
- [A step-by-step guide: visualizing organic carbon in near real time](https://www.storybench.org/a-step-by-step-guide-visualizing-organic-carbon-in-near-real-time/) - Hernandez is a Graphics Editor at The New York Times. Long time ago someone on Twitter asked me to do an explainer on how I did the “smoke” animations for this Reuters piece. It has been a while since then, but maybe it would be useful for someone out there, even if that means learning how
- [The war in Gaza one year later: how open source investigations have helped reveal the costs of war](https://www.storybench.org/the-war-in-gaza-one-year-later-how-open-source-investigations-have-helped-reveal-the-costs-of-war/) - This week marks the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel by Hamas fighters, who killed 1,200 soldiers and civilians and took more than 200 hostages. The Israeli military response that followed has resulted in the deaths of at least 40,000 in Gaza, most of them civilians, and leveled large swaths of
- [How Grist uses scrollytelling in its story on stolen Indigenous land to engage with its audience](https://www.storybench.org/how-grist-uses-scrollytelling-in-its-story-on-stolen-indigenous-land-to-engage-with-its-audience/) - Scrollytelling has become a way for journalists and media outlets to engage their audience, and online platforms in a way that will keep their readers locked into the story. While Grist, an independent, non-profit media organization, utilizes this innovative technique, they don’t lose sight of the core of their story. Founded in 1999 by Chip
- [Reuters: how the public in six countries think about generative AI in journalism](https://www.storybench.org/reuters-how-the-public-in-six-countries-think-about-generative-ai-in-journalism/) - Generative artificial intelligence, once considered futuristic, is now becoming part of newsroom workflows, with major organizations like the Associated Press and Bloomberg incorporating it into their news production. But how does the public feel about this? A recent study, “What Does the Public in Six Countries Think of Generative AI in News?” from the Reuters
- [Fall update: AI and journalism](https://www.storybench.org/fall-update-ai-and-journalism/) - While we prepare for the cold winters and shorter days, here’s some need-to-know news about what’s happening at the intersection of AI and journalism. AI’s role in newsrooms Poynter reports that ESPN is going ahead with having AI help cover “under-served sports” for game recaps. These AI-generated summaries will be reviewed by a human editor
- [Is Apple's new free AI-powered transcription feature a game-changer for journalists? We compared it to paid services](https://www.storybench.org/is-apples-new-free-ai-powered-transcription-feature-a-game-changer-for-journalists-we-compared-it-to-paid-services/) - If you’re an iPhone user who doesn't delay updates until your phone is on the brink of breakdown, you may have noticed something new in your Notes app. The iOS 18.1 operating system, which hit our pockets this week, included a new feature for phone calls and the Voice Memo and Notes apps that take
- [The election is going to be close — or is it? CNN political data reporter Harry Enten on the science and art of polling.](https://www.storybench.org/the-election-is-going-to-be-close-or-is-it-cnn-political-data-reporter-harry-enten-on-the-science-and-art-of-polling/) - The U.S. presidential election is five days away, and it’s going to be close. Or is it? CNN Senior Political Data Reporter Harry Enten noted last week that despite polling showing a historically close race, either Donald Trump or Kamala Harris could still capture more than 300 out of 538 electoral votes – a relative
- [How Vox distilled Kamala Harris into seven key moments](https://www.storybench.org/how-vox-distilled-kamala-harris-into-seven-key-moments/) - Who is Kamala Harris? You’d have a hard time finding anyone who hasn’t heard her name by now – Harris is the current vice president of the U.S. and the Democratic presidential nominee. Harris’ long-standing public service career spans from her beginnings as district attorney in San Francisco to her role as California attorney general
- [How to create an interactive dashboard in Mapbox](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-create-an-interactive-dashboard-in-mapbox/) - If you followed along with part one of our Mapbox tutorial, you should have a simple choropleth map on your hands. It’s a nice map, if a little skeletal. In this tutorial, we’re going to put some meat on them bones — so to speak. In, and on top of, Mapbox, we’ll add a point
- [Unpacking Singapore's Carbon Credits: A Conversation on Uncertainty and Environmental Policy](https://www.storybench.org/unpacking-singapores-carbon-credits-a-conversation-on-uncertainty-and-environmental-policy/) - The carbon credit market is a system designed to help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. It allows companies or countries that emit carbon dioxide (CO2) or other greenhouse gases to buy "credits" that permit them to release a certain amount of emissions. These credits can either be mandatory, regulated by law, or voluntary, where companies
- [Using AI agents and R to create map annotations](https://www.storybench.org/using-ai-agents-and-r-to-create-map-annotations/) - Let’s start this with some confessions: I’m at best an enthusiastic amateur with AI. I know more than most, and I know nothing in the grand scheme. Example: I’m not sure I have any idea of what an AI agent is. I think I do, but there’s so much marketing hype around them that I
- [What Works: A new approach to local news research](https://www.storybench.org/what-works-a-new-approach-to-local-news-research/) - Podcasts, the rising stars of digital media, have a significant portion of their audience being listeners in their 20s and 30s. As this modern medium reshapes how stories are told, it's also finding new ways to revive an old one: local news. But what’s it like to work in this dynamic and fast-growing industry? We
- [Through Lynn Johnson’s Lens: Visual Storytelling, National Geographic and the Future of Long-Form Photojournalism](https://www.storybench.org/through-lynn-johnsons-lens-visual-storytelling-national-geographic-and-the-future-of-long-form-photojournalism/) - Lynn Johnson is the type of photographer whose images you don't just see, you feel. Since her beginnings as a photographer for The Pittsburgh Press, Johnson’s portfolio has grown to include a broad range of subject matter. Johnson built a name for herself as an artist who could not only shoot the most elusive subjects,
- [How The New York Times used space and sound to revive Notre Dame after the fire](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-new-york-times-used-space-and-sound-to-revive-notre-dame-after-the-fire/) - Imagine standing inside the magnificent Notre Dame Cathedral, sunlight streaming through its iconic stained-glass windows, the sound of a choir resonating through the vast stone arches. Now, picture being able to experience this breathtaking moment from wherever you are, with just a scroll of your mouse. Through the power of immersive storytelling, a team from
- [Streaming Content Producer Angela Chen on reinventing local TV news for the streaming generation at ABC7 Chicago](https://www.storybench.org/streaming-content-producer-angela-chen-on-reinventing-local-tv-news-for-the-streaming-generation-at-abc7-chicago/) - Northeastern University’s Reinventing Local TV News Project (RLTVN) wants to revolutionize local TV news to appeal to younger audiences. In partnership with leading newsrooms in Boston, New York and Chicago, the project has funded year-long fellowships for three producers and one animator. At the heart of this effort is a focus on over-the-top content —
- [Winter AI + journalism updates: Is AI breaking boundaries or breaking rules?](https://www.storybench.org/winter-ai-journalism-updates-is-ai-breaking-boundaries-or-breaking-rules/) - As 2024 winds down, the relationship between AI and journalism is heating up with new lawsuits, licensing deals and AI usage in newsroom practice. Here’s a summary of the latest developments. Legal Battles Lawsuits over AI’s use of copyrighted content are heating up. In Canada, OpenAI faces a joint suit from five major news companies,
- [How WCVB's OTT Content Producer Leanna Scachetti is Transforming Local TV News for Digital Audiences](https://www.storybench.org/how-wcvbs-ott-content-producer-leanna-scachetti-is-transforming-local-tv-news-for-digital-audiences/) - To better understand what digital consumers are interested in when it comes to engaging with local news content online, Northeastern University’s Reinventing Local TV News Project (RLTVN) explores how TV stations can share stories that entertain and inform their growing audience on digital platforms. Leanna Scachetti was an RLTVN fellow at WCVB, Boston’s ABC affiliate,
- [From Ancient Egypt to Charlie Hebdo: How technology has enabled the spread of political and religious satire](https://www.storybench.org/from-ancient-egypt-to-charlie-hebdo-how-technology-has-enabled-the-spread-of-political-and-religious-satire/) - In 2011, Charlie Hebdo was firebombed after an edition "guest edited" by the Prophet Mohammed featured a caricature of him promising “100 lashes if you don’t die of laughter!” Stéphane “Charb” Charbonnie, the magazine’s editor at the time (among the 12 people slain in last week's terror attack on the satirical magazine's offices), not only refused to apologize, but
- [Chris Wiggins, the theoretical physicist working at the New York Times](https://www.storybench.org/meet-the-theoretical-physicist-working-at-the-new-york-times/) - When Chris Wiggins says he’s working as a data scientist at the New York Times, most people think he’s crafting interactive data visualizations or even masterminding the future of journalism. But the real reason the New York Times hired a theoretical physicist is to explore, with scientific precision, the real-time data being generated by the
- [Scrolling for Something Real: The Antidote to "Doomscrolling"](https://www.storybench.org/scrolling-for-something-real-the-antidote-to-doomscrolling/) - Scrolling on social media often feels like a mindless time warp. What once served as a place for users to connect with friends by posting casual content, has now transformed into a place full of social competition, consisting of an addictive and polished algorithm that feeds nonstop content, especially in short-form video format. Popular features
- [Transforming journalism with data and AI: Research on representation, equity and accountability in news from the 2024 Computation + Journalism Symposium ](https://www.storybench.org/transforming-journalism-with-data-and-ai-research-on-representation-equity-and-accountability-in-news-from-the-2024-computation-journalism-symposium/) - At the Computation + Journalism Symposium hosted by Northeastern University Oct. 25-27, journalists and data scientists from around the globe came together to discuss the ways that technology to be used to tell compelling stories. A panel of data-driven research projects centered around the theme of “Audience and Representation” looked at new work on everything
- [The Marshall Project's Aaron Sankin on AI, large data sets and contextualizing data stories in the real world](https://www.storybench.org/the-marshall-projects-aaron-sankin-on-ai-large-data-sets-and-contextualizing-data-stories-in-the-real-world/) - We're living in the era of mass sharing and large data sets. Journalists have used all this new data to do everything from investigations to developing useful tools for the public. The relationship between journalism and data isn't one way. As much as journalists have used data to strengthen their storytelling, data has deeply shaped
- [How to be a creative visual storyteller with video journalist Forrest Sanders](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-be-a-creative-visual-storyteller-with-video-journalist-forrest-sanders/) - Forrest Sanders is a reporter, videographer, editor, geek, Collierville, Tennessee native, Middle Tennessee State University grad, Nashville resident, a rambler of useless information and a horror movie nut – as his Instagram handle fondly articulates. He is a multimedia journalist for Nashville’s WTVF who enjoys the independent process of reporting and producing stories that he
- [NICAR 2025: New data journalism tools you can use right now](https://www.storybench.org/nicar-2025-new-data-journalism-tools-you-can-use-right-now/) - The Investigative Reporters and Editors’ (IRE) annual data journalism conference – commonly referred to as NICAR, short for National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting – brought together over 900 attendees and data experts from seven countries in Minneapolis, Minn. this year. Over four days, attendees immersed themselves in different levels of training sessions, from beginner-friendly tutorials
- [February updates in AI and journalism: Continuing legal tensions, newsroom experiments and emerging collaboration](https://www.storybench.org/early-2025-updates-in-ai-and-journalism-continuing-legal-tensions-newsroom-ai-experiments-and-emerging-collabs-between-tech-and-news/) - From lawsuits that may define AI’s limits to new partnerships sparking innovation, here’s a look at the month’s notable developments that are reshaping the intersection of AI and journalism. Continuing Legal Tensions The year opened with the news that The New York Times is taking OpenAI to court. According to the complaint filed by the
- [From print to reels: How student journalists are crafting news for the digital age](https://www.storybench.org/from-print-to-reels-how-student-journalists-are-crafting-news-for-the-digital-age/) - In 2025, the sight of a steaming cup of coffee and a freshly printed newspaper on a kitchen table is a rare snapshot of a bygone era. Journalists of the past quarter-century have seen newspapers and magazines grapple with declining circulation in a world driven by digital media, and younger generations are forcing publications to
- [Your city, but hotter: How Derek Taylor and The Pudding used visualizations to recontextualize the story of climate change](https://www.storybench.org/your-city-but-hotter-how-derek-taylor-and-the-pudding-used-visualizations-to-recontextualize-the-story-of-climate-change/) - What does climate change feel like? How will your city’s climate shift, fifty years from now? How can we better understand the long-term effects of climate change? These are the questions Derek Taylor, a data scientist and GIS specialist, set out to explore in his latest piece for The Pudding. Expanding on an earlier project
- [Eight years post NBC breakup: How 7News “makes you wanna watch”](https://www.storybench.org/eight-years-post-nbc-breakup-how-7news-makes-you-wanna-watch/) - Since its breakup with NBC, WHDH Channel 7 News in Boston has continued to thrive as a bastion of independent journalism without a network affiliation. Nestled in the heart of the city, 7News has distinctly carved out its space in the competitive Boston media market, delivering snappy and visually compelling stories on a daily basis.
- [Federal data is disappearing. Meet the teams rescuing it](https://www.storybench.org/federal-data-is-disappearing-meet-the-teams-rescuing-it/) - A New York Times analysis found that the new Trump administration took down over 8,000 government web pages in its first two weeks. Among these include 3,000 pages from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention containing crucial federal healthcare data, 3,000 pages from the Census Bureau and 180 pages from the Department of Justice,
- [Taking the risk: How wildlife photographer Martin Gregus captures powerful conservation stories to inspire change](https://www.storybench.org/taking-the-risk-how-wildlife-photographer-martin-gregus-captures-powerful-conservation-stories-to-inspire-change/) - He’s braved Arctic storms, fought for endangered species, and risked everything to bring the world closer to nature. But can powerful storytelling truly save wildlife before it’s too late?Step into Martin Gregus’ world and decide for yourself. Beginning with a camera stolen from his dad, Gregus has come a long way from his teenage years
- [No box to check: How Sarah Almukhtar and The New York Times used visual storytelling to break down the Census definition of "White"](https://www.storybench.org/no-box-to-check-how-sarah-almukhtar-and-the-new-york-times-used-visual-storytelling-to-break-down-the-census-definition-of-white/) - The US Census paints people’s ancestry with a broad brush. While people of Middle Eastern and North African origin are put into the racial category of “white,” this designation does not accurately capture their unique identities, leaving many feeling misrepresented. “No Box to Check: When the Census Doesn’t Reflect You” is a recent project by
- [Try this tool to map protests for local news](https://www.storybench.org/try-this-tool-to-map-protests-for-local-news/) - As protests against the Trump administration spread, journalists are covering local rallies — but putting them in context of larger movements can be a challenge. To help, I built a simple tool that lets you search for recent protests near you and create an embeddable map you can use in your reporting. Try out Protest
- [Turning the Threat to a Distant Glacier into a Local Story Through Data Visualization](https://www.storybench.org/turning-the-threat-to-a-distant-glacier-into-a-local-story-through-data-visualization/) - In January, New York Times climate reporter Raymond Zhong and photographer Chang W. Lee joined a team of scientists on an expedition to Thwaites Glacier, Antarctica’s fastest melting glacier. In a series of stories, they covered the research being conducted there and the political environment surrounding its funding. The expedition’s main goal was to document
- [Summer AI + journalism updates: how automation is reshaping news routines](https://www.storybench.org/summer-ai-journalism-updates-how-automation-is-reshaping-news-routines/) - As the spring turns to summer, the intersection of AI and journalism is marked by fresh experiments and deepening debates over the future of storytelling. Here's a look at where things stand now. What’s happening in local newsrooms Some of the most promising AI applications in journalism are emerging from small and non-Western newsrooms. In
- [Breaking News Barriers: Northeastern-WCVB Partnership Honored with regional Murrow Award](https://www.storybench.org/breaking-news-barriers-northeastern-wcvb-partnership-honored-with-murrow-award/) - A research partnership between Northeastern University’s School of Journalism and WCVB-TV in Boston has been recognized with a major journalism award. WCVB received a 2025 regional RTDNA Edward R. Murrow award for excellence in innovation. For the award, WCVB submitted ten videos produced by Leanna Scachetti. Scachetti joined the WCVB newsroom in December 2023 as
- [How Lam Thuy Vo turned the chaos of infertility into a story of data, play, and hope](https://www.storybench.org/how-lam-thuy-vo-turned-the-chaos-of-infertility-into-a-story-of-data-play-and-hope/) - When Lam Thuy Vo started tracking her IVF cycle data in spreadsheets (needles administered, follicle counts, hormone levels), she wasn't thinking about a story. She was trying to impose order on something that felt completely out of her control. But that instinct to quantify, to make sense of chaos through data, became the backbone of
- [Emily Sweeney is a stah](https://www.storybench.org/emily-sweeney-is-a-stah/) - On March 28, a masked thief broke into an $18 million mansion in Beverly. On March 31, Emily Sweeney—a Northeastern University journalism graduate who first joined The Boston Globe as a co-op—reported the story in a video posted to the outlet’s Instagram account. The clip went viral, not because of the heist’s cinematic absurdity, but
- [Learning for a Living: Howtown's Joss Fong Is On a Mission to Reinvent Science Explainer Videos](https://www.storybench.org/learning-for-a-living-howtowns-joss-fong-is-on-a-mission-to-reinvent-science-explainer-videos/) - What do Hot Ones hot sauce and COVID vaccine hesitancy have in common? For video journalist Joss Fong, they're both opportunities to inject evidence-based science into topics people don't usually think of as "hard science." Fong, a video journalist based in Brooklyn is half of the two-person team behind the YouTube channel Howtown, which has
- [Slurp on this: What Axios' Soup Dumpling Index tells us about AI in the newsroom](https://www.storybench.org/slurp-on-this-what-axios-soup-dumpling-index-tells-us-about-ai-in-the-newsroom/) - From innovative data collection techniques to examining market trends, uncover insights into the Din Tai Fung dumpling experience across various locations.
- [Early Fall 2025: Journalism faces new AI crossroads](https://www.storybench.org/early-fall-2025-journalism-faces-new-ai-crossroads/) - Journalism's AI summer is over, and the reckoning has begun. Fast-moving trials gave way to uneasy debates. Now fall brings something sharper: clarity on what artificial intelligence actually means for the news business. Newsrooms are building chatbots. French unions are securing direct payouts for reporters. Misinformation is targeting journalists themselves. Legal settlements are reaching into
- [AI + Journalism: Fall Updates: From tools on the side to systems in the center](https://www.storybench.org/ai-journalism-fall-updates-from-tools-on-the-side-to-systems-in-the-center/) - As 2025 winds down, AI in journalism feels less like a side project and more like the infrastructure underneath reporting, distribution and even business models. Newsrooms are building in-house systems, funders are backing AI experiments in membership and fundraising, and watchdogs are scrambling to keep up with new risks, from AI browsers tunneling through paywalls
- [What actually works: Clare Spencer on generative AI use in newsrooms](https://www.storybench.org/what-actually-works-clare-spencer-on-generative-ai-use-in-newsrooms/) - As newsrooms test generative AI, the challenge is no longer whether to experiment, but how to do so responsibly. Questions of accuracy, oversight and real newsroom value remain unresolved. Clare Spencer is a reporter at Generative AI Newsroom and a former BBC journalist.In this Q&A with Storybench, she reflects on where AI has already proven
- [AI Can Fake the Crowd—But Not Replace It](https://www.storybench.org/northeastern-research-finds-ai-cannot-replace-human-respondents-in-audience-research/) - Large language models fall short as replacements for human respondents in policy and opinion research, though they can help draft survey questions and run pilot tests, according to research from Northeastern University's AI-Media Strategies Lab. Study of ‘Silicon sampling’ across 30 academic papers The working paper, published in October 2025 by John Wihbey and Samantha
- [How Georgia Makely is Using Podcasting to Bring Fashion's Untold Stories to a New Generation](https://www.storybench.org/how-georgia-makely-is-using-podcasting-to-bring-fashions-untold-stories-to-a-new-generation/) - Fashion has always had gatekeepers. The editors who decide what's in. The publications that decide who matters. The press dinners where the right people talk to each other. Georgia Makely has spent her career inside those rooms. As Global Director of Digital and Media at Ford Models, she sits across from stylists, editors, and emerging
- [How The Washington Post combined data and human stories to cover Hurricane Helene’s aftermath ](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-washington-post-combined-data-and-human-stories-to-cover-hurricane-helenes-aftermath/) - Climate change is both vast and personal making it an ideal for immersive stories that combine visuals, data and human narratives. Behind these seamless interactive pieces is collaboration, data analysis and firsthand reporting. We spoke to Brady Dennis, a Washington Post climate reporter about how his team created its immersive story about Hurricane Helene, “The
- [Whose Quotes Get Cleaned Up? How News Orgs Normalize Some Voices and Scrutinize Others](https://www.storybench.org/whose-quotes-get-cleaned-up-how-news-orgs-normalize-some-voices-and-scrutinize-others/) - In mid-February, The New York Times ignited a storm of criticism with a piece about Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at a security conference in Munich.The article was critical (the headline included the phrase “with some stumbles”) but the anger it provoked was caused by a verbatim quote that included repeated “ah”s, “um”s, and “uh”s. We all
- [How Wall Street Journal Social Media Editor, Gianna Barberia, is Expanding Engagement](https://www.storybench.org/how-wall-street-journal-social-media-editor-gianna-barberia-is-expanding-engagement/) - Newsrooms across the country need to meet their audience where they are. For many consumers of news today, that means on their phones, on social media. But posting engaging content on social media requires its own unique set of skills, strategies and editing techniques. That’s where Gianna Barberia, a social media editor at the Wall
- [Where Should Data Journalists Be This Spring and Summer? ](https://www.storybench.org/where-should-data-journalists-be-this-spring-and-summer/) - Spring and summer 2026 are packed with events for journalists: from a free three-day conference in New York City to a hands-on data bootcamp in Missouri. Whether you’re looking to build technical skills, connect with peers, or just get out of your usual routine here’s what’s worth booking. May: AI, Investigations, and a Free Conference
- [Making Trillions Make Sense: How Reuters Visualized the AI Economy ](https://www.storybench.org/making-trillions-make-sense-how-reuters-visualized-the-ai-economy/) - When journalists report on economic forces such as AI investment, infrastructure spending and historic market shifts, the challenge is hardly ever a lack of data — it’s a lack of context. Each time, journalists face the same question: how do you make large amounts of money feel real to someone who has never seen a
- [How to use R to dig for story ideas](https://www.storybench.org/using-r-to-dig-for-story-ideas/) - Many people think of R as a way to visualize data, but it can also be a useful tool to explore datasets and seek possible story ideas. At the 2023 Investigative Reporters and Editors conference, Charles Minshew, the digital storytelling editor at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, walked through using basic R code to question datasets. Knowing
- [Growth as a metaphor: how Kristin Baumann used flowering plants to explain poverty](https://www.storybench.org/growth-as-a-metaphor-how-kristin-baumann-used-flowering-plants-to-explain-poverty/) - In today's data abundance, it’s easy to create visualizations that blend in, yet creativity and originality are essential to producing an effective and meaningful visualization that stands out. In "Blooming," Kristin Bauman used an unusual visual metaphor of plants and flowers to reveal how poverty rates in the Pacific region vary by age, gender and
- [What Can GenAI (Really) Do For Data Visualization?](https://www.storybench.org/how-generative-ai-is-transforming-data-visualization/) - GenAI has emerged as a transformative tool in data visualization, offering the ability to interpret and represent complex datasets with ease—but can it consistently maintain accuracy while doing so? At “What can GenAI really do for data visualization?,” part of the IDDV360 series at Northeastern University’s Center for Design, experts pointed to the technology’s potential
- [Unveiling the Power of YouTube "vlopologies": Data-Driven Insights into Subscriber Growth and Controversy](https://www.storybench.org/unveiling-the-power-of-youtube-vlopologies-data-driven-insights-into-subscriber-growth-and-controversy/) - Details By Jin Chen What does a YouTuber do if they're caught in a scandal? Usually, they'll film themselves explaining that they're sorry and how they intend to change, and then upload the apology video online in hopes of being forgiven, and perhaps adding more followers. Russell Goldenberg and Arjun Kakkar of The Pudding
- [Unlocking Emotional Waves: How Time, Location, and Context Shape Social Media Sentiments](https://www.storybench.org/23176-2/) - In recent years, social media has become an important part of our daily lives, serving as a platform for people to express their emotions and share information. Users express their feelings and emotions through text, images, videos, etc. on social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. In view of this trend of emotional
- [Краткое руководство разработчика по веб-верстке](https://www.storybench.org/a-quick-guide-to-web-typography-for-developers-russian/) - Read this article in English. 阅读这篇文章 Как веб-разработчик, вы постоянно работаете с текстом и типографикой. И вам часто приходится принимать решения о том, как будет выглядеть этот текст, особенно если вы работаете без дизайнера. Даже если вы не замечаете этих решений, они всё равно есть. И, честно говоря, некоторые из вас делают плохой выбор. В
- [Beyond Borders: Visa Policies Reshaping the Future of Data Journalism](https://www.storybench.org/visa-policies-reshaping-the-future-of-data-journalism/) - Last week, the Trump administration announced one of its most aggressive immigration policies yet: a $100,000 fee for filing new H-1B petitions, the visa program that allows U.S. employers to hire skilled foreign workers in specialized fields. Much of the reaction has focused on how the move could affect the tech industry, which has long
- [开发人员网页排版快速指南](https://www.storybench.org/a-quick-guide-to-web-typography-for-developers-chinese/) - Read this article in English Прочитайте эту статью на русском языке. 作为一名网页开发者，你每天都在和文字与排版打交道。你经常需要决定这些文字的呈现方式，尤其是在没有设计师参与的情况下。即使你没有意识到这些选择，它们也确实存在。坦白说，有些人做出的选择相当糟糕。 在本指南中，我们将介绍关键的排版设置，并学习如何用 CSS 来调整它们，这样你网页和应用程序上的文本就能默认呈现出不错的效果。这个教程适合那些想用 20% 的努力获得 80% 排版效果的开发者，而不用一头扎进复杂的排版设计中。如果你本来就熟悉排版，但还没怎么用过 CSS，这篇文章也能帮你快速掌握与常见概念相对应的 CSS 语法。 本文不会涉及为你的项目选择特定字体或字体分类。但我们会讲到字体的合适格式。此外，也不会讨论引号的正确使用或连字符与长破折号的区别。不过如果你对这类话题感兴趣，我强烈推荐阅读 Butterick’s Practical Typography。 相反，我们将专注于让文本看起来更美观、易读的通用调整，尤其是实现这些效果所需的 CSS 规则。 最后要记住，在设计中，规则固然有用，但不必害怕打破它们。今天我会分享一些规则和建议，但这并不意味着你不能走另一条路。如果你对自己的选择有信心——请尽情打破规则！但如果没有把握，那就坚持合理的默认值。 排版基础：选择字体 考虑使用本地字体 在网页中使用字体时，你可以选择用户设备上已安装的字体，也可以加载自定义字体。对于没有特殊排版需求的项目，我推荐直接使用系统内置字体。但这并不意味着你只能用 Arial 或 Times New Roman！你可能会惊讶于 system-ui 能带你走多远。想要更多选择，可以看看 Modern font stacks。 这段文字使用 CSS 的 font-family: system-ui 设置。它会根据你的系统而呈现不同的效果 外部字体 要加载自定义字体，你需要托管字体文件并在样式中添加 @font-face rule。 也有一些服务可以帮你托管字体，其中最受欢迎且免费的就是 Google
- [Battle of the Bots: Which AI Translator Is Best? We put three to the test](https://www.storybench.org/battle-of-the-bots-which-ai-translator-is-best-we-put-three-to-the-test/) - Battle of the Bots: Which AI Translator Is Best? We put three to the test As AI translation tools spread into classrooms and newsrooms, we decided to put a few of them to the test. We asked three leading language models – ChatGPT, Claude, and Google Gemini – to translate the same technical tutorial on
- [From ONA25: AI Strategies That Any Journalist Can Try ](https://www.storybench.org/from-ona25-ai-strategies-that-any-journalist-can-try/) - Hundreds of journalists gathered in New Orleans earlier this month for the Online News Association’s annual conference. This year, ONA focused heavily on artificial intelligence, along with climate and resilience. Some highlights of the sessions on AI: Prompt Like A Pro: AI Skills Every Journalist Needs, Yumi Wilson The Big Idea: Journalists can use generative
- [AI Takes Center Stage  Summer Cinema’s Three Big Moments ](https://www.storybench.org/ai-takes-center-stage-summer-cinemas-three-big-moments/) - Say goodbye to the days where artificial intelligence simply generated ideas and images. This summer, audiences saw how AI was used on big screens around the world. From reimagining a Hollywood classic, to headlining its own film festival, to creating a full-length animated feature film, here’s a quick round-up of how AI has shaped moviegoing
- ["Find Your Happiness": Mexican Entrepreneur Germán Ahumada Alduncin Shares the Keys to Personal Growth in the Creesiendo Podcast](https://www.storybench.org/find-your-happiness-mexican-entrepreneur-german-ahumada-alduncin-shares-the-keys-to-personal-growth-in-the-creesiendo-podcast/) - FIND your HAPPINESS, with Germán Ahumada / BUSCA tu FELICIDAD, con Germán Ahumada
- [Building Your First Interactive Map with Leaflet.js](https://www.storybench.org/your-first-interactive-map-with-leaflet-js/) - Maps are one of the most powerful tools in our storytelling toolbox. They can illustrate where an event happened, how resources are distributed across a city, and even plot where your favorite coffee shops cluster in your neighborhood of interest. Maps allow readers to not just read stories–but explore them. The good news: you don’t
- [From Chaos to Clarity -- On Finding a Foothold in the Ever-Shifting Visual Storytelling World](https://www.storybench.org/when-story-meets-structure-inside-the-visual-newsroom/) - As a Visual Editor at the Swiss daily NZZ (Neue Zürcher Zeitung), Adina Renner is responsible for stunning projects like "Switzerland in 2075," a visualization of the impact of climate change. That kind of work is built by many people with specialties that cross disciplines. Storybench spoke with Renner about newsroom dynamics and the different
- [Scary Stats: Why Some of Horror’s Most Iconic Villains Have Limited Screen Time](https://www.storybench.org/scary-stats-why-some-of-horrors-most-iconic-villains-have-limited-screen-time/) - When Steven Spielberg's “Jaws” was released in 1975, it not only redefined summer at the movies, becoming the first summer blockbuster, it also redefined how people thought of sharks, causing a massive and mostly newfound terror of these ocean dwellers . And yet, yes, out of the 130 minute runtime of “Jaws” Bruce ( infamous
- [How to Analyze bluesky Posts and Trends with R](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-analyze-bluesky-posts-and-trends-with-r/) - If all you're doing on bluesky is scrolling, liking and posting, then you're riding a bike with training wheels. Here are simple tools using its open-source skeleton.
- [Payroll Power: How Spending Tells the Story of Baseball Success](https://www.storybench.org/payroll-power-how-spending-tells-the-story-of-mlb-success/) - October baseball is one of the best times on the sports calendar. This year, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays proved exactly why. In a nail-biting seventh game of the World Series, the Dodgers defeated the Blue Jays in 11 innings to capture their second straight championship, solidifying their reputation as baseball’s
- [“If No One Documents This, How Will People Know?” Behind the Scenes Covering ICE with Photojournalist Stephanie Keith](https://www.storybench.org/if-no-one-documents-this-how-will-people-know-behind-the-scenes-covering-ice-with-photojournalist-stephanie-keith/) - Freelance photojournalist Stephanie Keith has spent the past several months documenting the arrests and detentions carried out by ICE at 26 Federal Plaza, a little-known federal office building in Lower Manhattan where many immigration hearings take place. After Donald Trump’s inauguration, Keith anticipated that immigration enforcement would intensify and that ICE’s expanding reach would become
- [Alvin Chang shows how to visualize Sci-Fi’s Growing Pessimism](https://www.storybench.org/alvin-chang-shows-how-to-visualize-sci-fis-growing-pessimism/) - While nostalgia might cloud the vision, some sci-fi enthusiasts are noticing a changing theme in their beloved films and television. What was once a genre characterized by sleek, futuristic technology and thrilling visions of scientific discovery now appears to be turning bleak and depressing. Storybench spoke with Alvin Chang whose project “Who Killed the World?”
- [Best No-Code Tools for Data Visualizations](https://www.storybench.org/best-no-code-tools-for-data-visualizations/) - Do you want to visualize data but don’t know how to code? As data becomes central to storytelling, journalists increasingly need to be able to turn numbers into something readers can understand. Not everyone in the newsroom may know how to code, but nowadays a solution exists. Platforms like Flourish Studio, Datawrapper, Tableau, and Google
- [How Gabby Aidam is Using Animation to Bring Local TV News to Life](https://www.storybench.org/how-gabby-aidam-is-using-animation-to-bring-local-tv-news-to-life/) - To better understand what digital consumers want from local news online, Northeastern University’s Reinventing Local TV News Project (RLTVN) explores how TV stations can share stories that connect with younger audiences on digital platforms. Gabby Aidam, a recent Northeastern graduate in Game Art and Animation, was a RLTVN fellow, collaborating with all three other fellows
- [Thanksgiving Turkey: Finding the Perfect Recipe ](https://www.storybench.org/thanksgiving-turkey-finding-the-perfect-recipe/) - It’s time for turkey! Across the nation, approximately nine out of every 10 Americans celebrate Thanksgiving. And Americans aren’t the only ones celebrating the holiday. Around the world, people from countries such as Canada, Germany and Japan come together with friends and family to express their gratitude. Nothing unites people more than food, and for
- [From Northeastern Student to Vox Editor-in-Chief: Swati Sharma’s Journey in Modern Journalism](https://www.storybench.org/from-northeastern-student-to-vox-editor-in-chief-swati-sharmas-journey-in-modern-journalism/) - Have you ever imagined leading one of the most influential digital newsrooms in the U.S.? Swati Sharma, editor-in-chief of Vox, has built a career defined by innovation and a commitment to audience trust. Speaking at Northeastern University’s 2025 Reinvent Video Innovation Summit, she reflected on her path from journalism student to the top of Vox’s
- [Will Bottone Designs Emotion in Motion: Turning Three Seconds into Story](https://www.storybench.org/will-bottone-designs-emotion-in-motion-turning-three-seconds-into-story/) - Imagine scrolling through TikTok or Instagram and pausing for a few seconds because the animation makes you feel something. That’s the moment video-motion designer Will Bottone, a UK-based motion designer and creative at SHOUT, is chasing. Trained in film production, Bottone translates his love for short-form design into a form of storytelling that bridges emotions,
- [From Slack Bots to Story Tools: Hearst’s Tim O’Rourke on the future of AI in journalism](https://www.storybench.org/from-slack-bots-to-story-tools-hearsts-tim-orourke-on-the-future-of-ai-in-journalism/) - Tim O'Rourke is the vice president of Editorial Innovation and AI Strategy at Hearst Newspapers. With AI evolving at breakneck speed, the challenge for newsrooms isn’t using it, it’s integrating it responsibly so it enhances journalism rather than replaces it. For many local and regional outlets, these tools bring both opportunities and challenges, making reporting
- [Digital Fashion Rises as a New Frontier for Clothing Design ](https://www.storybench.org/digital-fashion-rises-as-a-new-frontier-for-clothing-design/) - Digital fashion is an emerging field in which styles exist entirely online, and garments are created with 3D design software, virtual and augmented reality, and video game engines. It trades the traditional wearability of clothes for a greater focus on aesthetic design that may not be possible in the physical world. While the art form
- [How Hearst’s DevHub is helping local reporters tell richer stories through data and design](https://www.storybench.org/how-hearsts-devhub-is-helping-local-reporters-tell-richer-stories-through-data-and-design-2/) - In a time of constant evolution, data journalism is becoming more of a necessity in multimedia reporting. Darryl Laiu is helping the DevHub at Hearst Newspapers to help make interactive graphics accessible to local newsrooms as their 2025-26 data visualization fellow. By blending together engineering, design, and reporting, he helps make data visualization possible for
- [How The Washington Post used urban tree data to make readers see their cities differently](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-washington-post-used-urban-tree-data-to-make-readers-see-their-cities-differently-2/) - Washington Post writer Janice Kai Chen has long been interested in the intersection of data and storytelling. She applied that interest to her piece “Does your city have too much of one kind of tree? That can be a problem”, by building an interactive data visualization that invites readers to explore the urban tree landscape
- [The Rise of ‘Nano-Newsletters’: Why 500 Subscribers Beats 50,000](https://www.storybench.org/the-rise-of-nano-newsletters-why-500-subscribers-beats-50000/) - While much of the media industry continues to chase scale, a quieter shift is happening in inboxes. A growing number of newsletter creators are building sustainable, even highly profitable businesses with audiences smaller than a college lecture hall. Some are earning six figures with just a few hundred or thousand subscribers. The model runs counter
- [Satellite companies block journalists' access to images from the Iran War](https://www.storybench.org/satellite-companies-restrict-journalists-access-to-images-from-the-iran-war/) - Two of the largest providers of satellite imagery, Planet Labs and Vantor, have announced they are limiting access to images from across the Middle East.
- [Noctiphany: The cozy late-night radio show where two friends trade playlists and discover new sounds](https://www.storybench.org/noctiphany-the-cozy-late-night-wrbb-show-where-two-friends-trade-playlists-and-discover-new-sounds/) - Sharon Pan and Amelia Dsouza are longtime friends and fourth-year students at Northeastern University from Edison, New Jersey. Together, they co-host “noctiphany,” a late-night radio show on WRBB 104.9 FM. Each week, their two very different playlists become a “sleepless nights” rating game as they trade songs, build themed playlists, and look for common ground
- [Build a Census Tract-Level Map with R in Just 10 Minutes](https://www.storybench.org/build-a-tract-level-census-map-with-r-in-just-10-minutes/) - If you have ever opened the U.S. Census website looking for tract-level data, you know how quickly things can get overwhelming. Tables, codes, geographies, shapefiles, downloads: before you even ask a question, you are already having to decide which tools you need to answer it. Inspired by a video explainer by Kyle Walker, this tutorial
- [Is the US Ready for the World Cup? Our Roads Might Not Be. ](https://www.storybench.org/is-the-us-ready-for-the-world-cup-our-roads-might-not-be/) - The world’s largest sporting event is coming to North America next summer. For the first time since 1994, the Fifa World Cup will be partially hosted in the United States, with games also being hosted in Canada and Mexico, for a massive 108 game tournament across 16 cities. Of those 108 games, the United States
- [Exploring Human Connection: Alvin Chang on “30 Minutes with a Stranger”](https://www.storybench.org/exploring-human-connection-alvin-chang-on-30-minutes-with-a-stranger/) - Alvin Chang is no stranger to visual storytelling. He has built his career on turning data sets into captivating, compelling tales for The Pudding, The Guardian, Vox and others. Chang's past work often explores themes of community and human behavior, and his newest piece continues that trajectory. In “30 Minutes with a Stranger,” for The
- [AI writing is improving — but it can’t replace the process that makes writing human ](https://www.storybench.org/ai-writing-is-improving-but-it-cant-replace-the-process-that-makes-writing-human/) - OpenAI’s short story “A Machine-Shaped Hand” is good. After being given the touchstone prompts “short story,” “metafiction” and “grief,” it produced not just a compelling and polished story but a touching examination of a subhuman existence that will never know grief. But, while the story movingly depicts the perplexities of its stunted experience, there is still something
- [How I used ICE detention data to visualize the movement within the deportation system](https://www.storybench.org/how-i-used-ice-detention-data-to-visualize-the-movement-within-the-deportation-system/) - In late January, the Minnesota Star Tribune, where I’m a graphics producer, published “How immigration detainees are moved around Minnesota and the nation,” giving a detailed picture of ICE detentions during the first year of Trump’s second term. I started this project back in November last year. When I came back to it in early
- [How to Build a Choice-Driven Game With JavaScript](https://www.storybench.org/have-an-idea-for-a-game-heres-how-you-can-build-it-using-javascript/) - Do you love playing video games? Have you ever thought, “I wish I could make one of my own.” Good news, you can! And it’s actually not as hard as you may think. I built a game called Highway Robbery, a choice-driven narrative game about car dependency within the United States that combines historical and
- [AI expands in newsrooms, raising pressure on trust and labor systems](https://www.storybench.org/ai-expands-in-newsrooms-raising-pressure-on-trust-and-labor-systems/) - Artificial intelligence is becoming embedded across newsroom workflows, product strategy and content distribution. As adoption accelerates, two pressures are becoming more visible: issues of trust and shifts in journalistic labor. Several recent studies and industry reports point to a common theme: AI tools are expanding production and monitoring capabilities,while verification, transparency and compensation structures are
- [How W.E.B. Du Bois Made Data Visualizations Simple and Easy to Understand](https://www.storybench.org/w-e-b-du-bois-data-visualizations-were-a-century-ahead-of-their-time/) - More than a century before modern data dashboards and interactive graphics became common in journalism, a set of bold, colorful charts challenged how data could tell a story. In 1900, sociologist and civil rights activist W. E. B. Du Bois and a group of students from Atlanta University created a series of striking visualizations for
- [How Copernicus Makes Climate Data Simple and Easy for You to Understand](https://www.storybench.org/how-copernicus-turns-climate-data-into-clear-visual-stories/) - Each January, journalists around the world cite the same source when reporting on the planet’s temperature: the annual climate visuals from the Copernicus Climate Change Service. The graphics are authoritative, widely reused, and strikingly calm. They avoid alarmism while still conveying urgency. Many are interactive. Some are built in accessible tools like Datawrapper. Others rely
- [Redefining “Healthy”: Who Gets to Decide?](https://www.storybench.org/redefining-healthy-who-gets-to-decide/) - Healthy is back in the headlines after the federal government released new “Dietary Guidelines for Americans” in January. The update, promoted under the Trump Administration's Make America Healthy Again initiative, is one of the most substantial shifts in federal nutrition messaging in years. To understand what’s actually changed — and what the public is supposed
- [The Surprising Design Secrets Behind Trust in Data Visualization](https://www.storybench.org/how-designers-decide-what-makes-data-stories-feel-trustworthy-before-youve-even-read-the-headline/) - A behind-the-scenes look at the invisible design choices that shape credibility in data journalism When Jan Diehm's story about pocket sizes in jeans went viral, she didn't expect emails from the middle school science fair. Years later, she still responds to every one. "I'm honored to be the pocket expert," she said. But what made thousands
- [How Ryan Restivo is building tools that fit inside newsroom workflows](https://www.storybench.org/how-ryan-restivo-is-building-tools-that-fit-inside-newsroom-workflows-2/) - Ryan Restivo is a newsroom product leader and the founder of YESEO, an audience optimization tool designed to help journalists apply SEO best practices without disrupting editorial workflows. He currently serves as director of product at Newsday Media Group, where he works across mobile, over-the-top streaming platforms (OTT), which deliver video content directly over the
- [Why Everything Feels Harder Now: The Hidden Cost of Efficiency](https://www.storybench.org/does-everything-feel-harder-now-why/) - Why everything feels harder now is not just a mood or a passing frustration. It reflects how modern systems are built and what they are optimized to do. Ordering food takes longer. Customer service is less responsive. Commuting grows more unpredictable. Subscriptions quietly cost more than they did last year. Individually, these frustrations feel small.
- [How The Lily used census data to paint a portrait of life at 30](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-lily-used-census-data-to-paint-a-portrait-of-life-at-30/) - In 1989, the most popular name for girls was Jessica. This year, those Jessicas are turning 30 and they represent the midpoint of the oft-mentioned millennial generation. As they begin the next decade of their lives, many of them are grappling with the gulf between where they thought they’d be at 30 and where they
- [Inside “Papaya Talk”: Northeastern Student Turns Mother-Daughter Conversations Into a Women’s Health Podcast](https://www.storybench.org/inside-papaya-talk-northeastern-student-turns-mother-daughter-conversations-into-a-womens-health-podcast/) - What began as a small women’s health podcast gradually evolved into a weekly ritual for mother-daughter duo Alyssa and Nadia Herrera-Set. “Papaya Talk,” launched in November 2022 by Alyssa and her colleague, originally focused on pelvic floor education and guidance for new and expecting mothers. When the colleague stepped away in 2023, Nadia — then
- [Inside the Files: The Reporting That Rewrote Uvalde’s Story](https://www.storybench.org/inside-the-files-the-reporting-that-rewrote-uvaldes-story/) - As the school day started on May 24, 2022, students and families at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas were celebrating the end of the school year with trophies, friends and family. Many of those parents would never take their kids home. Hours later, 18-year-old gunman Salvador Ramos opened fire, killing 19 children and two teachers
- [Finding His Voice in Baseball: A Conversation with Mike Antonellis](https://www.storybench.org/finding-his-voice-in-baseball-a-conversation-with-mike-antonellis/) - Since he was young, Mike Antonellis has immersed himself in the world of baseball. From growing up playing to being a minor league broadcaster for the last 28 years, Antonellis knows the game inside and out. His knowledge of the game and experience seeing players move through the Red Sox farm system led to hosting
- [Measuring the Invisible: How Journalists Navigate the Science of Trauma](https://www.storybench.org/measuring-the-invisible-how-journalists-navigate-the-science-of-trauma/) - Translating cutting-edge research on childhood trauma into clear, accurate narratives is no easy feat—especially when scientists themselves are still defining what's "normal." For her Knowable Magazine investigation "Unseen Scars of Childhood Trauma," Colorado-based freelance science journalist Amanda Keener tackled this challenge head-on, exploring how adverse childhood experiences leave biological fingerprints that researchers are only beginning
- [Tracking Success: Pablo Vio looks back on the challenging development of the interactive “Bear 71” ](https://www.storybench.org/pablo-vio-looks-back-on-the-developing-the-interactive-bear-71/) - Despite being made over 10 years ago, the documentary “Bear 71” remains one of the most innovative pieces of digital journalism. The humanistic and empathetic storytelling brought thousands to the website to experience a bear’s story as she traverses the Canadian Rocky Mountains and protects her cubs, invoking a broader theme of the effects of
- [From CSV to Spinning Sphere: How to Build a Scrollytelling Globe with D3.js](https://www.storybench.org/from-csv-to-spinning-sphere-how-to-build-a-scrollytelling-globe-with-d3-js/) - Let’s be real: tools like Mapbox and Leaflet are great. You click a few buttons, and boom—you have a map. But if you want something fully custom—a 3D globe that moves with your story, "flying" from a close-up flight path to a global view just by scrolling—D3.js is still the GOAT. No fluff today. I’m
- [How Media Frame Climate Change](https://www.storybench.org/how-media-frame-climate-change/) - Climate change is everywhere in the news. Maps, charts and interactive projects try to explain how fast the planet is warming and what that means for the future. But the same data can tell very different stories, depending on how it is framed. Some newsrooms focus on what warming looks like in a single city.
- [AI isn’t killing journalist’s jobs, it’s giving them time to report more](https://www.storybench.org/ai-isnt-killing-journalists-jobs-its-giving-them-time-to-report-more/) - As artificial intelligence becomes more embedded in newsrooms, a key debate is emerging: Will AI displace journalists or help them do their jobs better. At Reinvent: A Video Innovation Summit, hosted by Northeastern University on March 21-22, media innovation expert David Cohn, a senior director at Advance Digital, argued that AI-powered newsroom tools could be
- [Layoffs at The Washington Post gut an innovative newsroom](https://www.storybench.org/layoffs-at-the-washington-post-gut-an-innovative-newsroom/) - On Wednesday, The Washington Post laid off more than 300 of about 800 journalists in their newsroom. And while much of the coverage has focused on the elimination of the sports and books departments, the design and data visualization teams were also gutted. Those cuts didn’t just damage a storied institution, they dealt a body
- [How an open-source investigation by the Wall Street Journal unmasked the official narrative of the killing of Alex Pretti](https://www.storybench.org/how-an-open-source-investigation-by-the-wall-street-journal-unmasked-the-official-narrative-of-the-killing-of-alex-pretti/) - U.S. Border Patrol head Greg Bovino justified the shooting of Alex Pretti, who was killed by federal agents at a protest in Minneapolis on Jan. 24, saying the 37-year-old ICU nurse was aiming to cause “maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” Bovino and other officials claimed that Pretti “violently resisted” disarmament until the officers fired
- [Fighting for attention: a reckoning for augmented and virtual reality in immersive media](https://www.storybench.org/immersive-medias-double-edged-sword/) - It’s been seven years since The New York Times made a splash by using augmented reality (AR) to allow users to experience the plight of a Thai youth soccer team trapped in a cave, part of an early experiment in immersive media. “We wanted to showcase that we had this data about all the little
- [How to use Python to scrape for deleted government web pages](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-use-python-to-scrape-for-deleted-government-web-pages/) - Every day, countless government web pages quietly disappear. Policies, reports and datasets once accessible to the public now show “Page Not Found.” Curious about what kind of pages have been removed, I took the Department of Justice (DOJ) as a test case, to recover the missing pieces of the once discoverable public record. We'll be
- [Easily clean up messy databases with fuzzy matching in R](https://www.storybench.org/easily-clean-up-messy-databases-with-fuzzy-matching-in-r/) - One of the biggest challenges working with text data is the many different ways that people can enter the exact same information. A human knows that “St. Lucie, Florida,” “Saint Lucie, FL,” and “St Lucy, Florida” are probably all the same place, but a computer doesn’t. “Fuzzy” matching pulls similarities between the letters in words and
- [Learn How to Create Maps That Connect the Dots with GeoJSON](https://www.storybench.org/learn-how-to-create-maps-and-connect-the-dots-with-geojson/) - There's a bit of coding magic behind every map-based visualization: a GeoJSON file. That's the code that literally lets you connect the dots to the data.
- [Reconstructing Truth: How The New York Times' Christoph Koettl Investigated a Deadly Israeli Attack on Journalists in Gaza](https://www.storybench.org/reconstructing-truth-how-the-new-york-times-christoph-koettl-investigated-a-deadly-israeli-attack-on-journalists-in-gaza/) - “This is the moment before the Israeli military killed a group of journalists,” the video begins the investigation into a deadly attack in Gaza.
- [Finding Flavor, Finding Home: How Alvin Chang Blends Personal Narrative, Data and Interactive Storytelling](https://www.storybench.org/finding-flavor-finding-home-how-alvin-chang-blends-personal-narrative-data-and-interactive-storytelling/) - Alvin Chang’s project for The Pudding, “The Search for My Kimchi,” reflects his signature approach: blending personal narrative, cultural memory, and interactive design to explore the emotional terrain between food and identity. In this Q&A, Chang discusses how he structured the interactive essay, the challenges of researching kimchi’s history in the West, and why his
- [A quick guide to web typography for developers](https://www.storybench.org/a-quick-guide-to-web-typography-for-developers/) - This article has also been translated and can be viewed in both Chinese and Russian. As a web developer, you constantly work with text and typography. And you will often make decisions on how this text will look, especially if you work without a designer. Even if you don’t notice those choices, they are still
- [Quickly Transform Your DataWrapper Locator Maps from Meh to Magnificent](https://www.storybench.org/quickly-transform-your-datawrapper-locator-maps-from-meh-to-magnificent/) - DataWrapper's locator maps option gets the job done. But what if those dots could tell a story? What if your map could make viewers stop scrolling and engage?
- [“You have to give something of yourself”: The New York Times' James Estrin on finding shared humanity through photography](https://www.storybench.org/you-have-to-give-something-of-yourself-the-new-york-times-james-estrin-on-finding-shared-humanity-through-photography/) - What does it take to earn a community’s trust and tell their story with integrity? James Estrin has been teaching us all that for the last few decades at The New York Times where he is a staff photographer, and a founder and co-editor of the photography blog Lens. We sat down (virtually) with him
- [Same words, different meanings: we analyzed the text of the Walz-Vance debate. Here’s what we found.](https://www.storybench.org/same-words-different-meanings-we-analyzed-the-text-of-the-walz-vance-debate-heres-what-we-found/) - For a conversation between two men, Tim Walz and JD Vance spent a lot of time talking about “women” at the vice presidential debate on Oct. 1. But the way they did, showed that their views are worlds apart. The Storybench team combed through the text transcript of the debate and found that, while Walz
- [WCBS New York's Digital Content Creator Maggie Cole on laying the path for a new role](https://www.storybench.org/new-york-wcbs-nys-digital-content-creator-maggie-cole-on-laying-the-path-for-a-new-role/) - Local television stations all across the country are asking what they can do to draw in younger audiences. To answer that question, Northeastern University's Reinventing Local TV News Project (RLTVN) placed four fellows in newsrooms across New York, Chicago and Boston. These fellows create content exclusively for the stations’ digital platforms including streaming channels and
- [“Wrestling with the past”: How Chris Dalla Riva uncovered the deeper story in Rolling Stones’ GOAT music album rankings](https://www.storybench.org/wrestling-with-the-past-how-chris-dalla-riva-uncovered-the-deeper-story-in-rolling-stones-goat-music-album-rankings/) - At first glance, it's just a list — a familiar sight to music lovers and critics everywhere, another ranking of the 500 greatest albums of all time by Rolling Stone magazine, created in 2003, 2012 and 2020. But upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that this is no ordinary list. In “What Makes an Album
- [“Not just broadcast:” WBUR CEO Margaret Low on the future of the business of news](https://www.storybench.org/not-just-broadcast-wbur-ceo-margaret-low-on-the-future-of-the-business-of-news/) - Since 2005, more than 3,200 newspapers have shuttered. At the same time, terrestrial radio’s popularity has plummeted – with most of its listeners aged 50 to 64. Margaret Low, CEO of WBUR in Boston since 2020, has seen it all. And what she’s seen has given her ideas about what the future will look like.
