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Tag: boston globe

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 […]

November 8, 2019November 12, 2019 Carro Halpin Behind the scenes, Interviews

“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, […]

November 6, 2019November 18, 2019 Avantika Panda Interviews

How the Boston Globe reported on hip hop’s fascination with quarterback Tom Brady

Everyone had questions for Tom Brady at Super Bowl LIII media day, as the then-41-year-old NFL quarterback closed in on his sixth Super Bowl ring. How would the New England […]

October 4, 2019October 4, 2019 Jenna Ciccotelli Behind the scenes, Interviews

Tips on writing editorials from the Boston Globe’s Marcela García

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 […]

September 25, 2019September 26, 2019 Maria Silvia Aguirre Interviews

“It’s like a Serial for relationships.” Behind the scenes of the “Love Letters” podcast.

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 […]

October 9, 2018October 8, 2018 Emily Mitchell Interviews

How The Boston Globe uncovered fraud at 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 […]

March 9, 2018March 9, 2018 Patrick Strohecker Behind the scenes, Interviews

Moderating the masses: How the Boston Globe guided discourse about race in 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 […]

February 13, 2018February 11, 2018 Emily Arntsen Behind the scenes, Interviews

Meet the Media Innovation student who builds Boston Globe data stories

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

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

The Athletic hopes to solve sports reporting with fewer ads and 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 […]

December 19, 2017December 20, 2017 Charlie Wolfson Insights, Interviews

How The Boston Globe visualized extreme sports and ramped up excitement for Big Air at 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 […]

October 3, 2017October 2, 2017 Ethan Schroeder Behind the scenes, Interviews

How The Boston Globe brought Red Sox pitcher Chris Sale’s unique delivery to life

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 […]

September 28, 2017September 28, 2017 Dylan McGuinness Behind the scenes, Interviews

How newsrooms large and small are learning to grow new 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. […]

June 21, 2017June 21, 2017 Matt Carroll Insights

Katie Kingsbury on the Boston Globe’s 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 […]

January 20, 2017April 26, 2017 Dan Kennedy Interviews

How The Boston Globe used digital tools to call for new 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 […]

June 20, 2016June 21, 2016 Kyle Ellis Behind the scenes

An artful telling of the tragic: Behind the scenes of a Boston Globe mini-documentary

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 […]

December 1, 2015April 12, 2016 Aleszu Bajak Behind the scenes
What is Storybench?
Storybench takes an “under the hood” look at the latest in digital storytelling, from data visualization and investigative journalism to virtual reality and the digital humanities. In addition to in-depth features and interviews with industry practitioners, we offer hands-on tutorials that can be “downloaded” right into the newsroom or classroom.

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

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

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

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

Best of Storybench

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

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

Getting started with data visualization in R using ggplot2

Understanding what makes a visualization memorable

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

 

Projects

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

 


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

 

The Climate Journalism Lab

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

 

Join us at Northeastern!

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

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

Interviews

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

Collaborative, Open, Mobile

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

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

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

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

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

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