- [How to create your first choropleth map in Mapbox](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-create-your-first-choropleth-map-in-mapbox/) - Few things grab a reader's attention quite like a map. While bar and line charts have their place in data visualization, a choropleth map is a great option if you’re looking to do something a little more sophisticated. For static maps, free tools like QGIS work well, but if you want to add interactivity and
- [Creating mind-bending animation with Apple's free Keynote app](https://www.storybench.org/creating-mind-bending-animation-with-apples-free-keynote-app/) - Yup, Apple Keynote! Let’s push this “free” presentation software to the limit! Using Keynote for animation and creating motion graphics is unconventional but totally suits my illustration style, problem solving and process. Plus, I love a creative challenge. I do know After Effects enough but find it convoluted and a lot of AE work looks
- [Turning your small-multiple charts into maps using R](https://www.storybench.org/turning-your-small-multiple-charts-into-maps-using-r/) - The geofacet R package provides a way to flexibly visualize data for different geographical regions, combining multiple small charts into a map.
- [How I scraped and visualized over 1,500 NPR Tiny Desk concerts](https://www.storybench.org/how-i-scraped-and-visualized-over-1500-npr-tiny-desk-concerts/) - The kinds of music played behind NPR's Tiny Desk have changed significantly since the concert series started in 2008. I decided to use data to show exactly how it’s evolved. To accomplish this, I used a web-scraping package called Playwright, Last.fm’s artists API, Datawrapper, Adobe Illustrator, some CSS and JavaScript for animation, and, of course,
- [Visualizing the destruction in Ukraine: A years-long project following satellite clues](https://www.storybench.org/visualizing-the-destruction-in-ukraine-a-years-long-project-following-satellite-clues/) - Hernandez is a Graphics Editor at The New York Times. In June 2022, with a very basic understanding of the SAR technology, I started to use Sentinel-1 data to report on the progression of damage in Ukraine. Shortly after, Tim Wallace, our Editor for Geography connected me with Oregon State University, Jamon Van Den Hoek and City University of New
- [“The news has a boring problem”: Sean McLaughlin has big ideas to save TV news](https://www.storybench.org/the-news-has-a-boring-problem-sean-mclaughlin-has-big-ideas-to-save-tv-news/) - Tired of the constant, unvaried nature of today’s television newscasts, Sean McLaughlin – former anchor, reporter, and news director for various news stations – has dedicated his recent career to innovating newsrooms nationwide, going so far as to eliminate anchor roles and changing the newscast format. Most recently, he served as the senior vice president
- [Here are Nathan Griffiths’ takeaways from his career journey experimenting with different mediums](https://www.storybench.org/here-are-nathan-griffiths-takeaways-from-his-career-journey-experimenting-with-different-mediums/) - Nathan Griffiths is a jack-of-all-trades in multimedia journalism. In Griffiths’ career thus far, he has worked in various prominent newsrooms from The New York Times to AP to South China Morning Post. With expertise in information technology, he always approached journalism through an innovative lens, which encouraged him to experiment with new formats for storytelling.
- [“Useful, beautiful and innovative.” How the Washington Post's Harry Stevens reaches high engagement on climate and environment reporting](https://www.storybench.org/useful-beautiful-and-innovative-how-the-washington-posts-harry-stevens-reaches-high-engagement-on-climate-and-environment-reporting/) - There’s a difference between reading about climate change and vividly seeing it in action. Last year, the Washington Post launched Climate Lab with Harry Stevens as the climate change, data analysis and graphics columnist. To make journalism more accessible and transparent, the column provides a visual and data-driven column about climate, environment and extreme weather.
- [New Strategies for Using Artificial Intelligence in Journalism](https://www.storybench.org/new-strategies-for-using-artificial-intelligence-in-journalism/) - Here’s the fifth in our series of round-ups on the latest in artificial intelligence and journalism (find previous editions here). This time around it feels like the rubber has really hit the road, with lots of work on strategies and examples being shared around the web. These insights are brought to you by Northeastern University #
- [The Marshall Project’s Innovative Look At Death Penalty Mitigation Specialists](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-marshall-project-sheds-light-on-the-quiet-work-of-mitigation-specialists/) - The Marshall Project worked with a cartoonist to create a graphic novel-style piece on the impact of death penalty mitigation specialists.
- [How one photojournalist is documenting sexual assault in the U.S. military](https://www.storybench.org/how-one-photojournalist-is-documenting-sexual-assault-in-the-u-s-military/) - Photojournalist Mary Calvert has focused on documenting the pervasive and underreported sexual abuse of men and women in the United States military.
- [How Vox uses animation to make complicated topics digestible for everyone](https://www.storybench.org/how-vox-uses-animation-to-make-complicated-topics-digestible-for-everyone/) - This Q&A with Joey Sendaydiego, an art director for the Vox video team, dives into how he uses animation to capture the attention of young adults.
- [35+ data visualization tools that The Washington Post uses](https://www.storybench.org/35-data-visualization-tools-that-the-washington-post-uses/) - These resources span the entire spectrum of the visualization process, from initial data collection through to the meticulous design of visual representations.
- [How The Pudding analyzed the “diva-ness” of national anthem performances](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-pudding-analyzed-the-diva-ness-of-national-anthem-performances/) - To do this, they created a Diva Score, which was measured based on how much a performer deviated from the standard melody.
- [I Used ChatGPT as a Reporting Assistant. It Didn’t Go Well](https://www.storybench.org/i-used-chatgpt-as-a-reporting-assistant-it-didnt-go-well/) - I showed the results of my time-consuming experiment to use ChatGPT 4 as an assistant for reporting on a story. Spoiler alert: It didn’t go so well!
- [How The New York Times uncovered and visualized the dangers faced by child influencers](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-new-york-times-uncovered-and-visualized-the-dangers-faced-by-child-influencers/) - As these young girls’ accounts gain followers, they also draw a higher proportion of men, many of whom flatter, bully or blackmail the moms and daughters for racier content.
- [Using R and Media Cloud to do sentiment analysis](https://www.storybench.org/using-r-and-media-cloud-to-do-sentiment-analysis/) - I conducted a sentiment analysis of The New York Times’ coverage of nuclear energy to see how emotionally-charged language swayed their readers’ opinions of it.
- [How can AI help us study the news? Here are my experiments with LLM-based query generation.](https://www.storybench.org/how-can-ai-help-us-study-the-news-here-are-my-experiments-with-llm-based-query-generation/) - I'm particularly interested in how AI might help us craft better questions, an area that is under-explored and quite concrete.
- [Take a look inside Reuters’ investigative report on death of colleague Issam Abdallah during Israel-Hamas war](https://www.storybench.org/inside-reuters-investigative-report-on-death-of-colleague-issam-abdallah/) - The report is more than an investigation. It strives to achieve justice, offer a sense of closure to those who grieve and serve as a tribute to Abdallah.
- [ProPublica remembers children lost to stillbirth through interactive memorial](https://www.storybench.org/propublica-remembers-children-lost-to-stillbirth-through-interactive-memorial/) - The most recent story in the series, “Still Born,” highlights the lived experiences of parents whose pregnancies ended with stillbirth.
- [Meet the founder: The B-Side’s Andrew Grillo on knowing your audience](https://www.storybench.org/meet-the-founder-the-b-sides-andrew-grillo-on-knowing-your-audience/) - The B-Side is a digital news outlet that keeps Bostonians up to date on the latest things to do while also infusing hard news like policy changes.
- [Kontinentalist shows the legal battle for women's divorce rights in the Philippines with visual and data storytelling](https://www.storybench.org/kontinentalist-shows-the-legal-battle-for-womens-divorce-rights-in-the-philippines-with-visual-and-data-storytelling/) - One thing about the Philippines that not a lot of people knew about was the fact that we are the only country in the world without divorce.
- [The Shore Line Project turns the tide on environmental discourse](https://www.storybench.org/the-shore-line-project-turns-the-tide-on-environmental-discourse/) - Shorelines are where half the world's population lives, bursting with attractive greenery and many natural resources. But they are facing inherent risk due to rising seas and violent storms. A compelling interactive documentary, “The Shore Line” utilizes powerful visualization techniques to unravel the intricate web of challenges and connections between communities and their shorelines in
- [Northeastern University’s Reinventing Local TV News Project kicks off a year of experimentation](https://www.storybench.org/northeastern-universitys-reinventing-local-tv-news-project-kicks-off-a-year-of-experimentation/) - The project continues its journey to revolutionize local TV news, with a specific focus on developing Over-The-Top (OTT) streaming content for digital platforms.
- [How the Urban Institute democratizes access to education data](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-urban-institute-democratizes-access-to-education-data/) - Education information is spread across government agencies, and meaningful insights can require cross-referencing and combining data from multiple places.
- [Here’s a look inside the data team at the Associated Press](https://www.storybench.org/heres-a-look-inside-the-data-team-at-the-associated-press/) - With data reporters embedded on local desks across the country, the Associated Press is committed to elevating the quality of their data work.
- [Reuters: Journalism and technology trends and predictions](https://www.storybench.org/reuters-journalism-and-technology-trends-and-predictions/) - Reuters journalists discuss the latest technology predictions and how they will impact newsrooms.
- [Chris Perry explores the impact of AI on future media](https://www.storybench.org/chris-perry-explores-the-impact-of-ai-on-future-media/) - How will the future media change as we enter the age of artificial intelligence? Chris Perry, chair of Weber Shandwick Futures, discussed this at Northeastern University on Jan 26.
- [Step by step: Exploring the sneaker lifecycle through data physicalization](https://www.storybench.org/step-by-step-exploring-the-sneaker-lifecycle-through-data-physicalization/) - XYZ Data Labs, along with The Footwear Collective, created “The Secret Life of Sneakers," a data physicalization showing the narrative of a sneaker’s lifecycle.
- [Getting started with stringr for textual analysis in R](https://www.storybench.org/getting-started-stringr-textual-analysis-r/) - This tutorial will teach you a few of the base R functions for manipulating strings in R, and introduce the stringr package from the tidyverse.
- [How this former public school teacher helped uncover education inequities for The Boston Globe](https://www.storybench.org/how-this-former-public-school-teacher-helped-uncover-education-inequities-for-the-boston-globe/) - Mandy McLaren, a reporter for The Boston Globe, witnessed how low-quality education can impact students during her former career as a public school teacher in New Orleans. Taking it to heart, McLaren is now a member of The Great Divide, a team at the Globe that investigates imbalances within education systems. Storybench sat down with
- [How The Pudding visualized the evolution of “wonky” grooves](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-pudding-visualized-the-evolution-of-grooves/) - Have you ever wondered how the beat of a song can emote? Or how the transcendent nature of loose grooves can make your body want to move? The Pudding’s “Wonky” explores exactly how rhythm and grooves broke out of their traditional boxes. Journalist and musician Michelle McGhee used her background in computer science to create
- [Unraveling beer’s evolution with The Washington Post](https://www.storybench.org/unraveling-beers-evolution-with-the-washington-post/) - In the effervescent tapestry of human history, few threads weave a tale as enduring and universal as that of beer. From the murky origins of Stone Age sludge to the meticulously crafted brews of today’s artisanal breweries, this amber elixir has been a companion to civilizations, a cornerstone of culture and a testament to the
- [How The Washington Post visualized the Republican primary debates](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-washington-post-visualized-the-republican-primary-debates/) - From the very first moments of the Aug. 23 Republican primary debate, Hannah Dormido was furiously scribbling in her notebook. Each time Trump’s name was mentioned, check. Hunter Biden, check. Ukraine, check. Her process is a cluttered scramble, but the finished product is a clean, easily-digestible series of visuals explaining the debate’s key themes and
- [The host of 'Java with Jimmy' on how a quarantine hobby became a community-based career](https://www.storybench.org/james-jimmy-hills-on-how-a-quarantine-hobby-became-a-community-based-career/) - In a slew of mainstream media, it can be difficult to find a voice that feels familiar and genuine, like a conversation with a next-door neighbor. For James “Jimmy” Hills, the host of “Java with Jimmy,” creating an impact while maintaining authenticity is crucial to his brand and ethos. When Hills went live on Instagram
- [How podcasting helped these social media influencers expand their brand](https://www.storybench.org/the-challenges-and-rewards-of-being-student-social-media-influencers/) - Influencer culture has become increasingly mainstream. From promoting products to sharing lifestyle tips, influencers have created significant online identities and brands to interact with tuned-in users across several platforms. Among them are Caroline and AnnCatherine Conneen, both also enrolled at Northeastern University. The twins share valuable insights into fitness, self-confidence and nutrition on their respective
- [How Qing Wang connects her podcast 'The Weirdo' to a young Chinese audience](https://www.storybench.org/how-qing-wang-connects-her-global-podcast-to-its-audience/) - The rise of podcasts is transforming the way the public in China receives news. As it shrinks the information gaps between different parts of the world, podcasting is a powerful way to fill the demand for foreign affairs coverage among a young audience. Storybench spoke with Qing Wang, founder of the award-winning Chinese podcast, “The
- [The Boston Globe opinion section showed what it's like to be a teenager today using essays, poems and art](https://www.storybench.org/how-kelly-horan-and-heather-hopp-bruce-brought-teen-voices-to-life-in-teens-speak/) - It’s no secret that being a teenager comes with many ups and downs. The Opinion team at The Boston Globe wanted to learn more about what these were, so a simple question was put in the paper: “What is it like to be a teenager today?” Kelly Horan, deputy editor of Globe Ideas, and Heather
- [How The Washington Post uncovered the sources that make AI chatbots sound so smart](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-washington-post-uncovered-the-sources-that-make-ai-chatbots-sound-so-smart/) - How did AI chatbots get so smart? We set out to show our readers at The Washington Post in “Inside the secret list of websites that make AI bots like ChatGPT sound so smart.” Our journey started with an attempt to understand the underlying websites that shape chatbot knowledge. Accessing the data To start, we
- [How Alex Lim visualized the colors of Singapore for The Straits Times](https://www.storybench.org/how-alex-lim-visualized-the-colors-of-singapore-for-the-straits-times/) - How do you break a country down into a color palette? For Alex Lim, it took five months, thousands of photos and intricate coding and data visualization skills. Lim, a data visualization developer at Singaporean newspaper The Straits Times, created an innovative scrollytelling piece that describes and celebrates Singapore’s wide-ranging colors, from Lion Dance Red
- [Smoke, fires, floods: How John Keefe and The New York Times use data to explain extreme weather events](https://www.storybench.org/smoke-fires-floods-how-john-keefe-and-the-new-york-times-use-data-to-explain-extreme-weather-events/) - With Hurricanes Hilary and Idalia lashing California and the South, deadly wildfires in Maui displacing thousands and the smoke from Canadian wildfires blanketing huge areas of the United States, newsrooms across the country have increased their efforts to provide innovative coverage of weather and climate. Last year, The New York Times launched the Weather Data Newsrooms across the country have increased their efforts to provide innovative coverage of weather and climate through data visualizations.
- [How to use R to analyze racial profiling at police stops](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-use-r-to-analyze-racial-profiling-at-police-stops/) - Working as a data journalist for Eye on Ohio, along with a team of reporters at the Cincinnati Enquirer, I developed a project on the role of racial profiling in police stops in Ohio’s largest cities. The work was part of Stanford University’s open policing project. Stanford developed the base R script for this —
- [The song remains the same: How The Pudding used data to uncover sexism in the music industry](https://www.storybench.org/visualizing-sexism-in-the-music-industry-with-the-pudding/) - The Pudding, an online publication that focuses on data journalism, digs into the overlap of gender and songwriting in their article “Women are superstars on stage, but still rarely get to write songs.” Chris Dalla Riva, who writes a newsletter about music and data, discovered that very few songwriters behind hit tracks are women. Storybench
- [How a local nonprofit news organization found its readers on TikTok](https://www.storybench.org/how-a-local-nonprofit-news-organization-found-its-readers-on-tiktok/) - You don’t often run across local news on TikTok, and it’s not because the idea hasn’t hit newsrooms yet. TikTok only recently became a vessel for news outlets to directly disseminate content. The trend started when The Washington Post launched a TikTok account in 2019, eventually becoming a trailblazer in the industry for how to
- [What’s a college worth to you? These data sources go beyond the rankings.](https://www.storybench.org/whats-a-college-worth-to-you-these-data-sources-go-beyond-the-rankings/) - College rankings and university data don’t always paint the full picture. These institutions typically show numbers that look good for them, and ranking sites may only focus on metrics like acceptance rates and graduation rates to determine the “best.” While there are plenty of sources out there — like QS World University Rankings and Times
- [How to begin making your data visualizations more accessible to people with disabilities](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-begin-making-your-data-visualizations-more-accessible-to-people-with-disabilities/) - How can you make data visualizations accessible? What factors should be considered and prioritized? And how do you write alt text when you have a visual that has dozens (or hundreds) of data points? These are questions I'm regularly asked as a consultant and accessibility trainer. This tutorial will help you think about ways to
- [Mapbreaking: Why cartographic flaws can sometimes be a good thing](https://www.storybench.org/mapbreaking-why-cartographic-flaws-can-sometimes-be-a-good-thing/) - I love this ugly map. I found it in a hospital in Baltimore, and at first glance looked over the part where I live and found a dense saturation of pins.
- [How to scrape a table from a website with Python](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-scrape-a-table-from-a-website-with-python/) - Getting information is always the starting point for data journalism. Sometimes, the information we want lives on web pages we come across and Python is a great tool to get it so we can analyze and filter it. This tutorial, based on "Web scraping with Python" by Cody Winchester from the Investigative Reporters and Editors
- [How to analyze the screen times of presidential candidates](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-analyze-the-screen-times-of-presidential-candidates/) - Who and what is being discussed on cable television news can reveal a lot about our current media landscape or political state of affairs. The Stanford Cable TV News Analyzer, built by Stanford University’s Computer Graphics Lab and John S. Knight Fellowship Program, provides the data for us to look at trends in cable news
- [5 ways news organizations are visualizing election data](https://www.storybench.org/5-ways-news-organizations-are-visualizing-election-data/) - Believe it or not, the first presidential primary is only three months away. Let us take a look at five smart ways that news organizations are presenting election data, such as candidates’ profiles, voting demographics and districting, so you can make your data visualizations more powerful and better inform readers. Let users try out different scenarios
- [How animated data visualizations helped the Economic Innovation Group explain the impact of skilled immigration](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-economic-innovation-group-presented-data-on-skilled-immigration-and-its-economic-impacts/) - How do you measure the economic impact of skilled immigrant workers in the United States? The Economic Innovation Group (EIG), which describes itself as a bipartisan organization focused on public policy, recently published a multipart scrollytelling project titled “Immigration Policy Is Innovation Policy” that not only answers that question, but also presents the information in
- [How to get census data in 5 minutes using R and tidycensus](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-get-census-data-in-5-minutes-using-r-and-tidycensus/) - This article was originally published on Medium. Do you get tired of grabbing data directly off of census.data.gov? Or has the Census API been throwing errors in your code? Maybe you are just like the rest of us, wanting to streamline your workflows as much as possible. Well, Dr. Kyle Walker had all of us census
- [How CNN’s foreign correspondent Clarissa Ward uses remote technology and local connections to report abroad](https://www.storybench.org/how-cnns-clarissa-ward-uses-remote-technology-and-local-connections-to-report-abroad/) - When the words “breaking news” are displayed across television screens and news apps, people around the world stop to look, their eyes glued to the screen as they wait for the story to unfold. Clarissa Ward, CNN’s chief international correspondent, currently spearheads the news organization’s global reporting efforts, going wherever the story takes her. Recently,
- [How analytics are driving decisions at The Boston Globe](https://www.storybench.org/how-analytics-are-driving-decisions-at-the-boston-globe/) - In the age of shrinking newsrooms and content powered by artificial intelligence, readership is vital to the livelihood of news media. For The Boston Globe, analytics play a key role in both driving new readership and retaining lifelong readers. From immersive multimedia projects to curated content, the Globe uses a variety of tools to build
- [How The Washington Post turned a year-long investigation into a graphic novel](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-washington-post-turned-a-year-long-investigation-into-a-graphic-novel/) - In August, The Washington Post unveiled vivid findings from a year-long investigation into a disturbing secret at the Smithsonian Institution. To help the powerful story reach a new audience, they used a nontraditional storytelling method: the graphic novel. The Post has experimented with this format before, in stories such as "The Mueller Report Illustrated." Since
- [Opioid pill flood: How The Washington Post presents the American drug crisis](https://www.storybench.org/opioid-pill-flood-how-the-washington-post-presents-the-american-drug-crisis/) - The drug overdose epidemic in the United States is no secret. But how high are the numbers? And where are opioid pills really coming from? The Washington Post’s new article, “How deeply did prescription opioid pills flood your county? See here" addresses those questions, and more, through engaging visualizations. Steven Rich, the database editor for
- [Technology companies and journalists must build public trust of AI together, experts say](https://www.storybench.org/technology-companies-and-journalists-must-build-public-trust-together-around-ai-experts-say/) - “Can we trust AI?” asked Rupal Patel, a Northeastern University professor who also founded synthetic voice company VocaliD. “Who should take responsibility for AI?” Northeastern hosted a celebratory event for the new AI Literacy Lab, Oct. 18. Even after two hours of questions with artificial intelligence scientists and journalists, there were no simple answers to
- [How Alvin Chang designs visualizations for everyone](https://www.storybench.org/how-alvin-chang-designs-visualizations-for-everyone/) - “How do I explain this to my mom?” That’s the question that data journalist Alvin Chang asks himself whenever he creates a piece. He considers how his mother, a first-generation immigrant from Korea who is not fluent in English, would best understand the projects he works on. “It’s very clear that so much of journalism
- [Here are the latest updates on artificial intelligence in journalism](https://www.storybench.org/here-are-the-latest-updates-on-artificial-intelligence-in-journalism/) - #It seems like artificial intelligence is everywhere in the news, particularly in digital journalism circles. Here at Storybench, we're keeping an eye on ongoing developments and will share an occasional round-up of links that might be relevant to you. These insights are brought to you by Northeastern University data professor Rahul Bhargava. Here's what was
- [How Nature visualized the impact of overturning Roe v. Wade](https://www.storybench.org/how-nature-visualized-the-impact-of-overturning-roe-v-wade/) - The Supreme Court had just issued the Dobbs decision, striking down the right to abortion, when Nature editor Brendan Maher reached out to me in June 2022. Was I interested in putting together an infographic showing the impacts of the ruling, he asked? I didn’t hesitate — Dobbs showed that the Supreme Court was willing
- [How to build a map-based guessing game using React and MapBox](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-build-a-map-based-guessing-game-using-react-and-mapbox/) - Introduction This tutorial will explain how to build a version of the Boston public transit mbtaguessr.com app which I developed. In this game, users have to guess the location of an MBTA stop chosen at random on a map without streets or transit lines. The scoring and game structure is similar to GeoGuessr: each guess
- [Here are the updates you need on artificial intelligence in journalism](https://www.storybench.org/here-are-the-latest-updates-on-artificial-intelligence-in-journalism-part-2/) - We’re continuing our series of round-ups on artificial intelligence and journalism. Here are some recent links you might want to read. These insights are brought to you by Northeastern University data professor Rahul Bhargava. Reuters/Oxford and Journalism AI reports on what's happening in newsrooms The Reuters Institute and University of Oxford interviewed more than 40
- [Media Watch: JTA's Ron Kampeas on covering Donald Trump](https://www.storybench.org/media-watch-jtas-ron-kampeas-covering-donald-trump/) - On October 12, Ron Kampeas, the Washington bureau chief for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, spoke at Northeastern University's School of Journalism about reporting in Donald Trump's Washington. Media Watch: Assessing the Press in the Trump Era is a course and audio series devised by Northeastern journalism professor Laurel Leff which brings more than a dozen
- [How The Boston Globe used digital tools to call for new gun laws](https://www.storybench.org/boston-globe-implored-american-people-demand-tougher-gun-laws/) - This article originally appeared on the Society for News Design (SND) website and was written by Kyle Ellis, Director of Strategic Programs for SND. At just after 9 p.m. on Wednesday, June 15, The Boston Globe Opinion team tweeted the front page of the next day’s paper. On it, an AR-15 assault rife, a single bullet hole, and a headline
- [Jaime Settle on how social media polarizes America](https://www.storybench.org/jaime-settle-on-how-social-media-polarizes-america/) - How did we end up being so angry with those who have opposing political views? Back in the 1960s, the split was tiny. The number of Republicans or Democrats who said they would be concerned if their child married someone from another political party was small. But in 2010, about 50 percent of Republicans and
- [How designer Nadieh Bremer teaches herself new skills to continue visualizing data in new ways](https://www.storybench.org/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 and data science. Using mainly D3.js to create her visualizations, Bremer showcases the possibility of visualizing data beyond the common bar charts, line charts or
- [How I visualized “Trump” mentions in hip-hop songs using D3](https://www.storybench.org/how-i-visualized-trump-mentions-in-hip-hop-songs-using-d3/) - Hip-hop is often brutally honest about controversial issues in society – money, guns, drugs, sex and, of course, politics. I found a dataset collected and cleaned by FiveThirtyEight containing the number of 2016 candidates’ names mentioned in hip-hop songs between 1989 to 2016. FiveThirtyEight also collected the name and artist for each song, the lyrics
- [How do you use the Census API to pinpoint data?](https://www.storybench.org/using-the-census-api/) - This article was originally published as an Observable notebook. Searching and parsing variables from the American Community Survey (and other datasets) The Census Data API is an incredible resource that makes a huge universe of data available programmatically. However, it can be hard to find the exact variables you need for your query. Also, commonly reported
- [The Reinventing Local TV News Project is hiring researchers](https://www.storybench.org/the-reinventing-local-tv-news-project-is-hiring-researchers/) - The Reinventing Local TV News Project is back. The initiative, at Northeastern University’s School of Journalism, is aimed at exploring the future of streaming video news content and reaching a younger audience. Now, the project is entering its third phase of research by partnering with three leading news stations across New York, Chicago and Boston..
- [How Aaron Williams visualizes his own story to talk about economic mobility](https://www.storybench.org/how-aaron-williams-visualizes-his-own-story-to-talk-about-economic-mobility/) - The idea of upward mobility in the United States is often defined in terms of money, but it can also be defined in terms of opportunities such as schools, or exposure to certain kinds of thinking or forms of education. It was this thought, paired with a recent move from the East Coast back to
- [Myth: ARIA has perfect support](https://www.storybench.org/myth-aria-has-perfect-support/) - This article was originally on The A11Y Project. Accessible Rich Internet Applications is an extension of HTML. It is a technology that adds roles, states and properties that are designed to help with the accessibility of websites and web apps. Background ARIA works by supplementing, adding, removing or overriding information the browser uses to communicate with
- [How FiveThirtyEight covered the daylight savings discussion](https://www.storybench.org/how-fivethirtyeight-covered-the-daylight-savings-discussion/) - If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, you probably have an opinion on whether or not you like daylight savings time changes. When we set our clocks forward an hour in March every year, we are bound to hear grumbles about dark mornings. American's strong opinions on the topic even led the U.S. Senate to
- [How to clean data with OpenRefine](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-clean-data-with-openrefine/) - If you have ever been tripped up by mistyping or other errors in datasets, OpenRefine could be exactly what you need. As one of the better tools for exploring, cleaning and reshaping data, OpenRefine runs in a web browser, even if you’re offline. At the 2023 Investigative Reporters and Editors conference in Orlando, data specialist
- [How the New York Times visualized the mental struggles Olympians face against fear](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-new-york-times-visualized-the-mental-struggles-olympians-face-against-fear/) - There’s a new generation of athletes on Olympic podiums — but they might not be the fearless daredevils we imagine them to be. Ahead of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, a team of six New York Times reporters set out to answer the question: does fear play a role in the minds of Olympians?
- [How fitness creator Alyssa Pannozzi became a social media trailblazer](https://www.storybench.org/how-fitness-creator-alyssa-pannozzi-became-a-social-media-trailblazer/) - Alyssa Pannozzi is an athlete and fitness instructor at the indoor spin studio Rev'd. Pannozzi has a large social media following, with 250,000 followers across her various platforms — most notably Instagram and TikTok. In addition to teaching 13-20 fitness classes a week and working on the business side of the spin studio, Pannozzi juggles family,
- [Unlocking heartfelt narratives: The power of vulnerability](https://www.storybench.org/unlocking-heartfelt-narratives-the-power-of-vulnerability/) - Journalists and writers differ. The world of journalism doesn't always depend on emotional depth and creativity like traditional storytelling does. Journalistic writing is rooted in truth and clarity — that combination can lead to one-dimensional writing lacking deep themes to analyze or hidden gems to unlock. However, journalism doesn't always have to be that way.
- [Santiago Arau Pontones' bird's eye view: On evoking Mexico's femicides and the art of emotion](https://www.storybench.org/santiago-araus-birds-eye-view-on-evoking-emotion-of-mexican-femicides/) - In 2021, around 81,000 women and girls were killed on the basis of gender globally — of the 81,000, about 45,000 were killed by family members or intimate partners. As the years progress, this number only increases. In Mexico alone, there were 3,155 murders of women from January to October of 2022 — making up
- [Journalist Lindsey Metrus shares her journey with generalized anxiety disorder](https://www.storybench.org/how-journalist-lindsey-metrus-shared-her-journey-with-generalized-anxiety-disorder/) - In the last few years, mental health has rapidly grown as a topic of interest, particularly on the internet. Once stigmatized and too taboo to discuss, sharing personal mental wellness stories is quickly becoming normalized — this helps individuals with feelings of loneliness feel not so alone and makes not being okay 100% of the
- [Adam Davidson talks Mastodon, @Journa.Host, and content moderation](https://www.storybench.org/adam-davidson-on-mastodon-and-journa-host/) - You may recognize Adam Davidson from NPR's "Planet Money" podcast or his reporting in The New York Times, The New Yorker, or Harper's — to name just a few of the outlets he's been published in. Davidson is one of the most successful economics reporters of his generation and has made a name for himself
- [How Laura Morel is helping to uncover the truth behind anti-abortion pregnancy centers](https://www.storybench.org/how-laura-morel-is-helping-to-uncover-the-truth-behind-anti-abortion-pregnancy-centers/) - Women with unwanted pregnancies face one of the most challenging decisions of their lives — being able to explore their options in a non-judgmental, medical setting is therefore crucial in ensuring that women can make these decisions armed with as much knowledge and education as possible. Anti-abortion pregnancy centers are taking away this option from
- [Beyond hashtags: A behind the scenes look at ByHolguin](https://www.storybench.org/beyond-hashtags-a-behind-the-scenes-look-at-byholguin/) - Gone are the days when stories were only told in books, and when influencers were only known for lengthy hauls or how-to videos. Enter 2023 — a time where storytelling and influencing now go hand in hand, and social media platforms and digital creators hold the same power that many news organizations do. Storytelling via
- [Influencer marketing 101: Collaborations, seamless product placement, and authentic narrative](https://www.storybench.org/influencer-marketing-101-collaborations-seamless-product-placement-and-authentic-narrative/) - Have you ever wondered how your favorite content creators partner with brands? How do the products seemingly fit so well into their narrative? As a multi-platform influencer, Holly Reardon, 25, knows the in and outs of working with brands and how to stay authentic through that process. Reardon began her content creation journey on Instagram
- [Liza Donnelly on the power of cartoons](https://www.storybench.org/liza-donnelly-on-the-power-of-cartoons/) - People always say a picture is worth a thousand words. Liza Donnelly took that sentiment to heart, so when it comes to reporting on politics she takes a different approach: cartoons. Political reporting has never been an easy job, and current U.S. politics makes the job even more unapproachable. Consumers don’t want to read formal
- [How the duo behind @twotastebuddiez uses social media to connect with their followers and offer them a seat at the dinner table](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-duo-behind-twotastebuddiez-uses-social-media-to-connect-with-their-followers-and-offer-them-a-seat-at-the-dinner-table/) - Big cities like Boston and New York City present exciting opportunities and new challenges for students and young professionals who are eager for a change of scene. With the expansion of networking and convenience in these places, there also comes the challenge of tracking down the most affordable places to eat and have fun. This
- [Michala Sabnani: The media executive behind Equanimity Podcast and the innovations of South China Morning Post's Morning Studio](https://www.storybench.org/michala-sabnani-the-media-executive-behind-equanimity-podcast-and-the-innovations-of-south-china-morning-posts-morning-studio/) - Michala Sabnani is a media executive with over 12 years of experience in the media industry. She began her career working in television broadcasting at the Asia headquarters of CNN in Hong Kong. There, she quickly identified her passion for storytelling, which led her to become a producer crafting stories and documentaries for the celebrity
- [From radio to TikTok, WBZ News' Matt Shearer is redefining local news](https://www.storybench.org/from-radio-to-tiktok-wbz-news-matt-shearer-is-redefining-local-news/) - There’s no question that news is slowly migrating to TikTok — but different outlets are taking different approaches. For Boston’s WBZ News Radio, radio reporter Matt Shearer is using his fun personality, authentic storytelling abilities, and news-gathering skills to take the station’s account to the next level. As of Monday, Feb. 13, the account has
- [Data journalism? You can do it.](https://www.storybench.org/data-journalism-you-can-do-it/) - Data is still *hot*, but the new skills, math, and technologies can feel overwhelming. In my experience journalism students and professionals approach learning data journalism with both excitement and trepidation. However, over a decade of teaching data literacy to many types of learners I’ve found that journalists are some of the best positioned to dive
- [Digital Storytelling to Support Connective Journalism](https://www.storybench.org/digital-storytelling-to-support-connective-journalism/) - Journalism serves many roles in society - informative, investigative, normative, and more. As the tools and pratices of interactive digital storytelling continue to grow, how can they help the connective role journalism plays in society? Read on for some background and a recent experiment I did in creating a digital story focused on building community
- [Investigating megabits: How Leon Yin and The Markup uncovered the story of ISP inequality and digital redlining](https://www.storybench.org/investigating-megabits-how-leon-yin-and-the-markup-uncovered-the-story-of-isp-inequality-and-digital-redlining/) - In the pandemic transition phase of 2022 and onwards, it has been common for many people’s workdays to take place at home, fully remote. But in most large cities across the United States, the quality of equally-priced internet service experienced in two households just blocks apart can be worlds away. In a recent data-driven investigation,
- [Federica Fragapane on Using Minimalistic Shapes, Lines and Tree Branches to Convey Powerful Stories](https://www.storybench.org/federica-fragapane-on-using-minimalistic-shapes-lines-and-tree-branches-to-convey-powerful-stories/) - Editor’s note: This is the second of two stories featuring information designer Federica Fragapane. This article focuses on design choices for her Hearts and Minds, Key Workers and The Stories Behind a Line projects, and maintaining harmony in data visualizations that accompany stories. It’s no secret that political and media narratives influence public perception of
- [How investigative journalists followed the money in the Pandora Papers](https://www.storybench.org/how-investigative-journalists-followed-the-money-in-the-pandora-papers/) - The day when Miranda Patrucic got a call from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists about the Pandora Papers leak, her jaw dropped.The Pandora Papers are leaked documents that revealed hidden wealth, tax avoidance, and in some cases, money laundering by some of the world’s most powerful government officials, business leaders and celebrities with tax
- [Storytelling + STEM!: Northeastern's new Master of Science (M.S.) in Media Innovation & Data Communication](https://www.storybench.org/storytelling-stem-northeasterns-new-master-of-science-m-s-in-media-innovation-data-communication/) - For years here at Storybench, we've been exploring what you might call the "science of stories." It can seem a paradox: How can something so human as storytelling -- so subjective, so dependent on context, so humanistic -- be something that can be reduced to a few underlying scientific theories or principles? OK, perhaps a
- [How The Washington Post's Angel Mendoza uses Reddit to seek out new audiences](https://www.storybench.org/public-service-journalism-how-the-washington-posts-angel-mendoza-uses-reddit-to-find-new-audiences/) - When Angel Mendoza interacts with other users on Reddit, he’s not doing it behind an anonymous username. He’s u/washingtonpost. That’s part of his job as The Post’s newly-minted social media editor for Reddit. The account has existed since 2017, he said, but Mendoza is the first editor to take the helm as of August 2022,
- [Vox's Emily Stewart on the necessity of financial literacy: 'Money is the most important thing'](https://www.storybench.org/voxs-emily-stewart-on-the-necessity-of-financial-literacy-money-is-the-most-important-thing/) - The current state of the economy is considered convoluted even to those who specialize in the fields of economics, business and finance. Emily Stewart, a senior corespondent at Vox, focuses her reporting on the intersection of politics and finance, aiming to make these topics more accessible and visible to the general public. Stewart authors a
- [Mount Greatness](https://www.storybench.org/mount-greatness/) - The tool I chose to review for this project is called “slices”. Slices is an online platform where one can create, manage, and publish multimedia content accessible to anyone on the web. Slices is a beautifully created software that allows you to create your own interactive stories and publish them in a blink of an
- [USA TODAY's coverage of the 2022 midterms and polarized language on Twitter](https://www.storybench.org/usa-todays-coverage-of-the-2022-midterms-and-polarized-language-on-twitter/) - How does the media usually cover politics? Is it all based on opinion polls or anecdotes or is there a way to simply show the data? For the 2022 midterms, USA TODAY launched a series called Red Words, Blue Words which provides a data-driven look at the campaign trail, based on social media posts from
- [How Marco Hernandez visualized humanity's plastic waste problem — and changed the way we think about pollution](https://www.storybench.org/how-marco-hernandez-visualized-the-planets-plastic-waste-problem/) - Around the world, the human race manufactures and sells nearly 1 million plastic bottles every minute. That means each year, we produce over 480 billion bottles – many of which aren't properly discarded. This rapid pace of plastic production – coupled with deficiencies in the recycling process – continues to pose a significant threat to
- [Deep fake learning: How a University of Washington AI game is teaching us to be better information consumers](https://www.storybench.org/deep-fake-learning-how-a-university-of-washington-ai-game-is-teaching-us-to-be-better-information-consumers/) - Artificial intelligence, or AI, has the capacity to create images of people who have never existed in seconds. A LinkedIn connection, Facebook friend request, or dating profile now has the potential to carry an AI-generated photo. Digitally altered videos called "deep fakes" have employed the likeness of presidents and celebrities so that they appear to
- [How NPR used voicemails to explore national grief 20 years after 9/11](https://www.storybench.org/how-npr-used-voicemails-to-explore-national-grief-20-years-after-9-11/) - Every year, the anniversary of 9/11 comes around again, and news organizations are left wondering how to cover it in a way that has not been done before. Twenty years after the attacks, NPR found an innovative method of telling a story of national grief and exploring what that grief is like for those left
- [A stunning multimedia lens on mass incarceration and its aftermath: The story behind "Facing Life"](https://www.storybench.org/a-stunning-multimedia-lens-on-mass-incarceration-and-its-aftermath-the-story-behind-facing-life/) - After a decade of state prison reform, California has approved record levels of early releases in an attempt to reverse the tide of mass incarceration that saw deadly overcrowding and unlivable conditions become the state prison system’s norm. But what do you do when granted another chance at life? After decades inside, where do you
- [From the frontlines of the meme war: Taraneh Azar pioneers new forms of internet reporting](https://www.storybench.org/from-the-frontlines-of-the-meme-war-taraneh-azar-pioneers-new-forms-of-internet-reporting/) - Everyone is familiar with memes. We share them with our friends, and they're always good for a quick, low-effort laugh. Some people even make their own, and online tools have only enabled that further. This ease of access is incredibly helpful to online communication, and a meme's overall usage for comedy and camaraderie has only
- [Founder of The Pudding and Polygraph, Matt Daniels, on the shift in content consumption and digital storytelling](https://www.storybench.org/pudding_polygraph_daniels/) - Consumer behavior is dynamic and ever-changing. Recently, content consumption within society has shifted from traditional news outlets to smaller newsletters and short, video-based content. Publishers must constantly reconsider the best way to go about their work. Matt Daniels, a writer and founder of The Pudding, an award-winning digital publication, and Polygraph, a data journalism agency within
- [How the Marshall Project presented the thriving underground economy behind bars](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-marshall-project-presented-the-thriving-underground-economy-behind-bars/) - Beth Schwartzapfel is a staff writer for The Marshall Project, a media organization focused on the criminal justice system. Her beat includes addiction and health, probation and parole, and LGBTQ+ issues. Her August 2022 story "Prison Money Diaries: What People Really Make (and Spend) Behind Bars" provides an in-depth look at the informal economy that
- [How Vox and the Pudding used data to follow what happens after TikTok songs go viral](https://www.storybench.org/how-vox-and-the-pudding-used-data-to-follow-what-happens-after-tiktok-songs-go-viral/) - If you’re a TikTok user, then you’re familiar with hearing a snippet of a song you’ve never heard before in a video, and then subsequently hearing that same song under thousands of other videos in your feed in the following weeks. Sometimes this song comes from a completely undiscovered TikTok user who posts for fun.
- [Vox Atlas: Producer Sam Ellis on his distinctive map animations](https://www.storybench.org/vox-atlas-producer-sam-ellis-on-his-map-animations/) - If there's a news story that you may need to draw out on a napkin for it to make sense, it might be a good story for Sam Ellis, senior producer and graphics editor at Vox. In his role, Ellis dedicates most of his time to producing videos that contextualize a story through animation and
- [Scrollytelling innovation: New York Times journalists on climate change, visualization, and intense teamwork](https://www.storybench.org/scrollytelling-innovation-new-york-times-journalists-on-climate-change-visualization-and-intense-teamwork/) - As visual storytelling libraries clutter newsroom servers, multimedia projects involving data visualizations, photos, videos, and even augmented reality components are becoming more and more popular. But it is unclear to today’s up-and-coming journalists whether those interested in reporting are also expected to master these complex technologies. “The Coming California Megastorm,” a New York Times story
- [Breaking down "The Big Bang Theory," Chinese censorship, and data journalism with Manyun Zou](https://www.storybench.org/breaking-down-the-big-bang-theory-chinese-censorship-and-data-journalism-with-manyun-zou/) - Growing up in China, Manyun Zou spent many of her teenage years unwinding with episodes of the popular American sitcom "The Big Bang Theory." Little did she know, her favorite pastime would lead to a powerful data story. While streaming from Youku, a Chinese entertainment company, Zou began noticing inconsistent jump-cuts in the middle of
- [The art of fear: How the YouTube channel 'Spikima Movies’ made film analysis its own cinematic experience](https://www.storybench.org/the-art-of-fear-how-the-youtube-channel-spikima-movies-made-film-analysis-its-own-cinematic-experience/) - Still from Hereditary: What the script teaches us
- [How the Marshall Project dug into the FBI's new crime statistics collection program](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-marshall-project-dug-into-the-fbis-new-crime-statistics-collection-program/) - The process of how crime data is collected by the FBI has significantly changed in the past year. This change has caused an increase in law enforcement agencies not submitting any data, leaving a gap in information that can be exploited by politicians, especially in campaigns. Weihua Li is a data reporter for The Marshall
- [How Felippe Rodrigues at New Zealand's Stuff brought to life a chart of Earth's changing temperature](https://www.storybench.org/how-felippe-rodrigues-at-new-zealands-stuff-brought-a-chart-of-earths-changing-temperature-to-life/) - In conversations about climate change, climate skeptics frequently raise the point that the temperature has always fluctuated and has been on the rise for millennia. In fact, this is true. But the average temperature of the Earth has never risen so drastically or as quickly as it has during the last 100 years. Felippe Rodrigues,
- [How visual storyteller Alvin Chang uses cartoons to illustrate data findings](https://www.storybench.org/how-visual-storyteller-alvin-chang-uses-cartoons-to-illustrate-data-findings/) - After reading an article in ProPublica, Chang decided to break down Facebook’s algorithm and explain to readers how the internet discriminates against certain users. The piece titled "How the internet keeps poor people out of poor neighborhoods," uses a combination of his very own "cartoonsplainers" and interactive media to explain the discriminatory practices. Storybench connected with
- [Finding Embedded Tweets in Online News with Python](https://www.storybench.org/finding-embedded-tweets-in-online-news-with-python/) - Seeing embedded tweets in an online news story has become quite normal. As a platform especially well suited to breaking news, Twitter is a favorite for journalists and politicians alike. Researchers have taken on the question of the use of Twitter in news, leading to published studies and datasets. However, digital news norms continue to
- [Mapping disinformation and igniting insight with Media Cloud’s Emily Boardman Ndulue](https://www.storybench.org/mapping-disinformation-and-igniting-insight-with-media-clouds-emily-boardman-ndulue/) - Editor’s note: Danica Jefferies is a graduate assistant for the Co-Lab for Data Impact and works with Emily Ndulue. Emily Boardman Ndulue recently arrived at Northeastern University, but she has been conducting research for several years, including working alongside interdisciplinary analysts at the MIT Media Lab. In 2018, she joined the Media Cloud project, featuring
- [Update: How to geocode a CSV of addresses in R](https://www.storybench.org/update-how-to-geocode-a-csv-of-addresses-in-r/) - This post is an update from the previous post, “How to geocode a CSV of addresses in R”. We will be using the ggmap package again, and be sure to investigate the usage and billing policy for Google’s Geocoding API. The API now has a pay-as-you-go model, and every account gets a certain number of requests free per month, For
- [How to geocode a csv of addresses in R](https://www.storybench.org/geocode-csv-addresses-r/) - Sometimes all you want are some lat, long coordinates to map your data. The following tutorial shows you how to batch geocode a csv of addresses in R using the ggmap package, which asks Google to geocode the addresses using its API. FYI, the limit is 2,500 queries per day. Not familiar with R or
- [How To: Use investigative techniques to hold algorithms and artificial intelligence accountable](https://www.storybench.org/panel-how-to-use-investigative-techniques-to-hold-algorithms-and-artificial-intelligence-accountable/) - Editor’s note: This article is from virtual reporting from the livestreamed panel on March 3, 2022. Many tech companies, including Silicon Valley giants, are beginning to grapple with the ethics of using algorithms, which can lead to unintended biases in society. At the NICAR 2022 conference, which began Thursday in Atlanta, journalists Surya Mattu and
- [The TV Animator: Chris Chmura Breaking Ground in Traditional Video-Storytelling Methods to Grow Audiences](https://www.storybench.org/breaking-ground-in-traditional-video-storytelling-methods-to-grow-audiences/) - Over the last few years, local television news stations have been finding ways to implement graphics and animation more effectively to tell their stories while trying to engage a younger audience. It’s an effective strategy backed up by research from the Reinventing Local TV News Project at Northeastern University. Newsrooms are hiring animators, designers, and
- [Managing big data for investigating disaster emergency and recovery processes](https://www.storybench.org/managing-big-data-for-investigating-disaster-emergency-and-recovery-processes/) - Editor's note: This article is from virtual reporting from the live streamed panel on March 3, 2022. How do journalists handle big sets of data when they cover natural disasters or climate change related topics? It can be difficult to provide accountability while covering disasters, said Ren Larson, a data reporter with The Texas Tribune
- [Mobile and desktop data reporting tools](https://www.storybench.org/mobile-and-desktop-data-reporting-tools/) - Editor’s note: This article is from virtual reporting from the live streamed panel on March 3, 2022. Journalists need to have good tools on hand at all times for efficient reporting, especially while on the field. Mike Reilley, founder of Journalist's Toolbox and a journalism professor at University of Illinois Chicago, shared a handful of
- [For information designer Tiziana Alocci, it’s all about the process](https://www.storybench.org/for-information-designer-tiziana-alocci-its-all-about-the-process/) - When Tiziana Alocci sits down to work on a design, she doesn’t start by thinking about the end product. Instead, she begins with the data, the message it all conveys and the discovery that’ll come through the design process. Alocci, an information designer and data artist based in London, creates robust visualizations centered around everything
- [Of Data, Theater and Healing: The Art of Federica Fragapane](https://www.storybench.org/of-data-theater-and-healing-the-art-of-federica-fragapane/) - Editor’s note: This is the first of two stories featuring information designer Federica Fragapane. This article focuses on the importance of information design, her attention to detail, collaboration and her relationship with theatrical work that influenced her visualizations. For Federica Fragapane, an independent information designer with a love for theater, combining elements from the two
- [Nadieh Bremer on thinking outside the (x,y) axes](https://www.storybench.org/nadieh-bremer-on-thinking-outside-the-lines/) - When data visualization is taught in the classroom, basic bar charts or scatter plots with trend lines are commonly used. But Nadieh Bremer, a freelance data visualization designer operating under the name Visual Cinnamon, likes to break these conventional rules. From the conception of a potential project to printing the end result, Bremer’s favorite part
- [How Kirell Benzi's data art balances creativity and scientific accuracy](https://www.storybench.org/how-kirell-benzis-data-art-balances-creativity-and-scientific-accuracy/) - Kirell Benzi is a self-taught artist whose art is not only aesthetically pleasing to the eye, but it’s also rooted in data visualization principles and often embedded with a message. Using artificial intelligence, or machine learning, Benzi creates visuals not only with as many as 335 million parameters, but also to generate text and summaries
- [Analyzing gender differences in music themes and lyrics](https://www.storybench.org/analyzing-gender-differences-in-music-themes-and-lyrics/) - Music is a form of self-expression, allowing for a range of human emotions and creativity that can unite people of diverse backgrounds. So it may come as a surprise to some that there are widespread gender differences in the music industry. According to a diversity in music report released by the University of Southern California
- [Assembling a searchable interface of Boston police misconduct data](https://www.storybench.org/assembling-a-searchable-interface-of-boston-police-misconduct-data/) - The public’s desire for transparency about police misconduct in Boston has never been greater, yet the city’s police department makes finding that information difficult. That’s why I built Boston Cop Track, an online prototype documenting police misconduct claims within the city of Boston, designed to serve as a tool for civilian use. A user can
- [Visualizing Uncertainty in the Time of COVID-19: New York University’s Enrico Bertini on the role of uncertainty](https://www.storybench.org/visualizing-uncertainty-in-the-time-of-covid-19-new-york-universitys-enrico-bertini-on-the-role-of-uncertainty/) - Editor’s note: This is the third of three stories Storybench is publishing about the recent “Visualizing Uncertainty” conference at Northeastern University An ongoing issue journalists and graphic designers face as the pandemic drags on is dealing with their own uncertainties about uncertainty. It’s something Enrico Bertini, an associate professor of computer science and engineering at
- [Covering TikTok’s algorithm: How one tech reporter demystified a TikTok trend](https://www.storybench.org/covering-tiktoks-algorithm-how-one-tech-reporter-demystified-a-tiktok-trend/) - Frances Haugen, a former data scientist at Facebook, recently revealed several allegations against the social media giant at a U.S. Senate subcommittee. In gripping testimony, she described how Facebook and Instagram harm young people, purposefully sowing radical divisions and amplifying misinformation in favor of profit. But perhaps the most popular social media company is the
- [ProPublica’s Emily Hopkins encourages students to consider careers in data journalism](https://www.storybench.org/propublicas-emily-hopkins-encourages-students-to-consider-careers-in-data-journalism/) - The way journalists tell stories is constantly evolving, with data increasingly becoming an integral tool for reporting daily news. That’s something journalist Emily Hopkins learned as a graduate student at Northeastern University School of Journalism in Boston. She now works as an Abram Reporting Fellow at ProPublica and she said her data journalism skills are
- [Visualizing Uncertainty in the Time of COVID-19: The New York Times’ Josh Holder on leading with questions when demonstrating uncertainty](https://www.storybench.org/visualizing-uncertainty-in-the-time-of-covid-19-the-new-york-times-josh-holder-on-leading-with-questions-when-demonstrating-uncertainty/) - Editor’s note: This is the second of three stories Storybench is publishing about the recent “Visualizing Uncertainty” conference at Northeastern University. Read the first one here. Visualizing uncertainty with data-rich stories is how New York Times graphics editor Josh Holder and his team tackled reporting the ambiguity that underpinned the COVID-19 pandemic. Holder was part
- [Visualizing Uncertainty in the Time of COVID-19: The Washington Post’s Chiqui Esteban on the Power of Words](https://www.storybench.org/visualizing-uncertainty-in-the-time-of-covid-19-the-washington-posts-chiqui-esteban-on-the-power-of-words/) - Editor’s note: This is one of three stories Storybench is publishing about the recent “Visualizing Uncertainty” conference at Northeastern University At the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic lay uncertainty. For journalists covering the pandemic, finding ways to visualize this uncertainty was particularly challenging. Creating graphics from clear and conclusive data is one thing, but creating
- [How The Scope mapped their way to accessible 2021 Boston election coverage](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-scope-mapped-their-way-to-accessible-2021-boston-election-coverage/) - This year’s Boston mayoral and city council election is being covered in new, dynamic and interactive ways by Boston-based digital experimental magazine, The Scope. Using engaging data visualizations, The Scope has created two accessible and interactive maps within their “A Guide to Boston's 2021 Mayoral & City Council Race” piece by reporter Ha Ta to
- [Lauren Sandler on the ethics of human-interest reporting](https://www.storybench.org/lauren-sandler-on-the-ethics-of-human-interest-reporting/) - Brooklyn-based award-winning journalist and author Lauren Sandler has spent her career considering the ethical implications of human-interest reporting and how to navigate this often tricky corner of the journalism world. Sandler’s new bestselling book, “This Is All I Got: A New Mother’s Search for Home,” is a nonfiction account of a young, single, homeless mother
- [How FiveThirtyEight’s Julia Wolfe addresses data literacy](https://www.storybench.org/how-fivethirtyeights-julia-wolfe-addresses-data-literacy/) - As the demand for a statistically literate workforce grows, the ability to produce data-driven stories increasingly provides journalists with distinctive and cutting edge career paths. Effective visualizations are crucial for clearly communicating substantial amounts of information in often interactive and captivating ways. Julia Wolfe, now a senior data editor, has worked at Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight
- [The proof is in The Pudding: How one online publication is using cutting-edge data visualizations to tell meaningful pop culture stories](https://www.storybench.org/the-proof-is-in-the-pudding-how-one-online-publication-is-using-cutting-edge-data-visualizations-to-tell-meaningful-pop-culture-stories/) - The Pudding is a digital publication that explains ideas debated in culture through visual essays. Founded in 2017, The Pudding dives deep into issues and topics surrounding popular culture and reports on them using cutting-edge data visualizations and interactive design. Using longform data journalism, the publication is known for interactive and experimental stories like "The
- [How stuff.co.nz tells the tale of two pandemics in Auckland with an interactive timeline.](https://www.storybench.org/how-stuff-co-nz-tells-the-tale-of-two-pandemics-in-auckland-with-an-interactive-timeline/) - We have witnessed various stages of COVID-19 response here in the United States. As early surges and lockdowns led to debates over school openings and mask mandates, now we grapple with signs of renewed hope as more people are vaccinated and communities begin to reopen. New Zealand pursued a strategy of “COVID zero,” closing borders
- [Sky-high expectations for The New York Times, but Empire State data visualization falls short](https://www.storybench.org/sky-high-expectations-for-the-new-york-times-but-empire-state-data-visualization-falls-short/) - In light of the gradual reopening of New York City following the COVID-19 pandemic, a team of journalists and data analysts from The New York Times attempted to summarize the impact of the pandemic in an interactive story titled "Why the Empire State Building, and New York, May Never Be the Same" which analyzes the
- [Does better news coverage lead to greater voter engagement? The answer: It depends](https://www.storybench.org/does-better-news-coverage-lead-to-greater-voter-engagement-the-answer-it-depends/) - Meaningful participation in civic life isn’t possible without access to high-quality news and information. Consider the most fundamental aspect of community engagement: voting in local elections. If prospective voters lack the means to inform themselves about candidates for the select board, the city council, the school committee and the like, then it follows that they
- [Zach Silber — how to influence public opinion with data-driven analytics](https://www.storybench.org/zach-silber-how-to-influence-public-opinion-with-analytics/) - What are the best strategies for shaping public opinion? Can organizations persuade people to change their minds? Zach Silber said his company, Kivvit, applies news and social media analytics to inform public advocacy strategies. Silber, the company's chief innovation officer and former political director of the New York Observer, spoke on Thursday, Sept. 30 at
- [TikTok is changing the way journalists share information](https://www.storybench.org/tiktok-is-changing-the-way-journalists-share-information/) - Short-form video-sharing and social networking app TikTok has evolved from a dance-centered social networking service created in 2016 to the often humorous and even informative video blog community it is today. Journalists around the world are utilizing the app to connect with a billion monthly active users in over 150 countries. According to the Wallaroo
- [Reporting on public health crises: Jamie Ducharme's beat from e-cigarettes to global pandemic](https://www.storybench.org/reporting-on-public-health-crises-jamie-ducharmes-beat-from-e-cigarettes-to-global-pandemic/) - Jamie Ducharme could never have predicted the opportunities that would come her way as a reporter. Ducharme, who graduated from Northeastern University’s School of Journalism in 2016, is not only a correspondent at Time magazine but also a newly published author. Ducharme spoke on Sept. 16 at “Pizza, Press & Politics,” an informal speaker series
- [New-age storytelling: How Bianca Graulau used social media to reinvent reporting during the pandemic](https://www.storybench.org/new-age-storytelling-how-bianca-graulau-used-social-media-to-reinvent-reporting-during-the-pandemic/) - The coronavirus pandemic has impacted most industries, forcing professionals to adapt to new forms of remote work culture. Even journalists have had to adapt. This has reinforced the importance of digital platforms in journalism and how reliant people have become on social media as the primary means of communication. While many media publications are still
- [Lance Oppenheim on heightened observational filmmaking and treating sources like performers](https://www.storybench.org/lance-oppenheim-on-heightened-observational-filmmaking-and-treating-sources-like-performers/) - Twenty-four year-old filmmaker, Lance Oppenheim, stuck out like a sore thumb when he moved into America’s largest retirement community. He made his home amongst the retro decor, meticulously groomed golf courses and blocks of identical white-picket-fence lined houses. His neighbors, all over 55, wanted to know whose grandson he was, but Oppenheim wasn’t there to
- [Breaking the traditional TV news storytelling format: A conversation with TV reporter Danae Bucci](https://www.storybench.org/breaking-the-traditional-tv-news-storytelling-format-a-conversation-with-tv-reporter-danae-bucci/) - Danae Bucci is a reporter for Hearst-owned WJCL-TV, the ABC affiliate in Savannah, Georgia as well as a 2020 graduate of Northeastern University. She talks about trying to break the traditional local TV news storytelling format at her reporting job at WJCL, which is in the same station ownership group as Boston’s own WCVB-TV. Bucci
- [Experiential experiment: Abdullah Saeed’s approach to covering taboos](https://www.storybench.org/experiential-experiment-abdullah-saeeds-approach-to-covering-taboos/) - Chances are, you live in a state where cannabis is legal. While the positive or negative impacts of the plant’s legalization are up for debate, the lucrative legal cannabis industry is getting a lot of media attention. There may be no such thing as bad press, but overwhelmingly positive reporting on cannabis legalization risks different
- [How David Schechter sees the future of local climate coverage](https://www.storybench.org/how-david-schechter-sees-the-future-of-local-climate-coverage/) - In November 2019, David Schechter of WFAA-TV Dallas and the award-winning Verify Road Trip video series took conservative Texan Justin Fain on a journey to see if he could convince him that climate change was indeed real. The two went from Texas’ prestigious university campuses to the most adversely affected parts of Alaska to see
- [Using animation to transform the oral history of America](https://www.storybench.org/using-animation-to-transform-the-oral-history-of-america/) - Humans have been telling stories since as far back as we can be traced. Storytelling has evolved from writings on cave walls to troubadours to modern day multimedia platforms that bridge the world. Journalism has played a vital role for decades in keeping people informed and preserving our history and identity. However, in the ways
- [Filmmaker and storyteller Annalise Pasztor on using experimentation in journalism](https://www.storybench.org/filmmaker-and-storyteller-annalise-pasztor-on-using-experimentation-in-journalism/) - TV news has had largely the same storytelling formula for decades. This past year, during a digital age in the middle of a pandemic, where Zoom has become the new form of communication, video storytelling was forced to experiment. From animation to historical content to graphics, news organizations like The Atlantic and The New York
- [Animation and the future of TV news storytelling: A Q&A with Animation Professor Jason Donati](https://www.storybench.org/animation-and-the-future-of-tv-news-storytelling-a-qa-with-animation-professor-jason-donati/) - Substack newsletters. Podcasts. Social media. With every passing year, local TV news is facing new competitive mediums and gradually losing its share of the attention market. But experimental outlets like Vox and VICE News are using animation in their storytelling and proving that video-oriented outlets can engage new and younger audiences. Research from the Reinventing
- [We’re back! Reinventing Local TV News Project results published through RTDNA](https://www.storybench.org/were-back-reinventing-local-tv-news-project-results-published-through-rtdna/) - Hello again, from the Reinventing Local TV News Project at Northeastern! It’s been four years since we started researching the future of local television news. It’s been quite a journey as we’ve examined the types of stories TV stations cover, how they produce their content, and what they can do to innovate and appeal to
- [Exploring climate data using the Python libraries Matplotlib and Pandas](https://www.storybench.org/exploring-climate-data-using-the-python-libraries-matplotlib-and-pandas/) - If you’ve just grabbed a new dataset and you want to look for interesting trends, making some exploratory graphs in Jupyter Notebook is a good way to start. I usually explore data in R Studio, but I wanted to become more familiar with the analysis and graphing capabilities of two Python libraries: Matplotlib and Pandas.
- [Bike-friendly Boston: These five datasets let journalists track the city’s progress](https://www.storybench.org/bike-friendly-boston-these-five-datasets-let-journalists-track-the-citys-progress/) - A bike is a simple contraption, but making cities bike-friendly? Not so easy. After decades of cars dominating the streets, integrating bike-friendly traffic lanes and traffic patterns is a slow process. Nevertheless, Boston aims to increase biking four-fold by 2030, and there are a plethora of data sources available to judge how well the city
- [Mapping toxic waste release sites using the Python library GeoPandas](https://www.storybench.org/mapping-toxic-waste-release-sites-using-the-python-library-geopandas/) - Plotting positional information on maps can reveal geographic trends and makes for an effective visualization to accompany an article. In this tutorial, we’ll use Jupyter Notebook and a Python library called GeoPandas to map where toxic waste was released in Massachusetts in 2019. Parts of this method are adapted from a post that Ryan Stewart
- [How journalists use the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory to report on environmental justice](https://www.storybench.org/how-journalists-use-the-epas-toxics-release-inventory-to-report-on-environmental-justice/) - In 1984, a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, leaked 45 tons of toxic methyl isocyanate gas, killing thousands of people and injuring hundreds of thousands. A few months later, another Union Carbide plant in West Virginia released a mix of less toxic chemicals into the air that caused over 100 people to be
- [Jan Diehm of the Pudding brings human-centered design to storytelling](https://www.storybench.org/jan-diehm-of-the-pudding-brings-human-centered-design-to-storytelling/) - At first glance, crossword puzzles, "gayborhoods," and the fashion industry don’t have much in common, but a look through journalist-engineer Jan Diehm’s portfolio at The Pudding reveals that there are often important stories beneath the surface waiting to be told with a new kind of data and design-informed storytelling. It certainly wouldn’t come as a
- [Boston lacked a system for the public to keep tabs on police, so the Boston Globe built a public database](https://www.storybench.org/boston-lacked-a-system-for-the-public-to-keep-tabs-on-police-so-the-boston-globe-built-a-public-database/) - The killing of unarmed people of color at the hands of the police led to protests and calls for change last summer. As popular support for the Black Lives Matter movement grew, so too came increased scrutiny of members of law enforcement and calls for them to be held accountable for their actions. Seeing this,
- [How Stamen turned a photo archive into an interactive art experience](https://www.storybench.org/how-stamen-turned-a-photo-archive-into-an-interactive-art-experience/) - In 1966, Ed Ruscha mounted a camera to the back of his pickup truck and drove slowly down Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. He photographed every building on each side of the street and assembled the photos into the book Every Building on the Sunset Strip. Ruscha continued to photograph all 23 miles of the
- [The other side with photogrammetry: How Taylor Lorenz went behind the camera with some of LA’s most illustrious influencers](https://www.storybench.org/the-other-side-with-photogrammetry-how-taylor-lorenz-went-behind-the-camera-with-some-of-las-most-illustrious-influencers/) - Taylor Lorenz is no stranger to the enigmatic world of social media. Having jump-started her journalistic career writing for the Atlantic and the Daily Beast, Lorenz, 35, moved into the realm of internet culture and technology before landing her position as a full-time reporter at the New York Times. In 2020, Fortune magazine included her
- [Storybench Founder Aleszu Bajak on the moral call of the pandemic and his return to daily data journalism](https://www.storybench.org/storybench-founder-aleszu-bajak-on-the-moral-call-of-the-pandemic-and-his-return-to-daily-data-journalism/) - After running Storybench at Northeastern for many years, instructor and program manager Aleszu Bajak decided to leverage his knowledge of data and passion for journalism into a senior data reporter role at USA TODAY’s data team. He is a long-time science journalist whose work has influenced many at Northeastern. Bajak has written multiple articles for
- [How Sean Evans made Hot Ones an Internet Sensation](https://www.storybench.org/how-sean-evans-made-hot-ones-an-internet-sensation/) - Hot Ones is a YouTube web series created by Christopher Schonberger and Sean Evans in 2015. The show is produced by First We Feast and Complex Media. It puts the traditional interview show standard on its head as host Sean Evans and celebrity guests go over the celebrity’s career as they both eat increasingly hot
- [How disinformation fuels political polarization](https://www.storybench.org/how-disinformation-fuels-political-polarization/) - Ten years ago, scores of messages and videos about freedom and democracy shared on Twitter and YouTube by activists in Egypt triggered the Arab Spring, which brought permanency to the media’s coverage of digital and social media activism and continues to be actively researched in journalism. Deen Freelon is an associate professor at the University
- [How and why journalists must navigate the uncertainty of political forecasting](https://www.storybench.org/how-and-why-journalists-must-navigate-the-uncertainty-of-political-forecasting/) - How do journalists explain the world of polling and forecasting to the public? This question came into sharp view after the last two presidential cycles and was discussed in a webinar during the Computational and Journalism Symposium co-hosted by Northeastern and the Brown Institute for Media Innovation in February. The “Political Forecasting Meets Journalism” event
- [Newsworthiness in content moderation: Using Media Cloud to look at patterns of attention](https://www.storybench.org/newsworthiness-in-content-moderation-using-media-cloud-to-look-at-patterns-of-attention/) - The moderation of content on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram has increasingly garnered public attention in recent years. It’s not difficult to see why as more of the information we receive comes from these sites, and they continue to influence major political events with large digital footprints such as the 2016
- [The New York Times’ Kevin Roose illustrates how memes radicalize users in online spaces](https://www.storybench.org/the-new-york-times-kevin-roose-illustrates-how-memes-radicalize-users-in-online-spaces/) - Valerie Gilbert is a Harvard-educated New Yorker and self-proclaimed “meme queen.” A QAnon soldier, Gilbert spreads information far and wide, fighting the global cabal of “Satanic pedophiles” that former President Donald Trump has been recruited by top military generals to dismantle. Her medium of choice, of course, is virtual ephemera in the form of internet
- [How the Boston Globe encouraged readers to support restaurants through #ProjectTakeout](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-boston-globe-encouraged-readers-to-support-restaurants-through-projecttakeout/) - On Jan. 15, the Boston Globe launched Project Takeout, an initiative spearheaded by food writer Devra First, which encourages Boston residents to order takeout and support the restaurant industry while in the midst of the pandemic. The project features a variety of stories that highlight different restaurants in the Boston area and present the issues
- [C+J 2021: How the COVID-19 pandemic has shaped data journalism](https://www.storybench.org/cj-2021-how-the-covid-19-pandemic-has-shaped-data-journalism/) - As COVID-19 cases surged throughout the last year, so did data visualizations. Graphical concepts like flattening the curve became household terms, and even non-epidemiologists began talking about R numbers and exponential growth. “It was the first time I had seen data journalism and visualization making their way into everyday language,” said multimedia journalist Javier Sauras.
- [How Lazaro Gamio of the New York Times visualized the COVID-19 death toll](https://www.storybench.org/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 data throughout the pandemic, and turning these numbers into graphics we can comprehend. In early February, the Times published “How 450,000 Coronavirus Deaths Added Up”
- [How the Wall Street Journal conducted a video investigation into the role of the Proud Boys at the Capitol](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-wall-street-journal-conducted-a-video-investigation-into-the-role-of-the-proud-boys-at-the-capitol/) - On Jan. 6, 2021, the United States Capitol was breached and stormed by supporters of Donald Trump to protest the results of the 2020 presidential election. Of the many participating groups, the Proud Boys, a white supremacist group, appeared to be particularly prominent, despite their ongoing denial of significant collusion or instigation. The Wall Street
- [How the Parametric Press explains the environmental cost of digital consumption](https://www.storybench.org/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? There are environmental costs when the packages purchased on Amazon are transported through warehouses and shipping centers to get to our homes. In a similar
- [The New York Times' Stuart A. Thompson on opinion writing and making a career in journalism](https://www.storybench.org/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 on Jan. 26 which featured audio bytes in place of quotes – making the story an interactive and immersive experience. The piece is a first-person
- [The creator of Slow Burn and Fiasco on why you should try podcasting](https://www.storybench.org/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 speaker series presented by the Journalism School at Northeastern University, Neyfakh and co-producer Sam Graham-Felsen urged prospective podcasters to follow in their paths. Neyfakh conceptualized
- [How Reuters visualized the influence of K-pop on social justice issues](https://www.storybench.org/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 country. Many artists and celebrities, as well as ordinary people, have been spreading awareness for these causes, too. The Mobilizing Power of the BTS Army written by Aditi
- [Behind the scenes at 'How to Save a Planet,' a climate solutions podcast](https://www.storybench.org/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 Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, marine biologist and climate policy expert, and Alex Blumberg, co-founder and CEO of Gimlet Media. The show’s first season began in
- [A group project in the age of COVID: What worked, what didn’t, and what we learned about making it better](https://www.storybench.org/a-group-project-in-the-age-of-covid-what-worked-what-didnt-and-what-we-learned-about-making-it-better/) - The COVID pandemic made the fall semester a challenge for everyone. As someone who teaches journalism, I found that challenge to be especially acute. I wanted to give my intermediate-reporting students the same real-life experience as I have with my previous classes, but I needed to do it with the understanding that pavement-pounding and door-knocking were out of the question. The previous
- [Join Us Soon! Computation + Journalism Conference: Data Journalism in an Expanded Field](https://www.storybench.org/join-us-soon-computation-journalism-conference-data-journalism-in-an-expanded-field/) - Who will be there, and why you should be there, too. Virtually, of course.
- [How the podcast ‘Science Vs’ investigated a 1971 virus conspiracy](https://www.storybench.org/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 contain the spread of the African swine fever virus, which is deadly to pigs but not a health risk to humans. To some people, this
- [Quarant-TV: How Traditional Outlets Can Win in an Age of Uncertainty](https://www.storybench.org/quarant-tv-how-traditional-outlets-can-win-in-an-age-of-uncertainty/) - The coronavirus pandemic has devastated many industries. But according to recent statistics, TV news isn’t one of them. In fact, this challenging circumstance may be just the wakeup call stations need to reverse dwindling viewership and breathe new life into the medium. Audience research and consulting firm SmithGeiger has been working with Northeastern’s Reinventing Local
- [How the Wall Street Journal visualized the 2020 election results](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-wall-street-journal-visualized-the-2020-election-results/) - Each time an election year dawns, it brings changes – the candidates campaigning, how the battleground states are polling, and, of course, changes in our national obsession: election maps. But even before 2020 arrived, the Wall Street Journal was having conversations about designing maps. In fact, they were brainstorming around November 2019 — a full
- [How IndyStar's Emily Hopkins helped break a nursing home scandal in Indianapolis](https://www.storybench.org/how-indystars-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 data collection, the importance of data visualization for complex subjects, and how smaller newsrooms handle investigative and resource heavy stories. Hopkins graduated from Northeastern University
- [How we used math to explore racial segregation in Pennsylvania public school districting](https://www.storybench.org/how-we-used-math-to-explore-racial-segregation-in-pennsylvania-public-school-districting/) - American life is based on American thought. American thought is based on American values. And American values have a foundation in the public school system. So what happens when the American public school system is flawed? Although the “separate but equal” school system was deemed unconstitutional in the 1954 ruling Brown v. Board of Education,
- [How the Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism is reporting on water access around the world](https://www.storybench.org/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 people lacking access to basic drinking water. That’s why “H2OFAIL,” the Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism’s current investigation, is focusing on the causes and consequences
- [How Cultural Survival is mapping the impact of the pandemic on Indigenous communities](https://www.storybench.org/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 map that documents outbreaks in Indigenous populations around the world. The project is led by Bia’ni Madsa’ Juárez López, a 31-year-old biologist and project manager
- [How Nature magazine visualized 150 years of scientific discovery](https://www.storybench.org/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 set of exclusive analyses, and a “data movie,” users can explore the entire network of multidisciplinary research published throughout the journal’s history. "150 Years of
- [Four tips from the Wall Street Journal's Yan Wu on visualizing police data](https://www.storybench.org/four-tips-from-the-wall-street-journals-yan-wu-on-visualizing-police-data/) - News organizations interested in exploring different ways to cover policing can draw inspiration from a piece by Yan Wu, a graphics reporter at the Wall Street Journal and alumna of the Media Innovation graduate program at Northeastern's School of Journalism, on New Jersey police officers that use excessive force. After graduating, Wu worked with NJ.com
- [How the Boston Globe's Mark Shanahan made a podcast about his battle with prostate cancer](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-boston-globes-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 one in nine men according to the American Cancer Society: prostate cancer. The goal was to take an honest, nonclinical approach to the disease to
- [How interactive, visual storytelling helps readers better retain information](https://www.storybench.org/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 the New York Times’ “You Draw It?” The quantity and quality of interactive, visual storytelling has grown tremendously over recent years, boosting learning and engagement
- [How Kate Sosin told the story of transgender individuals in California prisons](https://www.storybench.org/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 on queer stories focus on bringing marginalized voices to the front. Queer media is expanding, and historically underrepresented groups of journalists use their lived experience
- [How Stuff.co.nz told the story of New Zealand's coronavirus lockdown](https://www.storybench.org/how-stuff-co-nz-told-the-story-of-new-zealands-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 computer graphics to demonstrate the effectiveness of New Zealand’s precautionary measures against the coronavirus, while walking the viewer step-by-step through the data. Rodrigues, a former
- [Journalists don't need to do what a bot does](https://www.storybench.org/journalists-dont-need-to-do-what-a-bot-does/) - Last August I decided to hire a journalist to produce content for a project. This person would help me with social media posts, newsletters and reports, with the goal of providing other journalists with scientific knowledge coming from social media. After a few weeks, having worked on the budget and the targets I had in
- [Analyzing the top links, domains, and keywords from 29 million tweets about Covid-19](https://www.storybench.org/analyzing-the-top-links-domains-and-keywords-from-29-million-tweets-about-covid-19/) - Today, in collaboration with Lazer Lab at Northeastern University's Network Science Institute, I published an interactive dashboard exploring the prevalence of Covid-19 news and misinformation on Twitter. The analysis is based on 29 million tweets collected between January 1 and September 30, 2020 from over half a million registered American voters for whom we have
- [How the Allen Coral Atlas is mapping and monitoring coral reefs worldwide](https://www.storybench.org/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 survive on coral reefs for income, and their economic value in the U.S. is estimated at $3.4 billion each year. More importantly, healthy coral reefs
- [Pandemic news coverage is falling, but cases keep rising](https://www.storybench.org/pandemic-news-coverage-is-falling-but-cases-keep-rising/) - The Covid-19 pandemic has yielded unprecedented media coverage. Over the last six months, no single topic has taken over online news quite like the coronavirus has. In fact, at its peak in late March, almost 75% of all stories in top U.S. online media sources mentioned coronavirus in some way. But that attention seems to
- [How The New York Times visualized racist historical redlining and urban heat](https://www.storybench.org/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 urban heat across U.S. cities today. The project, led by Times climate graphics editor Nadja Popovich and Times climate reporter Brad Plumer, opens with a
- [How The New York Times is tracking Covid-19 cases in the U.S.](https://www.storybench.org/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 70 in-house and freelance journalists for data collection and design of Covid-19 cases for U.S. counties and states. In January, Times graphics editors and international
- [How Circle of Blue investigated freshwater issues in Texas](https://www.storybench.org/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 caps, out of human reach. The limited freshwater resources that we do have access to — groundwater, lakes, rivers and ponds — are shrinking under
- [Reopen schools narrative spreads across shadowy local news sites](https://www.storybench.org/reopen-schools-narrative-spreads-across-shadowy-local-news-sites/) - Americans are divided about reopening schools this fall and polls show that this disagreement falls along party lines with Republicans more in favor of children returning to schools. Which is why it wasn't surprising when we found a pro-school reopening narrative popping up this summer on a large network of local and business news websites
- [How NASA’s Earth Matters blog sparks conversations with satellite images](https://www.storybench.org/how-nasas-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 pictures and mails sent in by readers. Among these, the EO Satellite Puzzler stands out for the way it engages with the readers. Since May
- [How FlowingData's Nathan Yau thinks about data stories](https://www.storybench.org/how-flowingdatas-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 mix of traditional data analysis, compelling visualizations and commentary on popular visualizations published around the web. Yau’s own projects cover a wide field, from labor
- [Animating the pandemic: TV storytelling techniques in the time of Covid](https://www.storybench.org/animating-the-pandemic-tv-storytelling-techniques-in-the-time-of-covid/) - The global Covid-19 pandemic has forced every industry to evolve as a new normal sets in. This is no different for local television news. Having to work from home, tell stories with limited visual elements, and not get close to any story subjects provides an extra layer of difficulty for those out in the field.
- [How The New York Times produced a visual explainer of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus](https://www.storybench.org/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 SARS-CoV-2, based on an analysis of an early strain isolated from a patient in Wuhan, China. The project is one of several visual explainers of
- [How to calculate a rolling average in R](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-calculate-a-rolling-average-in-r/) - Rolling or moving averages are a way to reduce noise and smooth time series data. During the Covid-19 pandemic, rolling averages have been used by researchers and journalists around the world to understand and visualize cases and deaths. This post will cover how to compute and visualize rolling averages for the new confirmed cases and
- [How The New York Times visualized trends in white extremist attacks](https://www.storybench.org/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 the data, the Times' Weiyi Cai and Simone Landon reveal the troubling frequency and, in some cases, strange connections between the events. Storybench spoke with
- [How Gimlet's Science Vs podcast produced a season on Covid-19](https://www.storybench.org/how-gimlets-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 has been able to provide listeners with thoughtful answers to questions like “Should I Disinfect Everything?” and “Was It Made In A Lab?” For over
- [How Radiolab produced “Gonads,” a podcast series on human reproduction](https://www.storybench.org/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, which features an ethereal soundtrack, has six parts that cover scientific and personal stories on ovarian tissue freezing, sex chromosomes, sex determination, sex organs and
- [How Paraguay’s El Surti is adapting to the age of Covid-19, boosting its fact-checking on Whatsapp and launching a new podcast](https://www.storybench.org/how-paraguays-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 digital-native media organization was built to serve a younger population with illustrations, vivid colors and infographics that synthesized and described the issues of the day
- [How Núcleo Jornalismo is tracking Brazilian politicians on Twitter](https://www.storybench.org/how-nucleo-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 presidential run in 2022, Bolsonaro was interfering with the justice department. Last month Bolsonaro also fired his health minister, Luiz Henrique Mandetta, for contradicting the
- [Behind the Sports Illustrated COVID-19 Issue](https://www.storybench.org/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 the coronavirus on March 11, the sports world shockwaves were swift. The NBA postponed its season within a couple of hours. A few days later
- [How Reuters Visualized the Chilean Economic Crisis](https://www.storybench.org/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 at the Los Angeles Times, Levine, 24, moved on to become a data visualization fellow for ProPublica before landing her current position as a full-time
- [A roundup of coronavirus dashboards, datasets and resources](https://www.storybench.org/a-roundup-of-coronavirus-dashboards-datasets-and-resources/) - Access and availability of data on the novel coronavirus and the disease it causes, Covid-19, are essential for understanding how the virus spreads, who is most likely to get it, and how to keep them safe. This post is an attempt to round up a list of dashboards, datasets, media, and resources reporters and researchers
- [How Tifo Football is making soccer analytics easier to digest](https://www.storybench.org/how-tifo-football-is-making-soccer-analytics-more-easy-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 used more frequently in football, both in the front offices and by the media reporting on the sport. Football clubs and journalists alike are always
- [Behind the scenes of the alt-right with The New Yorker's Andrew Marantz](https://www.storybench.org/behind-the-scenes-of-the-alt-right-with-the-new-yorkers-andrew-marantz/) - Originally published at the Northeastern University Political Review. Thinkpieces on Donald Trump’s election and its underlying forces are like hard liquor. On November 8, 2016, as Trump’s victory shifted from implausible to unlikely to possible to probable to inevitable, Twitter responded in real time. It doesn’t take many words or much thought to tweet, so
- [The challenging — and delicious — adventures of producing the first America's Test Kitchen podcast](https://www.storybench.org/the-challenging-and-delicious-adventures-of-producing-the-first-americas-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 food came to be. That's the idea behind America's Test Kitchen first podcast, “Proof.” After almost eight years of working in America's Test Kitchen —
- [How NBC10 Boston anchor Phil Lipof got "hooked" on news](https://www.storybench.org/how-nbc10-boston-anchor-phil-lipof-got-hooked-on-news/) - When Phil Lipof was attending Syracuse University, he planned to become an English teacher. Little did he know that he would first become a TV reporter and then the news anchor on NBC10 Boston. The 46-year-old Lipof, who grew up in Newton, shared his story at “Pizza, Press & Politics,” a weekly speaker series sponsored
- [Audio storyteller Molly Segal on reporting in the wild](https://www.storybench.org/audio-storyteller-molly-segal-on-reporting-in-the-wild/) - Molly Segal strolled into the classroom wearing a black turtleneck, baggy green pants, and fashionable brown boots. The classroom and her clothes were far different than her everyday work and clothing. Segal, an audio journalist, lives near Banff National Park, within Canada’s famous Rocky Mountains, and is often clad in sporty gear that prepares her
- [How the Pudding analyzed YouTube "vlogpologies"](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-pudding-analyzed-youtube-vlogpologies/) - What does a YouTuber do if they're caught in a scandal? Usually, they'll film themselves explaining that they're sorry and how they intend to change, and then upload the apology video online in hopes of being forgiven, and perhaps adding more followers. Russell Goldenberg and Arjun Kakkar of The Pudding dissected 34 YouTube apology videos,
- [How "The Cut On Tuesdays" Became a Successful Experiment in Audio](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-cut-on-tuesdays-became-a-successful-experiment-in-audio/) - In December, The Cut on Tuesdays wrapped its final episode. The podcast was the first audio experiment of The Cut, a New York Media fashion and lifestyle publication, produced in collaboration with Gimlet Media. Running for just over a year, The Cut on Tuesdays was anything but safe, with episodes covering topics like sexual assault,
- [How Vox explained China’s Belt and Road Initiative](https://www.storybench.org/how-vox-explained-chinas-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 Road that goes beyond just trade and investment. Sam Ellis is one of the producers at Vox who is driving the new era of online
- [How the 'Visual Communication Guy' made impeachment easier to understand](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-visual-communication-guy-made-impeachment-easier-to-understand/) - “Impeachment” was the ultimate buzzword in politics for several months before the U.S. Senate voted to acquit President Donald Trump earlier this month. The United States population hears this word and, while many recognize the importance of it, some may not understand the complexities of how it works. The political world can be overwhelming with
- [How The New York Times is visualizing the smartphone tracking industry](https://www.storybench.org/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 partners have joined a lucrative industry at the expense of the privacy of smartphone users. It’s an issue of national security, and it’s virtually unregulated.
- [How Northeastern's Samuel Scarpino built a live map tracking the coronavirus outbreak](https://www.storybench.org/how-northeasterns-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 spreading disease. Scarpino spoke with Storybench about how he built this live map. Are there any predictions as to whether the virus will continue spreading?
- [CampaignTech Innovation Summit: Discussing "ground rules" for digital political ads](https://www.storybench.org/campaigntech-innovation-summit-discussing-ground-rules-for-digital-political-ads/) - The CampaignTech Innovation Summit gathers the top revolutionaries of digital politics, advocacy and technology for a two-day conference consisting of panels, presentations and networking sessions. For those wanting a behind scenes look at the newest digital strategies, tactics, and tools – as well as a chance to meet the minds behind them – this is
- [How the Wall Street Journal developed its make-your-own hedcut feature](https://www.storybench.org/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 Journal, they typically use these hedcuts to depict notable subjects in stories or the journalists who wrote them, and they’re seen on the Journal’s
- [Behind the scenes of the Vox web series "Borders"](https://www.storybench.org/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 motion graphics with powerful visual and cinematic content that explains complex global issues in a profound but relatable way. Harris earned his bachelor's degree from
- [The Guardian wants to know what global sustainability goals you would prioritize](https://www.storybench.org/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 years away from the UN’s targeted goal, the question arises: How much progress have these countries made? The Guardian kicked off 2020 answering this question.
- [A look inside the Boston Globe's immersive Cape Cod project](https://www.storybench.org/a-look-inside-the-boston-globes-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 show readers how climate change is drastically changing this popular vacation destination. He spent months on the Cape, speaking to residents and workers and learning
- [How Vox visualized sea and land ice loss over the last decade](https://www.storybench.org/how-vox-visually-traced-the-effects-of-global-warming-over-the-last-decade/) - Last December, Vox published a piece that uses interactive images and charts to visualize the loss of sea and land ice over the last decade. The reporter, Umair Irfan, focuses on areas such as Iceland, where the Okjökull glacier has melted substantially from 1986 to 2019, and the poles. Irfan spoke to Storybench about the
- [How the Wall Street Journal made the College Board's adversity scores interactive](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-wall-street-journal-made-the-college-boards-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, the admissions scheme mastermind, $15,000 to boost her child’s SAT scores. Amid the flurry of discussions over the many cases that came out of Singer’s
- [How ClaimReview is simplifying the process of fact-checking](https://www.storybench.org/how-claimreview-is-simplifying-the-process-of-fact-checking/) - One of the biggest challenges facing journalism today is the prominence and spread of unverified facts and misinformation. In an era marked by fake news, it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish the accurate from the inaccurate. That is why Joel Luther and the team at the Duke Reporters’ Lab collaborated with Google to create
- [The Atlantic Selects brings short docs to a wider audience](https://www.storybench.org/the-atlantic-selects-brings-short-docs-to-a-wider-audience/) - Branded as a “showcase of cinematic short documentary films,” The Atlantic Selects is a one-woman show run by film curator and journalist Emily Buder. The series, which currently consists of about 220 videos, has been running for two and a half years and was created by Buder, who is in charge of finding unique films,
- [How The New Yorker’s augmented reality feature gave voices to ordinary items](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-new-yorkers-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 new opportunities for in-depth reporting. Last November, The New Yorker Today app introduced an AR feature, “Animate Objects.” It brings pre-selected inanimate objects – a
- [How the Times' Conor Dougherty tells the story of California's trillion-dollar housing crisis](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-times-conor-dougherty-tells-the-story-of-californias-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 the Bay Area, but not enough affordable housing to go with it. Conor Dougherty, a reporter for the New York Times, dived into how the
- [What the Covid-19 pandemic looks like through the lenses of 18 Latin American photographers](https://www.storybench.org/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. A few weeks ago, as the virus began to spread in Latin American countries, 18 photographers began collaborating on a collective project named COVID LATAM.
- [Reporters often cover traumatic events but discussions of mental health are rare in most newsrooms. That's changing.](https://www.storybench.org/reporters-often-cover-trauma-but-discussions-of-mental-health-are-rare-in-most-newsrooms-thats-changing/) - Journalists who are frequently first responders at harrowing scenes of devastation and human suffering are primed to develop post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, depression and anxiety – the “big four” of trauma-related mental illnesses. “Society in general has this idea of the journalist as this objective calloused, unaffected person who just does not get affected
- [Telling stories on Instagram: A Q&A with Neil Shea](https://www.storybench.org/telling-stories-on-instagram-a-qa-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 that has continued to evolve as he has focused on becoming an Instagram storyteller. Being a pioneer in digital storytelling and the first writer to
- [How to shift Alaska and Hawaii below the lower 48 for your interactive choropleth map](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-shift-alaska-and-hawaii-below-the-lower-48-for-your-interactive-choropleth-map/) - Last month, the Harvard Global Health Institute collaborated with The New York Times and ProPublica to publish a model estimating the capacity of hospitals across the United States to cope with Covid-19 infections in the coming months. Both newsrooms published a series of maps plotting the nine scenarios modeled by the Harvard researchers across more
- [How the Washington Post logs fatal police shootings in the U.S.](https://www.storybench.org/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 police shootings in the country. The Washington Post created a page with a database, charts, graphs, and maps to inform and illustrate the scope of
- [Introducing the Experimental Storytellers](https://www.storybench.org/introducing-the-experimental-storytellers/) - Hello again from Northeastern University’s Reinventing Local TV News Project. It’s been a busy year since we released our research report, which identified new ways television newsrooms can work to grow their audience both on-air and online. The next phase of our research is now underway. With the continued support of the Stanton Foundation, we’ve created a brand-new position, a Visual
- [What I learned applying data science to U.S. redistricting](https://www.storybench.org/what-i-learned-applying-data-science-to-u-s-redistricting/) - Deciding whether to reelect President Donald Trump isn’t the only choice Americans will have to make when they head to the voting booths this November. More than 5,000 state lawmakers are up for election and that means voting in legislators that will determine how Congressional and state House and Senate districts will be redrawn in
- [From J-School to the mayor's office: One Northeastern graduate's journey](https://www.storybench.org/from-j-school-to-the-mayors-office-one-northeastern-graduates-journey/) - Samantha Ormsby, the press secretary for Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, recently visited Northeastern University to discuss her journey from studying journalism to working in public relations. Ormsby, who has a degree in journalism from Northeastern, spoke to students at “Pizza, Press, and Politics,” a weekly speaker series sponsored by the Northeastern University School of Journalism.
- [Boston Globe consumer advocacy reporter stands up for the "regular Joe"](https://www.storybench.org/boston-globe-consumer-advocacy-reporter-stands-up-for-the-regular-joe/) - A news story must have a “Hey Mah-tha” factor in order to generate a strong reaction, said Sean P. Murphy, a 32-year Boston Globe veteran, who is now a consumer advocacy reporter for the newspaper. Murphy was pointing to that moment when a reader shouts, in a thick Boston accent, to their wife, Martha, to
- [“The alternative media, the independent media is very important around here.”](https://www.storybench.org/the-alternative-media-the-independent-media-is-very-important-around-here/) - Despite the challenges facing journalism, the free weekly alternative newspaper DigBoston and its editors remain devoted to providing local coverage and perspectives that are not often heard – even if everyone else thinks they’re crazy for it. Chris Faraone and Jason Pramas, the editors and associate publishers of DigBoston, spoke at “Pizza, Press & Politics,”
- [“I love writing profiles of people.”](https://www.storybench.org/i-love-writing-profiles-of-people/) - Glenn Rifkin has an unusual job. He writes “advance” obituaries for the New York Times. That means he writes obits on people before they have died. Sometimes he even interviews them before their death. Rifkin, who also writes books, spoke on Jan. 16 at “Pizza, Press & Politics,” a weekly speaker series hosted by the
- [Five ways organizations are visualizing carbon emissions](https://www.storybench.org/five-ways-organizations-are-visualizing-carbon-emissions/) - Climate change is a global issue and scientists and journalists alike are increasingly making climate-related data more visible and accessible. Understanding the major causes and contributors to emissions of CO2, the most prevalent of greenhouse gases, through data visualizations can help corporations, governments and the public address areas in need of reduced environmental impact. Here
- [How The Washington Post used text, video and audio to convey the emotional complexity behind border walls](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-washington-post-used-different-mediums-to-convey-the-emotional-complexity-behind-border-barriers/) - Last October, in order to depict the effects physical barriers around the world are having on human migration, The Washington Post published "Fenced Out," a three-episode interactive project that used text, video and audio to illustrate the concept of division – between people and countries – which looked at eight nations across three continents. The
- [How The New York Times broke down the history of the NYC subway map](https://www.storybench.org/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 click-through format, the story follows the lines of the subway with animation and provides background on certain aspects of the map's development and past. All
- [How I visualized hundreds of ballot proposition outcomes with R Shiny](https://www.storybench.org/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 on ride-hailing apps to support public transit. In some years, voters make decisions on over 30 propositions at the local, regional or state level. And
- [How to use hierarchical cluster analysis on time series data](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-use-hierarchical-cluster-analysis-on-time-series-data/) - Which cities have experienced similar patterns in violent crime rates over time? That kind of analysis, based on time series data, can be done using hierarchical cluster analysis, a statistical technique that, roughly speaking, builds clusters based on the distance between each pair of observations. Basically, in agglomerative hierarchical clustering, you start out with every
- [How The Christian Science Monitor combines values, empathy and digital storytelling innovation](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-christian-science-monitor-combines-values-empathy-and-digital-storytelling-innovation/) - Since its inception in the early 1900s, The Christian Science Monitor has been a force in journalism, adhering to its values of solutions-based, human-focused and empathetic reporting. Until recently, the editorially independent outlet has been largely print-focused –– and that’s where Samantha Laine Perfas, the Monitor’s story team leader, comes in. Since January, Perfas has
- [Diagnosing the accuracy of your linear regression in R](https://www.storybench.org/diagnosing-the-accuracy-of-your-linear-regression-in-r/) - In this post we’ll cover the assumptions of a linear regression model. There are a ton of books, blog posts, and lectures covering these topics in greater depth (and we’ll link to those in the notes at the bottom), but we wanted to distill some of this information into a single post you can bookmark
- [How to collect tweets from the Twitter Streaming API using Python](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-collect-tweets-from-the-twitter-streaming-api-using-python/) - Twitter provides a comprehensive streaming API that developers can use to download data about tweets in real-time, if they can figure out how to use it effectively. In this tutorial, we’re going to retrace the steps I took to set up a server to collect tweets about hate speech as they occur to create a
- ["Always be willing to learn new topics and skills."](https://www.storybench.org/always-be-willing-to-learn-new-topics-and-skills/) - Gal Tziperman Lotan, a reporter for the Boston Globe, recently visited Northeastern University to discuss the intricacies of covering metro Boston, which can range from covering meetings to murders. Lotan, who graduated from Northeastern University’s School of Journalism as an undergrad in 2012, was the guest speaker on Oct. 24 at the “Pizza, Press &
- [How news media are setting the 2020 election agenda: Chasing daily controversies, often burying policy](https://www.storybench.org/how-news-media-are-setting-the-2020-election-agenda-chasing-daily-controversies-often-burying-policy/) - It’s a paradox of examining political coverage. Are news media just reporting what the political candidates are talking about? Or does political journalism really set the agenda by selecting stories around specific news items, scandals and issues du jour? Our topic analysis of ~10,000 news articles on the 2020 Democratic candidates, published between March and
- [How The Boston Globe is using a suite of niche products to cover the booming business of marijuana](https://www.storybench.org/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 of weed – tens of thousands of readers already subscribed to the Globe’s free Saturday morning newsletter, “This Week In Weed,” popular for its conversational
- [How PopSci's "The Weirdest Thing I Learned This Week" podcast is making science accessible](https://www.storybench.org/how-popscis-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 in its third season, the show is a wild ride of strange bits of knowledge that the editors and writers at Popular Science come across
- [How Vox visualized segregation in the United States](https://www.storybench.org/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 segregation in both the workplace and the home in his story “American segregation, mapped at day and night.” Using data provided by researchers at Cornell
- [How The Pudding visualized the prevalence of hyphenated names in sports](https://www.storybench.org/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 last name is everything. He explained in a 2014 interview that his grandfather was his biggest inspiration growing up, constantly reminding his grandson that "the
- [How the New York Times visualized auto carbon emissions in the U.S. and your city](https://www.storybench.org/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 all about clarifying. A recent New York Times piece, “The Most Detailed Map of Auto Emissions in America,” does precisely that. Using Boston University’s Database
- [Covering gun violence and national politics: Talking topic and tone with Channel 9 Denver's Marshall Zelinger](https://www.storybench.org/covering-gun-violence-and-national-politics-talking-topic-and-tone-with-channel-9-denvers-marshall-zelinger/) - There has been a lot of discussion in the journalism community over how we can use engaging graphics and techniques to grow our audience. One thing we can't leave out, however, is the issue of subject. It's not just about how we tell stories, but why we tell them. This is something that audiences want
- [How Northeastern researchers are visualizing the presidential debates](https://www.storybench.org/how-northeastern-researchers-are-visualizing-the-presidential-debates/) - Don’t have time to watch the debates? It can be tricky to find a recap that accurately represents exactly what took place. That's why Laura South, a PhD candidate studying data visualization, and Northeastern University professor Michelle Borkin, have created an application that can be used to interactively review the transcript of the debate, interpret
- [In the effort to cover impeachment inquiry, media ignores 2020 candidates](https://www.storybench.org/in-the-effort-to-cover-impeachment-inquiry-media-ignores-2020-candidates/) - There are less than two weeks until the next Democratic debate and mainstream media outlets have seemed to send nearly every reporter to cover the impeachment inquiry at the expense of reporting on the upcoming presidential election. Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump has seized the attention of the nation’s largest media
- [Even before Ukraine news, Joe Biden was the 2020 candidate with the most media coverage](https://www.storybench.org/even-before-ukraine-news-joe-biden-was-the-2020-candidate-with-the-most-media-coverage/) - Former Vice President Joe Biden has dominated the mainstream media’s coverage in the last month, even before the whistleblower’s complaint was reported in The Washington Post, prior to the Wall Street Journal suggesting that President Donald Trump urged the Ukranian President to work with personal Attorney Rudy Giuliani, and before the White House released the
- [Facebook continues to run political ads with misinformation](https://www.storybench.org/facebook-continues-to-run-political-ads-with-misinformation/) - Facebook claims it has enacted measures to stem the spread of misinformation on its platform since the 2016 election. But the platform seems to be applying a different set of standards to politicians. Earlier this month, Elizabeth Warren’s campaign released an ad on Facebook falsely claiming that Mark Zuckerberg had endorsed Donald Trump for re-election
- ["A key reason people do freelancing is for the freedom and flexibility, and to pursue a passion"](https://www.storybench.org/a-key-reason-people-do-freelancing-is-for-the-freedom-and-flexibility-and-to-pursue-a-passion/) - Freelance reporting might sound like the ideal job, with flexible hours and the option to work from home, in pajamas no less. But freelancer Kelly Field presented a more nuanced look at the world of freelance journalism. Field spoke on Oct. 17 at “Pizza, Press & Politics,” a weekly speaker series sponsored by the Northeastern
- [How The Washington Post built a game to demonstrate how autonomous cars work](https://www.storybench.org/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 the graphics department at The Washington Post, recently published a three-dimensional immersive experience to model how an autonomous car works. Many car companies have said
- [Pete Buttigieg is flooding Iowa and New Hampshire with Facebook ads about his climate plan](https://www.storybench.org/pete-buttigieg-is-flooding-iowa-and-new-hampshire-with-facebook-ads-about-his-climate-plan/) - The 2020 candidates are pouring money into online political ads and Facebook seems to be the platform of choice, with the 19 current Democratic candidates spending $32 million so far this year. Climate change has, of course, been a hot topic this election – CNN even dedicated a day-long town hall to the topic –
- [Ideas from the 'Radically Rural' summit: Building a healthy media ecosystem through collaboration](https://www.storybench.org/ideas-from-the-radically-rural-summit-building-a-healthy-media-ecosystem-through-collaboration/) - There were several reasons that Terry Williams wanted The Keene Sentinel to help host a community journalism track at the Radically Rural summit. For one thing, he wanted to start a conversation about new ways to provide news coverage to communities from across the country. But he’d be the first to tell you that some
- [Emily Atkin is pissed off about climate change. Her new newsletter Heated says we all should be](https://www.storybench.org/emily-atkin-is-pissed-off-about-climate-change-her-new-newsletter-heated-says-we-all-should-be/) - Fed up, pissed off and ready to act on climate injustice. That’s the direction Emily Atkin is taking her new climate change newsletter, Heated. After two and a half years at The New Republic, Atkin decided today’s climate reporting needed quick, radical change to properly arm concerned citizens – something she believes established publications are
- [How Nicky Case designed the game "Adventures with Anxiety"](https://www.storybench.org/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 mental illnesses – anxiety. With the launch of their new interactive choose-your-own-adventure style game, “Adventures with Anxiety,” Case shows just how clingy the condition can
- [How The New York Times transformed its “Diary of a Song” series with FaceTime and social media](https://www.storybench.org/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 in that unique position, with what feels like a one-on-one lesson on the songwriting and production of the latest pop songs. The concept for the
- [Lessons on building a podcast’s community, both online and offline, from Radio Ambulante](https://www.storybench.org/lessons-on-building-a-podcasts-community-both-online-and-offline-from-radio-ambulante/) - Jorge Caraballo believes in the importance of building a community when producing a podcast. Since 2017, from his home in Medellín, Colombia, Caraballo has performed the role of growth editor for the narrative podcast Radio Ambulante, distributed by NPR, that tells Latin American stories in Spanish. Caraballo describes his job as “the person behind engagement,
- ["It's always good to record as much as you can"](https://www.storybench.org/its-always-good-to-record-as-much-as-you-can/) - Interested in making a podcast? But have no idea where to get the right equipment or where to find a quiet room? Jon Reed, the digital media and audio production specialist at Northeastern University's Snell Library, recently visited the School of Journalism to offer tips, tools and techniques for podcasting. The schedule for reserving rooms
- [Six ways you might consider visualizing political issues and ideologies this election](https://www.storybench.org/ten-ways-you-might-consider-visualizing-political-issues-and-ideologies-this-election/) - With the 2020 election around the corner, we're on the look out for new ways news outlets, advocacy groups and other organizations are visualizing political stances and voter opinions. Below is a round up of six types of charts and visualizations used to communicate political issues and ideologies. Political Compass The political compass is a
- [How to make a multilayered Google My Map using news articles on invasive species](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-make-a-multilayered-google-my-map-using-news-articles-on-invasive-species/) - Wildfires, hurricanes, extreme heat waves, invasive species. These are the climate change news that I read most every morning I visit The Weather Channel’s homepage for the day’s weather forecast. Based on those Weather Channel stories, I wanted to see if I could map the locations of invasive species. Invasive species are invasive for a
- [How to explore correlations in R](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-explore-correlations-in-r/) - This post will cover how to measure the relationship between two numeric variables with the corrr package. We will look at how to assess a variable’s distribution using skewness, kurtosis, and normality. Then we’ll examine the relationship between two variables by looking at the covariance and the correlation coefficient. Load the packages The packages we’ll
- ["Journalism is really a trade you learn on the job"](https://www.storybench.org/journalism-is-really-a-trade-you-learn-on-the-job/) - Rowan Walrath, a staff writer for BostInno, which covers the entrepreneurial business scene in Greater Boston, came back to her alma mater to share tips with students about fact checking and improving your chances at finding a job. Walrath, who graduated from the Northeastern University School of Journalism in 2017, spoke at “Pizza, Press &
- [How the Boston Globe reported on hip hop's fascination with quarterback Tom Brady](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-boston-globe-reported-on-hip-hops-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 Patriots come out on top again? Were they feeling any hangover from their loss in the championship game the previous year? Nora Princiotti’s question was
- [How Adrian Zaw produced "A Journey Back to Myanmar" to lift up stories of his country of birth](https://www.storybench.org/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." At the age of five, Zaw immigrated with his family from Myanmar to the United States, where he soon developed a passion for acting. Through
- [Getting Started with tidyverse in R](https://www.storybench.org/getting-started-with-tidyverse-in-r/) - The tidyverse is a collection of R packages developed by RStudio's chief scientist Hadley Wickham. These packages work well together as part of larger data analysis pipeline. To learn more about these tools and how they work together, read R for data science. For newcomers to R, please check out my previous tutorial for Storybench: Getting
- [How Mother Jones reported "The Nightmare of Getting an Abortion in the South"](https://www.storybench.org/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 it more difficult for women to access reproductive healthcare. To take a look at how these regulations impact real people, Becca Andrews, assistant news editor
- [Gabbard, Booker and Biden get most negative media coverage over last four months](https://www.storybench.org/gabbard-booker-and-biden-get-most-negative-media-coverage-over-last-four-months/) - Tulsi Gabbard, Cory Booker and Joe Biden are the 2020 Democratic candidates receiving the most negative media coverage, according to updated findings from the Storybench Election Coverage Tracker at Northeastern University School of Journalism. An analysis of 5,658 articles published across 28 outlets between June 1 and September 28 shows that media coverage paints Pete
- [How The New York Times predicted your politics using a quiz](https://www.storybench.org/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 interactive quiz and accompanying article that laid out exactly how demographics influence the way Americans vote. The piece includes a quiz for the reader that
- ["Don't assume that anything's irrelevant. Trust yourself."](https://www.storybench.org/dont-assume-that-anythings-irrelevant-trust-yourself/) - Stephanie Murray says she’s been hooked on politics since she was young kid watching PBS News Hour, which aired after Sesame Street. She produced a homemade magazine on her family’s computer and hawked copies to her neighbors. These days, the Tyngsborough, Mass., native is living her dream as a reporter for Politico where she writes
- [How The New York Times produces its television series "The Weekly"](https://www.storybench.org/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, The Daily, and even run tours in far-flung locales like the Iceland and Morocco. So, what’s next for the Times? Television. The Weekly is a
- [Tips on writing editorials from the Boston Globe's Marcela García](https://www.storybench.org/tips-on-writing-editorials-from-the-boston-globes-marcela-garcia/) - To speak for people requires bravery. Marcela García, the first and only Latina member of the Globe's editorial board, strongly believes journalists need a sense of conviction. A writer should be the first one to believe in what he or she is saying, she recently told students at Northeastern’s School of Journalism. García grew up
- [How to download YouTube data in R using "tuber" and "purrr"](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-download-youtube-data-in-r-using-tuber-and-purrr/) - Accessing YouTube's metadata such as views, likes, dislikes and comments is simple in R thanks to thetuber package by Gaurav Sood. Sood wrote an excellent, easy-to-use package for accessing the YouTube data API. If you’re like me, you love screenshots for setting up new tools like these. Below is a quick outline for the steps
- [How to do basic text mining using Google Sheets](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-do-basic-text-mining-using-google-sheets/) - While techniques for text mining, sentiment analysis and other natural language processing are ubiquitous on the Internet, they're not always accessible to students. I recently ran this tutorial in my journalism class at Northeastern University to help students answer some questions they generated around the Twitter timelines of the Democratic candidates running for U.S. president
- ["Journalism is a craft, not a profession. It's more art than science."](https://www.storybench.org/journalism-is-a-craft-not-a-profession-its-more-art-than-science/) - Brian Mooney, an award-winning former Boston Globe reporter, who now works as a crisis media strategist, gave advice to journalism students about their craft, expressed concern about the future of media, and talked about how recent sex scandals have tarnished sterling institutions, such as the MIT Media Lab. Mooney spoke on Sept. 12 at “Pizza,
- [Media continues to downplay Elizabeth Warren’s surging success in favor of a more comfortable narrative](https://www.storybench.org/media-continues-to-downplay-elizabeth-warrens-surging-success-in-favor-of-a-more-comfortable-narrative/) - In much the same way Sarah Palin’s personal life was covered in the news more than her policies in 2008, and just as Hillary Clinton was routinely described as “shrill,” “programmed,” “calculating” and prone to “mood swings" in 2016, mainstream media outlets are repeating the same mistakes in their coverage of Elizabeth Warren in 2020.
- [How Colombia's Datasketch wants to make data visualization easier for Latin American newsrooms](https://www.storybench.org/how-colombias-datasketch-wants-to-make-data-visualization-easier-for-latin-american-newsrooms/) - "We live in a world that is drowning in data and getting the stories may actually be harder than ever because the stories are hidden in plain sight in millions of documents and databases." That's how Juan Pablo Marín Díaz, CEO of the Colombian data visualization company Datasketch, describes a problem facing newsrooms across Latin
- [Measuring Google search interest for 2020 candidates following Fox News appearances](https://www.storybench.org/measuring-google-search-interest-for-2020-candidates-following-fox-news-town-halls/) - While the Democratic debates have no doubt helped some of the lesser known 2020 candidates gain broader name recognition, some have turned to Fox News to appeal directly to a wider spectrum of voters. It's likely that, before next year's election, more candidates will head to the network for their own "town hall" special. But
- [Getting started with data visualization in R using ggplot2](https://www.storybench.org/getting-started-data-visualization-r-using-ggplot2/) - Creating a customized graph that communicates your ideas effectively can be challenging. This tutorial will introduce you to the popular R package ggplot2, its underlying grammar of graphics, and show you how to create stylish and simple graphs quickly. We will also go over some basic principles of data visualization. Spending some time thinking about
- [How to manipulate data with dplyr in R](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-manipulate-data-with-dplyr-in-r/) - In the last tutorial we introduced the concept of tidy data, which is characterized by having one observation per row, and one variable per column. We also went over how to change to shape of our data set with tidyr using data sets from the fivethirtyeight package. For newcomers to R, check out my introductory tutorial for Storybench here. Data manipulation In this
- [How to explore and manipulate a dataset from the fivethirtyeight package in R](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-explore-a-dataset-from-the-fivethirtyeight-package-in-r/) - The fivethirtyeight R package – released by Albert Y. Kim, Chester Ismay, and Jennifer Chunn last March – contains dozens of datasets used in FiveThirtyEight news articles like "A Handful Of Cities Are Driving 2016’s Rise In Murders," "The Best MLB All-Star Teams Ever," and "The Dallas Shooting Was Among The Deadliest For Police In U.S. History." This tutorial
- [Getting Started With R in RStudio Notebooks](https://www.storybench.org/getting-started-r-rstudio-notebooks/) - R is a powerful statistical programming language for manipulating, graphing, and modeling data. One of the major positive aspects of R is that it's open-source (free). But "free" in this case does not necessarily mean "easy." Learning to program in R is time-consuming and occasionally frustrating, but, fortunately, the number of helpful tools and packages
- [Pivoting data from columns to rows (and back!) in the tidyverse](https://www.storybench.org/pivoting-data-from-columns-to-rows-and-back-in-the-tidyverse/) - TLDR: This tutorial was prompted by the recent changes to the tidyr package (see the tweet from Hadley Wickham below). Two functions for reshaping columns and rows (gather() and spread()) were replaced with tidyr::pivot_longer() and tidyr::pivot_wider() functions. Thanks to all 2649 (!!!) people who completed my survey about table shapes! I've done analysed the data
- [How to access APIs in R](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-access-apis-in-r/) - APIs, or application program interfaces, are a way for people to access data in a plain text format using multiple programming languages. Many websites, organizations and services offer APIs for accessing their data, like Twitter, Wikipedia, Reddit and OpenSecrets. This tutorial will walk you through accessing APIs from DataUSA and OpenSecrets in R Studio with
- [How to build a website with Blogdown in R](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-build-a-website-with-blogdown-in-r/) - Want to build a website right in RStudio? blogdown is an R package that allows you to create websites from R markdown files using Hugo, an open-source static site generator written in Go and known for being incredibly fast. You can read more about the differences between Wordpress and Hugo (and other static site generators)
- [How to grow your brand as a photojournalist and commercial photographer](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-grow-your-brand-as-a-photojournalist-and-commercial-photographer/) - There are ethical and visual distinctions between photojournalism and commercial photography and knowing how to edit photos for each discipline can keep any freelance photographer in business. Adam Glanzman has figured out how to balance both. At 26, Glanzman has already made a name for himself, publishing much of his photographic work in the New
- [Exploring 2020 demographic targeting and attack ads using Facebook's Ad Library](https://www.storybench.org/exploring-2020-demographic-targeting-and-attack-ads-using-facebooks-ad-library/) - Facebook's Ad Library was criticized this week by several sources quoted in The New York Times for being "effectively useless as a way to comprehensively track political advertising." Those sources – the French government and researchers at Mozilla – point out that the archive is plagued with "bugs and technical issues." While that's true –
- [How to build margin of victory election maps with Datawrapper](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-build-margin-of-victory-election-maps-with-datawrapper/) - With the campaign for 2020 in full swing, it's election map season. I was recently poking around Politico's 2018 midterm election maps and thought I'd recreate their county-by-county Margin of victory election maps using Datawrapper. The following tutorial will create a map of Michigan's counties with the results of the 2018 Debbie Stabenow – John
- [Six digital skills all new journalists should consider learning and a road map to unlocking them](https://www.storybench.org/six-digital-skills-all-new-journalists-should-consider-learning-and-a-road-map-to-unlocking-them/) - If you’re new to journalism, as I am, you may have noticed that the industry is in the midst of growing pains right now. If you’re currently studying for the profession, it’s likely your professors and career reporters have highlighted the mystery of the internet’s effect on the news industry. Many will rightly balance the
- [We need deeper reporting and not just horserace coverage of Pete Buttigieg](https://www.storybench.org/we-need-deeper-reporting-and-not-just-horserace-coverage-of-pete-buttigieg/) - The media loves a rising star and Pete Buttigieg is no exception. But is "Mayor Pete" just a flash in the pan? Time will tell, as Margaret Sullivan pointed out earlier this month, and it's worth remembering that we've been here before – remember Howard Dean? Herman Cain? According to a piece today in The
- [Facebook political ads reveal an early but limited look at the Democratic playbook](https://www.storybench.org/facebook-political-ads-reveal-an-early-but-limited-look-at-the-democratic-playbook/) - In the first three days since launching his 2020 run for president last week, Joe Biden spent more than $400,000 on Facebook ads. His fellow candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, for comparison, spent around $100,000 in the last week pushing political ads onto the platform, which for both was more than they had spent
- [What issues are 2020 candidates being mentioned with in the media?](https://www.storybench.org/what-issues-are-2020-candidates-being-mentioned-with-in-the-media/) - Health care is a top concern among voters. That’s according to a recent poll of 2,000 Americans where respondents across age, gender and party lines ranked health care as the top policy issue facing the country. The economy ranked second; immigration third; the environment and education fourth; and foreign policy last. Here at the 2020
- [Fox News' obsession with AOC crowded out 2020 candidate announcements](https://www.storybench.org/fox-news-obsession-with-aoc-crowded-out-2020-candidate-announcements/) - "AOC mocks president's literacy." "How AOC became the boss of the Democratic Party." "Ocasio-Cortez claims Trump 'hates all immigrants.'" Those are all headlines that appeared on Foxnews.com in the days following the presidential run announcements of 2020 candidates Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker and Pete Buttigieg. Our analysis of screenshots
- [Men are writing two-thirds of national stories about the 2020 presidential race](https://www.storybench.org/men-are-writing-two-thirds-of-national-stories-about-the-2020-presidential-race/) - Men are writing the vast majority of national online news stories about the 2020 presidential primary, according to a preliminary byline count performed by the Storybench Election Coverage Tracker at Northeastern University School of Journalism. Our analysis found that during a six-week period this spring men wrote 67.6 percent of the stories; women wrote 32.3
- [Quantifying the Twitter attacks on Kamala Harris during and following the Democratic debates](https://www.storybench.org/quantifying-the-twitter-attacks-on-kamala-harris-during-and-following-the-democratic-debates/) - Media outlets have been quick to crown Kamala Harris the winner of last month's Democratic debates thanks to a series of stand-out moments that included passionate storytelling and her pummeling of Joe Biden. That prime-time performance has catapulted her to the top of national polls. For a moment, Harris was in second place behind Biden
- [How to build a GIF of satellite imagery in R](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-build-a-gif-of-satellite-imagery-in-r/) - "The timelapse imagery of Chennai's disappearing reservoirs is mind boggling," Earther senior reporter Brian Kahn wrote on Twitter recently. Kahn had just published the piece "Why Chennai, India's Sixth Biggest City, Has Run Out of Water" which was accompanied by several GIFs of the city's vanishing reservoirs. When asked how he'd built the GIFs, Kahn
- [How to make a longform narrative podcast without breaking the bank](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-make-a-longform-narrative-podcast-without-breaking-the-bank/) - If you’re from a small town, you might know the feeling. You open up Facebook and practically all of your friends from home are freaking out. Either last night’s winning Powerball ticket was sold at the local Wawa or something is horribly wrong. On November 1, 2017 in my hometown it was the latter. That
- [Northeastern teams up with two leading local TV news organizations and Stanton Foundation for video news research project](https://www.storybench.org/northeastern-teams-up-with-two-leading-local-tv-news-organizations-and-stanton-foundation-for-video-news-research-project/) - BOSTON, MA – Monday, July 1, 2019 – Media researchers at Northeastern University School of Journalism in Boston, Mass., will partner with two leading local news stations, WLS-TV/Chicago and WCVB-TV/Boston, along with the Stanton Foundation for a cutting-edge Video News Research Project. The project will test the use of new forms of animation, graphics, and
- [History repeats itself as women on the 2020 campaign trail receive more negative coverage than their male peers](https://www.storybench.org/history-repeats-itself-as-women-on-the-2020-campaign-trail-receive-more-negative-coverage-than-their-male-peers/) - The women running for president in 2020 continue to receive more negative press than their male peers, according to updated and expanded findings from the Storybench Election Coverage Tracker at Northeastern University School of Journalism. This is the latest example of a troubling trend. Feminist scholars have repeatedly documented deep, systematic gender bias in election
- [Using R to explore the relationship between San Francisco MUNI citations and the weather](https://www.storybench.org/using-r-to-explore-the-relationship-between-san-francisco-muni-citations-and-the-weather/) - Anybody who rides San Francisco's MUNI regularly has had their Clipper Card checked by a fare inspector. Anecdotally, it also seemed to me that my Clipper Card was being checked more often when it rained. Using data obtained from the SFMTA, it appears that rainy days do in fact result in more citations - but
- [Exploring Chicago rideshare data in R](https://www.storybench.org/exploring-chicago-rideshare-data/) - Last month, the City of Chicago released detailed rideshare data from companies like Uber, Lyft and Via, making it the first city in the country to share anonymized data on ride-hailing companies. While the trip dataset covers only November and December of 2018, the passenger behavior it contains can reveal insights about how people are
- [How to build a multimedia sports feature for the New York Times](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-build-a-multimedia-sports-feature-for-the-new-york-times/) - Urban dirt biking won’t be competing with the popularity of baseball or basketball any time soon, but the sport has gained serious traction in metropolitan areas over the last few decades. Built on risk and reward, the illegal sport known more commonly as “bike life” has become a cultural flashpoint, inspiring an underground community while
- [One computer scientist's strategies for improving network visualizations](https://www.storybench.org/strategies-applied-to-improve-the-effectiveness-of-network-visualization/) - We are living in a world that is awash in data. To present complex information, people use visualizations that help detect trends, clusters, gaps and outliers almost instantly. But are these visualizations always effective? Cody Dunne, an assistant professor at Northeastern University’s College of Computer and Information Science, asked that question recently in a talk hosted by NUVis, Northeastern’s
- [Mixing storytelling and science: Behind the scenes at Hakai Magazine](https://www.storybench.org/mixing-storytelling-and-science-behind-the-scenes-at-hakai-magazine/) - Behind every great writer is a great editor. Shanna Baker, the senior editor at Hakai Magazine – which explores science, society and the environment from a coastal perspective – is on a mission to make her feature writers the best storytellers they can be. Storybench sat down with Baker to talk about how she shapes
- [Anchoring the 2020 Electorate: The Need for Quality Local TV News Storytelling](https://www.storybench.org/anchoring-the-2020-electorate-the-need-for-quality-local-tv-news-storytelling/) - Originally published at RTDNA. Local TV news could help inform and enlighten the electorate in 2020 — and maybe even decide the election. We’re not kidding. We all know local television news has its critics — even people in the industry cringe at the overabundance of formulaic storytelling, sensational reports about irrelevant topics, and nonsensical
- [Journalism schools need to focus on data, local news, social media and business models. Here are some that are.](https://www.storybench.org/journalism-schools-need-to-focus-on-data-local-news-social-media-and-business-models-here-are-some-that-are/) - It's no secret that journalism is at a bit of a crossroads. With technology and media consumption habits changing constantly, the industry has been thrust into a state of near perpetual turmoil. Journalists everywhere are figuring out what to take from traditional practices, what to leave behind, and what they need to invent. They must
- [Modeling networked media: Diagrams and graphics in John Wihbey’s The Social Fact](https://www.storybench.org/modeling-networked-media-diagrams-and-graphics-in-john-wihbeys-the-social-fact/) - The conceptual black-and-white diagram, or idea-oriented infographic, goes back a long time in publishing design and storytelling. Many an academic or explanatory work has some kind of visual tucked away, illustrating a key concept or general idea. But in our era of multicolored, web-based interactive data visualizations, the art of the austere conceptual diagram is
- [Eight tools, datasets and resources from the Open Data Science Conference](https://www.storybench.org/eight-tools-datasets-and-resources-from-the-open-data-science-conference/) - This week, thousands of data scientists, software developers, machine learning experts and other data-curious gathered in Boston for the ODSC East conference. Between hands-on training sessions and dynamic keynote speeches from people like MIT professor Regina Barzilay and Wired writer Clive Thompson, the recommendations were flying. Storybench attended and jotted a few down. Satellite imagery dataset In his talk on computer vision
- [How to build a bubble chart of individuals mentioned in the Mueller report](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-build-a-bubble-chart-of-individuals-mentioned-in-the-mueller-report/) - When the redacted Mueller report was released last week, journalists across the country scrambled to read through and analyze the document. Data scientists and information designers were hard at work, too, exploring the text and visualizing relationships and patterns. The New York Times published a compelling bubble chart that laid out which witnesses the report
- [Women on the 2020 campaign trail are being treated more negatively by the media](https://www.storybench.org/women-on-the-2020-campaign-trail-are-being-treated-more-negatively-by-the-media/) - Update, April 24, 2019: This project is ongoing, and we are adding more data to the original analysis as we go. See new analysis of the full text of 1,397 articles below. In June, we plan to release a more comprehensive report to contextualize the sentiment scoring method we have employed so far. Female candidates
- ["We will see ripple effects of technology changing news for centuries"](https://www.storybench.org/we-will-see-ripple-effects-of-technology-changing-news-for-centuries/) - The media needs to reinvent its business model and implement new public policies to foster social connection and stay relevant, said Northeastern School of Journalism assistant professor John Wihbey. In his new book, “The Social Fact,” Wihbey proposes ideas to help the media thrive in a new era of technology and social media. Wihbey shared
- [How the Wall Street Journal reported on "The Price of Climate"](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-wall-street-journal-reported-on-the-price-of-climate/) - In December 2018, The Wall Street Journal wrapped up a graphic-heavy series called “The Price of Climate” that takes an ambitious look at how financial and economic markers reflect present and future thinking about climate. Storybench spoke with financial editor Charles Forelle and graphics developer Tyler Paige about the conceptualization and creation of the series.
- [Exploring bike rental behavior using R](https://www.storybench.org/exploring-bike-rental-behavior-using-r/) - Bikes have become one of the fastest growing modes of city travel which is why it’s no surprise that Lyft and Uber are getting into the two-wheeler game. Lyft’s recent acquisition of Motivate, the largest bike rental company in the world, will compete with Uber’s Jump and Ford’s GoBikes, which have delivered 625,000 and 1.4
- [Journalists improve coverage of memes with careful reporting](https://www.storybench.org/journalists-improve-coverage-of-memes-with-careful-reporting/) - It was the moment memes are made of. “Who is this 4chan person or website?” CNN anchor Brooke Baldwin made the fatal mistake of not knowing what 4chan is. Her guest, CNN tech analyst Brett Larson, didn’t help, describing 4chan as maybe “a systems administrator who knew his away around and how to hack things.” It
- [The future of machine learning in journalism](https://www.storybench.org/the-future-of-machine-learning-in-journalism/) - Kevin Wall, a visual journalist at The Boston Globe, is just beginning to use machine learning in his reporting. But the large amounts of data he needs to leverage this kind of artificial intelligence isn't always easy to find. “We need a lot of data for machine learning and deep learning, so it can be
- [How we plotted 17,000 data points in 3D to explore police use of force in New Jersey](https://www.storybench.org/how-we-plotted-17000-data-points-in-3d-to-explore-police-use-of-force-in-new-jersey/) - Last November, I pushed my first commit to Github having no idea what I was in for: creating visualizations with more than 17,000 data points representing police officers who had used force in New Jersey from 2012 through 2016. One month later, we published “Explore 17,354 officers who used force in N.J.,” the first three-dimensional
- [Six ways media outlets are tracking presidential candidates for 2020](https://www.storybench.org/six-ways-media-outlets-are-tracking-presidential-candidates-for-2020/) - If you’re still reeling from the round-the-clock coverage of the 2016 presidential election, we have some bad news: It’s starting all over again. With the midterms past us, the stage is now set for election fever to take over your favorite publications once again. And with the combination of President Trump’s low approval ratings and
- [Six fascinating projects from the 2019 Computation + Journalism Symposium in Miami](https://www.storybench.org/six-fascinating-projects-from-the-2019-computation-journalism-symposium-in-miami/) - How often is social media used as a source in news stories? Can a decision-tree algorithm generate tens-of-thousands of 250-word stories? And what is belief-driven data journalism? Those questions lie at the heart of some of the research projects at the intersection of computational tools and journalism presented last weekend at the 2019 Computation +
- ["There is only so much data can tell us"](https://www.storybench.org/there-is-only-so-much-data-can-tell-us/) - Nathaniel Rakich, an elections analyst at FiveThirtyEight, the data-driven site with a heavy focus on politics and sports, took what some might call a less traditional route to working in journalism. Rakich, who sees himself as a data journalist, found himself drawn into the profession not because he loved reporting, but because of his passions
- [What do freelance writers make?](https://www.storybench.org/what-do-freelance-writers-make/) - Freelance journalism can be tough work. Stories that otherwise take a week or two to create, edit and upload to your blog may take twice or three times as long after you land that pitch and then go back and forth with an editor. Sometimes the process can go smoothly and your style, wit and
- [Illuminating the road to 2020 through media coverage, candidate tweets and Google searches](https://www.storybench.org/illuminating-the-road-to-2020-through-media-coverage-candidate-tweets-and-google-searches/)
- [How are Iowa and New Hampshire outlets covering 2020?](https://www.storybench.org/how-are-iowa-and-new-hampshire-outlets-covering-2020/) - Less obsession with Trump. Less scandal coverage. More focus on policy specifics. Deeper coverage of underdog candidates. Those are the main trends that we noticed after analyzing over 50 articles from local news outlets in New Hampshire and Iowa, the states that will be the first two to hold primary elections in 2020. But they
- [Horserace or issues? Tracking the media’s coverage of the 2020 election](https://www.storybench.org/horserace-or-issues-tracking-the-medias-coverage-of-the-2020-election/) - It is quickly becoming impossible to ignore the 2020 presidential buzz. President Trump, of course, will likely be the Republican nominee barring some unlikely development. But on the Democratic side of things, a plethora of candidates have either officially thrown their hat into the ring or are poised to do so very soon. Kamala Harris,
- [Sexism through sentiment analysis: Looking at the media's coverage of 2020 candidates](https://www.storybench.org/watching-the-watchdog-analyzing-initial-coverage-of-2020-candidates/) - The 2020 election cycle has firmly begun. With Bernie Sanders throwing his hat into the ring last week, the Democrats now find themselves with a large (and likely still growing) pool of candidates from which to choose. But, as promised in our introductory post last week, we aren’t going to worry too much about the
- ["You want to do stories that drive a conversation"](https://www.storybench.org/you-want-to-do-stories-that-drive-a-conversation/) - Adrian Walker, a metro columnist at the Boston Globe for the past 20 years, writes about Boston City Hall, the Statehouse, and local and state politics. He also contributed to the Spotlight series on race last year, which was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize. Walker shared his experiences last month at “Pizza, Press and
- ["Universities tarnish their admissions process because they use it to raise money"](https://www.storybench.org/universities-tarnish-their-admissions-process-because-they-use-it-to-raise-money/) - It’s the latest college admission scandal: How the wealthy use bribes and connections and get their children into elite universities. But years before the current scandal, Dan Golden was writing about a similar scandal for the Wall Street Journal – and winning a Pulitzer Prize for his stories in 2004. Golden spoke about how the
- [How to model with gradient boosting machine in R](https://www.storybench.org/tidytuesday-bike-rentals-part-2-modeling-with-gradient-boosting-machine/) - The tutorial is part 2 of our #tidytuesday post from last week, which explored bike rental data from Washington, D.C. Check it out here. The following tutorial will use a gradient boosting machine (GBM) to figure out what drives bike rental behavior. GBM is unique compared to other decision tree algorithms because it builds models
- ["Storytelling with R – featuring several digressions"](https://www.storybench.org/storytelling-with-r-featuring-several-digressions/) - For Mara Averick, the words "R," "tidyverse" and "ggplot" are all part of her regular vocabulary. For people with less knowledge about data science or the language R, those words might be foreign geekspeak. As a tidyverse dev advocate at RStudio, Averick says she hopes to make this kind of technical jargon “understandable by outsiders
- [How WGBH spent a year revealing how many women work in Massachusetts politics](https://www.storybench.org/how-wgbh-spent-a-year-revealing-how-many-women-work-in-massachusetts-politics/) - The year 2018 was coined the “Year of the Woman” in politics after an unprecedented number of women ran for – and won – seats in Congress. In the November 2018 elections, a staggering 255 female candidates ran for office, with more than 100 of them claiming victory. It brought about comparisons to 1992, the
- [Pete Buttigieg talks millennials and a call to action](https://www.storybench.org/pete-buttigieg-talks-millennials-and-a-call-to-action/) - Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana who is exploring a run for president in 2020, spoke about important policies that might resonate with millennials during a discussion at Northeastern University this week. Buttigieg spoke with Kimberly Atkins, a senior news correspondent for WBUR. The talk formed part of Northeastern’s “The Civic Experience” series.
- [Nate Silver talks elections and ways to improve polling data for 2020](https://www.storybench.org/nate-silver-talks-elections-and-ways-to-improve-polling-data-for-2020/) - Nate Silver, founder of the data-driven news site FiveThirtyEight, spoke about the importance of data during a talk at Northeastern University last week which formed part of a campus series called “The Civic Experience.” Much of Silver’s panel discussion with Northeastern political science professor Costas Panagopolous centered on the 2016 election. During that election cycle
- [Six tools showcased at NICAR 2019 that you should probably learn](https://www.storybench.org/six-tools-showcased-at-nicar-2019-that-you-should-probably-learn/) - When it comes to a major data journalism conference like NICAR, you can probably predict that a few popular data visualization and analysis tools are going to receive a lot of attention. It’s a safe bet that attendees will be able to talk about the finer points of Google Sheets, Tableau, R Shiny applications, and
- [How political reporters from Politico, Bloomberg, NBC and CBS are covering the Trump Administration](https://www.storybench.org/how-political-reporters-from-politico-bloomberg-nbc-and-cbs-are-covering-the-trump-administration/) - President Donald Trump hates the media. Or, at least, that's how it appears. How else could you justify his insistent attacks on the fourth estate, calling it “fake news” and the “enemy of the people?” And yet, four national politics reporters insist that the president actually loves the media. He relishes in seeing his name
- [SXSW: How the Texas Tribune is proving that free can be a business model](https://www.storybench.org/sxsw-how-the-texas-tribune-is-proving-that-free-can-be-a-business-model/) - The Cannabusiness track of South by Southwest 2019 drew huge crowds during the second half of the festival, but no one was going to mistake Evan Smith for a weed entrepreneur or enthusiast, as he stood in front of a crowd at the JW Marriott on Wednesday in a suit and tie. But he was
- [Why Sharon Machlis wrote a book on R for journalists](https://www.storybench.org/why-sharon-machlis-wrote-a-book-on-r-for-journalists/) - Since Sharon Machlis published her book "Practical R for Mass Communication and Journalism" last December, at least one professor is already using it in his course at the University of Arkansas. Renowned data journalist and data visualization expert Alberto Cairo, a professor at the University of Miami, reviewed the text online: "I NEED THIS BOOK.
- [SXSW: Podcasting world leaves lasting impact on festival](https://www.storybench.org/sxsw-podcasting-world-leaves-lasting-impact-on-festival/) - South by Southwest began as a bunch of garage bands performing in one place in 1987. New York Times bestselling author and now podcaster Neil Strauss thinks that translates pretty well to the podcast world. “Tenderfoot is kind of like your modern day garage band,” he said in front of the SXSW crowd Thursday at
- [SXSW: Making multilayered true crime – Michelle Carter v. The Commonwealth](https://www.storybench.org/sxsw-making-multilayered-true-crime-michelle-carter-v-the-commonwealth/) - With so many true-crime documentaries out there, how does a filmmaker make one stand out from the pack? The answer, according to Erin Lee Carr, is making sure that the crime isn’t just one directional, but sits at the intersection of a crime and a larger problem in society. Carr joined fellow documentary maker and
- [News digests to the rescue?](https://www.storybench.org/news-digests-to-the-rescue/) - A new report finds digests are an important part of the Z generation’s formula for staying current, but are they a panacea for “fake news,” or another Pandora's Box? Sam is a sophomore enrolled in a mid-sized U.S. university and majoring in film. He follows news about politics, science, and education. Sam admits he’s got
- [How Vox’s Alvin Chang explains complex topics, from science to politics](https://www.storybench.org/how-voxs-alvin-chang-explains-complex-topics-from-science-to-politics/) - Alvin Chang's recent video for Vox, “How humans disrupted a cycle essential to all life,” reached 500,000 views within a few weeks of being published. It does a great job at succinctly explaining the carbon cycle in a fashion that can be appreciated by all. Although Chang’s title at Vox is a reporter, much of
- [Newsroom automation, election forecasting and U.X. at the New York Times: Keynotes at C+J 2019.](https://www.storybench.org/newsroom-automation-election-forecasting-and-u-x-at-the-new-york-times-keynotes-at-cj-2019/) - Newsroom automation. Election forecasting. Personalized user experience. Three keynote speakers dove into these technological advances among the media industry’s top innovators at the 2019 Computation + Journalism Symposium in Miami last month. Here’s what stuck out to us. Lisa Gibbs on the automated newsroom at the AP Lisa Gibbs is the point person on the
- [NICAR: With the right tools, anyone can be a data journalist](https://www.storybench.org/nicar-with-the-right-tools-anyone-can-be-a-data-journalist/) - By Alyssa Lukpat At the annual sleep-away camp for news nerds, better known as the computer-assisted reporting conference NICAR, held last weekend in Newport Beach, Calif., data journalists from around the world shared tips and tools. I soon learned that, even with minimal coding experience, anyone could use these tips to do investigative journalism, write
- [How a dataset on lighting strikes taught me to not take data at face value](https://www.storybench.org/how-a-dataset-on-lighting-strikes-taught-me-to-not-take-data-at-face-value/) - Being struck by lightning is often used as an example of heavenly retribution because it is so unlikely. The occurrence is simply so rare that it might as well be due to divine intervention – only 49 deaths per year on average are reported by the National Weather Service. But these fatalities are statistical outliers
- ["How can newspapers create value in this new digital environment?"](https://www.storybench.org/how-can-newspapers-create-value-in-this-new-digital-environment/) - The internet has permanently changed the way society consumes information and advertising. It’s also confusing and overstimulating, so journalists like Dan Kennedy, a professor at the Northeastern University's School of Journalism, are analyzing ways in which society and the news media are adapting. Kennedy spoke at Pizza, Press & Politics, the School of Journalism's lunchtime
- [“What can artificial intelligence teach us about fairness?”](https://www.storybench.org/what-can-artificial-intelligence-teach-us-about-fairness/) - Artificial intelligence is becoming a central part of people’s lives, even if they don't realize it. So many everyday functions have an artificial intelligence component – from auto-correct on text messages to map routes, from home loan approvals to Netflix suggestions. But while that may sound innovative, questions of “fairness” have arisen. For example, when
- [From deep learning to clean_names(), resources from Data Journalism in R](https://www.storybench.org/from-deep-learning-to-clean_names-resources-from-data-journalism-in-r/) - Books to check out Deep Learning in RThis text is from by Francois Chollet and J. J. Allaire. The authors cover these topics in-depth with plenty of code examples.Analyzing Baseball Data in R 2nd EditionWe love the second edition of this text because 1) it updated everything from the first edition to tidyversefunctions, and 2) Ben Baumer was added as a
- [Ten tips for freelance writing](https://www.storybench.org/ten-tips-for-freelance-writing/) - What is the key to being a successful freelancer? According to Aleszu Bajak, who has freelanced dozens of stories to major publications, the key is getting over rejection. “Get used to being rejected,” said Bajak, a lecturer at Northeastern’s School of Journalism. Bajak spoke about freelancing at Pizza, Press & Politics, the School of Journalism’s
- [How WCAI's Heather Goldstone makes science more approachable](https://www.storybench.org/how-wcais-heather-goldstone-makes-science-more-approachable/) - We awe at the sight of baby giraffe born at the zoo, but who wants to hear about chemistry or quasars? That’s where science journalists come in. At the Living Lab at WCAI, a local NPR affiliate for southeastern Massachusetts, producer Heather Goldstone combines science and culture by bringing in scientists with fresh perspectives on today’s
- [How to animate a map in Adobe After Effects](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-animate-a-map-in-adobe-after-effects/) - Deforestation and sea level rise are two very important parts of environmental news. Having recently worked on a piece tackling deforestation, I wanted to create a map that showed Amazon rainforest loss over time. This tutorial works with any image overlay of information, so it can easily be translated to another kind of map or
- [How The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported stories of 'growing up through the cracks'](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-pittsburgh-post-gazette-reported-stories-of-growing-up-through-the-cracks/) - From July to December 2018, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette journalist Rich Lord found himself in an increasingly uncommon position for reporters at non-national publications: He had six months to report an enterprise story on the ground in a local community, and had a photographer and illustrator assigned to work with him at every step of the way.
- [How to build a heatmap in Python](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-build-a-heatmap-in-python/) - Heatmaps are effective visualization tools for representing different values of data over a specific geographical area. You could, for example, use them for temperatures, rainfall or electricity use. In this tutorial, I will provide a step-by-step guide on how to make a heatmap using Python and the Google Maps API. First, you need to install
- [Breaking news!: We are unveiling findings from our national study on reinventing local TV News](https://www.storybench.org/breaking-news-we-are-unveiling-findings-from-our-national-study-on-reinventing-local-tv-news/) - After nearly two years of work, we are today unveiling the results of our national study of news consumers and our experiments in remixing local TV news segments. The results are fascinating, and we think there are many actionable takeaways for newsrooms trying to improve the quality of their storytelling. The report itself, which is co-published with Harvard's
- ["Every piece of paper has valuable information"](https://www.storybench.org/every-piece-of-paper-has-valuable-information/) - Never throw away anything and always be aware that small tips can lead to big stories. That is the advice of award-winning Bloomberg reporter Michael McDonald, who has written a series of stories about how Harvard has invested its money -- sometimes with disastrous results. McDonald, who has been with the business news organization for
- [How The Pudding visualized the structure of Ali Wong's stand-up comedy](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-pudding-visualized-the-structure-of-ali-wongs-stand-up-comedy/) - Stand-up comedy is evolving. The top specials of recent years — Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette, Hasan Minhaj’s Homecoming King, James Acaster’s Repertoire, to name a few — are distinct from traditional stand-up for a host reasons. For one, more diverse voices are finding room on the stage. Additionally, comics are embracing the blurred line between politics
- ["What should fake news be called?"](https://www.storybench.org/fake-news-called/) - Briony Swire-Thompson, a postdoctoral researcher at Northeastern University’s Network Science Institute, recently spoke to students and faculty about “fake news” and why people still believe it after it has been corrected. Swire-Thompson spoke on Nov. 29 at Pizza, Press & Politics, a weekly speaker series hosted by Northeastern's School of Journalism. Once people read fake
- [Five Venezuelans that are explaining the situation unfolding in my country](https://www.storybench.org/five-venezuelans-that-are-explaining-the-situation-unfolding-in-my-country/) - Venezuela is the topic du jour. With Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Mike Pompeo and Marco Rubio all voicing their support for the country’s new, self-proclaimed president, Juan Guaidó, what seems to be emerging is another cautionary tale of the United States getting involved in Latin American revolutions. But there is also a lot of confusion
- [Ten visualizations that depict the state of criminal justice today](https://www.storybench.org/ten-visualizations-depict-state-criminal-justice-today/) - Criminal justice is a perpetual focus of media coverage but this past year seemed especially ripe with stories. From the massive reform bill passed here in Massachusetts to the debate over gun rights following the Parkland massacre, journalists and data experts have been kept busy in their attempts to quantify and analyze the criminal justice
- [Social media engagement tips from Tidal’s Mikaela Allen](https://www.storybench.org/social-media-engagement-tips-from-tidals-mikaela-allen/) - While some may think social media is an easy thing to grasp, there are actually quite a few things to consider when it comes to running a brand. Impressions, reach, link clicks, profile visits and engagement rates, to name a few. For Mikaela Allen, a digital marketing manager at Tidal, Jay-Z’s music steaming service, a
- [Scraping HTML tables and downloading files with R](https://www.storybench.org/scraping-html-tables-and-downloading-files-with-r/) - The Department of Criminal Justice in Texas keeps records of every inmate they execute. This tutorial will show you how to scrape that data, which lives in a table on the website and download the images. The tutorial uses rvest and xml to scrape tables, purrr to download and export files, and magick to manipulate
- [Deepfakes are an occupational hazard for journalists. Beware.](https://www.storybench.org/deepfakes-are-an-occupational-hazard-for-journalists-beware/) - There are many words to describe President Trump. “Expressive” is certainly one of them. But on January 8, during the border security address from the Oval Office, viewers of Seattle’s Fox affiliate Q13 found themselves watching an especially expressive president. Beyond his skin looking more orange-hued than usual, President Trump’s gestures were exaggerated, his mouth
- [Bringing textual analysis tools to Judge Brett Kavanaugh's latest opinion](https://www.storybench.org/bringing-textual-analysis-tools-to-judge-brett-kavanaughs-latest-opinion/) - Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh was the subject of extensive news coverage during his confirmation hearings, with Christine Blasey Ford’s sexual assault allegations hanging heavy over the process. Now formally positioned on the nation’s highest court, Justice Kavanaugh wrote his first opinion on January 8. There was decidedly less controversy. New justices are usually given
- ["The human voice is powerful and intimate"](https://www.storybench.org/the-human-voice-is-powerful-and-intimate/) - Elana Gordon, a radio reporter and a producer at WHYY in Philadelphia and current Knight Science Journalism Fellow at M.I.T., told students at Northeastern University that while she did not major in journalism, she found herself drawn to radio when she realized the power of the medium. “Radio can be really fun,” said Gordon. “I
- [How to map point data and polygon shapefiles in R](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-map-point-data-and-polygon-shapefiles-in-r/) - I recently published a series of interactive maps for Beeradvocate magazine that explored storm surge scenarios and low-lying breweries in Boston, New York City, Charleston and Miami. Here's Boston: This is how I did it. Getting lat, lon coordinates into a CSV I first created CSV files for the four cities I was going to
- [Five Latin American media platforms experimenting with illustrated news](https://www.storybench.org/five-latin-american-media-platforms-experimenting-with-illustrated-news/) - Media organizations all over the world are experimenting and innovating visual storytelling for their news coverage. Storybench rounded up five Latin American media sites that are playing with illustration and animation. Nómada Founded in August 2014, Nómada is a journalistic outlet from Guatemala that explores the national and international issues affecting the country. Their series
- [How we built an immersive underground history of our university](https://www.storybench.org/how-we-built-an-immersive-underground-history-of-our-university/) - Over the last four months, I worked with several classmates in our journalism course "Digital Storytelling and Social Media" to design a multi-platform narrative of Northeastern University’s history of development through archival, tangible and immersive storytelling. We ended up with an interactive map, a custom Jenga game and an audio tour of campus. What follows is
- [How I analyzed two months of climate change coverage](https://www.storybench.org/how-i-analyzed-two-months-of-climate-change-coverage/) - For a long time, climate change seemed to me to be neglected by the media. There always seemed to be this knee-jerk reaction to treat environmental stories as niche. But I see climate change as a threat that deserves round-the-clock, page one attention. In early October, when the IPCC released a bombshell report on the
- [A roundup of visualizations of discrimination in the tech industry](https://www.storybench.org/ten-visualizations-of-discrimination-in-the-tech-industry/) - Technology has allowed us to stay connected with people around the globe, across different demographics, and has driven us to seek wider and deeper connections. The tech industry is advancing at a breakneck pace as new technologies are rapidly produced and launched. But when it comes to diversifying the workplace, the industry doesn’t exactly move
- [How to download song lyrics from Genius using Python](https://www.storybench.org/download-song-lyrics-genius-using-python/) - Coding and I are not on the best of terms. After a traumatic three-year stretch in middle school in which I barely scraped by in my computer science classes, I have largely kept my work confined to Excel, with occasional forays into R. But recently, I came upon a problem that an Excel formula couldn’t
- [A data history of popular hip-hop](https://www.storybench.org/a-data-history-of-popular-hip-hop/) - Storybench correspondent Alexander Frandsen has a data-driven exploration of merging Billboard’s “Hot Rap Songs” category with lyrics from Genius’s API. Check it out here.
- [How ProPublica told the story of an improper clinical trial using a patient's own words](https://www.storybench.org/how-propublica-told-the-story-of-an-improper-clinical-trial-using-a-patients-own-words/) - In April, ProPublica Illinois reported a story about a child psychiatrist at the University of Illinois-Chicago named Mani Pavuluri who violated research rules during a clinical trial studying the effect of lithium on children with bipolar disorder. Pavuluri had tested the drug on children younger than 13 years old, violating the approved protocols of the
- [Takeaways on data storytelling from the 2018 Tapestry Conference](https://www.storybench.org/takeaways-data-storytelling-2018-tapestry-conference/) - The Tapestry Conference, an interactive online data storytelling event, was held last week for the 6th time at the University of Miami in Florida. Sponsored by Miami's School of Communication and Tableau, Tapestry featured talks by experts in journalism, academia, design, industry, and more. This year’s conference focused on many topics ranging from how to
- [How a husband and wife team exposed the dangers of tanning factories overseas](https://www.storybench.org/husband-wife-team-exposed-dangers-tanning-factories-overseas/) - Have you ever thought about the true cost of fashion? Last year, in a series published by Undark magazine with support from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, photographer Larry C. Price explored the leather industry's effects on tannery workers – including children – in Bangladesh. Debbie M. Price, his wife, wrote the stories to accompany the
- [Why Jon Kasbe spent four years exploring Kenya to produce the film "When Lambs Become Lions"](https://www.storybench.org/time-becomes-part/) - Kenya’s stunning natural beauty and the underlying cruel reality are two sides of the same coin. The documentary film “When Lambs Become Lions," explores this juxtaposition and the value of individual life by following three characters: an ivory dealer, “X," a wildlife ranger, Asan, and an elephant hunter, Lukas. Ultimately, the audience is left asking, 'who gets to
- [Remixing hard news in local TV: A possible recipe for growth](https://www.storybench.org/remixing-hard-news-local-tv-possible-recipe-growth/) - Hello again from Northeastern University’s Reinventing Local TV News Project. Our research is in the home stretch. We just received our data after surveying 600 viewers in six television markets across the country. The initial results are promising. They show that changing up the way local television stations tell hard news stories could increase viewership
- [Local TV news’ challenge of attracting the next generation of viewers](https://www.storybench.org/local-tv-news-challenge-attracting-next-generation-viewers/) - Bill Fine remembers driving past a billboard in Baltimore about 20 years ago that resonated with him. On it, one of the local television news stations in the market had a new slogan that promptly captured the way local TV news was evolving in the digital age. It read: “TV has a new schedule: Yours.”
- [How to install R on a Jupyter notebook](https://www.storybench.org/install-r-jupyter-notebook/) - This post walks through how to install R on a Jupyter notebook, load in data and build a visualization. Start by installing python using homebrew. Install python Open Terminal and enter the following commands. $ brew install python It should already be installed, in which case you'll need to upgrade $ brew upgrade python Install jupyter Next install the jupyter notebook
- ["Immigration has never stopped in the U.S."](https://www.storybench.org/immigration-never-stopped-u-s/) - How do you edit a bilingual newspaper? What types of stories and issues does a newsroom like that cover? Who is your audience? Ling-Mei Wong, the editor of Sampan, the only bilingual Chinese and English newspaper in New England, set out to answer questions like these and more, when she spoke on Nov. 8 at
- ["What does climate change mean in your life?"](https://www.storybench.org/climate-change-mean-life/) - Carol Gregory, the vice president of communications and marketing for the Conservation Law Foundation, a Boston nonprofit focused on the environment, said her job is to sell visions and ideas to people who care about environmental issues. The message that her organization delivers has to be easily understandable because we are so bombarded with information
- [Northeastern hackathon creates tools and stories to better understand food insecurity in Boston](https://www.storybench.org/nu-hackathon-inspires-creation-tools-access-understand-bostons-food-resources/) - Not every Boston neighborhood has equal access to healthy, affordable food. The city’s food system, in fact, is rife with vulnerabilities – from storm surges to food waste to transportation issues. So how can Boston maximize access to healthy food and protect its food web from disruptions? This question guided designers, data scientists and storytellers
- [How PolicyMap is setting the standard for mapping data](https://www.storybench.org/policymap-setting-standard-mapping-data/) - Trying to create data maps can be frustrating and expensive, especially when you're managing overwhelming amounts of data in a simple visual way. Maggie McCullough felt that there should be a simpler way to harness data and create useful maps. So, in 2008, she created PolicyMap. PolicyMap is an online platform that allows people to
- [Carlos Scheidegger on why data science needs to be done humanely](https://www.storybench.org/carlos-scheidegger-data-science-needs-done-humanely/) - The bias inherent in machine learning algorithms and other computer systems is an issue that concerns many industries, including journalism. For example, reporters such as Julia Angwin – formerly with ProPublica and now heading a news start-up The Markup – has done investigative work into machine bias against African Americans and other populations. Earlier this month
- [Ears to the pavement: What Bostonians are saying about the 2018 midterm elections](https://www.storybench.org/ears-pavement-bostonians-saying-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 a blue wave: an overturning of critical house seats across the country to the democratic party, gaining them a majority in the Congress. According to the Pew
- [How to get Twitter data with rtweet in R](https://www.storybench.org/get-twitter-data-rtweet-r/) - There’s a new process for getting data from Twitter with rtweet, so I put this document together as a guide for users looking for help in setting up the API, creating the tokens, and getting the data. For an introductory tutorial to R, click here, and be sure to browse all our Data Journalism in
- [“The Immigration Experience” humanizes the history of immigration law. Here's how.](https://www.storybench.org/immigration-experience-humanizes-history-immigration-law-heres/) - After the Great Famine, you leave Ireland for America. When anti-Catholic, anti-immigrant sentiment peaks in Boston, do you stay or move to Lowell? Or maybe your parents bring you from the Philippines to Chicago, where you grow up undocumented. The time comes to apply for a driving permit; do you use a fake ID? “The
- [Some not-so-obvious ways to represent voter turnout data](https://www.storybench.org/some-not-so-obvious-ways-to-represent-voter-turnout-data/) - With voter registration deadlines fast approaching – and some already past – social media has been filled with reminders urging those who are eligible to register and to make sure they vote on November 6. But will Americans turn out? Voter turnout, of course, is more than just an average for each state. It can
- ["Would you give up anything to protect our democracy?"](https://www.storybench.org/give-anything-protect-democracy/) - “Do we need to live in a democracy?” asked Susan Labandibar, the regional coordinating organizer of Swing Left, at Pizza, Press & Politics, a speaker series hosted by the School of Journalism at Northeastern University, on Oct. 11. Her answer is most definite: Yes. She directed her question to an audience of mainly young students,
- [How The New York Times used 360 video to show Puerto Rico's electrical grid repair following Maria](https://www.storybench.org/new-york-times-used-360-video-show-puerto-ricos-electrical-grid-repair-following-maria/) - In September 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated the island of Puerto Rico. When the hurricane finally dissipated in early October, the damage had made it the worst natural disaster to hit the island. Much of the hurricane's impact is still being felt more than a year later. The New York Times recently sent an investigative team to
- ["No matter how breathtaking the data is, find the people affected by it"](https://www.storybench.org/no-matter-breathtaking-data-find-people-affected/) - John Ward, the communications director of the ACLU of Massachusetts, which focuses on issues of civil rights and civil liberties, said the Boston-based nonprofit has grown quickly since President Trump took office, as it takes on the administration in a number of ways. “We have challenged the Trump administration on a variety of issues,” such
- [This is 18: A by women, for women project from The New York Times](https://www.storybench.org/18-women-women-project-new-york-times/) - On October 11, The New York Times released its online version of “This is 18,” a monthslong effort to portray the lives of 21 young women around the world. The image- and video-heavy compilation of stories looks like a teenage scrapbook, with bright colors, pictures with uneven edges and words placed off-kilter on the page. In
- [Exploring Beto O'Rourke and Ted Cruz ads on Facebook using R](https://www.storybench.org/exploring-beto-orourke-ted-cruz-ads-facebook-using-r/) - When and how often are Beto O'Rourke ads being rolled out on Facebook and who is paying for them? What is the sentiment of those ads and how do Beto's ads differ in sentiment from his opponent Ted Cruz's? Using more than 94,000 Facebook ads collected by ProPublica's Political Ad Collector, I attempted to answer
- [Behind the scenes with Galen Druke and FiveThirtyEight's Politics podcast](https://www.storybench.org/behind-scenes-galen-druke-fivethirtyeights-politics-podcast/) - The countdown begins. One week until the midterm elections. The politically curious are torturing themselves by hitting refresh on polling data and clinging to forecast updates from sites like FiveThirtyEight. Even at this late stage, some competitive races have little to no polling, meaning that forecasts could be missing crucial indicators. To help make sense
- [How Refinery29's Lucie Fink records her lifestyle experiments for 1.5 million YouTube subscribers](https://www.storybench.org/refinery29s-lucie-fink-records-lifestyle-experiments-1-5-million-youtube-subscribers/) - Lucie Fink is a video producer and lifestyle host at Refinery29, a site that self-describes as a “modern woman's destination for how to live a stylish, well-rounded life.” Fink hosts Refinery29’s YouTube show “​Try Living With Lucie​,” where she embarks on five-day experiments – ranging from 5-day meal prep tips to five days of trying out
- [How The Washington Post covered the largest blackout in U.S. history](https://www.storybench.org/washington-post-covered-largest-blackout-u-s-history/) - When Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico in the fall of 2017, locals knew there would be a recovery process. As a high-end Category 4 storm, Maria dumped feet of rain onto the island and blasted it with winds reaching speeds as high as 118 miles per hour. But the aftermath turned out to
- [How the "Small Town Murder" podcast has mixed crime and humor to become a success](https://www.storybench.org/small-town-murder-podcast-mixed-crime-humor-become-success/) - "In Red Wing, Minnesota, a relationship that was clearly doomed from the start, deteriorates quickly, and with violent results. What caused this escalation? Jealousy? Unkind Words? Chlamydia? Either way, it's a crazy story that will make you angry... When it's not hilarious!" In January 2017, the podcast “Small Town Murder” debuted. (The above description is
- [How the MLB Network captured the joy of Cubs fans during the 2016 World Series](https://www.storybench.org/reverse-billy-goat-mlb-network-captured-joy-cubs-fans-2016-world-series/) - The Chicago Cubs are one of the most storied franchises in Major League Baseball. But before 2016, the team hadn’t won a championship in 108 years. The 2016 World Series marked a momentous and unforgettable event in the hearts and minds of sports fans everywhere, and needed its own story. “Joy in Wrigleyville” is a
- [How NHPR's Outside/In podcast brings the natural world to you](https://www.storybench.org/nhprs-outside-podcast-brings-natural-world/) - When Sam Evans-Brown and the creative production unit at New Hampshire Public Radio sat down in 2013 for a staff meeting, a plan to create a podcast was engineered. The show, Outside/In, would be critical when needed and focus on things that happened in the natural, outside world. Podcasts had been around for a while,
- [Takeaways on being a watchdog reporter from the 2018 Boston Watchdog Workshop](https://www.storybench.org/takeaways-watchdog-reporter-2018-boston-watchdog-workshop/) - “We found new and fresh ways to look at an issue that many people had covered before, by not only gathering a lot of data that was already out there, but also presenting them in a way that wasn’t done before.” That's Nicole Dungca, an investigative reporter from The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team, at the
- [Eight ways journalists are visualizing the wildfires in California](https://www.storybench.org/five-visual-approaches-understand-california-wildfires/) - California officials and firefighters are becoming increasingly concerned that the drier, windier conditions spurred on by the warming climate will make wildfires more devastating and their seasons longer. But are enough people paying attention to their root causes and dire consequences? Storybench rounded up eight ways U.S. journalists are chronicling this year's wildfires. A closer look
- [For journalism students reporting on climate change, a self-taught lesson in teamwork](https://www.storybench.org/journalism-students-reporting-climate-change-self-taught-lesson-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 substantive and worthwhile than bringing in a guest speaker? As I thought about it, I realized the students themselves could come up with something better
- [How to map 2018 ballot initiatives on marijuana, energy and voter registration](https://www.storybench.org/map-2018-ballot-initiatives-marijuana-energy-voter-registration/) - Washington could impose a polluter's fee on greenhouse-gas emitters starting in 2020. North Dakota may legalize recreational marijuana while expunging existing criminal records for certain drug-associated arrests, though that initiative might well fail. And some in North Carolina are hoping to require photo identification at the polls, even though there have only been a handful of alleged
- [How Bloomberg's "Pessimist's Guide" gives readers a look into the future](https://www.storybench.org/bloombergs-pessimists-guide-gives-readers-look-future/) - Jeremy Scott Diamond, a developer and designer for Bloomberg graphics, helped create last December's "Pessimist’s Guide to 2018," a recurring piece designed to give users a look into the future. Based on the top-trending news articles from the previous year, the project gives readers possible scenarios that could play out nationally and globally. Storybench sat
- [Sexual assault in the U.S. Forest Service: How to interview a survivor](https://www.storybench.org/sexual-assault-u-s-forest-service-interview-survivor/) - Living On Earth is a Boston-based weekly radio show and podcast from Public Radio International that focuses on the environment, ecology, and human health. During the Aug. 31 episode, Living On Earth host Steve Curwood interviewed Abby Bolt, a battalion chief in the U.S. Forest Service who said she had experienced bullying and harassment from
- [How the Financial Times used narrative game design to illustrate the lives of Uber drivers](https://www.storybench.org/financial-times-used-narrative-game-design-illustrate-lives-uber-drivers/) - As media outlets continue to experiment with innovative forms of digital storytelling, some journalists have turned to the lucrative video game industry for inspiration. Last year, Financial Times released The Uber Game, a “choose your own adventure” interactive program that offers players a glimpse into the day-to-day lives of full-time Uber drivers. To create the
- [How The New York Times reported its "52 Places to Go" travel section](https://www.storybench.org/new-york-times-reported-52-places-go-travel-section/) - If you could travel to 52 places, where would you go? Josh Williams, a multimedia and graphics editor for The New York Times, has a few dozen ideas. Williams was a part of a team of nine producers who created a list of 52 places to visit in 2017. Williams spoke to Storybench about how the
- [How The Guardian updated maps and live graphics during the Thai cave rescue](https://www.storybench.org/guardian-updated-maps-live-graphics-thai-cave-rescue/) - Last summer, for nearly three weeks, a Thai soccer team trapped inside a cave gripped the world with the prospect that 12 boys and their coach wouldn’t make it out of the Tham Luang cave alive. The mission to rescue the team was one of heroism and bravery, with advanced divers and Navy SEALs volunteering
- [How Issue One uncovered the top 15 "dark money groups" in politics](https://www.storybench.org/issue-one-uncovered-top-15-dark-money-groups-politics/) - In 2010, the political advertising game changed. That's when, 5-4, the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission that "the free speech clause of the First Amendment to the Constitution prohibits the government from restricting independent expenditures for communications by nonprofit corporations, for-profit corporations, labor unions and other associations." With major elections happening every
- [Visualizing tumbling tumbleweeds – and storylines – in 'The Big Lebowski'](https://www.storybench.org/visualizing-tumbling-tumbleweeds-storylines-big-lebowski/) - In 1998, Joel and Ethan Coen’s cult classic The Big Lebowski inspired a community of fandom that remains fanatical even today, twenty years since its debut. A few years ago, the film reached archival status, being recorded in the Library of Congress’s National Film Registry as one of around 700 "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant"
- [“Sources notice persistence and news organizations reward persistence.”](https://www.storybench.org/sources-notice-persistence-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 engagement with their audience because they are closer to their readers. Smith spoke at “Pizza, Press & Politics” at Northeastern University's School of Journalism last
- [How data helped visualize the family separation crisis](https://www.storybench.org/data-helped-visualize-family-separation-crisis/) - Early this summer, at the height of the family separation crisis – where children were being forcibly separated from their parents at our nation’s border – a team of scholars pooled their skills to address the issue. The group of researchers – from a variety of humanities departments at multiple universities – spent a week
- [“Oftentimes our voices aren’t represented.”](https://www.storybench.org/oftentimes-voices-arent-represented-martha-durkee-neuman/) - 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. Durkee-Neuman spoke last Thursday at Pizza, Press & Politics, a speaker series hosted by Northeastern University’s School of Journalism. “Oftentimes our voices aren’t represented,” said
- [How Axios built an animated map showing hurricane paths hitting the Carolinas](https://www.storybench.org/axios-built-animated-map-showing-hurricane-paths-hitting-carolinas/) - When Hurricane Florence made landfall in the United States last month, few could anticipate the strange journey the hurricane would take. While many major hurricanes have hit the Carolinas, it turns out, none have taken the same path as Florence. Harry Stevens, a data and visual journalist at Axios, analyzed the data collected by the National
- ["It's like a Serial for relationships." Behind the scenes of the “Love Letters” podcast.](https://www.storybench.org/love-letters-podcast-made-column-audio-story/) - The Boston Globe’s “Love Letters” column has been doling out advice to lovelorn letter-writers for nearly a decade. Behind this advice is columnist Meredith Goldstein, who has addressed everything from discovering your partner’s Viagra to dating someone who embodies the antithesis of your political beliefs. The column's uproarious comments section can often boast over 1,000
- [How The New York Times Magazine shipped a soundtrack with its Voyages issue](https://www.storybench.org/new-york-times-magazine-gave-readers-new-experience-fall-voyage-issue/) - Through eye-catching photographs of exotic locations, New York Times Magazine's biannual Voyages issues are meant to transport the audience around the world even if they are just sitting on their sofa or on the way to work. But last month's issue may have caught readers off guard by asking them to experience the 11 locations through
- [How documentary photographer Tomás Munita captured the plight of the Rohingya](https://www.storybench.org/documentary-photographer-tomas-munita-captured-plight-rohingya/) - In December 2017, The New York Times published “How 655,000 Rohingya Escaped,” a visual experience composed of photos, videos and maps revealing the journey of Rohingya Muslims’ exile from Myanmar. This ethnic minority group has faced discriminatory policies in Myanmar since the 1970s and, in 2017, an a surge of violence against the Rohingya people
- ["Make every single sentence a sentence that couldn’t have been written until now"](https://www.storybench.org/david-filipov/) - 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 Russia, Iraq and Afghanistan during "Pizza, Press and Politics,” a speaker series hosted by the School of Journalism at Northeastern University. Filipov was working in
- ["The heart of everything great in journalism is good editing"](https://www.storybench.org/heart-everything-great-journalism-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 themselves to a master new techniques and to aim for a higher standard of work. Workman spoke last week at Pizza, Press & Politics, a
- [How the Marshall Project visualized racial inequities in New York City subway policing](https://www.storybench.org/marshall-project-visualized-racial-inequities-new-york-city-subway-policing/) - Last month, The Marshall Project published a piece about arrests for subway turnstile jumping in New York City by interactive reporter Anna Flagg and former reporting intern Ashley Nerbovig. They found that, while the number of arrests for turnstile jumping has fallen since 2014, the racial makeup of those arrested has remained steady. This year,
- [A dozen ways the midterm elections are being visualized](https://www.storybench.org/eleven-ways-organizations-are-visualizing-the-midterm-elections/) - Midterm mayhem is fast approaching and with it, according to the Pew Research Center, voter enthusiasm. “Not only do about half of registered voters report being more enthusiastic than usual about voting, up from 40 percent in 2014, but turnout has surged in the 31 states that already have held their congressional primaries – particularly among
- [Ten interactive ways you can fight misinformation](https://www.storybench.org/ten-interactive-ways-can-fight-misinformation/) - Last month, researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of Amsterdam revealed a “fake news” detection algorithm that, with a 24 percent error rate, outperformed humans at distinguishing between fake and real news. The takeaway? On the one hand, A.I. trained on human language is improving. On the other, humans don’t seem to
- [How to scrape Reddit with Python](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-scrape-reddit-with-python/) - Last month, Storybench editor Aleszu Bajak and I decided to explore user data on nootropics, the brain-boosting pills that have become popular for their productivity-enhancing properties. Many of the substances are also banned by at the Olympics, which is why we were able to pitch and publish the piece at Smithsonian magazine during the 2018 Winter Olympics. For
- [How the documentary "The Naked Truth: Wasteland" explored Scott Pruitt and the fossil fuel lobby.](https://www.storybench.org/documentary-naked-truth-wasteland-explored-scott-pruitt-fossil-fuel-lobby/) - Shortly after Donald Trump's election, when Scott Pruitt took the reins at the Environmental Protection Agency, longtime EPA staffers began seeing a severe scaling back of the protections they were tasked with devising and keeping in place. It was a tumultuous time. The now-departed Pruitt was all too happy eliminating agency regulations that were protecting the public's health by
- [How Florida Today created an augmented reality rocket launch app](https://www.storybench.org/florida-today-created-augmented-reality-rocket-launch-app/) - Would you watch an animated hologram of a rocket launch in real-time? Florida Today, in collaboration with USA Today, recently released an augmented reality app, 321 Launch, which syncs with SpaceX and United Launch Alliance to allow users to view an actual launch on any flat surface. The app combines the live coverage of rocket
- [The New York Times’ Graham Roberts on why augmented reality is suited for hard news](https://www.storybench.org/new-york-times-graham-roberts-augmented-reality-suited-hard-news/) - On April 7, 2018, a chemical bomb was dropped onto the rooftop of a residential building in the Syrian city of Douma, near Damascus, killing dozens of people, many of them children. While the Syrian regime flatly denied that it had launched the attack, the United States and its allies claimed that a chlorine bomb
- [Mapping search data from Google Trends in R](https://www.storybench.org/mapping-search-data-from-google-trends-in-r/) - This is a quick introduction on how to get and visualize Google search data with both time and geographical components using the R packages gtrendsR, maps and ggplot2. In this example, we will look at search interest for named hurricanes that hit the U.S. mainland and then plot how often different states search for "guns."
- [How Frederik Sølberg filmed a portrait of Doel, a Belgian “ghost town”](https://www.storybench.org/frederik-solberg-filmed-portrait-doel-belgian-ghost-town/) - Frederik Sølberg is the director of Doel, a film about the Belgian “ghost town” of the same name. Doel follows the story of a very small town in danger of being overrun by corporate interests, and how the people react. Sølberg describes it as “a bittersweet portrait of a ghost town and a film about why it is
- [Using French wine reviews to understand TF-IDF, a measure of how unique a word is to a document](https://www.storybench.org/using-french-wine-reviews-understand-tf-idf-measure-unique-word-document/) - "The heady scent of grapefruit and tangelo peel immediately add savoriness to the crisp green-apple fruit that is evident on the nose. But there are also richer hints of honey and yellow apple. The palate remains taut, slender and linear but that tangelo spice is boosted by enticing herbal notes of yarrow and a dollop
- [How one VR experience explores the frightening and ebullient world of bipolar disorder](https://www.storybench.org/one-vr-experience-explores-frightening-ebullient-world-bipolar-disorder/) - Manic is a virtual reality experience that explores the beautiful, chaotic, frightening and ebullient world of those with bipolar disorder. It follows the thoughts of creator Kalina Bertin's siblings, Felicia and François, through the voicemails they've left her as they undergo cycling states of mania, psychosis and depression. Storybench spoke with Bertin about the virtual reality experience.
- [How to build an animated map of tweets about the NBA finals in R](https://www.storybench.org/build-animated-map-tweets-nba-finals-r/) - After beating the Cleveland Cavaliers in four games, the Golden State Warriors have won the 2018 NBA finals. We decided to build an animated map of Twitter mentions of #DubNation and #StrengthInNumbers, two hashtags used by Golden State fans. This post will walk you through 1) collecting data from a Twitter API using the rtweet package, 2)
- [Talking to Tracy McGrady: How digital tools and a sharp eye helped me set up an interview with my childhood hero](https://www.storybench.org/talking-tracy-mcgrady-digital-tools-sharp-eye-helped-set-interview-childhood-hero/) - They never said don’t call your heroes. If you’re writing an article about entertainment, athletics or even politics, your professors have probably told you, “In a perfect world, you’d talk to them.” Them being Jimmy Fallon, LeBron James, Barack Obama or any other high-profile person. If the stories are about them, getting their voice into
- [How I created Accio Data, a data-driven visual guide to all things Harry Potter](https://www.storybench.org/created-accio-data-data-driven-visual-guide-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 times, as well as enjoying every Harry Potter movie marathon that I encountered. By the time I reached my senior year at Northeastern, I possessed
- [How to plot state-by-state data on a map of the U.S. in R](https://www.storybench.org/plot-state-state-data-map-u-s-r/) - While I usually turn to Carto.com or Datawrapper.de for my mapping needs, I decided to give R a whirl. The following tutorial will take craft beer awards data from Great American Beer Festival and map medal counts by state. This data spans 1987 to 2015. Cheers! A quick look at the code Geocoding the "state"
- [Using maps, kayaks and notebooks to understand the biodiversity and resilience of Boston's coastline](https://www.storybench.org/using-maps-kayaks-and-notebooks-to-understand-the-biodiversity-and-resilience-of-bostons-coastline/) - On the campaign trail, presidential candidate Donald Trump talked a lot about revitalizing America's crumbling infrastructure. Other issues, however, have since crowded out the monumental task of addressing this aging infrastructure. But for scientists like Northeastern Marine Science Center graduate student Ashley Cryan, infrastructure and how it affects the health of coastal ecosystems is a daily
- [The importance of learning opinion writing today](https://www.storybench.org/importance-learning-opinion-writing-today/) - In today's tumultuous news cycle, what journalists have to say is crucial to readers. But often what's expected from reporters goes beyond just the facts. Reporters are increasingly rewarded for voicing their opinion. It’s what makes the opinion pages of newspapers and websites so well-read and why television personalities like Sean Hannity, Rachel Maddow, Anderson
- [How one Pennsylvania station hopes to reinvent local TV news by embedding reporters in communities](https://www.storybench.org/one-pennsylvania-station-hopes-reinvent-local-tv-news-embedding-reporters-communities/) - Last month, a television station in Pennsylvania launched “Reporter Corps” – an ambitious initiative aimed at reinventing local TV news. PBS39/WLVT, which is based in Bethlehem, Pa., plans to hire a dozen multi-platform journalists, embedding 10 of them in the 10 counties of the Greater Lehigh Valley – which straddles Pennsylvania and New Jersey –
- [How a New York Times graphics editor designed "Greenland is Melting Away"](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-nyts-derek-watkins-designed-greenland-is-melting-away/) - At the end of 2015, New York Times reporters visited Greenland with a group of scientists for an up-close look at the effects of climate change. The resulting article, “Greenland is Melting Away,” features interactive graphics that detail the scientific quest of a team of researchers collecting samples from the network of rivers that cut through Greenland's ice
- [How Folha de São Paulo builds immersive stories about controversial themes like dams, drought and deforestation](https://www.storybench.org/how-folha-de-sao-paulo-builds-immersive-stories-about-controversial-themes-like-dams-drought-and-deforestation/) - For years, Folha de São Paulo, one of Brazil's largest newspapers, has been at the forefront of digital experimentation. Its interactive, multimedia series “Tudo Sobre” (“All About” in English) – launched in 2013 with a project focused on the construction of the Belo Monte dam in the Amazon. Since then, the section has explored other
- [Behind the scenes of an augmented reality app that’s visualizing a world after sea level rise](https://www.storybench.org/behind-scenes-augmented-reality-app-thats-visualizing-world-sea-level-rise/) - In 2015, Justin Brice Guariglia, a New York-based visual artist, began collaborating with NASA scientists on the polar survey flights they were conducting as part of Operation IceBridge, an endeavor that sought to image the Arctic to better understand how it was being affected by the global climate system. Two years later, in collaboration with
- [How NASA Earth Observatory creates stunning maps to tell technical stories visually](https://www.storybench.org/how-nasa-earth-observatory-creates-stunning-maps-to-tell-technical-stories/) - At the heart of any finding by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is a massive amount of data. Its fleet of satellites collect datasets so large they can be hard to imagine – let alone visualize. This data allows scientists to piece together trends to better understand the phenomena and systems that make our world
- [Climate change data visualizations around the web](https://www.storybench.org/climate-change-data-visualizations-around-web/) - With global climate talks currently underway in Paris, Storybench has taken a look around the web for some of the most compelling visualizations of climate change data. Submissions? Suggestions? Tweet us @storybench. UN Climate Change Conference: The Factions CORRECT!V, December 1, 2015 Simon Jockers and the data journalism team at Correct!v, the Germany investigative news organization,
- [How The New York Times is looking at climate change through a new lens](https://www.storybench.org/new-york-times-looking-climate-change-new-lens/)
- [Six things I learned developing an interactive map on the effects of climate change](https://www.storybench.org/6-things-interactive-climate-change/) - Every once in a while, newsroom developers and visual journalists get one of those projects that becomes both a big challenge and a great learning experience. That was the case for me last November, when InsideClimate News, a non-profit covering the environment, reached out to me for a freelance job. Reporter Nicholas Kuznetz had acquired
- [How the Center for Public Integrity is using surveys to report on tick-borne illness and climate change](https://www.storybench.org/tick-center-public-integrity-using-survey-coverage-tick-borne-illness-climate-change/) - With the northeastern United States on the brink of summer, bug spray will soon be flying off the shelves as hikers, bikers and others prepare for adventures outdoors. But, inevitably, for many those treks will mean encounters with ticks. And you may have noticed an up-tick in news coverage of ticks in the past few years
- [Why the Massachusetts Daily Collegian is translating stories into other languages](https://www.storybench.org/massachusetts-daily-collegian-translating-stories-languages/) - Not even into her junior year the University of Massachusetts, Rebecca Duke Wiesenberg has already held a variety of positions at the student-run paper, the Massachusetts Daily Collegian. She's been an op-ed writer, a copy editor and the assistant news editor in the short time since she joined the paper. But it's her current title that may
- [Six visualizations that explore the extent of overfishing around the world](https://www.storybench.org/six-visualizations-explore-extent-overfishing-around-world/) - The global demand for fish is suffocating our oceans. More than 55 percent of the seawater that covers this planet is trawled or lined with hooks in some manner, and increasingly under dubious legal circumstances. Unbridled international competition and demand continue to drive many local and commercial fisherman to make desperate choices in order to
- [Local TV news legends reflect on past, look to future](https://www.storybench.org/local-tv-news-legends-reflect-past-look-future/) - Local TV news trailblazers Natalie Jacobson and Liz Walker both stepped away from their respective anchor desks more than a decade ago, but they remain two of the most recognizable television news personalities in the Boston area. Jacobson and Walker competed head-to-head through the 80s, 90s, and 2000s in a news race between WCVB-TV and
- [How I simulated the public school selection process in Chicago to show segregation](https://www.storybench.org/simulated-public-school-selection-process-chicago-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 students, higher levels of educational attainment, higher life expectancies, and lower homicide rates – today, we see higher levels of school segregation than ever before.
- [How the Palm Beach Post unearthed an opioid conspiracy with roots in Florida](https://www.storybench.org/palm-beach-post-unearthed-opioid-conspiracy-pharmaceutical-company/) - Located in one of the states hardest hit by the opioid crisis, Florida's Palm Beach Post has covered the issue from drug deals in the streets to boardroom deals at Big Pharma. For their latest series, several reporters took a comprehensive look at one pharmaceutical company that earned major profits bribing doctors to prescribe their opioid
- [How ProPublica used a game to tell the stories of five immigrants seeking asylum](https://www.storybench.org/how-propublica-used-a-game-to-tell-the-stories-of-five-immigrants-seeking-asylum/) - For decades, video games have been a major part of digital culture, helping players escape reality to live within virtual worlds. And it's big business. Annually, the video game industry generates more than a hundred billion dollars. But no longer are video games built of fiction. Gradually, over the last few years, news organizations have begun experimenting
- [Podcast: Northeastern alumni weigh in on the challenges facing local TV news](https://www.storybench.org/podcast-northeastern-alumni-weigh-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 their relevance altogether. In search for answers, Northeastern graduate students Shraddha Kakade and Veer Mudambi interviewed three Northeastern alumni who are now working in local
- [Which local TV news stories do well on social media?](https://www.storybench.org/local-news-stories-well-social-media/) - With a majority of adults in the United States getting their news from social media, social “shares” have become the news industry’s gold standard for measuring a story’s success – or at least an article’s virality. Like so many news organizations, local television news stations feel the pressure to air and publish stories they think
- [How shows like "Trump, Inc." are making investigative podcasts great again](https://www.storybench.org/shows-like-trump-inc-making-investigative-podcasts-great/) - Andrea Bernstein recalls the brainstorming session that took place between ProPublica and WNYC, where she works as a senior editor for politics and policy, to try and decide how the two news organizations would go about investigating the businesses of president Donald Trump. On a whiteboard in a conference room, they scribbled ideas for potential stories,
- [Old dogs and new tricks: Tom Rosenstiel on reinventing local TV news](https://www.storybench.org/old-dogs-new-tricks-tom-rosenstiel-reinventing-local-tv-news/) - As “We Interrupt This Newscast,” one of the largest research projects about local television news, was on the eve of landing on bookshelves nearly a decade ago, Tom Rosenstiel, one of the book’s authors, wanted two things to happen. First: Get the book in the hands of people who are working in the local TV news
- [Is virtual reality accessible to Northeastern students?](https://www.storybench.org/virtual-reality-accessible-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 Northeastern exploring augmented and virtual reality technology “The cost of entry alone is what makes this so inaccessible for college students.” Virtual reality equipment is
- [Will educators warm up to the learning possibilities of games like Assassin's Creed?](https://www.storybench.org/will-educators-warm-learning-possibilities-games-like-assassins-creed/) - Without a time machine, the world of ancient Egypt that most people know is a half-finished puzzle pieced together by egyptologists. Until now. The sun-dappled streets of Alexandria, ancient temples dedicated to long-forgotten gods, even the nose of the Great Sphynx, long swallowed by the sands of time, have been unearthed by a surprising tool:
- [How Northeastern’s oldest print publication is keeping up with the digital landscape](https://www.storybench.org/northeasterns-oldest-print-publication-keeping-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 of presenting that in a graf, there’s a photo and a blurb with a map in this sort of scrollable feature,” said Glenn Billman, multimedia
- [Back to the inbox: How campus publications are making a media trend their own](https://www.storybench.org/back-inbox-campus-publications-making-media-trend/) - 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 banking on newsletters as a significant source of traffic and platform to cultivate reader loyalty. Newsletters provide a direct way for an individual or publication
- [Northeastern University radio station to release four biweekly podcasts](https://www.storybench.org/northeastern-university-radio-station-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 FM, the station entered a new era last week. WRBB released four biweekly podcasts. From the Dean of Libraries to the History and Journalism departments,
- [The #ARforChange Project: Using immersive technologies and data for social change](https://www.storybench.org/arforchange-project-using-immersive-technologies-data-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 collaboration with the School of Law and the College of Arts, Media and Design's Data Storytelling Research Initiative, is launching a project we're calling "The
- [Storytelling 101 with WCVB’s Maria Stephanos](https://www.storybench.org/storytelling-101-wcvbs-maria-stephanos/) - WCVB-TV anchor Maria Stephanos visited Northeastern University recently to talk to journalism students about video storytelling techniques. While Stephanos is one of Boston’s best-known television personalities, she says she’s focused on telling powerful stories about people in the local community. https://vimeo.com/263354006 “I don’t care about being on TV. I don’t. I really don’t,” said Stephanos.
- [How KTUU worked with Carto to create a map of the station's 360 content](https://www.storybench.org/ktuu-worked-carto-create-map-stations-360-content/) - Kyle Hopkins, now special projects editor for the Anchorage Daily News, is a former reporter and managing editor for KTUU in Anchorage, Alaska. While at KTUU, he spearheaded the station’s foray into 360 photography and video and was the driving force behind the station's collaboration with mapping platform Carto.com to create an interactive map showcasing
- [China’s intranet fends off censored words through the Great Firewall](https://www.storybench.org/chinas-intranet-fends-off-censored-words-great-firewall/) - You know the internet as a seemingly infinite online environment ruled by openness and free expression. But in China, the internet is more like an intranet. What is an intranet? An intranet is a private network accessible only to an organization’s members; all of its information and services are inaccessible to the public. As the Webopedia,
- [Lessons from the “Golden Age” of Boston TV news](https://www.storybench.org/lessons-golden-age-boston-tv-news/) - The Boston television market has a storied history. In 1981, The New York Times declared in a headline about WCVB-TV: “Some some say this is “America’s Best TV Station.” But Channel 5 isn’t Boston’s only television station with an impressive past, as former television critic Terry Ann Knopf noted in her recently published book, “The
- [Local TV news stations experiment with podcasting](https://www.storybench.org/local-tv-news-stations-experiment-podcasting/) - A mystery that’s shaken a small southern Michigan town for more than eight years and has several times found its way into the national news spotlight is being told again under a more innovative and investigative lens. In February, Detroit’s NBC affiliate WDIV (Channel 4), launched Shattered: Black Friday, a Serial-esque podcast that follows the
- [SXSW: For women in journalism the future is not bleak. But there's a lot to work on.](https://www.storybench.org/sxsw-women-journalism-future-not-bleak-theres-lot-work/) - At a SXSW session on journalism last Saturday, panelists Sophia Jones, Jasmine Garsd Garcia, Tara Todras-Whitehill and Daniella Zalcman wanted the room to know, first and foremost, that their outlook on the representation of women and diversity in journalism was a positive one. They voiced their optimism for the industry’s direction and the work being
- [SXSW: 'Excel is okay' and other tweet-size insights for data journalists and news nerds](https://www.storybench.org/sxsw-data-journalists-tweets-insights/) - Storybench has boots on the ground covering SXSW from multiple angles, including immersive storytelling, UX design and more. For those that didn't make it to Austin this year, the next best option is to follow what's happening on Twitter. For data journalists looking to see what's new and innovative in the realm of media, the hashtag
- [How to create a barplot in R](https://www.storybench.org/create-barplot-r/) - In playing with the fivethirtyeight R package for another Storybench tutorial, we learned some basics of plotting a bar chart in R using data from a csv. Below, we've outlined the steps we've taken to create a barplot in R using murders_final_sort.csv, cleaned and created in this tutorial. Load the csv In RStudio, load the csv file.
- [How to make small multiples in R using geom_line()](https://www.storybench.org/make-small-multiples-r-using-geom_line/) - We've been exploring and visualizing datasets from the fivethirtyeight R package for various Storybench tutorials. (See our tidyr tutorial and our barplot tutorial). Below, we've written a tutorial to create a grid of line charts that all use the same scale and axes in R – otherwise known as small multiples. Small multiples are a popular choice for visualizing a series of graphs to allow easy comparison.
- [How to convert a Google Doc to RMarkdown and publish on Github pages](https://www.storybench.org/convert-google-doc-rmarkdown-publish-github-pages/) - Professors across the country are scrambling to tidy up their syllabi. But how to best share them with students? I'll be publishing my "Digital Storytelling and Social Media" syllabus on Github using a simple website publishing format called RMarkdown. The good news is, if you can type your syllabus into Google Docs, you can build
- [How to merge and clean up multiple CSVs using R](https://www.storybench.org/merge-clean-multiple-csvs-using-r/) - This tutorial solves a problem I was having when working through the exploratory data analysis exercises in Doing Data Science by Cathy O'Neil and Rachel Schutt. I highly recommended picking up a copy for yourself. The exercises in the book are intended for a single day, but what if I wanted to look at an entire month's worth of data? Luckily,
- [How Sosolimited uses data to create experiences that are physical and sensory](https://www.storybench.org/sosolimited-uses-data-create-experiences-physical-sensory/) - Making data physical, visceral, and emotional is the primary goal for Sosolimited, a Boston-based design studio. “The incorporation of live data, especially user-created data, makes the space engaging in a way that a lot of people aren’t used to,” said Wes Thomas, a designer and tech expert at Soso, on a recent visit to Northeastern
- [SXSW: Is the future of our cities a branded utopia or commercial dystopia?](https://www.storybench.org/sxsw-future-cities-branded-utopia-commercial-dystopia/) - By 2050, it is expected that two-thirds of the global population will live in cities. By then, the "smart city" market is meant to triple, meaning that more and more of our world and living environment will be connected through data and technology. These days, the likelihood that these efforts are being funded by private
- [SXSW: Key takeaways on data journalism from the "news nerds" panel](https://www.storybench.org/sxsw-key-takeaways-data-journalism-news-nerds-panel/) - Nearly every news story you read today involves numbers. Many news outlets, like The Washington Post and The New York Times, have found effective ways of presenting stories with data-heavy information to readers through alluring, interactive visualizations. So it comes as no surprise that data and technology are big topics in this year’s News and
- [SXSW: Virtual reality pioneer Nonny de la Peña on immersive storytelling](https://www.storybench.org/sxsw-virtual-reality-pioneer-nonny-de-la-pena-immersive-storytelling/) - Often referred to as the ‘Godmother of Virtual Reality,’ investigative journalist Nonny de la Peña has paved the way for a new era of immersive storytelling though virtual reality. In a keynote speech at the South by Southwest conference this past Tuesday, she spoke about the power of new technology in transforming how people empathize
- [SXSW: Screams and cheers as horror-thriller "A Quiet Place" opens SXSW film festival](https://www.storybench.org/sxsw-screams-cheers-horror-thriller-quiet-place-opens-sxsw-film-festival/) - On Friday night, actor John Krasinski kicked off the SXSW Film Festival with an enthusiastic, at-capacity screening of his post-apocalyptic horror-thriller “A Quiet Place.” The Newton, Mass. native stars opposite Emily Blunt in the taut genre pic, his third directorial effort. It follows a family of four – including kids played by Noah Jupe and Millicent
- [SXSW: TV writers on the ingredients of successful storytelling](https://www.storybench.org/sxsw-tv-writers-ingredients-successful-storytelling/) - It’s the best job in the world, the panelists agreed. Though distinct in their assorted identities and backgrounds, the three speakers at “Inside the Modern Day Writer’s Room,” held Tuesday afternoon in the Austin Convention Center at South by Southwest, were united in their conviction that crafting stories for the small screen is a dream
- [How nwzer wants to rebuild journalism using AI and citizen reporters](https://www.storybench.org/how-nwzer-wants-to-rebuild-journalism-using-ai-and-citizen-reporters/) - "Artificial intelligence powered citizen journalism. Building news together." That's how Netherlands-based nwzer – which founder Karim Maassen calls “the Uber of journalism” – bills itself. nwzer aims to put the power of news production into the hands of creators, journalists and readers rather than in the hands of publishers, Maassen says. “Uber and Airbnb have actually disrupted the existing models which were very
- [SXSW: The danger in designing frictionless experiences like Uber, Hulu and Blue Apron](https://www.storybench.org/sxsw-danger-designing-frictionless-experiences-like-uber-hulu-blue-apron/) - How many apps do you have on your phone specifically designed to make your life easier? Instead of waiting for the bus that may or may not come, ride-sharing services like Lyft and Uber have made it possible to hail a cab from anywhere at any time, with little wait-time or human interaction. Instead of
- [How to export photos from Lightroom](https://www.storybench.org/export-photos-lightroom/) - Exporting from Lightroom is a game of inputs and outputs. That is, the sizes, resolutions, and file types you designate to a photo during the export process (input) will, in turn, dictate that photo’s storage real estate, visual appeal, and processing speed upon upload or print (output). For the average hobbyist, upload speed and quality
- [NICAR: Data stories from last year that you could be doing in your newsroom](https://www.storybench.org/nicar-data-stories-last-year-newsroom/) - The NICAR conference is all about seeing and learning from the best of data journalism. And what better way of understanding success than taking a look at the past. The panel Year in CAR with Sarah Hutchins (IRE), Marianne Bouchart (Data Journalism Awards), and Brett Murphy (USA Today) showcased some great examples of data and
- [Meet the Swedish newspaper editor who put an algorithm in charge of his homepage](https://www.storybench.org/meet-swedish-newspaper-editor-put-algorithm-charge-homepage/) - About four years ago, Svenska Dagbladet, one of Sweden's top newspapers, was in free fall. The paper was experiencing depressed circulation, no digital revenue, and dwindling readership. When Fredric Karén took the job as editor-in-chief in 2013, the message from the board and the parent company, Scandinavian media conglomerate Schibsted Group, was clear: “Something radical had to be done to
- [SXSW: The future of news video is understanding audiences](https://www.storybench.org/sxsw-the-future-of-news-video-is-understanding-audiences/) - Video is increasingly a priority across newsrooms worldwide. On March 12th, at South By Southwest in Austin, Texas, Deborah Acosta, an interactive filmmaker at The New York Times, Adam Banicki, a senior producer at VICE Media, and Joe Posner, director of multimedia at Vox.com, discussed the future of video consumption on the fast-changing web. Storybench followed the SXSW session where the journalists explored
- [SXSW: Trump vs. the NYT, algorithmic news and other cool things we heard over kickoff weekend](https://www.storybench.org/sxsw-trump-vs-the-nyt-algorithmic-news-and-other-cool-things-we-heard-over-kickoff-weekend/) - Storybench flew all the way to Austin, Texas to attend South by Southwest, the world-renowned tech-and-innovation conference. Reporters Rachel Grozanick and Felippe Rodrigues, both students in Northeastern's Media Innovation program, are on the ground checking in on what's new and innovative in the fields of journalism, design, storytelling, AR/VR, data and visualization. We decided to round-up some of
- [SXSW: From prototyping to editing, VR tips from the filmmakers](https://www.storybench.org/sxsw-tips-and-lessons-from-vr-filmmakers/) - Storybench flew all the way to Austin, Texas to attend South by Southwest, the world-renowned tech and innovation conference. Virtual reality, needless to say, was the hot topic this year. And at most every VR session, the main takeaway was: VR is hard because it is completely different from any media that’s come before it. It is hard, new
- [SXSW: Automation, engendering trust and the future of news](https://www.storybench.org/sxsw-automation-engendering-trust-future-news/) - Storybench flew all the way to Austin, Texas to attend South by Southwest, the world-renowned tech-and-innovation conference. Reporters Rachel Grozanick and Felippe Rodrigues, both students in Northeastern’s Media Innovation program, spent a week on the ground following creatives and what they are doing to innovate with news video, virtual reality, algorithmic home pages, and interactive data analysis. Below, some
- [SXSW: Bernie Sanders thinks the average American is "disgusted with the current political process"](https://www.storybench.org/sxsw-bernie-sanders-thinks-average-american-disgusted-current-political-process/) - In a sit-down interview with CNN reporter Jake Tapper, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont spoke about economic and social issues at the forefront of national politics including immigration reform, gun legislation, education, the current state of the American electorate, and why political involvement from all citizens is crucial going forward. “A lot of what TV
- [Ten principles for photojournalists](https://www.storybench.org/ten-principles-for-photojournalists/) - It’s bound to happen. Sometime in your career as a budding photojournalist you will encounter the challenge and privilege of building a relationship with another human being in order to frame them accurately for a story. Many times this subject will have a vastly different worldview than your own and you'll know that they need to
- [How The Pudding visualized the gender breakdown of speakers on This American Life](https://www.storybench.org/pudding-visualized-gender-breakdown-speakers-american-life/) - Last September, The Pudding published “Listen to Her,” an interactive, multimedia piece visualizing the gender breakdown of long-running radio program “This American Life.” Ash Ngu, a computer science graduate student at Stanford, conceived and created the piece as a summer intern at The Pudding. Storybench asked Ngu how the idea came about, the process of
- [How The Boston Globe uncovered fraud at Massachusetts nonprofits](https://www.storybench.org/boston-globe-uncovered-fraud-massachusetts-nonprofits/) - Recently, the Internal Revenue Service made more than 2.3 million forms filed by nonprofits from all over the country available in an online database, open to the public. Todd Wallack, a reporter for The Boston Globe who has worked as an investigative and data reporter with the Spotlight team since 2013, downloaded all 2.3 million documents, organized and
- [Getting started with 360 video](https://www.storybench.org/getting-started-360-video/) - An opening caveat: 360 is an emerging medium. It’s constantly evolving. So, “rules” are constantly changing and being broken. Many of these tips cite examples from local newsrooms but while they are in part geared toward local TV newsrooms, they are just as applicable to anyone starting out on a 360-making odyssey. These are merely
- [How The Pudding structures stories as visual essays](https://www.storybench.org/pudding-structures-stories-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 the same way they do, but with visuals instead of prose.” The Pudding, launched in 2017 as a site for arresting visual journalism and an
- [How The Pudding visualized the representation and treatment of female superheroes](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-pudding-visualized-the-representation-and-treatment-of-female-superheroes/) - Amanda Shrendruk, an award-winning visual journalist and data visualization expert with the Council on Foreign Relations, recently published an interactive story that displayed how female superheroes are represented and treated in comic books, movies, television and the media. Her research shows readers how female superheroes tend to be underrepresented, sexualized, stereotyped and patronized. Storybench spoke
- [Understanding how new copyright law will affect social media embeds for news publishers](https://www.storybench.org/understanding-new-copyright-law-will-affect-social-media-embeds-news-publishers/) - Picture this: A photo of two major athletes goes viral, weaving across social platforms, and pops up via embed on popular news sites. For most, this doesn’t seem noteworthy – mundane, even. That was until the photographer of the photo, Justin Goldman, took prominent media outlets such as Vox, Time, and Yahoo to court over
- [Despite the growing educational uses for virtual reality, research into its potential problems is lacking](https://www.storybench.org/despite-growing-educational-uses-virtual-reality-research-potential-problems-lacking/) - From experiencing swimming underwater with a Blue Whale, to feeling what it is like to live in solitary confinement or reliving the horrors of 9/11, virtual reality is changing the way educators can connect and educate their students. “There are many potential benefits that we have noticed,” said Tom Swanson of Foundry10, a philanthropic educational
- ["The number one rule in podcasting is you can do what you want"](https://www.storybench.org/number-one-rule-podcasting-can-want/) - After working in public and commercial radio as a broadcaster in the 1990’s and 2000’s, Jason Norris started producing and publishing podcasts of his shows back in 2006. This led him to creating Podcast Local in 2015, a show that gives insight and advice for telling the stories of your community. Norris joins the Testing Ground
- [How The New York Times proposed fixing NYC's subway using 3D models and visuals](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-new-york-times-proposed-six-solutions-to-fixing-the-nyc-subway/) - It's no news that the New York City subway is overcrowded, beset by delays and runs on a frustrating fare collection system. Sergio Peçanha, a graphics editor for The New York Times recently published an article on how to fix the subway system in New York. He and his colleagues have come up with six
- [How ProPublica revealed the threat and extent of toxic military sites across the U.S.](https://www.storybench.org/how-propublica-revealed-the-threat-and-extent-of-toxic-military-sites-across-the-u-s/) - The U.S. military spends over a billion dollars a year to clean up sites it has contaminated with toxic waste or explosives. These sites exist in every state and some are even located near schools, residential neighborhoods, rivers and lakes. Abrahm Lustgarten, a senior environmental reporter for ProPublica, has been publishing a series of stories about
- [What we learned from three years of interviews with data journalists, web developers and interactive editors at leading digital newsrooms](https://www.storybench.org/learned-three-years-interviews-data-journalists-web-developers-interactive-editors-leading-digital-newsrooms/) - Newsrooms don’t follow a standard playbook. They scramble, they adapt, they make mistakes. But are there some go-to tools and best practices worth adopting, whether you’re a data reporter, newsroom manager, or journalism educator? Over the last three years, Storybench, a website from Northeastern University’s School of Journalism's Media Innovation graduate program, has interviewed 72
- [Figuring out local TV’s future with the help of the industry](https://www.storybench.org/figuring-local-tvs-future-help-industry/) - It’s no secret the media landscape is evolving. Social media dominates. People’s faces are glued to their smartphones. But their thirst for news and information hasn’t disappeared. If anything, it’s increasing. The changes are forcing all news organizations to re-evaluate what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. This is especially true in local television
- [Ten visualizations that tell the story of the 2018 Winter Olympics](https://www.storybench.org/ten-visualizations-tell-story-2018-winter-olympics/) - For most of February, around 3,000 athletes from 92 countries are competing in Pyeongchang, South Korea in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games. Over the course of the 17 days, there will be 102 medal events across 15 sports, making it the first Winter Olympics to host more than 100 medal events. Medals will be handed
- [How PRI's The World conveyed the death toll of mass shootings using sound](https://www.storybench.org/how-pris-the-world-conveyed-the-death-toll-of-mass-shootings-using-sound/) - Last November, following two of the deadliest mass shootings in American history, PRI's The World produced a special on global gun culture titled "How other countries can help us understand America's mass shooting crisis." To illustrate the death toll from a year of mass shootings for the radio program, data journalist Sophie Chou used data
- [How The Pudding discovered swing states will suffer most from job automation](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-pudding-discovered-swing-states-will-suffer-most-from-job-automation/) - Will robots take your job one day? Probably. But how should that affect your choices in the voting booth? Ilia Blinderman, a data journalist at The Pudding, recently published an interactive explainer that tries to answer that very question. Blinderman combined census data with academic research to determine not only where automation will hit the
- [How "Seeing White" is using audio journalism to critically examine whiteness in America](https://www.storybench.org/seeing-white-using-audio-journalism-critically-examine-whiteness-america/) - In a time of deep political division, when America’s attempts to reckon with its injustice and racism have surfaced again, many are wondering how things got this way. In his podcast series "Seeing White," John Biewen answers this question by turning the lens on white people using history, politics, art, and personal experience to create a
- [What can data visualization learn from feminism?](https://www.storybench.org/can-data-visualization-learn-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 what an intersectional feminist perspective on data could look like. “We’re in this moment when big data and visualization are being heralded as powerful new
- [How The New York Times designed Harriet Tubman's path to freedom](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-new-york-times-designed-harriet-tubmans-path-to-freedom/) - Before she became a senior communications designer at Slack, Angelica Rogers was a digital designer and front-end web developer at The New York Times, producing compelling interactive pieces like Harriet Tubman: Path to Freedom. That piece was chosen as one of The Times's top visual and graphic stories of 2017. Storybench sat down with Rogers to chat
- [Local TV news is important. Seriously.](https://www.storybench.org/local-tv-news-important-seriously/) - Hello again from Northeastern University’s Reinventing Local TV News Project. We’re entering an exciting phase as we begin experimenting with new methods for video news storytelling and searching for better ways to engage the viewing audience both on-air and online. If you’re new to our project, you can catch up here. Our premise is simple.
- [How I designed a journalism course around email newsletters](https://www.storybench.org/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? Those are the themes of four new publications launched last week by undergraduate students in my course, "Digital Storytelling and Social Media," at Northeastern's School
- [Moderating the masses: How the Boston Globe guided discourse about race in Boston](https://www.storybench.org/moderating-masses-boston-globe-guided-discourse-race-boston/) - Hosting an open forum online about race sounds like every PR person’s worst nightmare. But not for Heather Ciras, The Boston Globe’s audience engagement editor, who led a discussion in response to the Spotlight team’s series “Boston. Racism. Image. Reality.” The series posed a question that’s haunted Boston for decades: Does this city deserve its
- [“We’re still at the beginning” – Politico’s Dan Diamond on podcasting](https://www.storybench.org/still-beginning-politicos-dan-diamond-podcasting/) - While 2009 might not seem like too long ago, for the podcasting industry it might as well have been prehistoric times. Although the infrastructure was nearly nonexistent and it was near impossible to make money off podcasting, it’s precisely when Dan Diamond created the “Weekly Briefing” while working for The Advisory Board Company, a best
- [The website as archive: why NowThis publishes all of its content straight to social media](https://www.storybench.org/website-archive-nowthis-publishes-content-straight-social-media/) - NowThis is a digital video news network that garners upwards of two billion views every month, according to Christian Tom, the company’s publisher and vice president of sales. And until recently, it did so without a website. In fact, since its launch in 2012, all of NowThis’ content has been native to social media. “The
- [How a Spanish news company is using augmented reality to engage elementary school students](https://www.storybench.org/how-a-spanish-news-company-is-using-augmented-reality-to-engage-elementary-school-students/) - From Snapchat to Pokémon Go to magazine covers, augmented reality (AR) technology is helping people explore the world around them, often using devices they already have. NUSHU, a Barcelona-based AR news service, hopes to use this technology to engage elementary school students with current events. We spoke to founder Eva Domínguez about how NUSHU works
- [Alexey Furman dreams in 360: An interview with the co-founder of Ukraine's New Cave Media](https://www.storybench.org/alexey-furman-dreams-in-360-an-interview-with-the-co-founder-of-ukraines-new-cave-media/) - Alexey Furman is a Ukrainian freelance photojournalist, co-founder of New Cave Media and an alum of the Missouri School of Journalism. He has won awards for his work documenting Ukraine’s Euromaidan revolution, Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the war in East Ukraine and recently received a Journalism 360 Challenge grant from Google News Lab, the
- [How Gizmodo quantified the Christmas spirit using Spotify data](https://www.storybench.org/how-gizmodo-quantified-the-christmas-spirit-using-spotify-data/) - Ever notice how the Christmas spirit tends to disappear right after the holiday season is over? Gizmodo UK measured and visualized the “spirit of Christmas” using Spotify data. Gizmodo UK calls it the Christmas Index. It turns out Christmas music streaming actually peaks three days after Christmas Day, according to Gizmodo UK's analysis. Storybench spoke with James O’Malley, editor
- [How ProPublica exposed racial profiling in pedestrian citations in Florida](https://www.storybench.org/propublica-used-visuals-video-walking-black/) - Are black people more apt to get ticketed by police for pedestrian violations in Jacksonville, Florida? Yes, a recent ProPublica investigation found, three times as likely as whites. Using months of reporting, a short-form video, data visualization, and interactive quizzes, ProPublica told the story of the racial discrepancies that exist in Jacksonville's attempt to prevent pedestrian deaths. The piece was
- [How John Branch told the story of three Indian climbers that died on Everest](https://www.storybench.org/john-branch-told-story-three-indian-climbers-died-everest/) - What happens to the bodies of those who die trying to conquer the world’s tallest mountain? That’s the question John Branch answers in his recent piece for The New York Times, “Deliverance from 27,000 Feet,” in which he tells the story of three Indian men who died on Mount Everest in 2016 and the months
- [Meet the Media Innovation student who builds Boston Globe data stories](https://www.storybench.org/meet-media-innovation-student-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 to travel, she said, so her favorite pastime became reading about far-flung places. By the time Wu was 14, she knew she’d become a journalist.
- [Did President Trump’s tweets about the NFL overshadow larger news stories? A Media Cloud analysis](https://www.storybench.org/president-trumps-tweets-nfl-overshadow-larger-news-stories-media-cloud-analysis/) - Despite raking in hundreds of thousands of likes and retweets, President Donald Trump’s tweets about black football players kneeling during the national anthem did not overshadow larger news stories since he first tweeted about the protests back in September. That's according to a Media Cloud analysis of the president’s tweets and the top stories of
- [How The New York Times is bringing your favorite athlete's moves to life](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-new-york-times-is-bringing-your-favorite-athletes-moves-to-life/) - Ever wonder how Los Angeles Rams punter Johnny Hekker pulls off his famous banana kick? Do you want to know the mechanics behind the powerful swing of Yankees slugger Aaron Judge or the jump serve of beach volleyball Olympian April Ross? Using a step-by-step photo slideshow with scientific annotations, The New York Times has brought these
- [Sentiment analysis of (you guessed it!) Donald Trump's tweets](https://www.storybench.org/sentiment-analysis-of-you-guessed-it-donald-trumps-tweets/) - In my last post, I demonstrated how to use the twitteR package to collect data from Twitter in R. I have since learned that while twitteR still works, it is in a state of “leisurely deprecation” according to its creator Jeff Gentry. It is being phased out in favor of a newer R package called
- [Working with The New York Times API in R](https://www.storybench.org/working-with-the-new-york-times-api-in-r/) - Have you ever come across a resource that you didn't know existed, but once you find it you wonder how you ever got along without it? I had this feeling earlier this week when I came across the New York Times API. That's right, the paper of record allows you–with a little bit of programming
- [Media Watch: Sharon Begley on covering Donald Trump](https://www.storybench.org/media-watch-sharon-begley-covering-donald-trump/) - Last month, STAT News senior writer Sharon Begley spoke at Northeastern University's School of Journalism about the journalistic perils of probing at Donald Trump's mental health. Media Watch: Assessing the Press in the Trump Era is a course and audio series devised by Northeastern journalism professor Laurel Leff which brings more than a dozen political journalists
- [Social media and news: The dilemma of our time](https://www.storybench.org/social-media-and-news-the-dilemma-of-our-time/) - “Our mission is to give people the power to build community and bring the world closer together,” says Facebook on its Community Standards page. Founded as a social network, Facebook and its executives seem to have no interest in influencing national politics. Yet their algorithm, designed for “seeing the world through the eyes of others,”
- [A classroom card game to teach digital storytelling skills](https://www.storybench.org/classroom-card-game-teach-digital-storytelling-skills/) - Last weekend, at the Journalism Interactive conference hosted by the University of Maryland, I presented a card game that I have been prototyping for the last year in classrooms from Northeastern to the Nieman Foundation. The game, in a nutshell, helps students conceptualize, scaffold and focus a digital story for a specific topic and a
- [How The Washington Post offered readers an immersive look at Puerto Rico without power](https://www.storybench.org/washington-post-offered-readers-immersive-look-puerto-rico-without-power/) - A blue pickup truck drives past Maria Ortiz Viruet as she walks down a paved road, followed by two small black dogs. The scene's palm trees and mountains might lead viewers to believe nothing is out of the ordinary on this day in Puerto Rico. But Viruet, a public school teacher, has no students to
- [Media Watch: Seung Min Kim on covering Donald Trump](https://www.storybench.org/media-watch-seung-min-kim-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 in the Trump Era is a course and audio series devised by Northeastern journalism professor Laurel Leff which brings more than a dozen political journalists
- [Northeastern graduate students launch website and magazine covering social justice issues](https://www.storybench.org/northeastern-graduate-students-launch-website-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 built on traditional journalism’s bedrock values of thorough reporting and thoughtful writing. But today’s digital era demands more of journalism. Now, the most effective stories
- [The Athletic hopes to solve sports reporting with fewer ads and deeper stories](https://www.storybench.org/athletic-hopes-solve-sports-reporting-fewer-ads-deeper-stories/) - Imagine chopping the sports section out of a newspaper and selling it on its own, online, along with sections from 14 other cities. That’s the product The Athletic founders Adam Hansmann and Alex Mather have engineered, and it may trigger a significant re-think of the sports journalism field. The Athletic is a network of standalone,
- [Media Watch: Robert Faturechi on covering Donald Trump](https://www.storybench.org/media-watch-robert-faturechi-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 a course and audio series devised by Northeastern journalism professor Laurel Leff which brings more than a dozen political journalists to campus to discuss the
- [Build it, hack it, share it: Lessons from MIT's Civic Data Design Lab director Sarah Williams](https://www.storybench.org/build-hack-share-lessons-mits-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 bring to a crowd of data enthusiasts during the final installation of the Northeastern University Visualization Consortium’s Fall 2017 speaker series. The three-part phrase is
- [A new guide for print journalists moving into audio](https://www.storybench.org/new-guide-print-journalists-moving-audio/) - More people are accessing news in audio formats. Between the steady rise in podcast listeners and the extensive reach of radio, demand for audio news is high. And as print journalists begin to explore audio to fill this demand, they are met with a common set of challenges: awkward-sounding delivery, sneaky “mmm-hmm's" in source quotes
- [Seven projects that Northeastern's journalism graduate students produced this semester](https://www.storybench.org/seven-projects-northeasterns-journalism-graduate-students-produced-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 Professors Matt Carroll and Meg Heckman. We’re accepting students for Fall 2018, by the way, so if you’re a recent college grad or early to mid-career journalist
- [How to build an interactive county-level map in Tableau](https://www.storybench.org/build-interactive-county-level-map-tableau/) - Last year, to explore the impact the opioids crisis is having on the United States, The New York Times visualized overdose deaths by county. Storybench published a tutorial for creating the map in Carto.com. The following tutorial shows you how to create the same map using Tableau Public. Download the drug overdose data The New
- [Six ways Alberto Cairo thinks you can improve your data visualizations](https://www.storybench.org/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 organizations finding themselves dedicating more resources to the discipline, are we leaving the general public behind? Renowned data journalist and data visualization expert Alberto Cairo raised
- [Northeastern J-school alumna Rachel Zarrell makes Forbes’ "30 under 30"](https://www.storybench.org/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, who works at BuzzFeed, was lauded for her creativity and experimentation with video. Northeastern's College of Arts, Media and Design – inside of which the
- [Former Washington Post and Boston Globe editors recall Pentagon Papers ahead of "The Post" film premiere](https://www.storybench.org/former-washington-post-boston-globe-editors-recall-pentagon-papers-ahead-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 controversy began with and was named for The New York Times. At a recent Northeastern University panel discussion, former Post and Boston Globe editors spoke
- [NodeXL's Marc Smith on how mapping virtual crowd networks is relevant to journalism](https://www.storybench.org/marc-smith-mapping-social-networks/) - As social scientists try to understand the online communities we form, journalists are missing out on stories that network theory could help unravel, according to Marc Smith, a sociologist and director of the Social Media Research Foundation, who helped build the mapping tool NodeXL. Storybench sat down with Smith to chat about network theory, "betweenness centrality," the
- [Catching up with Tableau's Midori Ng about data visualization, finding inspiration and combating fake news](https://www.storybench.org/catching-tableaus-midori-ng-data-visualization-finding-inspiration-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 at Tableau who introduced attendees to the software, said that if they could create appealing and interactive data viz, it could open doors for them
- [Twitter + R](https://www.storybench.org/twitter-r/) - Introducing twitteR If you've worked with R in any capacity, you've probably noticed by now that developers who create R packages love playing with the letter “R” in their naming schema. Well, twitteR is no different. The twitteR package was created by Jeff Gentry to “provide access to the Twitter API within R, allowing users
- [Welcome to Data Journalism in R](https://www.storybench.org/welcome-to-data-journalism-in-r-2/) - Welcome to Data Journalism in R print("Hello world") ## [1] "Hello world" Now that we got that out of the way, welcome to a brand new Storybench vertical, Data Journalism in R! This space will be home to tutorials, links to interesting projects that use R, and all varieties of other data journalism and R-related
- [Tips and takeaways from last week's investigative journalism conference](https://www.storybench.org/takeaways-trump-making-investigative-reporting-great/) - 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 Great Again?," the event featured two panels – "Is there a market for investigative reporting?" and "Tips, techniques and tales from investigative reporters" – comprising
- [How AJ+ reported a mini-documentary series on Syrian immigrants](https://www.storybench.org/aj-reported-mini-documentary-series-syrian-immigrants/) - As Omar Duwaji blew out the signature pink, green, yellow and blue candles on a store-bought birthday cake, he was nearly moved to tears. The cake was a surprise from the Abdos — a family of Syrian refugees who had resettled in Massachusetts and whose story he was in the midst of documenting. Duwaji’s camera
- [How The Washington Post designs its Snapchat stories](https://www.storybench.org/news-motion-best-utilize-snapchat-share-news/) - With Snapchat now hosting 173 million active daily users, the app has become a major strategy for many news organizations hoping to connect with younger audiences. Snapchat Discover, which officially launched in January 2015, features dozens of news outlets that upload content daily. These include new players like Now This as well as traditional giants like
- [Getting started with Python and Jupyter Notebooks for data analysis](https://www.storybench.org/getting-started-with-python-and-jupyter-notebooks-for-data-analysis/) - Let’s talk about Python for data analysis. In this tutorial, you will learn some simple data analysis processes while exploring a dataset with Python and Pandas. Before we get started, make sure you’ve already set up an environment for this practice. Please install Python 3.6, Pandas, and matplotlib. Also, we will use a Jupyter Notebook in this tutorial. If
- [Media Watch: Charlie Pierce on covering Donald Trump](https://www.storybench.org/media-watch-charlie-pierce-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 in the Trump Era is a course and audio series devised by Northeastern journalism professor Laurel Leff which brings more than a dozen political journalists
- [How a design studio and an advocacy group developed a data-driven navigator for gun legislation](https://www.storybench.org/how-a-design-studio-and-an-advocacy-group-developed-a-data-driven-navigator-for-gun-legislation/) - Last August, Everytown for Gun Safety, a non-profit research and advocacy group for gun control, launched the Gun Law Navigator, an exploratory data visualization tool explaining how states in America regulate guns. The project, developed by Boston-based creative digital studio Upstatement, received lots of attention not only for examining such a sensitive topic, but also
- [How to do basic distance analysis in Carto using polling locations and Dunkin' Donuts stores](https://www.storybench.org/basic-distance-analysis-carto-using-polling-locations-dunkin-donuts-stores/) - On Tuesday, Bostonians will head to the polls to vote in a mayoral race that has people talking about Tito Jackson's chances of unseating Marty Walsh. Polls open at 7:00AM and we wondered if we could map polling locations alongside another Boston institution – Dunkin' Donuts locations. The following tutorial maps the two datasets and then
- [Media Watch: Ethan Bronner on covering Donald Trump](https://www.storybench.org/media-watch-ethan-bronner-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 in the Trump Era is a course and audio series devised by Northeastern journalism professor Laurel Leff which brings more than a dozen political journalists to campus to
- [How one data-driven art and technology company is understanding cities with AI](https://www.storybench.org/one-data-driven-art-technology-company-understanding-cities-ai/) - Should New York have more than five boroughs? Are zip codes too large? As part of the Northeastern University Visualization Consortium's Fall 2017 speaker series, Mahir Yavuz spoke about Topos, the data-driven art and technology company he co-founded that is applying different methods and techniques from machine learning and artificial intelligence to reveal fresh insights about cities.
- [Clicks are a vanity metric. Here are some story analytics you should be worrying about.](https://www.storybench.org/clicks-vanity-metric-story-analytics-worrying/) - Clicks, time-on-page, likes, shares, bounce rate, impressions. With so many metrics to consider, which ones should journalists be worrying about? After crafting that prize-winning article – which included researching, writing, coming up with a headline and finally getting it published – you’re probably going to want to share it. Typically, you then post it to
- [Media Watch: 538's Hilary Krieger on covering Donald Trump](https://www.storybench.org/media-watch-538s-hilary-krieger-covering-donald-trump/) - Last month, Hilary Krieger, Washington editor for FiveThirtyEight, spoke with students at Northeastern's School of Journalism about the challenge of covering the Trump administration and how her organization hopes to pull back the curtain by challenging narratives, leveraging data analysis and with good, old-fashioned shoe-leather reporting. Media Watch: Assessing the Press in the Trump Era is a course
- [Vice’s Alex Thompson talks 2016 election theatrics](https://www.storybench.org/vices-alex-thompson-talks-2016-election-theatrics/) - Alex Thompson’s ticket to the grandest show of 2016 came with a VIP pass to the inside of a jail cell. Thompson, a reporter for VICE News who covered last year’s presidential campaign, was arrested two months into the job on charges of trespassing. He'd walked into quite the anti-media crowd at a Trump event
- [How a Northeastern journalism course designed a magazine around social justice](https://www.storybench.org/northeastern-journalism-course-designed-magazine-around-social-justice/) - Over the last two months, students in Dan Zedek's graduate design studio have been molding their social justice stories into a magazine. Zedek, former design director for The Boston Globe, had contacted the students early in the summer, placing them into groups and asking them to continue reporting on the stories about which they'd produced podcasts
- [Fight fire with fire: Takeaways from the 2017 Journalism Interactive conference](https://www.storybench.org/fight-fire-fire-takeaways-2017-journalism-interactive-conference/) - On October 20, the University of Maryland kicked off Journalism Interactive, a two-day jamboree of conversations about the future of journalism and digital media training featuring dozens of speakers from leading media companies and universities. Amid the routine and sometimes awkward hellos and what-do-you-do’s native to any professional conference, there was the sense that something
- [How to build a timeline using TimelineJS](https://www.storybench.org/build-timelinejs-digital-storytelling-timeline-tool/) - There are 27 ratified amendments in the U.S. Constitution, 10 of which compose the Bill of Rights. These figures pale in comparison to the more than 11,000 proposed amendments since the Constitution was adopted. We examined an open dataset from the federal National Archives and Records Association that listed each of the proposed amendments as well as a host
- [Getting started with NoSQL for storing and retrieving data](https://www.storybench.org/getting-started-nosql-storing-retrieving-data/) - As a data journalist, I have been working with increasingly large datasets as my confidence has grown in programming and creating visualizations. Through my learning process, I have realized the pitfalls of some programs. Excel, for instance, is good for smaller datasets – which I’d define as under 10,000 rows or records. But if the
- [How Australia's SBS built a stunning, interactive story on gay hate crimes](https://www.storybench.org/sbs-created-visually-stimulating-article-non-visual-piece/) - When Rick Feneley’s editor from a prior newspaper approached him about writing a piece about the string of gay hate crimes that plagued Australia’s eastern border, he knew he would be in it for the long haul. After months of research and digging through court documents, the reporter for Australian broadcaster SBS crafted an extensive
- [Media Watch: National Journal's Brendan Bordelon on covering Donald Trump](https://www.storybench.org/media-watch-national-journals-brendan-bordelon-covering-donald-trump/) - On October 5, Brendan Bordelon, a technology and cybersecurity reporter at the National Journal, spoke at Northeastern University's School of Journalism about reporting on cybersecurity and Russia's meddling in U.S. politics in Trump's Washington. Media Watch: Assessing the Press in the Trump Era is a course and audio series devised by Northeastern journalism professor Laurel
- [A time-saving story assignment tool gives New Hampshire newspaper an edge](https://www.storybench.org/time-saving-story-assignment-tool-gives-new-hampshire-newspaper-edge/) - When Trent Spiner became executive editor of the The Union Leader in 2014, he wanted to modernize the thought process of New Hampshire’s only statewide daily paper. Spiner had spent time as an independent correspondent for the paper and knew his way around the newsroom. But as executive editor, he sensed that the newsroom’s efficiency
- [A quick tour of the science of virtual reality](https://www.storybench.org/quick-tour-science-virtual-reality/) - It’s teaching paraplegics to walk. It’s untangling genes. It’s showing you what it’s like to be a different race. Virtual reality is being heralded as a medium with which to change minds and convey new perspectives. But what exactly is it doing to your brain? We asked Nonny de la Peña, the immersive storytelling pioneer
- [How ProPublica used data and design to reveal the injustice of roadside drug tests](https://www.storybench.org/how-propublica-journalists-used-data-and-design-to-reveal-the-injustice-of-roadside-drug-tests/) - We arrest a whole lot of people in this country for drug offenses. Last year, over 1.5 million people found themselves in cuffs due to some drug-related crime, according to data from the FBI, making drug offenses the leading cause of arrests in 2016. Of that group, tens of thousands are sent to jail based on
- [Media Watch: Dan Froomkin on covering Donald Trump](https://www.storybench.org/media-watch-dan-froomkin-on-covering-donald-trump/) - On September 19, Washington-based reporter and media critic Dan Froomkin spoke at Northeastern University's School of Journalism about the journalistic perils of interviewing Donald Trump, especially now that he has the added authority of the presidency. Froomkin, who wrote a column on the White House press corps for The Washington Post, has been a senior
- [Media Watch: NPR's Greg Myre on covering Donald Trump](https://www.storybench.org/media-watch-nprs-greg-myre-covering-donald-trump/) - On September 28, Greg Myre, a national security correspondent for National Public Radio, visited Northeastern University's School of Journalism to discuss how covering national security has changed since 9/11, whether or not Trump's tweets should be news, and how journalists should differentiate themselves from the herd as they cover the Trump White House. Media Watch:
- [Five major takeaways from the 2017 Online News Association conference](https://www.storybench.org/five-major-takeaways-2017-online-news-association-conference/) - What would journalism look like if news outlets optimized for trust? What is the reporter’s role if an organization decides satire is the most effective way of covering politics? What business models do and don’t work for local media? Last week saw 3,008 journalists convene to try to answer those questions and more. Between Oct.
- [The godmother of virtual reality spoils us with insight](https://www.storybench.org/godmother-virtual-reality-spoils-us-insight/) - At Sundance Film Festival in 2012, investigative journalist and virtual reality pioneer Nonny De La Peña premiered Hunger in L.A., the first VR documentary to screen at Sundance. Hunger in L.A. puts the audience directly in line at a Los Angeles food bank where they witness a man going into a diabetic coma right before their eyes.
- [How Northeastern's news service visualized the social network of Game of Thrones](https://www.storybench.org/how-northeasterns-news-service-visualized-the-social-network-of-game-of-thrones/) - Last summer, as the hit HBO television series Game of Thrones was wrapping up its seventh season, Lia Petronio, a graduate of Northeastern University's MFA program in Information Design and Visualization on staff at Northeastern's news service News@Northeastern, created two interactive graphics to help users navigate the show's complex story. Petronio created a stream graph that allows
- [How the Financial Times built an interactive app to calculate what parts of your job will be automated](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-financial-times-built-an-interactive-app-to-calculate-what-parts-of-your-job-will-be-automated/) - Earlier this year, the Financial Times published a story that examined the impact artificial intelligence will have on jobs. Using data from the McKinsey Global Institute, FT created an interactive app that calculated the chances one's job would be automated in the future. The designed and deployed the interactive in the space of a week. Storybench asked
- [How an interactive documentary on West Virginia was put together](https://www.storybench.org/interactive-documentary-west-virginia-put-together/) - In 2013, the interactive documentary Hollow won a Peabody Award for its exploration of West Virginia's McDowell County and the hardships and economic contraction the community is facing. Jeff Soyk, an award-winning media artist and Open Documentary Lab fellow at M.I.T., collaborated with Elaine McMillion Sheldon on the documentary, planning the layout and producing the interactive elements. (Read Storybench's
- [How Axios mapped the "fading fortunes" of the Islamic State](https://www.storybench.org/how-axios-mapped-the-fading-fortunes-of-the-islamic-state/) - Over the past two years, troops controlled by Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, various Kurdish groups, several opposition groups – with support from the U.S. government – as well as forces dispatched by the Iraqi government have been fighting the Islamic State to regain control over regions in western Iraq and eastern Syria, of which the
- [How Zhimin Huang is bringing a culture of data journalism to China](https://www.storybench.org/how-zhimin-huang-is-bringing-a-culture-of-data-journalism-to-china/) - Read in Chinese | 点击查看本文中文版 At the end of 2013, Chinese newsrooms got a tip that Zhou Yongkang, the former head of China's security services, was being investigated for abuse of power and corruption, journalists began preparing investigative stories on Zhou. The interactive piece “Zhou’s Power Base,” produced by Caixin Data Visualization Lab, stood out among the
- [How The New York Times got an inside look at police body cameras](https://www.storybench.org/new-york-times-got-inside-look-police-body-cameras/) - The #TakeAKnee protest – which began as a statement against police brutality in America – has reached a fever pitch and thrown once again into relief the tensions between the public and law enforcement. Over the last few years, in an effort to address police transparency, specifically surrounding shootings, body cameras have been rolled out in countless
- [How The Boston Globe visualized extreme sports and ramped up excitement for Big Air at Fenway](https://www.storybench.org/boston-globe-visualized-extreme-sports-ramped-excitement-big-air-fenway/) - On February 11 and 12, 2016, Boston hosted “Big Air at Fenway,” a snowboarding and free skiing event held at Fenway Park that featured an array of world class skiers and snowboarders facing a rather formidable challenge: a 140-foot-tall ramp. An extreme sports demonstration at one of the city’s most hallowed locations rightfully attracted considerable
- [What improv comedy can teach us about visualizing data](https://www.storybench.org/improv-comedy-can-teach-us-data-visualization/) - While storytelling can take on many forms and span several disciplines, the techniques and methods we use to tell good stories are fairly similar. Understanding those similarities and what makes a particular story effective on a particular medium can help us become better storytellers. There are certain tricks to improv comedy, for example, that can help
- [How to build a map and use filters in Tableau Public](https://www.storybench.org/build-map-use-filters-tableau-public/) - A number of publications and organizations have created impressive interactive visualizations pertaining to gun violence in America. From Slate’s 2016 “How many people have been shot in your neighborhood this year?” visualization mapping gun-related injuries and homicides, to the Gun Violence Archive’s yearly maps of mass shootings in America, these visualizations tell a chilling tale
- [How The New York Times used drones and maps to visualize Hurricane Harvey's impact on Texas](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-new-york-times-used-drones-and-maps-to-visualize-hurricane-harveys-impact-on-texas/) - During the height of the flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey in Texas, The New York Times sent two of its reporters to document the damage. Tim Wallace and Derek Watkins, who happen to both be cartographers and geographers, decided to use maps, drone footage, short videos and still images to document the drive from Houston
- [How The Boston Globe brought Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale's unique delivery to life](https://www.storybench.org/boston-globe-chris-sale-delivery/) - The Red Sox’s acquisition of pitcher Chris Sale in December has proved fruitful: The lefty ace has had, by almost any measure, the most dominant season by a Sox starting pitcher since Pedro Martinez regularly took the mound at Boston's Fenway Park. Sale’s dominance, and the unusual style he uses to fuel it, provides a
- [How the Tampa Bay Times visualized the racial breakdown of police shootings in Florida](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-tampa-bay-times-visualized-the-racial-breakdown-of-police-shootings-in-florida/) - Earlier this year, Neil Bedi, a reporter and developer on the Tampa Bay Times’ data and investigations team, produced "If You're Black," an interactive story exploring more than 800 officer-involved shootings that occurred in Florida between 2009 and 2014. The piece was part of a larger project named "Why Cops Shoot." Bedi and his colleague
- [A new AP report charts the future of immersive journalism](https://www.storybench.org/new-ap-report-charts-future-immersive-journalism/) - The revolution will be immersive. Journalists today have a suite of new mediums at their disposal with which to tell stories that not only engage audiences but also allows news consumers to explore and create their own narratives. That kind of dynamic storytelling is the future of journalism, according to Francesco Marconi, a strategy manager
- [Quartz's first book elegantly explores the innovations underpinning modern life](https://www.storybench.org/quartzs-first-book-explores-the-innovation-underpinning-modern-life/) - The embossed hardcover is just the beginning of The Objects that Power the Global Economy, the first book published by the news website Quartz in celebration of its fifth birthday. The digitally-native news organization skillfully and elegantly managed to take to print what they've been doing online for half a decade, crafting a complex yet
- [Seven visualizations that tell the devastating story of the 2017 hurricane season](https://www.storybench.org/seven-visualizations-tell-devastating-story-2017-hurricane-season/) - First it was Harvey. Then it was Irma followed by Katia, Jose and now Maria. From late August through early September, the Atlantic Ocean has seen 13 named hurricanes. Two of those – Harvey and Irma – became major hurricanes and made landfall in the U.S. Hurricane Jose, while not predicted to be a major
- [Under the hood of The Washington Post game: "Defy Death"](https://www.storybench.org/under-the-hood-of-the-washington-post-game-defy-death/) - The quest to live forever, or at least to the ripe age of 150, still sounds more science fiction than reality. But several Silicon Valley billionaires have made a personal crusade of funding biomedical research for just that purpose, tapping therapies like stem cell transplants and custom-built bones. The Washington Post recently published a front page story on
- [Takeaways on newsroom innovation from a behind the scenes tour of the Associated Press](https://www.storybench.org/takeaways-innovation-ap-headquarters/) - The new Associated Press headquarters in lower Manhattan near the World Trade Center is dazzling, and it seems quite fitting for a news company that's constantly innovating. Earlier this month, Storybench took a trip to New York City to chat with AP global news manager Mark Davies who told us all about how they are winning Facebook. During
- [How The Marshall Project revealed racial disparities in “justifiable” homicides](https://www.storybench.org/marshall-project-revealed-racial-disparities-justifiable-homicides/) - From 1980 to 2014, roughly three percent of all homicides in America were ruled justified. But a striking disparity persists in killings involving a white person and a black male victim. In these instances, write Anna Flagg and Daniel Lathrop in a recent analysis published by The Marshall Project and The New York Times’s Upshot,
- [5 digital practices every local TV station should be thinking about](https://www.storybench.org/5-digital-practices-every-local-tv-station-should-be-thinking-about/) - All local television newsrooms, sooner or later, will have to accept the challenge to go digital. Some stations, though, are seeing the transition more as an opportunity than a burden and are already creating compelling digital storytelling. As part of our Reinventing Local TV News Project, Storybench has compiled some shining examples and best practices of
- [How the Associated Press is experimenting with headlines and modular stories to win Facebook](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-associated-press-is-winning-facebook/) - Over the last two months, Associated Press stories have been among the most popular on Facebook, according to a new report from the Associated Press and NewsWhip, a startup that monitors social media and content analytics. AP stories – posted to its own Facebook feeds as well as by subscribers to their wire service – drove
- [How the Texas Tribune uses tweetstorms and other social media strategies to drive audience engagement](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-texas-tribune-uses-tweetstorms-to-drive-audience-engagement/) - Sending out a thread of tweets is not exactly revolutionary. But, increasingly, reporters and news organizations are using "tweetstorms" as a way of telling a story that won't fit into Twitter's 140-character limit. The Texas Tribune is one the news outlets currently exploring the practice as a new storytelling strategy — with great success. “Tweetstorms
- [How the Wall Street Journal filmed a 360-degree video on mixed martial arts](https://www.storybench.org/wsj-filmed-360-degree-video-mixed-martial-arts/) - Last month, The Wall Street Journal published a 360-degree video to accompany "The New Queen of the UFC Defends Her Crown," a 2,200-word article on Amanda Nunes, a top female mixed martial arts fighter. "The video takes you to various locations, but some of the best put you right in the training ring or on
- [How remote anchors are helping local TV news stations cut costs](https://www.storybench.org/remote-anchors-helping-local-tv-news-stations-cut-costs/) - High staffing and production costs are just two of the challenges TV newsrooms face right now. Some stations, though, are getting creative with the way they address those issues and have found a way to cut expenses by outsourcing aspects of their newscasts. Vice News recently reported on how some stations are subscribing to the
- [How two students created a 7-part podcast on crack cocaine and civil rights](https://www.storybench.org/two-students-created-7-part-podcast-crack-cocaine-civil-rights/) - This post was originally published on The Docket, a data-driven media lab focused on criminal, social, and economic justice issues, based out of the Media Innovation graduate program at Northeastern University. When Northeastern University student Joe Tache came to Boston to pursue his degree in entrepreneurship, he quickly heard about the historically black neighborhoods that border
- [How to build a "magnifying glass" animation with jQuery](https://www.storybench.org/build-magnifying-glass-animation-jquery/) - Last fall, The New Yorker published a short piece by Rebecca Solnit that features a map modeled after New York City's subway map that pays homage to the city's women. Designed by Molly Roy and included in Solnit's book "Nonstop Metropolis," the map was published on the NewYorker.com with a "magnifying glass" animation. The following
- [Voxhop will help mediamakers record location-based audio in virtual reality](https://www.storybench.org/voxhop-will-help-mediamakers-record-location-based-audio-vr/) - Journalists are often expected to not only be able to tell stories and know how to report but also to know how to code, design websites, shoot and edit video, record audio, and engage audiences through social media. It can feel like a lot to ask. Should we also expect them to know how to
- [From breaking news to adding cinematics: What drones can add to storytelling at local television stations](https://www.storybench.org/breaking-news-adding-cinematics-drones-can-add-storytelling-local-television-stations/) - Whether you're CNN, CBS 2 in Chicago, or KOLN in Lincoln, Nebraska, what has become deeply important in television news today is that the storytelling be compelling. One way those organizations have found to drive viewership, grow online audiences, and encourage social engagement and sharing is to use drones. But just because the tool is available
- [Tips for communicating complexity: Make the abstract tangible and connect it to people’s lives](https://www.storybench.org/tips-communicating-complexity-make-abstract-tangible-connect-peoples-lives/) - Weather patterns, telecommunications networks, human intelligence, social systems, ecosystems, and even life are examples of complex systems that we encounter every day – yet sometimes find difficult to comprehend. Improving methods for communicating complexity can make businesses more efficient, inform our understanding of society, elucidate scientific problems, and aid in the communication of data. As
- [How an Italian information designer visualized Bob Dylan lyrics and Pulitzer Prizes](https://www.storybench.org/italian-information-designer-visualized-bob-dylan-lyrics-pulitzer-prizes/) - How many different worlds do Bob Dylan's lyrics paint? How many societal changes and events can one infer by exploring Pulitzer prizewinning stories and photographs? Those are the kinds of questions Milan-based information designer Federica Fragapane tries to answer in her Visual Data column for la Lettura, the cultural supplement to Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper.
- [The story of ProPublica’s maternal mortality series and its structured call-out to the crowd](https://www.storybench.org/story-propublicas-maternal-mortality-series-structured-call-crowd/) - When ProPublica engagement reporter Adriana Gallardo and her colleagues published a questionnaire last February reaching out to women who had experienced life-threatening complications in childbirth, Gallardo only expected, at most, a few hundred responses. They received thousands – seeing 2,500 in the first week alone. The series based on this structured call-out to the crowd is
- [Exploring the rhythm of Brazilian literature through textual analysis and visualization](https://www.storybench.org/exploring-rhythm-brazilian-literature-textual-analysis-visualization/) - Much like Spanish or French, Portuguese is very musical to the ear. Inextricably linked to that melodic feeling is the language's rhythm. To explore that cadence, visual journalist Rodolfo Almeida and data scientist Daniel Mariani at Nexo, a Brazilian digital news website with an explain-the-news approach, decided to analyze literature written by the Portuguese language's most
- [Measuring the impact of investigative reporting by local TV news stations](https://www.storybench.org/the-impact-of-investigative-reporting-by-local-tv-news/) - School bus drivers in Texas running red lights? Kansas police departments failing to run background checks on their own officers? Those important – and worrying – stories, run by KXAS-TV in Fort Worth and KWCH-TV in Wichita, recently won 2017 National Edward R. Murrow awards for excellence in radio, TV and digital news in the category
- [How one freelancer uses adventure writing as a vehicle for exploring culture](https://www.storybench.org/using-adventure-writing-vehicle-exploring-current-events-culture/) - Kade Krichko feels like he’s been going non-stop since graduating with a journalism degree from Northeastern. After a stint at Powder magazine and several international reporting trips to countries like China and Colombia, he’s now living in Spain, sniffing out new stories to pitch. Storybench caught up with Krichko to discuss how he reported two
- [The trouble with today's local TV news station buying spree](https://www.storybench.org/the-trouble-with-todays-local-tv-news-station-buying-spree/) - On a recent episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver pointed out the consequences of the massive consolidation sweeping the television news industry, referencing the pending purchase of Tribune stations by Sinclair Broadcast Group, two of the largest TV news station owners in the United States. If the deal gets approved by the FCC, Sinclair would own more
- [How Seattle's KCTS 9 built an interactive website about the sharks of Puget Sound](https://www.storybench.org/seattles-kcts9-building-digital-first-newsroom-culture/) - Did you know that sixgill sharks, which usually keep to the dark, open ocean, are roaming Seattle's Puget Sound? Last summer, independent filmmaker Michael Werner teamed up with Seattle public television station KCTS 9 to produce a documentary, "Searching for the Mystery Sharks of Seattle," on the elusive sharks that scientists have been tracking for
- [How to build a 3D map of a city using QGIS and Mapbox](https://www.storybench.org/build-3d-map-city-using-qgis-mapbox/) - Maps are extremely useful visuals for interpreting location-based data, and if buildings can be plotted in three dimensions, the visualization becomes all the more powerful. In this tutorial, we will show you how we made a 3D map that represents the average price per square meter of every lot in Buenos Aires. Previously, Properati, the digital
- [How an Argentine real estate platform is building visualizations for Latin American newsrooms](https://www.storybench.org/argentine-real-estate-platform-building-visualizations-latin-american-newsrooms/) - How much will an apartment within walking distance to a subway station cost you in São Paulo? What about a home overlooking a park in Buenos Aires? Those are the kinds of questions Argentina-based Properati, a digital platform for real estate listings, is answering by teaming up with news organizations in Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Argentina.
- [Five local TV news trends from the Murrow Awards that we like](https://www.storybench.org/five-local-tv-news-trends-murrow-awards-like/) - Last week, the Radio Television Digital News Association announced the winners of its 2017 Edward R. Murrow Awards, which honor outstanding journalism being produced across North America. The Reinventing Local TV News Project and Storybench noticed some trends that we would love to see local TV stations invest in further. Investing in digital-first content Generation Addicted,
- [Notes on VR from the 2017 Sheffield Doc/Fest](https://www.storybench.org/notes-2017-sheffield-docfest-alternative-realities-exhibition/) - A growing number of non-fiction works are being produced at the intersection of documentary storytelling and journalism. The Sheffield Doc/Fest has become one of the best events to experience these new works. The festival was founded in 1994 and takes place in June each year in Sheffield, England, a vibrant city with steel industry roots two
- [Could the "science of content" help reveal why stories go viral?](https://www.storybench.org/science-content-help-reveal-stories-go-viral/) - Digital media companies like BuzzFeed and even legacy newsrooms such as The Washington Post are constantly talking about how their operations have become increasingly data-driven. But despite the immense amount of data being generated on – and collected from – social media platforms, engagement editors, marketing specialists and digital media gurus are far from understanding the exact reasons a
- [Investigating the role of motion in visualizations](https://www.storybench.org/role-motion-visualizations/) - Information visualizations are great tools for exploring and communicating information. But as they become more popular in the fields of design, journalism and science, a deeper understanding is needed of the visual semantics used to construct them. Most of the research done on this topic has focused on how to create good visualizations: How to
- [How newsrooms large and small are learning to grow new revenue streams](https://www.storybench.org/small-newsrooms-can-learn-larger-organizations-diverse-revenue-streams/) - Bigger, entrepreneurial newsrooms are innovating ways to grow revenue. Smaller newsrooms? Their path is less clear. Here’s the good news for bigger newsrooms: The financial picture is not quite so bleak. Aggressive, better capitalized newsrooms are blazing new paths to increased revenue. Digital circulation is growing fast; they are selling new products and services, from newsletters
- [How to learn responsive web design by coding your own story](https://www.storybench.org/code-simple-responsive-webpage-standalone-article/) - Say you have a great story with text, pullquotes and photos ready to go and now you want to throw it up on its own website. All you need is some basic HTML and CSS knowledge. By the end of the following tutorial, you will know how to build a standalone website that can hold an article,
- [How The Economist visualized Spotify data on the Beatles on deadline](https://www.storybench.org/economist-visualized-spotify-data-beatles-deadline/) - At the end of last month, the Beatles album “Sgt. Peppers’ Lonely Hearts Club Band” turned 50. To celebrate, The Economist’s James Tozer published a review and data analysis of the album on the magazine’s Prospero blog, which tracks books, arts and culture. (Matt McLean, a visual data journalist at the magazine, drew up the
- [Behind the scenes of WGBH's digital and social media strategy](https://www.storybench.org/focus-quality-start-conversation-behind-wgbhs-digital-social-strategy/) - Over the last few years, Boston-based broadcaster WGBH has been experimenting with ways to boost its digital presence. For a station of its size, that's not a simple task. For one, it has to feed content to hundreds of social media platforms. The PBS and NPR affiliate – which serves most of New England but is also recognized nationally for shows
- [How the Hindustan Times is introducing Indian readers to interactive stories](https://www.storybench.org/hindustan-times-introducing-indian-readers-interactive-stories/) - Over the last year, a young team of data journalists and coders at the Hindustan Times have been quietly reinventing the way stories are being told at the Indian paper. Based in Delhi, the Hindustan Times’s data team includes a tight-knit group of three data journalists and two experienced programmers. Together, they’ve produced outstanding infographics
- [Key takeaways on news innovation from the inaugural WhipSmart conference](https://www.storybench.org/key-takeaways-news-innovation-inaugural-whipsmart-conference/) - What are the latest trends and innovative practices in digital newsrooms? Storybench went on the road this week to the inaugural WhipSmart, NewsWhip’s conference on social media, analytics and digital strategy, in New York City, to download ideas from the leading minds in the industry. The evolving “science of content,” niche reporting, leveraging emotions, fake
- [What NPR learned from broadcasting more than 1,375 videos on Facebook Live](https://www.storybench.org/npr-learned-broadcasting-1375-videos-facebook-live/) - "This is totally new for me to join you this way," said National Public Radio host Robert Siegel while reporting on Facebook Live from Luxembourg just before the Brexit vote last year. That live, on-camera interview conducted by a radio reporter was one of more than 1,375 Facebook Live videos NPR says it's done since it started experimenting with the platform. In a blogpost
- [Eight interactive stories from Latin America you should check out](https://www.storybench.org/interactive-stories-latin-america-check/) - From immersive investigative journalism to interactive documentaries that broadcast voices of the voiceless, Latin America boasts a catalog of multimedia projects from which storytellers of all stripes can draw inspiration. Below, a selection of interactive projects from across the region. Big Pharma's grip on Latin America Last month, Peru's investigative news organization Ojo Público teamed up with journalists in Colombia,
- [How the L.A. Times tracked down and visualized every congressional statement on James Comey's firing](https://www.storybench.org/l-times-tracked-visualized-every-congressional-statement-james-comeys-firing/) - Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Times visualized the U.S. Senate’s response to President Donald Trump’s firing of FBI director James Comey. To retrieve the statements, the Times used ProPublica’s Congress API, which was released last month. Want to do it yourself? We've replicated their work in a Storybench tutorial here. Storybench caught up with Priya Krishnakumar, a graphics
- [What local television stations should consider before buying a drone](https://www.storybench.org/local-television-stations-consider-buying-drone/) - Is there anything in journalism that screams innovation more than drones? Since the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) instituted new rules in 2016, unmanned aircraft equipped with cameras have become popular in newsrooms like Chicago's CBS2, Norfolk's The Virginian Pilot, and The New York Times. But should every news videographer be running out to get one? “The question is ‘what
- [Reinventing local TV news and video storytelling: kicking off a new Northeastern research project](https://www.storybench.org/reinventing-local-tv-news-video-storytelling-kicking-off-new-northeastern-research-project/) - Shrinking audiences, sensational stories that don’t impact viewers, and more of the same old formula, repeated over and over again. In the coming years, it’s all a recipe for potential decline for the hundreds of local TV news stations that broadcast to communities across the country. Newspapers have already seen the profound effects of digital disruption,
- [How one Nascar writer found success through crowdfunding](https://www.storybench.org/one-nascar-writer-found-success-crowdfunding/) - This past January, veteran Nascar writer Jeff Gluck found himself in an unfamiliar situation. He had spent the previous 11 years as a dominant beat writer for the sport, and in his last four, which were spent with USA Today, he had acquired a loyal following, solidifying himself as a leading Nascar voice. But when
- [Northeastern student multimedia stories find a home at WGBH News](https://www.storybench.org/northeastern-student-multimedia-stories-find-home-wgbh-news/) - Every semester, students in my Digital Storytelling and Social Media class produce great final projects, fanning out across the city and beyond to tell stories in words, photos and videos. But what becomes of those stories? Yes, they publish them on their blogs. Wider distribution, though, is an ongoing challenge. Thanks to Northeastern School of Journalism’s
- [How to use ProPublica's Congress API to see where senators stand on issues](https://www.storybench.org/use-propublicas-congress-api-see-senators-stand-issues/) - Earlier this month, the Los Angeles Times used ProPublica's Congress API to visualize the U.S. Senate's response to President Donald Trump's firing of FBI director James Comey. Released to the public last month, ProPublica's Congress API, which was originally created by The New York Times, allows users to retrieve data on members, votes, bills, statements and other
- [How Sosolimited built a headline explorer to compare every NYT and WSJ headline of 2016](https://www.storybench.org/how-sosolimited-built-a-headline-explorer-to-compare-every-nyt-and-wsj-headline-of-2016/) - Earlier this year, Sosolimited, a design studio that creates digital and physical data experiences for the websites and lobbies of companies like Qualcomm, Google and LG, put on a workshop for students at the Maryland Institute College of Art. The idea was to get MICA designers thinking about different ways to explore, analyze and visualize newspaper headlines. To
- [Expressive timelines: Microsoft’s Matthew Brehmer on the power of visualizing time](https://www.storybench.org/expressive-timelines-notes-from-microsofts-matthew-brehmer-on-the-power-of-visualizing-time/) - Matthew Brehmer, a data visualization researcher with Microsoft Research, was recently invited by NUVis, Northeastern University’s Visualization Consortium, to talk about the tools he and his team are developing to reinvent timelines. Brehmer took attendees on a tour of the history of visual timelines and then shared tips and best practices on how visually-appealing timelines can be
- [Should newspapers be adding confidence intervals to their graphics?](https://www.storybench.org/newspapers-adding-confidence-intervals-graphics/) - Why do we have such a hard time visualizing uncertainty? Amanda Cox, editor of The Upshot at The New York Times, touched on that theme in her keynote presentation at the OpenVis conference in Boston last month. Why, she asked, are newspapers like hers hesitant to print confidence intervals, a statistical measure of uncertainty? With the exception of
- [Five investigative stories produced by Northeastern journalism students this year](https://www.storybench.org/five-investigative-stories-produced-northeasterns-school-journalism-year/) - Do police departments across Massachusetts have guidelines for using deadly force on the mentally ill? How fast does Boston clean up dead rats in poor neighborhoods? And why is the city's parking app overcharging thousands of customers? Those are some of the questions investigated this year by undergraduate and graduate students working with Northeastern journalism
- [How STAT News used March Madness to engage readers and highlight innovation in science](https://www.storybench.org/how-stat-news-used-the-march-madness-to-engage-people-in-science/) - March Madness is a remarkable time in American culture. Even passive basketball fans go crazy constructing brackets, setting-up fantasy leagues, joining heated conversations, and of course watching a good part of the 63 college basketball games. Last March, STAT—the Boston Globe Media-produced health and science site—took advantage of America's obsession and created its very own competition, dubbing it "STAT Madness."
- [How The Intercept visualized and open-sourced a database of terrorism prosecutions since 9/11](https://www.storybench.org/intercept-visualized-open-sourced-terrorism-prosecutions-since-911/) - Last month, The Intercept published "Trial and Terror," a database of – and series of stories about – the 796 people prosecuted for international terrorism by the United States since the attacks of September 11, 2001. To accompany the database, Moiz Syed, a data journalist and designer at The Intercept, developed a visualization to convey details of the cases, including the most
- [Visualizing Complexity with Vizzuality](https://www.storybench.org/visualizing-complexity-vizzuality/)
- [The rise of documentary video games that use journalism to tell stories](https://www.storybench.org/rise-documentary-video-games-use-journalism-tell-stories/) - In recent years, game developers have been fusing the research and process of journalism with the kind of interactive storytelling that games do best in order to create unique and moving experiences.
- [Making the interactive documentary "Oil to Die For"](https://www.storybench.org/making-interactive-documentary-oil-die/) - With "Oil to Die For," readers can interact with the story, view videos, listen to audio transcripts, and access court documents at their own pace.
- [How to get more bang for your buck out of science photographs](https://www.storybench.org/get-bang-buck-science-photographs/) - Do science pictures need to be pretty? Is there ever a case for retouching a science photograph? And do good images help researchers get attention for their work? Yes, yes and yes, says Felice Frankel, a photographer and research scientist in the Center for Materials Science and Engineering at MIT. Science photography are more than aesthetically pleasing, she
- [Those who do, also teach: David Carr’s gift to journalism schools](https://www.storybench.org/those-who-do-also-teach-david-carrs-gift-to-journalism-schools/) - David Carr had already conquered the entwined worlds of Big Media, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley by the time he taught his first course. And yet, argues Molly Wright Steenson, his single syllabus points a way forward for how educators should approach the teaching of journalism. I’ve encountered David Carr’s work throughout my life. Like
- [How one French data visualization studio is bridging narrative and statistics](https://www.storybench.org/how-wedodata-data-visualization-studio-bridging-narrative-statistics/) - Could a quiz help explain the massive amounts of money controlled by Fifa, the international soccer organization? Could a visualization help French citizens imagine the makeup of a future government? And what if community leaders could understand their city's environmental impact by answering a few simple questions about energy use? These are the kinds of projects spearheaded
- [The power of play: Why journalists should warm up to newsgames](https://www.storybench.org/power-play-journalists-warm-newsgames/) - For many newsrooms, it's open season for games. More and more journalists and game designers are coming together to create interactive stories that use “play” to engage readers in powerful ways, offering them the chance to explore, experiment and learn with news. “The power of games is the power of play,” says Lindsay Grace, an
- [How one digital humanist visualized the shapes of 50,000 novels](https://www.storybench.org/how-one-digital-humanist-visualized-the-shapes-of-50000-novels/) - This September, the University of Miami will host the first ever symposium exploring the intersection between data journalism and the digital humanities. The conference is premised on the idea that the two fields can learn from each other, as they face shared challenges and opportunities in areas like textual analysis and data visualization. One of the initiatives
- [Six data stories about Boston from Northeastern's Urban Tensions hackathon](https://www.storybench.org/six-data-stories-about-boston-from-northeasterns-urban-tensions-hackathon/) - All cities have conflict. There are tensions between police and underserved communities, landlords and tenants, low-income residents and wealthy gentrifiers, and so much more. Here in Boston there are residents who could tell you this, but there are statistics, too, including dropout rates from Boston Public Schools, MBTA commuter rail ridership, Boston homicide rates, and Zillow home prices.
- [Mapping the geography of racism: Why deep dives in data matter](https://www.storybench.org/mapping-geography-racism-deep-dives-data-matter/) - Drawing from the work of “Mapping Inequality,” a ProPublica investigative report published earlier this month uncovered a phenomenon similar to redlining in the car insurance industry today. The report found insurers charged premiums that were up to 30 percent higher in minority neighborhoods than in predominantly white neighborhoods with similar rates of accident risk. “As rates have been
- [10 innovative visualizations of Trump's first month in the White House](https://www.storybench.org/eight-innovative-visualizations-trumps-first-month-white-house/) - A month into Donald J. Trump’s presidency and the media has had more than enough to report on. Amid advisors resigning, a dizzying web of conflicts of interest, and a fair share of distracting tweets (see here, here and here), there is no shortage of stories being explained by researchers and news organizations using timelines, network visualization, charting and videos. Storybench took
- [Using animation to protect sources while telling true stories of gay life in China](https://www.storybench.org/using-animations-to-anonymize-sources-when-telling-gay-stories-in-china/) - The tremendous anti-gay stigma in mainland China has made it difficult for stories about homosexuality to emerge in the Chinese media outlets, even though pockets of tolerance are beginning to emerge. It's within this climate that Jieqian Zhang, a graphics editor at The Wall Street Journal; Fan Fei, a digital graphic producer at Modern Healthcare;
- [Accelerating knowledge: Four takeaways from an IBM data visualization expert](https://www.storybench.org/accelerating-knowledge-5-takes-from-ibms-mauro-martino-talk-on-ai-and-data-viz/) - Northeastern University professor Mauro Martino is one of the minds behind IBM’s Watson News Explorer, a dashboard that allows users to explore the themes surfacing across the news ecosystem. Martino spoke last week at NUVis, Northeastern’s Visualization Consortium seminar series, about his work with artificial intelligence — or machine learning, as he prefers to call it — and
- [How the International Rescue Committee used virtual reality to attract donors](https://www.storybench.org/international-rescue-committee-used-virtual-reality-attract-donors/) - With so much information coming at news readers today with a daily barrage of social media, email newsletters and push notifications, many feel overburdened. In fact, 20 percent of Americans feel “information overload,” according to the Pew Research Center. That’s down from a decade ago, but news fatigue is undoubtedly a byproduct of our hyper-saturated
- [How to map natural gas ruptures using Tableau](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-map-natural-gas-ruptures-using-tableau/) - The U.S. Department of Transportation's Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) keeps a thorough track record of “significant pipeline incidents,” ranging from mechanical failures to gas leaks and financial damages, across a variety of petroleum products including crude oil and natural gas. The incident reports include the exact site where the incident occurred, with longitude
- [How the Wall Street Journal visualized the 500+ conflicts of interest of The Trumps](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-wall-street-journal-visualized-the-500-conflicts-of-interest-of-the-trumps/) - The Wall Street Journal recently published an interactive graphic showing the Trump family's more than 500 potential conflicts of interest. In it, a galaxy of dots and lines show the complicated relationships between Trump, his children and a complex network of business holdings. Storybench spoke with Joel Eastwood, the reporter, and Julia Wolfe, the graphic designer, about the project's
- [Why the SaaS era of digital journalism may be our most exciting yet](https://www.storybench.org/saas-era-digital-journalism-may-exciting-yet/) - The third in a series of posts. You can read the first post here. The second post here. Even though an entire generation has grown up with the internet at their fingertips, it’s important to remember that digital journalism is still in its infancy. It has only been 26 years since the world’s first website
- [The spread of Zika virus: A roundup of visualizations](https://www.storybench.org/spread-zika-virus-roundup-visualizations/) - News organizations have been furiously covering Zika virus, a mosquito-borne disease which reappeared in Brazil in late 2015 and has since resulted in over 1.6 million cases. What has health officials worried is the virus's association with microcephaly, a neurological birth defect, and the fact that there is no cure or vaccine. The World Health Organization declared Zika a public health
- [Understanding what makes a visualization memorable](https://www.storybench.org/understanding-what-makes-a-visualization-memorable/) - John Wihbey teaches data journalism in the Media Innovation program at Northeastern University's School of Journalism. The world of data visualization has long been shaped by canonical ideas from theorists like Edward Tufte. His book The Visual Display of Quantitative Information is a must-read for information designers, which include newsroom graphics editors. Tufte’s organizing principles–the eloquent and ethical display
- [Data scientists and journalists work together at Northeastern hackathon](https://www.storybench.org/data-scientists-journalists-work-together-northeastern-hackathon/) - This article originally appeared on The GroundTruth Project. In the mezzanine of Northeastern University’s Curry Student Center, young people hunched over their computers and clacked away at their keyboards. Spreadsheets were strewn around them and lines of computer code filled their screens. Gathered for the university’s inaugural hackathon – part of HUBweek, a weeklong event focused on
- [How Northeastern University designed a course to reinvent magazine journalism for the digital age](https://www.storybench.org/how-we-designed-a-media-innovation-course-at-northeastern/) - Imagine a teaching hospital where students in design, journalism and computer science work with magazine editors to reimagine what a feature story looks, feels, and sounds like in the digital age. An experimental course that promised and delivered just that has just wrapped up at Northeastern University. StoryLab, as we called it, brought together graduate and undergraduate students
- [A business plan canvas tool made for reporters, entrepreneurs, and teachers](https://www.storybench.org/a-business-plan-canvas-tool-made-for-reporters-entrepreneurs-and-teachers/) - An investigative report on the privatization of Greece's islands and beaches? A documentary following child workers in Bolivia? A video report on water scarcity and the Colorado River? No, that's not a list of the latest Pulitzer Prize nominees. These are all Belgian journalism projects that have raised more than 2,000 euros each on the crowd-funding website KissKissBankBank. These
- [Telling the story of a prisoner's escape through books for radio and print](https://www.storybench.org/telling-story-prisoners-escape-books-radio-print/) - On a recent episode of Criminal, a podcast about crime, freelancer Daniel A. Gross told the story of a Maryland man sent to prison who found solace – and an escape – in books. Storybench spoke with Gross about how he tracked down the story, produced it for Criminal, and wrote it for the NewYorker.com.
- [Writing about the intersection of Instagram and tourism for National Geographic](https://www.storybench.org/instagram-and-tourism-national-geographic/) - A young couple sits, feet dangling off a rocky ledge overlooking a dazzling azure ocean below. Has an Instagram photo similar to that ever inspired you to book a vacation? If so, you're not alone. As it turns out, the social media platform is revolutionizing the tourism industry by luring visitors to the same dreamy spots they
- [Telling the story of plastic bags, plastic forks and "microplastics" polluting our planet](https://www.storybench.org/how-primer-stories-and-the-dodge-foundation-teamed-up-to-tell-a-story-about-microplastics/) - "The average plastic bag is used for only 12 minutes before it is discarded," writes journalist Konstantin Kakaes in "A Hundred Million Invaders," a project on plastic pollution published today by NY/NJ Baykeeper, a conservation organization dedicated to protecting the New York-New Jersey harbor and estuary. And much of that plastic ends up as floating debris bobbing along
- [Winter is here: How Vox mapped snow accumulation in the U.S.](https://www.storybench.org/winter-vox-mapped-snow-accumulation-u-s/) - The first big snowstorms have hit the East Coast and their effects have fascinated Vox’s developer Soo Oh, who recently built a map to track snow accumulation across the U.S. The project relies on data provided by the National Weather Service’s Snowfall Analysis project. Oh developed a Python-based scraper to download the images provided by the NWS and convert
- [Why understanding what it truly means to be digital is critical for long-term success](https://www.storybench.org/understanding-truly-means-digital-critical-long-term-success/) - The second in a series of posts. You can read the first post here. My favorite interview question to ask job candidates is, “What do you think it means to be digital?” The answer reveals a lot about how the individual thinks about being a journalist today. The goal of every great journalist is to
- [Upworthy’s Eli Pariser: "I’m the proudest when our stories change the way people see the world"](https://www.storybench.org/upworthys-eli-pariser-im-proudest-stories-change-way-people-see-world/) - Eli Pariser has made a name for himself in political activism on the web as a central figure with MoveOn.org and Avazz.org. In 2011, he coined the term “filter bubbles,” referring to the personalized information diets we subsist on that don't challenge our worldview. The concept reemerged during the 2016 election as Americans headed to the Internet to
- [Nine projects that came out of Northeastern's Media Innovation program this year](https://www.storybench.org/nine-projects-that-came-out-of-northeasterns-media-innovation-program-this-year/) - Before we bid adieu to our latest cohort of Media Innovation graduate students, we wanted to highlight some of the stellar work they've done here at Northeastern's School of Journalism. We're still accepting students for the Fall, by the way, if you're a recent college grad or early to mid-career journalist looking for the skills to excel in today's digital
- [Upworthy's Amy O’Leary on the art and data science of engaging readers](https://www.storybench.org/upworthys-amy-oleary-on-the-art-and-data-science-of-engaging-readers/) - Amy O’Leary recently celebrated her one-year anniversary as the Editorial Director of Upworthy. She came to the online news outlet after years as a digital innovator at The New York Times where she was as versatile as she was prolific in her roles as editor, multimedia producer and reporter. She was also a member of the team that
- [How AJ+ leverages user-centered design to win over millennials](https://www.storybench.org/how-aj-applies-user-centered-design-to-win-millennials/) - Scrolling through Facebook, it's hard to miss a video presented with bright yellow text, now a trademark style for AJ+. But how are they made? Former AJ+ user experience architect intern Nina Zou shared a recent piece she published on Medium about her time there. Ever since AJ+ started posting videos in September 2013, it
- [How Doctors Without Borders and a VR studio built an immersive exhibit about refugee camps](https://www.storybench.org/doctors-without-borders-vr-studio-built-immersive-exhibit-refugee-camps/) - Doctors Without Borders will be in Boston this weekend with an immersive outdoor exhibit called “Forced From Home” that promises to take visitors, using virtual reality, on a guided tour of refugee camps and informal settlements in Afghanistan, Burundi, Honduras, Syria and South Sudan. The "Forced From Home" website currently has several 360 video clips
- [How to build a map of rodent infestation complaints in your city](https://www.storybench.org/build-map-rodent-infestation-complaints-city/) - A city's calls for service can be an interesting proxy for the problems it's facing. In collaboration with Northeastern professor Mike Beaudet's investigative reporting class, we decided to explore rodent infestation complaints in Boston and build a map to visualize them. The maps were later aired and published on Boston's WCVB. Here's how we did it: Download
- [How a Chinese news app has users earning money reading and sharing news](https://www.storybench.org/how-a-chinese-news-app-has-users-earning-money-reading-and-sharing-news/) - Bingdu is a Chinese news app that allows users both to read the news and make money off their experience. It was downloaded nearly 5 million times within two months of its launch in April 2015 and it allows readers to share in the advertising revenue with Southern Metropolis Daily, the Chinese tabloid that released the app. How?
- [How the NYT's John Herrman pulled back the curtain on fake news](https://www.storybench.org/john-hermann-nyt-fake-news/) - John Herrman, a David Carr fellow at The New York Times, has been reporting on the emergence of what has only recently been broadly defined as “fake news." Herrman’s recent piece in The New York Times Magazine, “Inside Facebook’s (Totally Insane, Unintentionally Gigantic, Hyperpartisan) Political-Media Machine,” explored the Facebook-first media sites that seemingly dominate our newsfeeds, regardless
- [The power of handcrafted visual design in video games](https://www.storybench.org/the-power-of-handcrafted-visual-design-in-video-games/) - The city hums with life. The smoke billowing from the brickmakers ovens, the narrow cobblestone streets and even the crooked tombstones in the local cemetery are all small reminders of home. With a button press and push of the joystick, it’s time to dismount and reenter the city. It’s good to be back in Novigrad.
- [Connecting the dots between disparate cultures with a video game](https://www.storybench.org/connecting-dots-disparate-cultures-video-game/) - When was the last time a video game made you cry? The last time you finished a game and felt the satisfaction so familiar to readers that have reached the end of a really amazing book? Video games are powerful storytelling tools, and as the news industry seeks more immersive and interactive ways to tell
- [Twelve takeaways for improving journalism from the 2016 Newsgeist conference](https://www.storybench.org/twelve-takeaways-for-improving-journalism-from-the-2016-newsgeist-conference/) - PHOENIX -- If the Newsgeist 2016 conference had a formal theme, it could have been “trust.” As in, the public has lost trust in the media. The discussions on panels and in the hallways often followed that thread: How did the media lose that trust? How can we regain it? There were no easy answers,
- [Adding depth to stories of immigrants with interactive visual storytelling](https://www.storybench.org/adding-depth-to-stories-of-mexican-immigrants-with-interactive-visual-storytelling/) - "Are you cold?" a tinny voice asks in Spanish from behind the camera. "Yes, it's really cold," the small boy clutching his father's hand answers. In this home video, with which Theo Rigby opens his film "Sin País," the father-son pair – clad in matching black jackets – is surrounded by wide open space, an
- [Using GIFs to tell a story of strife and street life in Lebanon](https://www.storybench.org/using-gifs-to-tell-a-story-of-strife-and-street-life-in-lebanon/) - "A cup of coffee, a motorcycle, a pink bedroom with bullet holes. Meet the people of #SyriaStreet." That's how the International Committee of the Red Cross introduced its new interactive visual storytelling project featuring GIFS, "Syria Street," this week. GIFs are moving images, chosen as a storytelling tool by Syria Street's creators to convey a sense
- [Searching for a Boat with 243 Passengers that Vanished](https://www.storybench.org/searching-boat-243-passengers-vanished/)
- [Katie Kingsbury on the Boston Globe’s interactive transition graphic](https://www.storybench.org/katie-kingsbury-boston-globes-interactive-transition-graphic/) - The Boston Globe has published a striking interactive graphic of the Trump transition. Titled “A transition like no other,” there’s an entry for every day since Donald Trump’s election. Each box has a thumbnail of the day’s major news and a link to the longer story. Most are accompanied by a tweet from Trump himself. The graphic also appears in the print
- [Takeaways from Harvard's Fake News Conference](https://www.storybench.org/takeaways-from-harvards-fake-news-conference/) - A recent conference gathered a few dozen academics, all concerned about the future of news, in a Harvard Law School conference room. In a media climate characterized by an apparent disregard for facts and with the president himself seemingly determined to undermine trust in the press, participants were determined to solve the 64 million-dollar question:
- [How to turn data into an interactive story with Twine](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-turn-data-into-an-interactive-story-with-twine/) - Twine bills itself as "an open-source tool for telling interactive, nonlinear stories." That means you can incorporate graphs, charts and even videos and photos into a story. Here's a quick tutorial on how to use it. General steps Step 1) Choose your data topic area. (You probably already knew that, right?) This will inform how you use Twine.
- [How to create a simple line chart in R](https://www.storybench.org/create-simple-line-chart-r/) - R can be used to explore, clean, analyze and visualize data. The following tutorial will get you started using R's ggplot2 package to make a simple line chart from a csv of data. New to R? Storybench has published an introductory tutorial on R and R Studio as well as a tutorial in R for geocoding addresses in a
- [Contextualizing the Dakota Access Pipeline: A roundup of visualizations](https://www.storybench.org/contextualizing-dakota-access-pipeline-roundup-visualizations/) - Since August, thousands of Americans have flowed into North Dakota to help the Standing Rock Sioux and dozens of other Native American groups protest the construction of a 1,172-mile crude oil pipeline that will cross the Missouri River and encroach upon the tribe's drinking water and sacred grounds. Below, a roundup of visualizations – created
- [How Tim Meko visualized America's vast web of pipelines, railroads, electricity and more.](https://www.storybench.org/tim-meko-visualized-americas-vast-web-pipelines-railroads-electricity/) - Tim Meko, a graphics reporter with The Washington Post, recently published a series of stunning maps that explore the state of American infrastructure. President-elect Donald J. Trump has vowed to upgrade the system at a cost of more than half a trillion federal dollars. As Meko's visualizations show, the country is threaded with this vast web of infrastructure, from bridges and energy pipelines
- [Using data and design to compare corruption and transparency across 50 U.S. states](https://www.storybench.org/using-data-and-design-to-compare-corruption-and-transparency-across-50-u-s-states/) - With Senate confirmation hearings for President-elect Donald Trump’s Cabinet picks happening this week, questions of conflicts of interest and financial disclosure are top of mind. Northeastern University journalism professors John Wihbey and Mike Beaudet, along with Information Design and Visualization professor Pedro Cruz and graduate student Irene de la Torre Arenas, recently published an analysis and
- [Five chatbots created by newsrooms in 2016 that we liked](https://www.storybench.org/five-chatbots-created-by-newsrooms-in-2016-that-we-liked/) - In the 1960s, scientists at M.I.T. were experimenting with conversational computing: simulating conversations between humans and computers. Little did they know they were building the first “chatbots,” defined by Matt Schlicht, founder of Chatbots Magazine, as “a service, powered by rules and sometimes artificial intelligence, that you interact with via a chat interface.” A lot
- [How Northeastern design students are reimagining public transportation and the experience of "waiting"](https://www.storybench.org/northeastern-design-students-reimagining-public-transportation-experience-waiting/) - Could a bus stop offer you directions to a coffee shop? Why don't airports superimpose flight information on their windows? And don't you hate getting out at the wrong subway exit? Those were some of the questions tackled last semester by Irene de la Torre Arenas, Andrew Tang and Kate Terrado, three graduate students in Kristian
- [The importance of listening to your audience](https://www.storybench.org/lessons-from-an-ed-tech-news-site-the-importance-of-listening-to-your-audience/) - When education technology news site EdSurge launched in 2011, the goal was simple: To help K-12 teachers and administrators choose the right technology to improve their schools and support their learners. The company focused first on coverage, writing about the startups trying to gain traction in the space. The staff soon realized, however, its audience
- [How the L.A. Times mapped new buildings near freeways to highlight health risks](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-l-a-times-mapped-freeways-and-pollution/) - More and more Californians are living near freeways and that's a problem because those people are breathing in soot and other carcinogens from passing vehicles. That's according to environmental health research and a new map-heavy analysis of building permits and census data that the Los Angeles Times published earlier this month. Storybench spoke with Jon Schleuss,
- [Tips on data visualization from the Broad Institute's Bang Wong](https://www.storybench.org/tips-on-data-visualization-from-the-broad-institutes-bang-wong/) - Last month, Bang Wong, ‎creative director of the Broad Institute of M.I.T. and Harvard University, visited Northeastern University for a talk entitled “Art and Science: A partnership catalyzing discovery in biomedicine” hosted by NUVis, Northeastern's Visualization Consortium. Wong – who works on biomedical visualization projects that are at once blindingly esoteric and visually stunning – shared several insights that students of information
- [Games journalism: How to turn your passion into a writing career](https://www.storybench.org/gaming-journalism-how-to-turn-your-passion-into-a-writing-career/) - A lot of young professionals tend to separate work from play. It’s easy to think that our hobbies and professional goals are completely different things. But as writers, we constantly take our passions and turn them into portfolio material. I’ve actively tried to combine my work as a journalist and my interests as a gamer, and
- [Digital transformation means focusing on readers, not platforms.](https://www.storybench.org/digital-transformation-means-focusing-on-readers-not-platforms/) - In over 15 years of senior digital experience in North America’s leading news organizations as well as many conversations and meetings with news executives around the world, I know that most traditional news organizations are run by well-intentioned people with the desire to adapt in a digital world. For as long as I’ve been in
- [Using data from books to measure cultural evolution: A primer on Google's Ngram viewer](https://www.storybench.org/using-data-from-books-to-measure-cultural-evolution-a-primer-on-googles-ngram-viewer/) - Books are one of the oldest and best "tools" at the disposal of the common man who wishes to live a thousand lives, and to fully comprehend foreign times, places, and lifestyles. Through the words in a book, we can go back and forth in time to experience a life different from our own. However, one’s view
- [A dummy’s guide to mapping Daesh](https://www.storybench.org/a-dummys-guide-to-mapping-daesh/) - Dietmar Offenhuber researches the relationship between visual representations and urban governance. He heads the Information Design and Visualization graduate program at Northeastern University and tweets @dietoff. I saw a map of the “Islamic State” for the first time in a documentary aired on Vice in 2014. The conquered territory depicted in this map was unlike any other
- [How a small data design company visualized the world's scientific collaborations](https://www.storybench.org/how-a-boutique-data-design-company-visualized-global-scientific-collaboration-for-nature-magazine/) - Cuban scientists tend to partner up with Germans, but so do French researchers. The Kenyans work with South Africans. But, unsurprisingly, the global all-stars of scientific collaboration are the United States and China. An interactive map recently published by Nature revealed this web of collaborations to visualize the entire globe's scientific partnerships. Made up of a constellation of colorful dots superimposed over
- [Thirteen cool ideas from the Washington Post/Embedly hackathon](https://www.storybench.org/wapo-journalism-hackathon/) - What if your data sang to you? What would a Tinder for news look like? What if you had a recommendation engine powered by your past self? Those are some of the ideas that surfaced at the third installment of hackingjournalism.com, an event held last weekend that brought together developers, designers and journalists and was organized by
- [A Brazilian start-up uses a speed limit simulator to influence voters about traffic](https://www.storybench.org/brazilian-start-uses-speed-limit-simulator-influence-voters-traffic/) - Cars travel around and around in circles until, suddenly, a traffic jam is formed. What happened to slow the cars down? The speed limit on the road was raised. It may sound counterintuitive, but that is exactly what a traffic simulator built by the Brazilian digital studio Hacklab has shown. Aiming to break down one of the most polarizing issues of
- ["Lead with your best tape" and other helpful tips for audio storytelling](https://www.storybench.org/lead-with-your-best-tape-and-other-helpful-tips-for-podcasting/) - Here at Northeastern's Media Innovation graduate program, we've been knee-deep in podcasting and radio reporting. Over the course of the semester, we've had a string of great guest speakers including independent radio producer Ibby Caputo, former BBC editor Maria Balinska, and WBUR's All Things Considered host Lisa Mullins. Here are some of their tips. Lead with your
- [How the Wall Street Journal visualized the issues that split the Republican vote](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-wall-street-journal-visualized-the-issues-that-split-the-republican-vote/) - To help explain this stormy primary season in American politics, The Wall Street Journal recently published an interactive project to answer the question: What do the voters in the two parties look like? Using data from a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, the paper visualized how voters coalesced around issues like immigration, gun rights, and political ideology and showed who those
- [How the Guardian used pixel art mini Trumps, Bernies and other candidates to display election results](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-guardian-used-pixel-art-election-results/) - During recent presidential primary elections in Maine, Kentucky, Louisiana, Kansas and Nebraska, the Guardian ran a tongue-in-cheek, real-time interactive story as the election results rolled in. The candidates were displayed as pixelated mini cartoon versions of themselves, spray-painting in the counties they were winning with funny commentary like Ted Cruz saying, "Maine is mine" as he sprayed
- [Digital is a philosophy: David Skok on disrupting newsrooms](https://www.storybench.org/digital-is-a-philosophy-boston-globes-david-skok-on-innovating-newsrooms-and-the-future-of-journalism/) - David Skok has been The Boston Globe's digital leader for the past two years, serving most recently as managing editor and vice president for digital. On the eve of his departure from the Globe for his hometown paper, the Toronto Star as Associate Editor and Head of Editorial Strategy for its digital platforms, he leaves a legacy of
- [As 2016 Olympics approaches, a look back at how The New York Times planned coverage of the Sochi Olympics](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-new-york-times-planned-its-coverage-of-the-2014-sochi-olympics/) - More than six months before the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, The New York Times began planning their coverage of the event. With a team of almost thirty people, the award-wining digital graphics department eventually created a mosaic of scroll-through interactives, embedded video, three-dimensional graphics, interviews and explanatory captions. In several stories covering a variety of Olympic events, The New York Times dissected
- [U.S. Navy recruits ideas at Northeastern hackathon](https://www.storybench.org/u-s-navy-recruiting-ideas-and-skills-at-northeastern-hackathon/) - Lieutenant Richard Fail of the United States Navy recently traveled back to Fallujah, Iraq, and he didn’t need to get on a plane to do it. Fail experienced the city for a second time through virtual reality goggles and a 360 video created by The New York Times and on display at a recent hackathon
- [How The New York Times made the #thisis2016 video of Asian-Americans responding to racism](https://www.storybench.org/how-did-the-new-york-times-tell-stories-about-asian-americans-response-to-racism/) - After a woman told his family to "go back to China" last month, Michael Luo, deputy Metro editor and an editor on the Race Related team at The New York Times, wrote her an open letter. Since then, thousands of Asian-Americans have come forward to share their experiences with racial prejudice. On October 13, The New York
- [And the winner for best election forecaster goes to... The New York Times](https://www.storybench.org/and-the-winner-for-best-election-forecaster-goes-to-the-new-york-times/) - The New York Times pushed the boundaries of live data visualization on Election Night with a second-by-second Live Presidential Forecast application. Using Associated Press results from precincts across the country, the tool projected the election using stylized speedometers with the categories very likely, likely, leaning, and tossup. The tool effectively portrayed the projections of electoral votes, the popular vote,
- [How The Texas Tribune is tracking record-breaking early turnouts state-wide](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-texas-tribune-is-tracking-record-breaking-early-turnouts-state-wide/) - Early voting may be the most-decisive but least talked about factor of the 2016 election. Thirty-seven states and the District of Columbia now allow for voters to cast ballots either by mail or in-person before election day, six more than in 2012. Lines have been long at some early polling stations. And in general the turnouts
- [Before election day: a look at early voting trackers](https://www.storybench.org/election-day-look-early-voting-trackers/) - In what has felt like the most toxic election in American history, the relatively new addition of early voting may be decisive in determining whether Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump will be heading to the White House. Currently 37 states and the District of Columbia allow some form of an early ballot. Storybench took a
- [How machine learning could change journalism](https://www.storybench.org/how-machine-learning-could-change-journalism/) - A fact-checking tool built into a content management system, text “filters” that could detect spam messages, a search engine that could give results according to a user’s level of education. Walter Frick, a senior associate editor at Harvard Business Review, thinks these are all scenarios in which machine learning systems in the not-so-distant future could help dramatically shape the
- [A new video storytelling platform tries to make filmmaking easier](https://www.storybench.org/a-new-video-storytelling-platform-tries-to-make-filmmaking-easier/) - The University of Arizona recently licensed a new social media and video platform called Filmstacker. It helps users upload their own video, search for other video clips, and assemble them into their own narrative to share with others. Filmstacker is essentially an updated version of Beyond the Mirage, a website that followed the eponymous documentary aimed at raising awareness of water
- [How a photojournalist is using cartooning in international reporting](https://www.storybench.org/bbc-journalist-using-cartooning-international-reporting/) - The harrowing cartoon images in Ca$h Cow, a series about a Tanzania girl who was abducted and then raped and beaten every day for eleven months represent a new genre of comics journalism, also known as graphic journalism. Marc Ellison, a senior data journalist for the BBC based in Scotland, is the creator of this
- [Four Tips on Gamifying Journalism From Al Jazeera’s Juliana Ruhfus](https://www.storybench.org/four-tips-on-gamifying-journalism-from-al-jazeeras-juliana-ruhfus/) - Last summer, Al Jazeera English’s People & Power program aired an investigation called "Syria’s Electronic Armies" about the men and women fighting for control in the country’s information war. Today, that investigation re-launches as an interactive mobile app called #Hacked. The news game, which is modeled after a messaging platform, challenges users to collect data on a cyber conflict
- [How the AP experimented with 360 video after the Chelsea bombing in NYC](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-ap-experimented-with-360-video-after-the-chelsea-bombing-in-nyc/) - At 2:52 a.m on September 18, less than seven hours after the bombings in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood, the Associated Press uploaded to Facebook a one-minute-long 360-degree video of people reacting to the explosion. Viewers could pan and rotate the video's perspective to get a more complete picture of the scene. Subtitles provided additional context. So far, finding a way to incorporate 360 video
- [Telling the Story of Segregation, Then and Now](https://www.storybench.org/telling-story-segregation-now/)
- [Seven Innovative Journalism Courses You Should Take This Fall](https://www.storybench.org/seven-innovative-journalism-courses-you-should-take-this-fall/) - "While writing, shooting, and editing are often solitary activities, great work emerges in the spaces between people." We couldn't have said it better than David Carr, whose syllabus Press Play still resonates with journalism schools today. With classes back in session, we decided to reboot Storybench's most popular listicle. Last year, we highlighted more than a dozen
- [Tips and Tutorials from London's Journocoders Meetup Group](https://www.storybench.org/tips-tutorials-londons-journocoders-meetup-group/) - Once every month, the usual 7 p.m. flow from the News Building out into London's pubs temporarily reverses, as technologists and journalists voluntarily trek upstairs for an evening coding session. From its humble origins in the back of a pub, the Journocoders Meetup group has amassed regulars from news organizations across the city in addition to the first-timers it caters to. It's
- [Stanford Journalism Program’s Guide to Using Virtual Reality for Storytelling ](https://www.storybench.org/stanford-journalism-programs-guide-using-virtual-reality-storytelling /) - Given the explosion of interest in virtual reality among media organizations, we sought in January to establish best practices and ideal scenarios for using the technology in storytelling through our inaugural immersive journalism class at Stanford University. During the 10-week course, 12 undergraduate and graduate students evaluated a range of virtual reality experiences published by
- [How to get started in data journalism: Takeaways from a panel at CUNY](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-get-started-in-data-journalism-takeaways-from-a-panel-at-cuny/) - Want to get started in data journalism? Don't waste your time learning how to code from scratch. Instead, pick a project and learn the necessary skills along the way. That's according to panelists at a data journalism career event organized by Science Writers in New York last week at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism in
- [Five takeaways from new study on millennials reading longform stories on mobile](https://www.storybench.org/five-takeaways-new-study-millennials-reading-longform-stories-mobile/) - You've done the weeks and possibly months of reporting, you've crafted thousands of words, and now you've packaged your longform story for mobile. But will people read it? Yes, especially if you reduce distractions, break up sections of text, and use relevant visuals and interactive elements. That's according to a new report published last month by researchers at the University of Missouri's Donald
- [New York Times investigative journalist Ian Urbina shares thoughts from his digital playbook](https://www.storybench.org/new-york-times-investigative-journalist-ian-urbina-shares-thoughts-digital-playbook/) - Ian Urbina, a New York Times investigative reporter, recently exposed ethically and environmentally questionable practices at the Kemper coal plant in Mississippi. The plant was supposed to be one of America’s first large-scale efforts to wean itself off non-renewable fuel. As he sat down to write and map out what the story would look like, Urbina
- [What does Facebook Live mean for journalism?](https://www.storybench.org/facebook-live-mean-journalism/) - In April Facebook Live was launched, allowing users to broadcast live and tap the social media giant’s colossal audience. But it was last week, as the world now knows, that Facebook Live had its watershed, technology-transforming-history moment in the broadcast of Philando Castile’s lying injured and dying as filmed and narrated by his girlfriend after
- [Lessons from building a live referendum results graphic](https://www.storybench.org/lessons-from-building-a-live-referendum-results-graphic/) - Elliot Bentley is a graphics editor with the Wall Street Journal. After working on a live referendum results graphic for last month's Brexit vote, Bentley wrote the following tutorial. It was originally published on his website here. I’ve now been involved in the development of several live result graphics: the 2014 Scottish referendum, two Greek
- [How the California Academy of Sciences launched bioGraphic, a magazine illuminating the natural world](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-california-academy-of-sciences-launched-biographic-a-magazine-illuminating-the-natural-world/) - Bursting with flashes of yellow, ring-necked parakeets fly across the screen; just a click later, globs of slime mold create sprawling networks, consuming your device. With vibrant images and compelling content, San Francisco’s California Academy of Sciences launched bioGraphic, an online magazine dedicated to exploring natural phenomena, hoping to inspire conversation about – and solutions
- [How The Economist’s Espresso app goes beyond headlines to provide a daily shot of news analysis](https://www.storybench.org/economists-espresso-app-goes-beyond-headlines-provide-daily-shot-news-analysis/) - Brevity is indispensable for news organizations looking to break into the ever-growing market of mobile readers, but telling complex stories in confined character counts is still an emerging science. Linking back to full-length articles is often the easiest way to package content for social media and briefing-style newsletters while still promising readers analysis and context.
- [Transmedia Storytelling: Adoptees Journey “Home” to China in Search of Missing Girlhoods](https://www.storybench.org/transmedia-storytelling-adoptees-journey-home-to-china-in-search-of-missing-girlhoods/)
- [How the Financial Times built a story on invasive insects that buzzes with interactivity](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-financial-times-built-a-story-on-invasive-insects-that-buzzed-with-interactivity/) - This month, The Financial Times published a story about invasive bugs, from emerald ash borers and Asian longhorned beetles to yellow crazy ants, and the weaponry humans have developed to halt their spread across the globe. The 1,800-word "Invasive species: the battle to beat the bugs," was published with several maps and bands of creepy crawlies that crawl
- [How the WSJ Simulated Liberal Facebook and Conservative Facebook, Side by Side](https://www.storybench.org/wsj-simulated-liberal-facebook-conservative-facebook-side-side/) - With recent allegations that Facebook massaged their own algorithms to intentionally suppress conservative news in its user's feeds, the Wall Street Journal unveiled a visualization they'd been working on for a while: two Facebook feeds that were politically polar opposites. One displayed content that might be shared by users classified as "very liberal," and another displayed content that
- [Europe's migrant crisis: A roundup of visualizations](https://www.storybench.org/europes-migrant-crisis-a-roundup-of-visualizations/) - Roughly one million migrants have made their way into Europe since 2014, fleeing danger in Africa, the Middle East, and other regions. Journalists, international aid organizations and data visualization experts have worked to convey the enormity and gravity of this wave of refugees. Storybench took a look at some of the most interesting and interactive visual interpretations of this unfolding
- [Better Recording, Better Transcribing: A Digital Toolbox for Bringing Home the Perfect Interview](https://www.storybench.org/better-recording-better-transcribing-a-digital-toolbox-for-bringing-home-the-perfect-interview/) - Before the emergence of digital tools, recording and (especially) transcribing an interview was a tedious affair. The little microcassette tapes were of dubious reliability—and yes, I once had one fail on me during a crucial and contentious encounter. Transcribing was worse, as you’d sit there constantly hitting the “play” and “rewind” buttons, an imprecise process
- [Localore debuts a digital open notebook for its reporting project "Finding America"](https://www.storybench.org/localore-debuts-an-digital-open-notebook-for-its-reporting-project-findingamerica/) - Localore: Finding America, a public radio and documentary project currently underway in 15 locations around the United States, is offering a look into an America seldom seen. A child's view of Knoxville, a fly-over of Alaska's disappearing coastline, and photos of an Ecuadorian meal in Kansas City are just three vignettes being published on Finding America's new website launched today by AIR, the Association
- [Panama Papers insights and more: Five data journalism workshops you missed in Helsinki](https://www.storybench.org/panama-papers-insights-and-more-five-data-journalism-workshops-you-missed-in-helsinki/) - News robots, Facebook algorithms, storytelling through virtual reality, mapping data on CartoDB or Google Fusion Tables, and gaining design skills were some of the workshops that media professionals attended at the NODA and Tutki!2016, a joint conference held last weekend in Helsinki, Finland. It was organized by NxtMedia Norway and Finland’s Association for Investigative Journalism. Data
- [How PRX Remix runs a never-ending stream of audio stories on shuffle](https://www.storybench.org/listening-in-on-prx-remix-how-an-independent-radio-producer-runs-a-never-ending-stream-of-stories-on-shuffle/) - Charles Darwin's worm behavior studies. Blacksmithing in modern America. Living with Asperger's. These are a few of the immense number of audio stories found on PRX Remix, an experimental channel from PRX. For audio producer Josh Swartz, the amount of podcasts out there is dizzying. "My first experience with Remix was as a listener before I was
- [Five mobile journalism tips from mobile journalism conference in Dublin](https://www.storybench.org/five-mobile-journalism-tips-mobile-journalism-conference-dublin/) - The crowds at MoJoCon, a mobile journalism conference organized by Irish broadcaster RTÉ held in Dublin last weekend, made it clear that smartphone journalism is no longer niche. Glen Mulcahy, head of innovation at RTÉ and founder of the conference, said that mobile journalism is changing the way the industry tells stories. But even if attendees were already
- [How Atlas, a project from Quartz, can help you organize your data and build various graphs and charts](https://www.storybench.org/organize-data-various-graphs-charts/) - Update: Today, Quartz opened Atlas, its repository for the charts and graphs its built since the news outlet's inception, to everyone. Below, we offer a dissection of a handful of the charts up on Atlas so digital storytellers can learn how to organize their data to build charts like Quartz's. This tutorial originally ran on
- [How to build an interactive county level map like the New York Times](https://www.storybench.org/how-to-build-an-interactive-county-level-map-like-the-new-york-times/) - The New York Times, like many newspapers, is fond of building county level maps to display information like census data. Recently, in light of the exploding opioids crisis in the United States, the paper built a series of maps that show drug overdose deaths in counties across the United States. The following tutorial replicates their
- [How The New York Times used comics to illustrate stories of death row](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-new-york-times-used-comics-to-illustrate-stories-of-death-row/) - "On May 5, 1993, he and his childhood friend Alford Goodwin were set to rob this A.T.M. with a single .32 pistol. Something went wrong." That's a slice of the complex and devastating story of how Kenneth Reams from Pine Bluff, Arkansas ended up on death row at the age of 18. Last Sunday it ran
- [Behind the scenes of a Pulitzer Prize finalist from the Portland Press Herald](https://www.storybench.org/behind-scenes-pulitzer-prize-finalist-portland-press-herald/)
- [How The New York Times used illustrations to look at how NYC gets its drinking water](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-new-york-times-used-illustrations-to-look-at-how-nyc-gets-its-drinking-water/) - In the wake of the Flint water crisis which saw thousands exposed to lead in the drinking supply, cities around the United States have been mounting campaigns to understand the provenance and quality of their tap water. Last month, The New York Times ran a story, “How New York Gets Its Water,” that uses illustrations
- [How a journalism platform is helping new writers tell their slant](https://www.storybench.org/journalism-platform-helping-new-writers-tell-slant/) - As we all know, the field of journalism is in flux in this digital age of disruption. For Amanda Gutterman, editorial director of Slant News, this presented a problem and an opportunity. Outlets are recognizing that new journalists don’t necessarily have journalism degrees. For the journalism students fresh to the field, it can be hard
- [What history can tell us about the future of interactive journalism](https://www.storybench.org/history-can-tell-us-future-interactive-journalism/) - Robin Kwong is Special Projects Editor at the Financial Times where he runs newsroom experiments and helps coordinate large-scale coverage. I’ve been thinking a lot recently about historical progress, cycles and how they relate to what we are trying to do with visual and digital storytelling today. It all started with annotations. Specifically, the 300-odd words of
- [How we mapped pumpkin spice lattes to teach students digital storytelling skills](https://www.storybench.org/how-we-mapped-pumpkin-spice-lattes-to-teach-students-digital-storytelling-skills/) - Mapping is a great way to demonstrate how stories can take on structures beyond vertical stacks of paragraphs and images, which is why I wanted to include a map-based lesson in the digital journalism class I’m teaching at UNH this fall. At first, I planned a Google Maps activity inspired by Northeastern’s Dan Kennedy. Then
- [How to build a simple line plot or bar chart in D3 using D3plus.js](https://www.storybench.org/build-simple-line-plot-or-bar-chart-d3-using-d3plus-js/) - D3, which stands for data-driven documents, is now the de facto gold standard in interactive data visualization. Built on Javascript and styled with HTML and CSS, it is bound to work on most browsers. Take a peek at the D3js.org examples page to see the breadth of visualizations you can create. The downside is that it
- [How we ran a graphics department simulation with lighthearted news stories](https://www.storybench.org/how-we-ran-a-graphics-department-simulation-with-lighthearted-news-stories/) - As part of a studio course at Northeastern’s Journalism School’s Media Innovation graduate program, we recently ran a digital graphics department simulation game. Here’s the assignment: You are part of a nimble graphics team in a digital newsroom publishing on a CMS eerily similar to WordPress. Your audience is made up of tech-savvy, graphics-loving 25 to
- [How journalism students warmed up to data visualization tools Plot.ly and CartoDB](https://www.storybench.org/how-journalism-students-warmed-up-to-data-visualization-tools-plot-ly-and-cartodb/) - Recently here at Northeastern Journalism School's Media Innovation graduate program we ran in-class workshops on data analysis using spreadsheets and then presented our students with a few datasets and two free visualization platforms: Plot.ly for charting and CartoDB for mapping. For our spreadsheets section, we used IRE NICAR’s excellent Excel course pack. We wanted to figure out the
- [How Pictoline is optimizing visual news for social sharing](https://www.storybench.org/pictoline-optimizing-visual-news-social-sharing/) - Pictoline is a visual news organization that produces simple, arresting visuals designed to make their readers do three things: stop, click and share. Scrolling through their illustrations, published daily to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, one notices that Pictoline is sober and informative when it needs to be, like when it explained the recent terrorist attacks in
- [An artful telling of the tragic: Behind the scenes of a Boston Globe mini-documentary](https://www.storybench.org/how-the-boston-globe-produced-a-mini-documentary-to-accompany-a-feature-story-on-child-abuse-and-poverty/) - After nearly dying at the hands of his abusive stepfather, five-year-old Strider Wolf is placed in the care of his grandparents who live in a 24-foot camper in the woods of Maine. But as it is they are barely piecing together a living and struggle to provide for Strider and his younger brother Gallagher. Then
- [An artful telling of the tragic: Behind the scenes with a Boston Globe photojournalist](https://www.storybench.org/artful-telling-tragic-behind-scenes-boston-globe-photojournalist/) - After nearly dying at the hands of his abusive stepfather, five-year-old Strider Wolf is placed in the care of his grandparents who live in a 24-foot camper in the woods of Maine. But as it is they are barely piecing together a living and struggle to provide for Strider and his younger brother Gallagher. Then
- [How to install Babel (or other packages) in Sublime Text 3](https://www.storybench.org/install-babel-packages-sublime-text-3/) - Isn't it nice when a text editor color codes your syntax for you? The following tutorial gets you set up to edit Stylus files in Sublime Text 3 by walking you through the installation of Package Control and the Babel package. Open your Stylus file in Sublime Text Install Package Control in Sublime Text 3
- [It takes a village: tapping community engagement to uncover lost stories](https://www.storybench.org/takes-village-tapping-community-engagement-uncover-lost-stories/) - Alexa Mills, a graduate student in the Media Innovation program at Northeastern University's Journalism School, found a cabinet stuffed with photographs from the 1960s to today taken by teens living in a public housing project in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She tracked down the people in the photos and wrote up their stories for The Boston Globe Magazine. She
- [Visualizing public records appeals in your state](https://www.storybench.org/visualizing-public-records-appeals-in-your-state/) - How can visualization illuminate the labyrinthine world of public records requests and appeals? Here at Northeastern’s Media Innovation program, we've been using D3 to illustrate the persons and institutions in Massachusetts who have most frequently been involved in public records laws appeals over the past 20 months or so. (Click here to scroll down for the D3 visualization and
- [How a citizen science app with over 70,000 users is creating local community](https://www.storybench.org/how-a-citizen-science-app-with-over-70000-users-is-creating-local-community/) - They go where we go, and see what we see. For many of us, our phones and tablets stay within a moment’s reach. We pick up our screens for information, entertainment, communication, and to increasingly share perspective. Current estimates count over 7.1 billion mobile phones worldwide, while the fast-growing video platform Snapchat clocked 4 million views

## Pages

- [Meet the Team](https://www.storybench.org/meet-the-team/) - You can contact us with feedback or story ideas at storybench@gmail.com Senior staff Assistant editors
- [Articles](https://www.storybench.org/articles/)
- [About Storybench](https://www.storybench.org/about-storybench/) - In 2014, Storybench was founded as a “cookbook for digital storytelling” out of the Media Innovation and Data Communication program at Northeastern University’s School of Journalism. It has since evolved into an all-in-one destination for media professionals interested in using advanced digital tools to tell impactful stories. From how journalists are visualizing climate data with
- [Storybench from Northeastern University's School of Journalism](https://www.storybench.org/front-page/)
- [Projects](https://www.storybench.org/projects/) - Learn more about the on-going projects StoryBench is tackling. 2020 Election Tracker Reinventing TV Climate Journalism Lab Data Journalism in R 2020 Election Tracker Reinventing TV Climate Journalism Lab Data Journalsim in R
- [Data Journalism in R](https://www.storybench.org/data-journalism-in-r/)
- [Climate Journalism Lab](https://www.storybench.org/climate-journalism-lab/)
- [Reinventing TV](https://www.storybench.org/reinventing-tv/)
- [2020 Election Tracker](https://www.storybench.org/2020-election-tracker/)
- [Illuminating the road to 2020 through media coverage, candidate tweets and Google searches](https://www.storybench.org/illuminating-the-road-to-2020/) - By Aleszu Bajak Bernie Sanders, Cory Booker and Beto O'Rourke are leading the pack – at least in terms of positive coverage by the media. That's according to our latest sentiment analysis. But as part of our Storybench 2020 Election Coverage Tracker project, we also wanted to dig into the amount of coverage the major
- [A Data History of Popular Hip-Hop](https://www.storybench.org/a-data-history-of-popular-hip-hop/) - By Alexander Frandsen Hip-hop has come a long way from the days of the Sugarhill Gang and Kurtis Blow. According to Nielsen Music’s 2017 year-end report, hip-hop has officially overtaken rock as the most popular genre in the country, and it is nearly impossible to peruse radio stations these days without hearing Drake or Migos.
- [The Student Media Innovation Conference](https://www.storybench.org/studentmi/) - Where is student media headed in the digital age? How are campus publications and broadcast engaging new audiences? How are student media telling stories that lack coverage from mainstream press? On Saturday, October 28, Northeastern University's School of Journalism is hosting "The Student Media Innovation Conference," a day of hands-on workshops, breakout discussions and lightning
- [For educators](https://www.storybench.org/for-educators/) - Since November 2014, Storybench has provided an "under the hood" look at the most invigorating and inspiring projects in digital storytelling around the world, including but not limited to journalism as we've folded in lessons from the fields of information design, statistics, game design, documentary, user-centered design, digital humanities, and network science, to name a
- [Datasets, Schedule and Judging](https://www.storybench.org/urbantensions/) - Housing Court Data 2014 from Project Hope: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B56vzj8m6JInMFBGSEZBWHFXLWs/view?usp=sharing Documentation: http://www.prohope.org/2014-Housing-Court-Report.pdf Boston homicide data (1963 – 2016): https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B56vzj8m6JInV0F5ODEtUF82WHc/view?usp=sharing Documentation: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B56vzj8m6JIneFVlUGhBb1lOQ28/view?usp=sharing Hubway data: https://www.thehubway.com/system-data Hubway challenge documentation: https://www.thehubway.com/datachallenge Boston Area Research Initiative: https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataverse/BARI Other data sets Housing Boston approved building permits here or here Zillow Boston Median Listing Price per sq. ft. here Boston Airbnb listings, reviews

## Categories

- [Tutorials](https://www.storybench.org/category/tutorials/)
- [Tools](https://www.storybench.org/category/tools/)
- [Interviews](https://www.storybench.org/category/interviews/)
- [Insights](https://www.storybench.org/category/behind-the-scenes/insights/)
- [Round-ups](https://www.storybench.org/category/round-ups/)
- [Behind the Scenes](https://www.storybench.org/category/behind-the-scenes/)
- [Features](https://www.storybench.org/category/behind-the-scenes/features/)
- [Research](https://www.storybench.org/category/research/)
- [Reinventing Local TV News](https://www.storybench.org/category/tvnews/)
- [Media Watch](https://www.storybench.org/category/mediawatch/)
- [Data Journalism in R](https://www.storybench.org/category/data-journalism-in-r/)
- [SXSW](https://www.storybench.org/category/sxsw/)
- [Mixed Reality](https://www.storybench.org/category/mixed-reality/)
- [Exploring Climate](https://www.storybench.org/category/exploring-climate/)
- [Election Tracker](https://www.storybench.org/category/election-tracker/)
- [NICAR 2022](https://www.storybench.org/category/nicar2022/)
- [Q&As](https://www.storybench.org/category/behind-the-scenes/questionanswer/)
- [AI](https://www.storybench.org/category/artificial-intelligence/)
- [OSI](https://www.storybench.org/category/behind-the-scenes/osi/)

## Tags

- [design](https://www.storybench.org/tag/design/)
- [journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journalism/)
- [newspaper viral](https://www.storybench.org/tag/newspaper-viral/)
- [story viral](https://www.storybench.org/tag/story-viral/)
- [19th century newspaper](https://www.storybench.org/tag/19th-century-newspaper/)
- [buzzfeed viral](https://www.storybench.org/tag/buzzfeed-viral/)
- [ryan cordell northeastern](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ryan-cordell-northeastern/)
- [northeastern journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/northeastern-journalism/)
- [listening journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/listening-journalism/)
- [curious city wbez](https://www.storybench.org/tag/curious-city-wbez/)
- [wbez crowdsourcing](https://www.storybench.org/tag/wbez-crowdsourcing/)
- [future of journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/future-of-journalism/)
- [jenn brandel wbez](https://www.storybench.org/tag/jenn-brandel-wbez/)
- [jenn brandel journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/jenn-brandel-journalism/)
- [steller](https://www.storybench.org/tag/steller/)
- [mobile storytelling](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mobile-storytelling/)
- [mobile in journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mobile-in-journalism/)
- [northeastern university](https://www.storybench.org/tag/northeastern-university/)
- [chris wiggins](https://www.storybench.org/tag/chris-wiggins/)
- [nytimes wiggins](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nytimes-wiggins/)
- [theoretical physicist nytimes](https://www.storybench.org/tag/theoretical-physicist-nytimes/)
- [wiggins columbia journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/wiggins-columbia-journalism/)
- [data science](https://www.storybench.org/tag/data-science/)
- [nytimes innovation report](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nytimes-innovation-report/)
- [vice](https://www.storybench.org/tag/vice/)
- [how to animate journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-animate-journalism/)
- [journalism and animation](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journalism-and-animation/)
- [vice correspondent confidential](https://www.storybench.org/tag/vice-correspondent-confidential/)
- [under the hood](https://www.storybench.org/tag/under-the-hood/)
- [how to google my maps](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-google-my-maps/)
- [how to my maps](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-my-maps/)
- [google my maps](https://www.storybench.org/tag/google-my-maps/)
- [how to upload my maps](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-upload-my-maps/)
- [great chicago fire](https://www.storybench.org/tag/great-chicago-fire/)
- [ferguson](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ferguson/)
- [dataviz](https://www.storybench.org/tag/dataviz/)
- [infographics](https://www.storybench.org/tag/infographics/)
- [ferguson infographics](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ferguson-infographics/)
- [reddit for journalists](https://www.storybench.org/tag/reddit-for-journalists/)
- [reddit journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/reddit-journalism/)
- [tory starr](https://www.storybench.org/tag/tory-starr/)
- [tory starr pri the world](https://www.storybench.org/tag/tory-starr-pri-the-world/)
- [journalists on reddit](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journalists-on-reddit/)
- [should journalists be on reddit](https://www.storybench.org/tag/should-journalists-be-on-reddit/)
- [storytelling and reddit](https://www.storybench.org/tag/storytelling-and-reddit/)
- [redditors and journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/redditors-and-journalism/)
- [CIA torture report](https://www.storybench.org/tag/cia-torture-report/)
- [torture report memes](https://www.storybench.org/tag/torture-report-memes/)
- [how to pull instagram photos into wordpress](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-pull-instagram-photos-into-wordpress/)
- [instagram in wordpress](https://www.storybench.org/tag/instagram-in-wordpress/)
- [instagram2wordpress](https://www.storybench.org/tag/instagram2wordpress/)
- [scrape instagram photos](https://www.storybench.org/tag/scrape-instagram-photos/)
- [pull Instagram photos by hashtag](https://www.storybench.org/tag/pull-instagram-photos-by-hashtag/)
- [ifttt](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ifttt/)
- [how to ifttt](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-ifttt/)
- [how to use ifttt](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-use-ifttt/)
- [ifttt for journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ifttt-for-journalism/)
- [ifttt twitter to spreadsheet](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ifttt-twitter-to-spreadsheet/)
- [unruly](https://www.storybench.org/tag/unruly/)
- [viral videos](https://www.storybench.org/tag/viral-videos/)
- [internet virality](https://www.storybench.org/tag/internet-virality/)
- [myth of virality](https://www.storybench.org/tag/myth-of-virality/)
- [unruly sarah wood](https://www.storybench.org/tag/unruly-sarah-wood/)
- [how to make a video go viral](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-make-a-video-go-viral/)
- [journalism and virality](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journalism-and-virality/)
- [noah veltman wnyc](https://www.storybench.org/tag/noah-veltman-wnyc/)
- [veltman opennews](https://www.storybench.org/tag/veltman-opennews/)
- [veltman newsroom coder](https://www.storybench.org/tag/veltman-newsroom-coder/)
- [veltman coding](https://www.storybench.org/tag/veltman-coding/)
- [david yanofsky interview](https://www.storybench.org/tag/david-yanofsky-interview/)
- [david yanofsky quartz](https://www.storybench.org/tag/david-yanofsky-quartz/)
- [meet your maker storybench](https://www.storybench.org/tag/meet-your-maker-storybench/)
- [newsroom coder](https://www.storybench.org/tag/newsroom-coder/)
- [how to become a newsroom coder](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-become-a-newsroom-coder/)
- [interactive documentary](https://www.storybench.org/tag/interactive-documentary/)
- [life links deutsche welle](https://www.storybench.org/tag/life-links-deutsche-welle/)
- [deutsche welle community engagement](https://www.storybench.org/tag/deutsche-welle-community-engagement/)
- [life links community](https://www.storybench.org/tag/life-links-community/)
- [life links twitter](https://www.storybench.org/tag/life-links-twitter/)
- [life links instagram](https://www.storybench.org/tag/life-links-instagram/)
- [deutsche welle audience engagement](https://www.storybench.org/tag/deutsche-welle-audience-engagement/)
- [social media deutsche welle](https://www.storybench.org/tag/social-media-deutsche-welle/)
- [digital storytelling](https://www.storybench.org/tag/digital-storytelling/)
- [using cartodb](https://www.storybench.org/tag/using-cartodb/)
- [cartodb illustrator](https://www.storybench.org/tag/cartodb-illustrator/)
- [hollow documentary](https://www.storybench.org/tag/hollow-documentary/)
- [elaine mcmillion sheldon](https://www.storybench.org/tag/elaine-mcmillion-sheldon/)
- [west virginia documentary](https://www.storybench.org/tag/west-virginia-documentary/)
- [behind the scenes iDoc](https://www.storybench.org/tag/behind-the-scenes-idoc/)
- [behind the science interactive documentary](https://www.storybench.org/tag/behind-the-science-interactive-documentary/)
- [religious satire](https://www.storybench.org/tag/religious-satire/)
- [political satire](https://www.storybench.org/tag/political-satire/)
- [cartoons and news](https://www.storybench.org/tag/cartoons-and-news/)
- [charlie hebdo](https://www.storybench.org/tag/charlie-hebdo/)
- [history of cartoons](https://www.storybench.org/tag/history-of-cartoons/)
- [federica fragapane](https://www.storybench.org/tag/federica-fragapane/)
- [information visualization](https://www.storybench.org/tag/information-visualization/)
- [dataviz crime](https://www.storybench.org/tag/dataviz-crime/)
- [italy crime](https://www.storybench.org/tag/italy-crime/)
- [berliner morgenpost](https://www.storybench.org/tag/berliner-morgenpost/)
- [interactives germany](https://www.storybench.org/tag/interactives-germany/)
- [german data journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/german-data-journalism/)
- [german data driven journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/german-data-driven-journalism/)
- [berliner morgenpost interactive](https://www.storybench.org/tag/berliner-morgenpost-interactive/)
- [julius troeger data journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/julius-troeger-data-journalism/)
- [eleanor lutz](https://www.storybench.org/tag/eleanor-lutz/)
- [tabletopwhale](https://www.storybench.org/tag/tabletopwhale/)
- [science illustration](https://www.storybench.org/tag/science-illustration/)
- [data visualization](https://www.storybench.org/tag/data-visualization/)
- [blizzard of 2015](https://www.storybench.org/tag/blizzard-of-2015/)
- [wnyc data news](https://www.storybench.org/tag/wnyc-data-news/)
- [the new york times blizzard](https://www.storybench.org/tag/the-new-york-times-blizzard/)
- [the guardian live video feeds](https://www.storybench.org/tag/the-guardian-live-video-feeds/)
- [snowpocalypse](https://www.storybench.org/tag/snowpocalypse/)
- [dataviz blizzard](https://www.storybench.org/tag/dataviz-blizzard/)
- [future of news](https://www.storybench.org/tag/future-of-news/)
- [reportedly tools](https://www.storybench.org/tag/reportedly-tools/)
- [reportedly andy carvin](https://www.storybench.org/tag/reportedly-andy-carvin/)
- [reportedly ethics](https://www.storybench.org/tag/reportedly-ethics/)
- [digital tools classroom](https://www.storybench.org/tag/digital-tools-classroom/)
- [coggle students](https://www.storybench.org/tag/coggle-students/)
- [coggle in the classroom](https://www.storybench.org/tag/coggle-in-the-classroom/)
- [history students twitter](https://www.storybench.org/tag/history-students-twitter/)
- [ferguson history class](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ferguson-history-class/)
- [sundance vr](https://www.storybench.org/tag/sundance-vr/)
- [oculus rift sundance](https://www.storybench.org/tag/oculus-rift-sundance/)
- [new frontiers oculus rift](https://www.storybench.org/tag/new-frontiers-oculus-rift/)
- [empathy and vr](https://www.storybench.org/tag/empathy-and-vr/)
- [empathy oculus rift](https://www.storybench.org/tag/empathy-oculus-rift/)
- [democratization vr](https://www.storybench.org/tag/democratization-vr/)
- [access and vr](https://www.storybench.org/tag/access-and-vr/)
- [access to oculus rift](https://www.storybench.org/tag/access-to-oculus-rift/)
- [vasco pimentel](https://www.storybench.org/tag/vasco-pimentel/)
- [sound design](https://www.storybench.org/tag/sound-design/)
- [sound engineer](https://www.storybench.org/tag/sound-engineer/)
- [behind the scenes sound engineer](https://www.storybench.org/tag/behind-the-scenes-sound-engineer/)
- [emily cooper](https://www.storybench.org/tag/emily-cooper/)
- [emily cooperhawk](https://www.storybench.org/tag/emily-cooperhawk/)
- [how to draw science](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-draw-science/)
- [how to draw scientific illustrations](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-draw-scientific-illustrations/)
- [science visualization](https://www.storybench.org/tag/science-visualization/)
- [how to visualize science](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-visualize-science/)
- [visualizing science](https://www.storybench.org/tag/visualizing-science/)
- [emily cooper scientific america](https://www.storybench.org/tag/emily-cooper-scientific-america/)
- [ieee spectrum illustration](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ieee-spectrum-illustration/)
- [science drawings](https://www.storybench.org/tag/science-drawings/)
- [textual analysis tutorial](https://www.storybench.org/tag/textual-analysis-tutorial/)
- [textual analysis for journalists](https://www.storybench.org/tag/textual-analysis-for-journalists/)
- [how to do textual analysis](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-do-textual-analysis/)
- [how to visualize in excel](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-visualize-in-excel/)
- [textual analysis how to](https://www.storybench.org/tag/textual-analysis-how-to/)
- [derek willis data journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/derek-willis-data-journalism/)
- [data driven journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/data-driven-journalism/)
- [Damien Van Achter](https://www.storybench.org/tag/damien-van-achter/)
- [media innovation Belgium](https://www.storybench.org/tag/media-innovation-belgium/)
- [media innovation](https://www.storybench.org/tag/media-innovation/)
- [mobile storytelling platform](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mobile-storytelling-platform/)
- [mobile storytelling crowdfunding](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mobile-storytelling-crowdfunding/)
- [davanac lab](https://www.storybench.org/tag/davanac-lab/)
- [lab davanac](https://www.storybench.org/tag/lab-davanac/)
- [Belgian journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/belgian-journalism/)
- [nursing home care](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nursing-home-care/)
- [medicaid cost reports](https://www.storybench.org/tag/medicaid-cost-reports/)
- [nursing home cost reports](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nursing-home-cost-reports/)
- [self-reporting nursing home care](https://www.storybench.org/tag/self-reporting-nursing-home-care/)
- [ddj](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ddj/)
- [jeff kelly lowenstein data driven journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/jeff-kelly-lowenstein-data-driven-journalism/)
- [data investigation](https://www.storybench.org/tag/data-investigation/)
- [nursing home investigation](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nursing-home-investigation/)
- [nursing home racial disparities](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nursing-home-racial-disparities/)
- [black and white nursing homes](https://www.storybench.org/tag/black-and-white-nursing-homes/)
- [Adviceforyoungjournalists](https://www.storybench.org/tag/adviceforyoungjournalists/)
- [Advice for young journalists](https://www.storybench.org/tag/advice-for-young-journalists/)
- [measles interactive](https://www.storybench.org/tag/measles-interactive/)
- [measles visualization](https://www.storybench.org/tag/measles-visualization/)
- [dan kennedy](https://www.storybench.org/tag/dan-kennedy/)
- [catherine d'ignazio](https://www.storybench.org/tag/catherine-dignazio/)
- [lily bui](https://www.storybench.org/tag/lily-bui/)
- [nick fortugno](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nick-fortugno/)
- [susan gold](https://www.storybench.org/tag/susan-gold/)
- [josh vekhter](https://www.storybench.org/tag/josh-vekhter/)
- [storylab](https://www.storybench.org/tag/storylab/)
- [northeastern esquire](https://www.storybench.org/tag/northeastern-esquire/)
- [northeastern media innovation](https://www.storybench.org/tag/northeastern-media-innovation/)
- [david carr](https://www.storybench.org/tag/david-carr/)
- [journalism schools](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journalism-schools/)
- [journalism syllabi](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journalism-syllabi/)
- [david carr syllabus](https://www.storybench.org/tag/david-carr-syllabus/)
- [david carr journalism syllabus](https://www.storybench.org/tag/david-carr-journalism-syllabus/)
- [david carr journalism schools](https://www.storybench.org/tag/david-carr-journalism-schools/)
- [journalism design](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journalism-design/)
- [how to adobe illustrator](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-adobe-illustrator/)
- [nfl sound fx](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nfl-sound-fx/)
- [storytelling in sports broadcast](https://www.storybench.org/tag/storytelling-in-sports-broadcast/)
- [nfl films mic'ing up players](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nfl-films-micing-up-players/)
- [nfl films](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nfl-films/)
- [ethan zuckerman journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ethan-zuckerman-journalism/)
- [ethan zuckerman deep news](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ethan-zuckerman-deep-news/)
- [ethan zuckerman northeastern](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ethan-zuckerman-northeastern/)
- [hedonometer](https://www.storybench.org/tag/hedonometer/)
- [seinfeld happy](https://www.storybench.org/tag/seinfeld-happy/)
- [seinfeld analysis](https://www.storybench.org/tag/seinfeld-analysis/)
- [chris danforth uvm](https://www.storybench.org/tag/chris-danforth-uvm/)
- [peter dodds uvm](https://www.storybench.org/tag/peter-dodds-uvm/)
- [positivity in language](https://www.storybench.org/tag/positivity-in-language/)
- [pollyanna hypothesis](https://www.storybench.org/tag/pollyanna-hypothesis/)
- [society for news design](https://www.storybench.org/tag/society-for-news-design/)
- [SNDdigital](https://www.storybench.org/tag/snddigital/)
- [SND journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/snd-journalism/)
- [news design](https://www.storybench.org/tag/news-design/)
- [newsroom designers](https://www.storybench.org/tag/newsroom-designers/)
- [newsroom coders](https://www.storybench.org/tag/newsroom-coders/)
- [code and journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/code-and-journalism/)
- [journalism and design](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journalism-and-design/)
- [journalism and coding](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journalism-and-coding/)
- [san francisco chronicle news design](https://www.storybench.org/tag/san-francisco-chronicle-news-design/)
- [Mike Grant news design](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mike-grant-news-design/)
- [newsroom unicorn](https://www.storybench.org/tag/newsroom-unicorn/)
- [nonny de la pena](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nonny-de-la-pena/)
- [immersive journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/immersive-journalism/)
- [project syria](https://www.storybench.org/tag/project-syria/)
- [ochre](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ochre/)
- [virtual reality and journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/virtual-reality-and-journalism/)
- [project syria sundance](https://www.storybench.org/tag/project-syria-sundance/)
- [sundance virtual reality](https://www.storybench.org/tag/sundance-virtual-reality/)
- [sundance film festival](https://www.storybench.org/tag/sundance-film-festival/)
- [virual reality in storytelling](https://www.storybench.org/tag/virual-reality-in-storytelling/)
- [vr storytelling](https://www.storybench.org/tag/vr-storytelling/)
- [oculus rift storytelling](https://www.storybench.org/tag/oculus-rift-storytelling/)
- [stacey vanek smith](https://www.storybench.org/tag/stacey-vanek-smith/)
- [planet money](https://www.storybench.org/tag/planet-money/)
- [under the hood of planet money](https://www.storybench.org/tag/under-the-hood-of-planet-money/)
- [behind the scenes planet money](https://www.storybench.org/tag/behind-the-scenes-planet-money/)
- [stacey vanek smith planet money](https://www.storybench.org/tag/stacey-vanek-smith-planet-money/)
- [ecuador roses](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ecuador-roses/)
- [marantz podcasting](https://www.storybench.org/tag/marantz-podcasting/)
- [marantz 660 podcasting](https://www.storybench.org/tag/marantz-660-podcasting/)
- [vox media](https://www.storybench.org/tag/vox-media/)
- [user-centered design](https://www.storybench.org/tag/user-centered-design/)
- [stakeholder design](https://www.storybench.org/tag/stakeholder-design/)
- [typography news design](https://www.storybench.org/tag/typography-news-design/)
- [news design tips](https://www.storybench.org/tag/news-design-tips/)
- [vox media workshop](https://www.storybench.org/tag/vox-media-workshop/)
- [vox design tips](https://www.storybench.org/tag/vox-design-tips/)
- [vox media ball state](https://www.storybench.org/tag/vox-media-ball-state/)
- [tsarnaev](https://www.storybench.org/tag/tsarnaev/)
- [boston bombing](https://www.storybench.org/tag/boston-bombing/)
- [boston globe interactives](https://www.storybench.org/tag/boston-globe-interactives/)
- [coverage of boston bombing](https://www.storybench.org/tag/coverage-of-boston-bombing/)
- [emerson college newspaper](https://www.storybench.org/tag/emerson-college-newspaper/)
- [berkeley beacon](https://www.storybench.org/tag/berkeley-beacon/)
- [college media](https://www.storybench.org/tag/college-media/)
- [snow calculator](https://www.storybench.org/tag/snow-calculator/)
- [how to build a bubble chart](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-build-a-bubble-chart/)
- [build a bubble chart without D3](https://www.storybench.org/tag/build-a-bubble-chart-without-d3/)
- [how to graph a bubble chart](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-graph-a-bubble-chart/)
- [MONO magazine](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mono-magazine/)
- [MONO magazine Slovakia](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mono-magazine-slovakia/)
- [Slovak media](https://www.storybench.org/tag/slovak-media/)
- [Piano media slovakia](https://www.storybench.org/tag/piano-media-slovakia/)
- [Piano media paymall](https://www.storybench.org/tag/piano-media-paymall/)
- [piano paywall](https://www.storybench.org/tag/piano-paywall/)
- [Slovakia newspaper](https://www.storybench.org/tag/slovakia-newspaper/)
- [Slovakia media innovation](https://www.storybench.org/tag/slovakia-media-innovation/)
- [European media innovation](https://www.storybench.org/tag/european-media-innovation/)
- [fusion berklee](https://www.storybench.org/tag/fusion-berklee/)
- [fusion music](https://www.storybench.org/tag/fusion-music/)
- [fusion partnership berklee](https://www.storybench.org/tag/fusion-partnership-berklee/)
- [fusion scorathon](https://www.storybench.org/tag/fusion-scorathon/)
- [berklee scoring fusion trailer](https://www.storybench.org/tag/berklee-scoring-fusion-trailer/)
- [fusion in boston](https://www.storybench.org/tag/fusion-in-boston/)
- [flow map](https://www.storybench.org/tag/flow-map/)
- [sankey diagram](https://www.storybench.org/tag/sankey-diagram/)
- [alluvial chart](https://www.storybench.org/tag/alluvial-chart/)
- [comics journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/comics-journalism/)
- [illustrations in journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/illustrations-in-journalism/)
- [op-ed illustration](https://www.storybench.org/tag/op-ed-illustration/)
- [el mundo op ed](https://www.storybench.org/tag/el-mundo-op-ed/)
- [el mundo illustration](https://www.storybench.org/tag/el-mundo-illustration/)
- [tana oshima el mundo](https://www.storybench.org/tag/tana-oshima-el-mundo/)
- [tana oshima comics journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/tana-oshima-comics-journalism/)
- [photojournalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/photojournalism/)
- [vance jacobs photography](https://www.storybench.org/tag/vance-jacobs-photography/)
- [photojournalism toolkit](https://www.storybench.org/tag/photojournalism-toolkit/)
- [canon 5d mark iii](https://www.storybench.org/tag/canon-5d-mark-iii/)
- [vance jacobs](https://www.storybench.org/tag/vance-jacobs/)
- [oso landslide](https://www.storybench.org/tag/oso-landslide/)
- [seattle times oso landslide](https://www.storybench.org/tag/seattle-times-oso-landslide/)
- [seattle times news app](https://www.storybench.org/tag/seattle-times-news-app/)
- [seattle times visualization](https://www.storybench.org/tag/seattle-times-visualization/)
- [oso landslide history](https://www.storybench.org/tag/oso-landslide-history/)
- [visualizations at seattle times](https://www.storybench.org/tag/visualizations-at-seattle-times/)
- [Cameron Blevins historian](https://www.storybench.org/tag/cameron-blevins-historian/)
- [Cameron Blevins digital humanities](https://www.storybench.org/tag/cameron-blevins-digital-humanities/)
- [digital humanities](https://www.storybench.org/tag/digital-humanities/)
- [Blevins geography of the post](https://www.storybench.org/tag/blevins-geography-of-the-post/)
- [Blevins digital history](https://www.storybench.org/tag/blevins-digital-history/)
- [spatial history Cameron Blevins](https://www.storybench.org/tag/spatial-history-cameron-blevins/)
- [Stanford digital humanities](https://www.storybench.org/tag/stanford-digital-humanities/)
- [sports journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/sports-journalism/)
- [sports layout](https://www.storybench.org/tag/sports-layout/)
- [digital storytelling sports](https://www.storybench.org/tag/digital-storytelling-sports/)
- [hackathon](https://www.storybench.org/tag/hackathon/)
- [how to run a hackathon](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-run-a-hackathon/)
- [foia](https://www.storybench.org/tag/foia/)
- [northeastern journalism school](https://www.storybench.org/tag/northeastern-journalism-school/)
- [foia requests](https://www.storybench.org/tag/foia-requests/)
- [foia agency database](https://www.storybench.org/tag/foia-agency-database/)
- [dadaviz](https://www.storybench.org/tag/dadaviz/)
- [leon markovitz](https://www.storybench.org/tag/leon-markovitz/)
- [wikibrains](https://www.storybench.org/tag/wikibrains/)
- [jonathan kaufman](https://www.storybench.org/tag/jonathan-kaufman/)
- [journalism school](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journalism-school/)
- [media innovation northeastern](https://www.storybench.org/tag/media-innovation-northeastern/)
- [mother jones insult generator](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mother-jones-insult-generator/)
- [journalism code](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journalism-code/)
- [github journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/github-journalism/)
- [github news nerds](https://www.storybench.org/tag/github-news-nerds/)
- [mother jones code](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mother-jones-code/)
- [mother jones developers](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mother-jones-developers/)
- [ice age illustration](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ice-age-illustration/)
- [ice age science](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ice-age-science/)
- [3d modeling technology](https://www.storybench.org/tag/3d-modeling-technology/)
- [techniques in paleoart](https://www.storybench.org/tag/techniques-in-paleoart/)
- [paleoart technology](https://www.storybench.org/tag/paleoart-technology/)
- [maya 3d art](https://www.storybench.org/tag/maya-3d-art/)
- [maya 3d science](https://www.storybench.org/tag/maya-3d-science/)
- [D3](https://www.storybench.org/tag/d3/)
- [map](https://www.storybench.org/tag/map/)
- [digital cartography](https://www.storybench.org/tag/digital-cartography/)
- [journalism web design](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journalism-web-design/)
- [web design](https://www.storybench.org/tag/web-design/)
- [responsive web design framework](https://www.storybench.org/tag/responsive-web-design-framework/)
- [story layout digital](https://www.storybench.org/tag/story-layout-digital/)
- [digital journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/digital-journalism/)
- [how to make a gif](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-make-a-gif/)
- [how to create a gif](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-create-a-gif/)
- [gifs for journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/gifs-for-journalism/)
- [gifs in journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/gifs-in-journalism/)
- [journalism gif](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journalism-gif/)
- [journalists using gifs](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journalists-using-gifs/)
- [new york times coverage](https://www.storybench.org/tag/new-york-times-coverage/)
- [refugee crisis](https://www.storybench.org/tag/refugee-crisis/)
- [journalism refugee crisis](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journalism-refugee-crisis/)
- [new york times multimedia](https://www.storybench.org/tag/new-york-times-multimedia/)
- [international news coverage](https://www.storybench.org/tag/international-news-coverage/)
- [Barry's Corner](https://www.storybench.org/tag/barrys-corner/)
- [Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/boston-institute-for-nonprofit-journalism/)
- [photography](https://www.storybench.org/tag/photography/)
- [brandon tauszik](https://www.storybench.org/tag/brandon-tauszik/)
- [oakland california photographer](https://www.storybench.org/tag/oakland-california-photographer/)
- [tapered throne](https://www.storybench.org/tag/tapered-throne/)
- [oakland barbershops](https://www.storybench.org/tag/oakland-barbershops/)
- [gifs](https://www.storybench.org/tag/gifs/)
- [heatmap](https://www.storybench.org/tag/heatmap/)
- [how to use cartodb](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-use-cartodb/)
- [how to build a heatmap](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-build-a-heatmap/)
- [how to build an animated heatmap](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-build-an-animated-heatmap/)
- [mapping scientific data](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mapping-scientific-data/)
- [dextro](https://www.storybench.org/tag/dextro/)
- [clarifai](https://www.storybench.org/tag/clarifai/)
- [computer vision journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/computer-vision-journalism/)
- [deep learning journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/deep-learning-journalism/)
- [dextro journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/dextro-journalism/)
- [mic news searchable video](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mic-news-searchable-video/)
- [searchable video journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/searchable-video-journalism/)
- [clarifai journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/clarifai-journalism/)
- [air media](https://www.storybench.org/tag/air-media/)
- [localore](https://www.storybench.org/tag/localore/)
- [public radio](https://www.storybench.org/tag/public-radio/)
- [public media](https://www.storybench.org/tag/public-media/)
- [taylor delench](https://www.storybench.org/tag/taylor-delench/)
- [boston globe](https://www.storybench.org/tag/boston-globe/)
- [sarah schweitzer](https://www.storybench.org/tag/sarah-schweitzer/)
- [videojournalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/videojournalism/)
- [poverty maine boston globe](https://www.storybench.org/tag/poverty-maine-boston-globe/)
- [child abuse boston globe](https://www.storybench.org/tag/child-abuse-boston-globe/)
- [mini-doc journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mini-doc-journalism/)
- [cop21](https://www.storybench.org/tag/cop21/)
- [cop](https://www.storybench.org/tag/cop/)
- [climate conference](https://www.storybench.org/tag/climate-conference/)
- [climate visualization](https://www.storybench.org/tag/climate-visualization/)
- [data visualization carbon emissions](https://www.storybench.org/tag/data-visualization-carbon-emissions/)
- [dataviz climate change](https://www.storybench.org/tag/dataviz-climate-change/)
- [cartography](https://www.storybench.org/tag/cartography/)
- [mapmaking](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mapmaking/)
- [mapping ISIS](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mapping-isis/)
- [kendall square](https://www.storybench.org/tag/kendall-square/)
- [area four](https://www.storybench.org/tag/area-four/)
- [gentrification boston](https://www.storybench.org/tag/gentrification-boston/)
- [gentrification kendall square](https://www.storybench.org/tag/gentrification-kendall-square/)
- [gentrification area four](https://www.storybench.org/tag/gentrification-area-four/)
- [interactive sponsored content](https://www.storybench.org/tag/interactive-sponsored-content/)
- [sponsored content](https://www.storybench.org/tag/sponsored-content/)
- [quartz sponsored content](https://www.storybench.org/tag/quartz-sponsored-content/)
- [native advertising](https://www.storybench.org/tag/native-advertising/)
- [quartz native advertising](https://www.storybench.org/tag/quartz-native-advertising/)
- [quartz bulletins](https://www.storybench.org/tag/quartz-bulletins/)
- [storytelling native advertising](https://www.storybench.org/tag/storytelling-native-advertising/)
- [storytelling in sponsored content](https://www.storybench.org/tag/storytelling-in-sponsored-content/)
- [chartbuilder](https://www.storybench.org/tag/chartbuilder/)
- [how to brand your own charts](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-brand-your-own-charts/)
- [branded chartbuilder](https://www.storybench.org/tag/branded-chartbuilder/)
- [customize charts](https://www.storybench.org/tag/customize-charts/)
- [how to use tabula](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-use-tabula/)
- [how to extract tables from pdfs](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-extract-tables-from-pdfs/)
- [how to extract data from a pdf](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-extract-data-from-a-pdf/)
- [nicar2016](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nicar2016/)
- [nicar16](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nicar16/)
- [journalism innovation](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journalism-innovation/)
- [programming in journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/programming-in-journalism/)
- [nicar conference](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nicar-conference/)
- [Guardian](https://www.storybench.org/tag/guardian/)
- [pixel art](https://www.storybench.org/tag/pixel-art/)
- [trump](https://www.storybench.org/tag/trump/)
- [clinton](https://www.storybench.org/tag/clinton/)
- [sanders](https://www.storybench.org/tag/sanders/)
- [cruz](https://www.storybench.org/tag/cruz/)
- [primary elections](https://www.storybench.org/tag/primary-elections/)
- [gastropod podcast](https://www.storybench.org/tag/gastropod-podcast/)
- [podcast behind the scenes](https://www.storybench.org/tag/podcast-behind-the-scenes/)
- [science journalism podcast](https://www.storybench.org/tag/science-journalism-podcast/)
- [cynthia graber podcast](https://www.storybench.org/tag/cynthia-graber-podcast/)
- [nicola twilley podcast](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nicola-twilley-podcast/)
- [gastropod audio](https://www.storybench.org/tag/gastropod-audio/)
- [buildthenews](https://www.storybench.org/tag/buildthenews/)
- [journalism hackathon](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journalism-hackathon/)
- [hack the news](https://www.storybench.org/tag/hack-the-news/)
- [scraping for journalists](https://www.storybench.org/tag/scraping-for-journalists/)
- [why scrape the web](https://www.storybench.org/tag/why-scrape-the-web/)
- [web scraping 101](https://www.storybench.org/tag/web-scraping-101/)
- [when should I scrape the web](https://www.storybench.org/tag/when-should-i-scrape-the-web/)
- [to scrape or not to scrape](https://www.storybench.org/tag/to-scrape-or-not-to-scrape/)
- [upworthy](https://www.storybench.org/tag/upworthy/)
- [amy oleary](https://www.storybench.org/tag/amy-oleary/)
- [audience engagement](https://www.storybench.org/tag/audience-engagement/)
- [reader engagement](https://www.storybench.org/tag/reader-engagement/)
- [data science journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/data-science-journalism/)
- [ambiental media brazil](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ambiental-media-brazil/)
- [brasil ambiental](https://www.storybench.org/tag/brasil-ambiental/)
- [science news brazil](https://www.storybench.org/tag/science-news-brazil/)
- [science journalism brazil](https://www.storybench.org/tag/science-journalism-brazil/)
- [future interactive journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/future-interactive-journalism/)
- [interactive journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/interactive-journalism/)
- [art direction](https://www.storybench.org/tag/art-direction/)
- [mobile first art design](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mobile-first-art-design/)
- [new york times design](https://www.storybench.org/tag/new-york-times-design/)
- [NODA16](https://www.storybench.org/tag/noda16/)
- [data journalism conference](https://www.storybench.org/tag/data-journalism-conference/)
- [panama papers data journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/panama-papers-data-journalism/)
- [mojo](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mojo/)
- [mojocon](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mojocon/)
- [mobile journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mobile-journalism/)
- [RTE mojocon](https://www.storybench.org/tag/rte-mojocon/)
- [mobile journalism tips](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mobile-journalism-tips/)
- [podcasting tips](https://www.storybench.org/tag/podcasting-tips/)
- [podcasting dos and donts](https://www.storybench.org/tag/podcasting-dos-and-donts/)
- [podcasting help](https://www.storybench.org/tag/podcasting-help/)
- [podcasting 101](https://www.storybench.org/tag/podcasting-101/)
- [radio reporting tips](https://www.storybench.org/tag/radio-reporting-tips/)
- [cartodb tutorial](https://www.storybench.org/tag/cartodb-tutorial/)
- [cartodb county level map](https://www.storybench.org/tag/cartodb-county-level-map/)
- [county level map](https://www.storybench.org/tag/county-level-map/)
- [census data map](https://www.storybench.org/tag/census-data-map/)
- [drug overdose map](https://www.storybench.org/tag/drug-overdose-map/)
- [Patrick Chappatte](https://www.storybench.org/tag/patrick-chappatte/)
- [Anne-Frédérique Widmann](https://www.storybench.org/tag/anne-frederique-widmann/)
- [Danny DeBelius](https://www.storybench.org/tag/danny-debelius/)
- [new york times comics](https://www.storybench.org/tag/new-york-times-comics/)
- [graphic journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/graphic-journalism/)
- [prx](https://www.storybench.org/tag/prx/)
- [prx remix](https://www.storybench.org/tag/prx-remix/)
- [behind the scenes prx](https://www.storybench.org/tag/behind-the-scenes-prx/)
- [airmedia](https://www.storybench.org/tag/airmedia/)
- [findingamerica](https://www.storybench.org/tag/findingamerica/)
- [migrant crisis](https://www.storybench.org/tag/migrant-crisis/)
- [dataviz migrant crisis](https://www.storybench.org/tag/dataviz-migrant-crisis/)
- [wsj visualization](https://www.storybench.org/tag/wsj-visualization/)
- [conservative facebook](https://www.storybench.org/tag/conservative-facebook/)
- [liberal facebook](https://www.storybench.org/tag/liberal-facebook/)
- [jon keegan wsj](https://www.storybench.org/tag/jon-keegan-wsj/)
- [financial times](https://www.storybench.org/tag/financial-times/)
- [data journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/data-journalism/)
- [design and journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/design-and-journalism/)
- [gamification](https://www.storybench.org/tag/gamification/)
- [al jazeera](https://www.storybench.org/tag/al-jazeera/)
- [journalism games](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journalism-games/)
- [gaming in journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/gaming-in-journalism/)
- [journalism gamification](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journalism-gamification/)
- [al jazeera pirate fishing](https://www.storybench.org/tag/al-jazeera-pirate-fishing/)
- [al jazeera hacked](https://www.storybench.org/tag/al-jazeera-hacked/)
- [syrian hackers](https://www.storybench.org/tag/syrian-hackers/)
- [calacademy biographic](https://www.storybench.org/tag/calacademy-biographic/)
- [nature magazine](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nature-magazine/)
- [science magazine](https://www.storybench.org/tag/science-magazine/)
- [digital science magazines](https://www.storybench.org/tag/digital-science-magazines/)
- [digital science publishing](https://www.storybench.org/tag/digital-science-publishing/)
- [gun control](https://www.storybench.org/tag/gun-control/)
- [journalism and code](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journalism-and-code/)
- [dan zedek](https://www.storybench.org/tag/dan-zedek/)
- [michael workman](https://www.storybench.org/tag/michael-workman/)
- [facebook live](https://www.storybench.org/tag/facebook-live/)
- [vonnegut story arcs](https://www.storybench.org/tag/vonnegut-story-arcs/)
- [sentiment analysis journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/sentiment-analysis-journalism/)
- [r studio](https://www.storybench.org/tag/r-studio/)
- [r notebook](https://www.storybench.org/tag/r-notebook/)
- [getting started with r](https://www.storybench.org/tag/getting-started-with-r/)
- [r data analysis](https://www.storybench.org/tag/r-data-analysis/)
- [r intro](https://www.storybench.org/tag/r-intro/)
- [intro to r](https://www.storybench.org/tag/intro-to-r/)
- [r for journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/r-for-journalism/)
- [j school](https://www.storybench.org/tag/j-school/)
- [innovative journalism class](https://www.storybench.org/tag/innovative-journalism-class/)
- [vr journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/vr-journalism/)
- [social media journalism course](https://www.storybench.org/tag/social-media-journalism-course/)
- [digital media course](https://www.storybench.org/tag/digital-media-course/)
- [podcasting](https://www.storybench.org/tag/podcasting/)
- [magazine writing](https://www.storybench.org/tag/magazine-writing/)
- [journaism tips](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journaism-tips/)
- [audio storytelling](https://www.storybench.org/tag/audio-storytelling/)
- [ajplus](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ajplus/)
- [ux in journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ux-in-journalism/)
- [ux design](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ux-design/)
- [360 video](https://www.storybench.org/tag/360-video/)
- [associated press 360](https://www.storybench.org/tag/associated-press-360/)
- [chelsea bombing journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/chelsea-bombing-journalism/)
- [propublica](https://www.storybench.org/tag/propublica/)
- [school segregation](https://www.storybench.org/tag/school-segregation/)
- [david skok](https://www.storybench.org/tag/david-skok/)
- [nieman fellow david skok](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nieman-fellow-david-skok/)
- [digital philosophy journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/digital-philosophy-journalism/)
- [marc ellison](https://www.storybench.org/tag/marc-ellison/)
- [bbc](https://www.storybench.org/tag/bbc/)
- [filmstacker](https://www.storybench.org/tag/filmstacker/)
- [beyond the mirage](https://www.storybench.org/tag/beyond-the-mirage/)
- [documentary tools](https://www.storybench.org/tag/documentary-tools/)
- [startup](https://www.storybench.org/tag/startup/)
- [brazil](https://www.storybench.org/tag/brazil/)
- [election](https://www.storybench.org/tag/election/)
- [voters](https://www.storybench.org/tag/voters/)
- [perspective](https://www.storybench.org/tag/perspective/)
- [change](https://www.storybench.org/tag/change/)
- [simulator](https://www.storybench.org/tag/simulator/)
- [traffic](https://www.storybench.org/tag/traffic/)
- [transit](https://www.storybench.org/tag/transit/)
- [fernando haddad](https://www.storybench.org/tag/fernando-haddad/)
- [joao doria](https://www.storybench.org/tag/joao-doria/)
- [sao paulo](https://www.storybench.org/tag/sao-paulo/)
- [mayor](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mayor/)
- [policy](https://www.storybench.org/tag/policy/)
- [Texas Tribune](https://www.storybench.org/tag/texas-tribune/)
- [2016](https://www.storybench.org/tag/2016/)
- [turnout](https://www.storybench.org/tag/turnout/)
- [record-breaking](https://www.storybench.org/tag/record-breaking/)
- [data](https://www.storybench.org/tag/data/)
- [JSON](https://www.storybench.org/tag/json/)
- [tracker](https://www.storybench.org/tag/tracker/)
- [early](https://www.storybench.org/tag/early/)
- [vote](https://www.storybench.org/tag/vote/)
- [ballot](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ballot/)
- [visualization](https://www.storybench.org/tag/visualization/)
- [nytimes](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nytimes/)
- [New York Times](https://www.storybench.org/tag/new-york-times/)
- [NYT](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nyt/)
- [Live](https://www.storybench.org/tag/live/)
- [Hillary Clinton](https://www.storybench.org/tag/hillary-clinton/)
- [Donald Trump](https://www.storybench.org/tag/donald-trump/)
- [President](https://www.storybench.org/tag/president/)
- [michael luo](https://www.storybench.org/tag/michael-luo/)
- [thisis2016](https://www.storybench.org/tag/thisis2016/)
- [us navy](https://www.storybench.org/tag/us-navy/)
- [northeastern hackathon](https://www.storybench.org/tag/northeastern-hackathon/)
- [eia](https://www.storybench.org/tag/eia/)
- [energy infrastructure](https://www.storybench.org/tag/energy-infrastructure/)
- [Fathom](https://www.storybench.org/tag/fathom/)
- [Michael Pecirno](https://www.storybench.org/tag/michael-pecirno/)
- [dapl](https://www.storybench.org/tag/dapl/)
- [pipelines](https://www.storybench.org/tag/pipelines/)
- [dakota access](https://www.storybench.org/tag/dakota-access/)
- [dapl visualizations](https://www.storybench.org/tag/dapl-visualizations/)
- [dapl maps](https://www.storybench.org/tag/dapl-maps/)
- [mapping crude oil](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mapping-crude-oil/)
- [bingdu](https://www.storybench.org/tag/bingdu/)
- [chinese news apps](https://www.storybench.org/tag/chinese-news-apps/)
- [news apps](https://www.storybench.org/tag/news-apps/)
- [revenue journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/revenue-journalism/)
- [china app](https://www.storybench.org/tag/china-app/)
- [china journalism app](https://www.storybench.org/tag/china-journalism-app/)
- [fake news](https://www.storybench.org/tag/fake-news/)
- [nytmag](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nytmag/)
- [john hermann](https://www.storybench.org/tag/john-hermann/)
- [fake news john hermann](https://www.storybench.org/tag/fake-news-john-hermann/)
- [the witcher 3](https://www.storybench.org/tag/the-witcher-3/)
- [game design](https://www.storybench.org/tag/game-design/)
- [storytelling in games](https://www.storybench.org/tag/storytelling-in-games/)
- [handcrafted game design](https://www.storybench.org/tag/handcrafted-game-design/)
- [e-line media](https://www.storybench.org/tag/e-line-media/)
- [Colabee](https://www.storybench.org/tag/colabee/)
- [newsgeist](https://www.storybench.org/tag/newsgeist/)
- [journalism conference](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journalism-conference/)
- [newsgeist conference](https://www.storybench.org/tag/newsgeist-conference/)
- [newsgeist ignite talks](https://www.storybench.org/tag/newsgeist-ignite-talks/)
- [fake news journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/fake-news-journalism/)
- [theo rigby](https://www.storybench.org/tag/theo-rigby/)
- [ination](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ination/)
- [immigrant nation](https://www.storybench.org/tag/immigrant-nation/)
- [documentary](https://www.storybench.org/tag/documentary/)
- [u.s. mexico immigration](https://www.storybench.org/tag/u-s-mexico-immigration/)
- [state transparency](https://www.storybench.org/tag/state-transparency/)
- [federal ethics](https://www.storybench.org/tag/federal-ethics/)
- [state ethics](https://www.storybench.org/tag/state-ethics/)
- [data visualization politics](https://www.storybench.org/tag/data-visualization-politics/)
- [chatbots journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/chatbots-journalism/)
- [news chatbots](https://www.storybench.org/tag/news-chatbots/)
- [conversational computing](https://www.storybench.org/tag/conversational-computing/)
- [conversational journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/conversational-journalism/)
- [syria street](https://www.storybench.org/tag/syria-street/)
- [tripoli lebanon](https://www.storybench.org/tag/tripoli-lebanon/)
- [storytelling gifs](https://www.storybench.org/tag/storytelling-gifs/)
- [cinematographs](https://www.storybench.org/tag/cinematographs/)
- [Soo Oh](https://www.storybench.org/tag/soo-oh/)
- [Vox.com](https://www.storybench.org/tag/vox-com/)
- [Mapbox](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mapbox/)
- [GDAL](https://www.storybench.org/tag/gdal/)
- [geoTIFF](https://www.storybench.org/tag/geotiff/)
- [geoJSON](https://www.storybench.org/tag/geojson/)
- [topoJSON](https://www.storybench.org/tag/topojson/)
- [snow](https://www.storybench.org/tag/snow/)
- [snowstorm](https://www.storybench.org/tag/snowstorm/)
- [3D](https://www.storybench.org/tag/3d/)
- [programming](https://www.storybench.org/tag/programming/)
- [coding](https://www.storybench.org/tag/coding/)
- [python](https://www.storybench.org/tag/python/)
- [ghost boat](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ghost-boat/)
- [medium ghost boat](https://www.storybench.org/tag/medium-ghost-boat/)
- [serialized journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/serialized-journalism/)
- [katie kingsbury](https://www.storybench.org/tag/katie-kingsbury/)
- [donald trump interactive](https://www.storybench.org/tag/donald-trump-interactive/)
- [primer stories](https://www.storybench.org/tag/primer-stories/)
- [baykeeper](https://www.storybench.org/tag/baykeeper/)
- [dodge foundation](https://www.storybench.org/tag/dodge-foundation/)
- [visual storytelling](https://www.storybench.org/tag/visual-storytelling/)
- [microplastics](https://www.storybench.org/tag/microplastics/)
- [edsurge](https://www.storybench.org/tag/edsurge/)
- [edtech](https://www.storybench.org/tag/edtech/)
- [audience development](https://www.storybench.org/tag/audience-development/)
- [groundsource](https://www.storybench.org/tag/groundsource/)
- [citizen science](https://www.storybench.org/tag/citizen-science/)
- [broad institute](https://www.storybench.org/tag/broad-institute/)
- [bang wong](https://www.storybench.org/tag/bang-wong/)
- [gestalt data visualization](https://www.storybench.org/tag/gestalt-data-visualization/)
- [interactive](https://www.storybench.org/tag/interactive/)
- [administration](https://www.storybench.org/tag/administration/)
- [coverage](https://www.storybench.org/tag/coverage/)
- [innovative](https://www.storybench.org/tag/innovative/)
- [White House](https://www.storybench.org/tag/white-house/)
- [first month](https://www.storybench.org/tag/first-month/)
- [America](https://www.storybench.org/tag/america/)
- [Presidency](https://www.storybench.org/tag/presidency/)
- [AI](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ai/)
- [artificial intelligence](https://www.storybench.org/tag/artificial-intelligence/)
- [machine learning](https://www.storybench.org/tag/machine-learning/)
- [deep learning](https://www.storybench.org/tag/deep-learning/)
- [storytelling](https://www.storybench.org/tag/storytelling/)
- [Mauro Martino](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mauro-martino/)
- [IBM](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ibm/)
- [data viz](https://www.storybench.org/tag/data-viz/)
- [d3 maps](https://www.storybench.org/tag/d3-maps/)
- [climate change visualization](https://www.storybench.org/tag/climate-change-visualization/)
- [nyt visualization](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nyt-visualization/)
- [behind the scenes new york times](https://www.storybench.org/tag/behind-the-scenes-new-york-times/)
- [nyt graphics](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nyt-graphics/)
- [derek watkins](https://www.storybench.org/tag/derek-watkins/)
- [gaming journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/gaming-journalism/)
- [writing tips](https://www.storybench.org/tag/writing-tips/)
- [how to freelance](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-freelance/)
- [instagram travel](https://www.storybench.org/tag/instagram-travel/)
- [national geographic traveler](https://www.storybench.org/tag/national-geographic-traveler/)
- [wedodata](https://www.storybench.org/tag/wedodata/)
- [karen bastien](https://www.storybench.org/tag/karen-bastien/)
- [french data visualization](https://www.storybench.org/tag/french-data-visualization/)
- [data journalism france](https://www.storybench.org/tag/data-journalism-france/)
- [google ngram viewer](https://www.storybench.org/tag/google-ngram-viewer/)
- [donald trump wsj](https://www.storybench.org/tag/donald-trump-wsj/)
- [donald trump conflicts of interesting](https://www.storybench.org/tag/donald-trump-conflicts-of-interesting/)
- [visual journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/visual-journalism/)
- [behind the scenes wsj](https://www.storybench.org/tag/behind-the-scenes-wsj/)
- [wall street journal graphics](https://www.storybench.org/tag/wall-street-journal-graphics/)
- [cody dunne](https://www.storybench.org/tag/cody-dunne/)
- [northeastern](https://www.storybench.org/tag/northeastern/)
- [network analysis](https://www.storybench.org/tag/network-analysis/)
- [northeastern ccis](https://www.storybench.org/tag/northeastern-ccis/)
- [nuvis](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nuvis/)
- [harvard fake news](https://www.storybench.org/tag/harvard-fake-news/)
- [cass sunstein](https://www.storybench.org/tag/cass-sunstein/)
- [yochai benkler](https://www.storybench.org/tag/yochai-benkler/)
- [jon schleuss](https://www.storybench.org/tag/jon-schleuss/)
- [la times](https://www.storybench.org/tag/la-times/)
- [la times graphics](https://www.storybench.org/tag/la-times-graphics/)
- [la times freeway pollution](https://www.storybench.org/tag/la-times-freeway-pollution/)
- [SXSW](https://www.storybench.org/tag/sxsw/)
- [Deborah Acosta](https://www.storybench.org/tag/deborah-acosta/)
- [Adam Banicki](https://www.storybench.org/tag/adam-banicki/)
- [Joe Posner](https://www.storybench.org/tag/joe-posner/)
- [Vox](https://www.storybench.org/tag/vox/)
- [Video](https://www.storybench.org/tag/video/)
- [future](https://www.storybench.org/tag/future/)
- [panel](https://www.storybench.org/tag/panel/)
- [Facebook](https://www.storybench.org/tag/facebook/)
- [sxsw2017](https://www.storybench.org/tag/sxsw2017/)
- [South by Southwest](https://www.storybench.org/tag/south-by-southwest/)
- [VR](https://www.storybench.org/tag/vr/)
- [news](https://www.storybench.org/tag/news/)
- [media](https://www.storybench.org/tag/media/)
- [National Geographic](https://www.storybench.org/tag/national-geographic/)
- [Nat Geo](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nat-geo/)
- [Cory Richards](https://www.storybench.org/tag/cory-richards/)
- [Genius](https://www.storybench.org/tag/genius/)
- [Gawker](https://www.storybench.org/tag/gawker/)
- [NIck Denton](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nick-denton/)
- [Algorithm](https://www.storybench.org/tag/algorithm/)
- [Claire Woodcock](https://www.storybench.org/tag/claire-woodcock/)
- [Fredric Káren](https://www.storybench.org/tag/fredric-karen/)
- [Svenska Dagbladet](https://www.storybench.org/tag/svenska-dagbladet/)
- [Chris Milk](https://www.storybench.org/tag/chris-milk/)
- [Within](https://www.storybench.org/tag/within/)
- [Jeffrey Heer](https://www.storybench.org/tag/jeffrey-heer/)
- [Dean baquet](https://www.storybench.org/tag/dean-baquet/)
- [Algorithms](https://www.storybench.org/tag/algorithms/)
- [how to use Twine](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-use-twine/)
- [digital storytelling tools](https://www.storybench.org/tag/digital-storytelling-tools/)
- [how to storytelling tools](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-storytelling-tools/)
- [SvD](https://www.storybench.org/tag/svd/)
- [Sweden](https://www.storybench.org/tag/sweden/)
- [Innovation](https://www.storybench.org/tag/innovation/)
- [Europe](https://www.storybench.org/tag/europe/)
- [AP](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ap/)
- [O2 Filmes](https://www.storybench.org/tag/o2-filmes/)
- [Elena Rachitsky](https://www.storybench.org/tag/elena-rachitsky/)
- [Jessica Brillhart](https://www.storybench.org/tag/jessica-brillhart/)
- [Nathan Griffths](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nathan-griffths/)
- [algorithmic news](https://www.storybench.org/tag/algorithmic-news/)
- [algorithm cms](https://www.storybench.org/tag/algorithm-cms/)
- [algorithm journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/algorithm-journalism/)
- [Countable](https://www.storybench.org/tag/countable/)
- [Automated Insights](https://www.storybench.org/tag/automated-insights/)
- [Joe Procopio](https://www.storybench.org/tag/joe-procopio/)
- [Helen Vogt](https://www.storybench.org/tag/helen-vogt/)
- [Washington Post](https://www.storybench.org/tag/washington-post/)
- [Eli Pariser](https://www.storybench.org/tag/eli-pariser/)
- [associated press automation](https://www.storybench.org/tag/associated-press-automation/)
- [climate change](https://www.storybench.org/tag/climate-change/)
- [International Rescue Committee](https://www.storybench.org/tag/international-rescue-committee/)
- [virtual reality](https://www.storybench.org/tag/virtual-reality/)
- [youvisit VR](https://www.storybench.org/tag/youvisit-vr/)
- [virtual reality lebanon](https://www.storybench.org/tag/virtual-reality-lebanon/)
- [virtual reality syria](https://www.storybench.org/tag/virtual-reality-syria/)
- [urban tensions](https://www.storybench.org/tag/urban-tensions/)
- [information design and visualization northeastern](https://www.storybench.org/tag/information-design-and-visualization-northeastern/)
- [Boston data](https://www.storybench.org/tag/boston-data/)
- [data storytelling](https://www.storybench.org/tag/data-storytelling/)
- [data hackathon](https://www.storybench.org/tag/data-hackathon/)
- [design hackathon](https://www.storybench.org/tag/design-hackathon/)
- [Project Hope](https://www.storybench.org/tag/project-hope/)
- [Analyze Boston](https://www.storybench.org/tag/analyze-boston/)
- [Civic Data Design Lab](https://www.storybench.org/tag/civic-data-design-lab/)
- [Ben Green](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ben-green/)
- [Christine Dixon](https://www.storybench.org/tag/christine-dixon/)
- [Wenfei Xu](https://www.storybench.org/tag/wenfei-xu/)
- [tableau tutorial](https://www.storybench.org/tag/tableau-tutorial/)
- [tableau dot map](https://www.storybench.org/tag/tableau-dot-map/)
- [tableau how to](https://www.storybench.org/tag/tableau-how-to/)
- [how to map natural gas ruptures](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-map-natural-gas-ruptures/)
- [natural gas spills](https://www.storybench.org/tag/natural-gas-spills/)
- [trust](https://www.storybench.org/tag/trust/)
- [advocacy](https://www.storybench.org/tag/advocacy/)
- [northeastern journalism projects](https://www.storybench.org/tag/northeastern-journalism-projects/)
- [restorative justice](https://www.storybench.org/tag/restorative-justice/)
- [evictions](https://www.storybench.org/tag/evictions/)
- [media entrepreneurship](https://www.storybench.org/tag/media-entrepreneurship/)
- [northeastern IDEA](https://www.storybench.org/tag/northeastern-idea/)
- [javascript](https://www.storybench.org/tag/javascript/)
- [leaflet](https://www.storybench.org/tag/leaflet/)
- [R tutorial](https://www.storybench.org/tag/r-tutorial/)
- [R for geocoding](https://www.storybench.org/tag/r-for-geocoding/)
- [R to geocode a csv](https://www.storybench.org/tag/r-to-geocode-a-csv/)
- [how to for R](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-for-r/)
- [newsgames](https://www.storybench.org/tag/newsgames/)
- [games journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/games-journalism/)
- [gamify news](https://www.storybench.org/tag/gamify-news/)
- [gamifying news](https://www.storybench.org/tag/gamifying-news/)
- [games for empathy](https://www.storybench.org/tag/games-for-empathy/)
- [empathetic games](https://www.storybench.org/tag/empathetic-games/)
- [journalistic games](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journalistic-games/)
- [shelly tan](https://www.storybench.org/tag/shelly-tan/)
- [Lindsay Grace](https://www.storybench.org/tag/lindsay-grace/)
- [Sisi Wei](https://www.storybench.org/tag/sisi-wei/)
- [Larry Dailey](https://www.storybench.org/tag/larry-dailey/)
- [digital history](https://www.storybench.org/tag/digital-history/)
- [erin parish](https://www.storybench.org/tag/erin-parish/)
- [redlining](https://www.storybench.org/tag/redlining/)
- [maps and racism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/maps-and-racism/)
- [mapping racism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mapping-racism/)
- [mapping inequality](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mapping-inequality/)
- [urban data](https://www.storybench.org/tag/urban-data/)
- [urban mapping](https://www.storybench.org/tag/urban-mapping/)
- [March Madness](https://www.storybench.org/tag/march-madness/)
- [STAT News](https://www.storybench.org/tag/stat-news/)
- [STAT Madness](https://www.storybench.org/tag/stat-madness/)
- [bracket](https://www.storybench.org/tag/bracket/)
- [life sciences](https://www.storybench.org/tag/life-sciences/)
- [Social Media](https://www.storybench.org/tag/social-media/)
- [Graphics](https://www.storybench.org/tag/graphics/)
- [Strategy](https://www.storybench.org/tag/strategy/)
- [Twitter](https://www.storybench.org/tag/twitter/)
- [video games](https://www.storybench.org/tag/video-games/)
- [empathy games](https://www.storybench.org/tag/empathy-games/)
- [we are chicago](https://www.storybench.org/tag/we-are-chicago/)
- [1979 Revolution: Black Friday](https://www.storybench.org/tag/1979-revolution-black-friday/)
- [ink studios](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ink-studios/)
- [Culture Shock Games](https://www.storybench.org/tag/culture-shock-games/)
- [felice frankel](https://www.storybench.org/tag/felice-frankel/)
- [mit](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mit/)
- [oil to die for](https://www.storybench.org/tag/oil-to-die-for/)
- [behind the scenes](https://www.storybench.org/tag/behind-the-scenes/)
- [intercept](https://www.storybench.org/tag/intercept/)
- [mobile development](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mobile-development/)
- [the intercept](https://www.storybench.org/tag/the-intercept/)
- [moiz syed](https://www.storybench.org/tag/moiz-syed/)
- [r for journalists](https://www.storybench.org/tag/r-for-journalists/)
- [tidyr tutorial](https://www.storybench.org/tag/tidyr-tutorial/)
- [tidyverse tutorial](https://www.storybench.org/tag/tidyverse-tutorial/)
- [fivethirtyeight r package](https://www.storybench.org/tag/fivethirtyeight-r-package/)
- [fivethirtyeight r tutorial](https://www.storybench.org/tag/fivethirtyeight-r-tutorial/)
- [r tidyverse tutorial](https://www.storybench.org/tag/r-tidyverse-tutorial/)
- [tibble tutorial](https://www.storybench.org/tag/tibble-tutorial/)
- [barplot in R](https://www.storybench.org/tag/barplot-in-r/)
- [barplot in R fivethirtyeight](https://www.storybench.org/tag/barplot-in-r-fivethirtyeight/)
- [investigative journalism northeastern](https://www.storybench.org/tag/investigative-journalism-northeastern/)
- [mike beaudet northeastern](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mike-beaudet-northeastern/)
- [northeastern journalism investigations](https://www.storybench.org/tag/northeastern-journalism-investigations/)
- [latin america](https://www.storybench.org/tag/latin-america/)
- [Matthew Brehmer](https://www.storybench.org/tag/matthew-brehmer/)
- [timelines](https://www.storybench.org/tag/timelines/)
- [time](https://www.storybench.org/tag/time/)
- [Alberto Cairo](https://www.storybench.org/tag/alberto-cairo/)
- [Arab Spring](https://www.storybench.org/tag/arab-spring/)
- [radial](https://www.storybench.org/tag/radial/)
- [calendar](https://www.storybench.org/tag/calendar/)
- [tool](https://www.storybench.org/tag/tool/)
- [openvis](https://www.storybench.org/tag/openvis/)
- [amanda cox](https://www.storybench.org/tag/amanda-cox/)
- [confidence intervals](https://www.storybench.org/tag/confidence-intervals/)
- [statistics journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/statistics-journalism/)
- [visualizing uncertainty](https://www.storybench.org/tag/visualizing-uncertainty/)
- [sosolimited](https://www.storybench.org/tag/sosolimited/)
- [kinetic sculpture](https://www.storybench.org/tag/kinetic-sculpture/)
- [r small multiples tutorial](https://www.storybench.org/tag/r-small-multiples-tutorial/)
- [rstats](https://www.storybench.org/tag/rstats/)
- [fivethirtyeight small multiples](https://www.storybench.org/tag/fivethirtyeight-small-multiples/)
- [how to make small multiples in R](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-make-small-multiples-in-r/)
- [reinventing local tv news](https://www.storybench.org/tag/reinventing-local-tv-news/)
- [how to use propublica congress api](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-use-propublica-congress-api/)
- [how to write python script for api](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-write-python-script-for-api/)
- [how to python script](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-python-script/)
- [how to python congress api](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-python-congress-api/)
- [how to python api query](https://www.storybench.org/tag/how-to-python-api-query/)
- [wgbh news](https://www.storybench.org/tag/wgbh-news/)
- [student work](https://www.storybench.org/tag/student-work/)
- [northeastern journalism program](https://www.storybench.org/tag/northeastern-journalism-program/)
- [school of journalism northeastern](https://www.storybench.org/tag/school-of-journalism-northeastern/)
- [journalism students northeastern](https://www.storybench.org/tag/journalism-students-northeastern/)
- [collaborative newsrooms](https://www.storybench.org/tag/collaborative-newsrooms/)
- [digital newsroom best practices](https://www.storybench.org/tag/digital-newsroom-best-practices/)
- [storybench working paper](https://www.storybench.org/tag/storybench-working-paper/)
- [data journalism best practices](https://www.storybench.org/tag/data-journalism-best-practices/)
- [digital newsrooms](https://www.storybench.org/tag/digital-newsrooms/)
- [nascar writer](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nascar-writer/)
- [patreon](https://www.storybench.org/tag/patreon/)
- [patreon for journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/patreon-for-journalism/)
- [jeff gluck](https://www.storybench.org/tag/jeff-gluck/)
- [crowdfunding](https://www.storybench.org/tag/crowdfunding/)
- [crowdfunding journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/crowdfunding-journalism/)
- [nascar journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nascar-journalism/)
- [nascar crowdfunding](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nascar-crowdfunding/)
- [matt waite](https://www.storybench.org/tag/matt-waite/)
- [drone journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/drone-journalism/)
- [tv news drones](https://www.storybench.org/tag/tv-news-drones/)
- [drones for reporting](https://www.storybench.org/tag/drones-for-reporting/)
- [james comey](https://www.storybench.org/tag/james-comey/)
- [propublica congress api](https://www.storybench.org/tag/propublica-congress-api/)
- [la times api](https://www.storybench.org/tag/la-times-api/)
- [priya Krishnakumar](https://www.storybench.org/tag/priya-krishnakumar/)
- [ojo publico](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ojo-publico/)
- [folha de sao paulo](https://www.storybench.org/tag/folha-de-sao-paulo/)
- [quipu project](https://www.storybench.org/tag/quipu-project/)
- [properati](https://www.storybench.org/tag/properati/)
- [properati argentina](https://www.storybench.org/tag/properati-argentina/)
- [npr](https://www.storybench.org/tag/npr/)
- [newswhip](https://www.storybench.org/tag/newswhip/)
- [whipsmart](https://www.storybench.org/tag/whipsmart/)
- [liz heron](https://www.storybench.org/tag/liz-heron/)
- [paul quigley](https://www.storybench.org/tag/paul-quigley/)
- [ashish patel](https://www.storybench.org/tag/ashish-patel/)
- [wgbh](https://www.storybench.org/tag/wgbh/)
- [frontline](https://www.storybench.org/tag/frontline/)
- [Laura Colarusso](https://www.storybench.org/tag/laura-colarusso/)
- [social media strategy](https://www.storybench.org/tag/social-media-strategy/)
- [hindustan times](https://www.storybench.org/tag/hindustan-times/)
- [data journalism india](https://www.storybench.org/tag/data-journalism-india/)
- [data journalism hindustan times](https://www.storybench.org/tag/data-journalism-hindustan-times/)
- [gurman bhatia](https://www.storybench.org/tag/gurman-bhatia/)
- [Samarth Bansal](https://www.storybench.org/tag/samarth-bansal/)
- [the economist](https://www.storybench.org/tag/the-economist/)
- [beatles](https://www.storybench.org/tag/beatles/)
- [matt tozer](https://www.storybench.org/tag/matt-tozer/)
- [prospero economist](https://www.storybench.org/tag/prospero-economist/)
- [economist data journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/economist-data-journalism/)
- [newspaper revenue](https://www.storybench.org/tag/newspaper-revenue/)
- [matt carroll](https://www.storybench.org/tag/matt-carroll/)
- [diversifying revenue news](https://www.storybench.org/tag/diversifying-revenue-news/)
- [vtdigger](https://www.storybench.org/tag/vtdigger/)
- [mic news](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mic-news/)
- [information design and visualization](https://www.storybench.org/tag/information-design-and-visualization/)
- [camd](https://www.storybench.org/tag/camd/)
- [northeastern camd](https://www.storybench.org/tag/northeastern-camd/)
- [dao nguyen](https://www.storybench.org/tag/dao-nguyen/)
- [science of content](https://www.storybench.org/tag/science-of-content/)
- [analytics journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/analytics-journalism/)
- [Edward R. Murrow](https://www.storybench.org/tag/edward-r-murrow/)
- [Award](https://www.storybench.org/tag/award/)
- [RTDNA](https://www.storybench.org/tag/rtdna/)
- [Local](https://www.storybench.org/tag/local/)
- [TV](https://www.storybench.org/tag/tv/)
- [Reinventing](https://www.storybench.org/tag/reinventing/)
- [Project](https://www.storybench.org/tag/project/)
- [series](https://www.storybench.org/tag/series/)
- [transmedia](https://www.storybench.org/tag/transmedia/)
- [production model](https://www.storybench.org/tag/production-model/)
- [Global Network](https://www.storybench.org/tag/global-network/)
- [NBC 10](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nbc-10/)
- [Art](https://www.storybench.org/tag/art/)
- [Augmented Reality](https://www.storybench.org/tag/augmented-reality/)
- [Film Festivals](https://www.storybench.org/tag/film-festivals/)
- [A Love Story](https://www.storybench.org/tag/a-love-story/)
- [First Impressions](https://www.storybench.org/tag/first-impressions/)
- [Into the Darkness](https://www.storybench.org/tag/into-the-darkness/)
- [Notes on Blindness](https://www.storybench.org/tag/notes-on-blindness/)
- [Sheffield Doc/Fest](https://www.storybench.org/tag/sheffield-docfest/)
- [Wikileaks](https://www.storybench.org/tag/wikileaks/)
- [the guardian vr](https://www.storybench.org/tag/the-guardian-vr/)
- [local television news](https://www.storybench.org/tag/local-television-news/)
- [headline study](https://www.storybench.org/tag/headline-study/)
- [headlines social media](https://www.storybench.org/tag/headlines-social-media/)
- [what headlines work best for social media](https://www.storybench.org/tag/what-headlines-work-best-for-social-media/)
- [beautifulsoup journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/beautifulsoup-journalism/)
- [beautifulsoup python](https://www.storybench.org/tag/beautifulsoup-python/)
- [python journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/python-journalism/)
- [real estate](https://www.storybench.org/tag/real-estate/)
- [qgis journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/qgis-journalism/)
- [mapbox journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mapbox-journalism/)
- [mapbox real estate](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mapbox-real-estate/)
- [qgis](https://www.storybench.org/tag/qgis/)
- [local tv news](https://www.storybench.org/tag/local-tv-news/)
- [sinclair broadcasting](https://www.storybench.org/tag/sinclair-broadcasting/)
- [consolidation](https://www.storybench.org/tag/consolidation/)
- [mapping local tv news](https://www.storybench.org/tag/mapping-local-tv-news/)
- [kade krichko](https://www.storybench.org/tag/kade-krichko/)
- [powder magazine](https://www.storybench.org/tag/powder-magazine/)
- [freelancing](https://www.storybench.org/tag/freelancing/)
- [adventure journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/adventure-journalism/)
- [sports writing](https://www.storybench.org/tag/sports-writing/)
- [china skiing](https://www.storybench.org/tag/china-skiing/)
- [kcts9](https://www.storybench.org/tag/kcts9/)
- [seattle](https://www.storybench.org/tag/seattle/)
- [seattle public media](https://www.storybench.org/tag/seattle-public-media/)
- [kcts9 digital team](https://www.storybench.org/tag/kcts9-digital-team/)
- [Nexo](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nexo/)
- [Brazilian literature](https://www.storybench.org/tag/brazilian-literature/)
- [Rhythm](https://www.storybench.org/tag/rhythm/)
- [R](https://www.storybench.org/tag/r/)
- [KWCH](https://www.storybench.org/tag/kwch/)
- [KXAS](https://www.storybench.org/tag/kxas/)
- [murrow awards](https://www.storybench.org/tag/murrow-awards/)
- [investigative reporting](https://www.storybench.org/tag/investigative-reporting/)
- [investigative journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/investigative-journalism/)
- [investigative local journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/investigative-local-journalism/)
- [literature as data](https://www.storybench.org/tag/literature-as-data/)
- [nexo journal](https://www.storybench.org/tag/nexo-journal/)
- [wall street journal](https://www.storybench.org/tag/wall-street-journal/)
- [visualizing complexity](https://www.storybench.org/tag/visualizing-complexity/)
- [scicomm](https://www.storybench.org/tag/scicomm/)
- [scientific visualization](https://www.storybench.org/tag/scientific-visualization/)
- [northeastern mfa](https://www.storybench.org/tag/northeastern-mfa/)
- [northeastern idv](https://www.storybench.org/tag/northeastern-idv/)
- [northeastern information design and visualization](https://www.storybench.org/tag/northeastern-information-design-and-visualization/)
- [maternal mortality](https://www.storybench.org/tag/maternal-mortality/)
- [death in childbirth](https://www.storybench.org/tag/death-in-childbirth/)
- [community journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/community-journalism/)
- [social journalism](https://www.storybench.org/tag/social-journalism/)