ISSUE

Summer 2015

Automation in the Newsroom

As automation makes significant gains in the newsroom, Celeste LeCompte explores how the Associated Press, ProPublica, The New York Times, and other news outlets are using stories written by algorithms to expand coverage of business and sports, engage audiences, and respond to breaking news. In the process, automation is raising new questions about what it means to encode news judgment in algorithms, how to customize stories to target specific audiences without making ethical missteps, and how to communicate these new efforts to audiences.

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Articles

Automation in the Newsroom
Technology

Automation in the Newsroom

How algorithms are helping reporters expand coverage, engage audiences, and respond to breaking news
Celeste LeCompte
September 1, 2015
A Brief Guide to Robot Reporting Tools
Journalist’s Trade

A Brief Guide to Robot Reporting Tools

From crime statistics to SEC filings, software agents can monitor vast amounts of open data to help journalists spot potential stories
Jonathan Stray
September 1, 2015
Sounding

In China, Legal Affairs Reporting Is Not Just a Beat

Covering courts in China is perilous, but rule of law is the only option for a better future
Jieqi Luo
August 27, 2015
Books

How Radio Reporters Turn Ideas into Feelings

In “Out on the Wire,” cartoonist Jessica Abel illustrates the storytelling secrets of the leading narrative radio shows
Jessica Abel
August 25, 2015
Why News Outlets Are Watching India's Next Billion Internet Users
Features

Why News Outlets Are Watching India’s Next Billion Internet Users

As Quartz, BuzzFeed, and The Huffington Post look for footholds in India, the bigger opportunity for news may be among the Indians buying smartphones to access information in languages other…
Hasit Shah
August 24, 2015
Medium's Evan Hansen: “The Real Unit of Exchange Is … People”
Live @ Lippmann

Medium’s Evan Hansen: “The Real Unit of Exchange Is … People”

The online publishing platform's head of content labs on optimum story length, writing for free, and how to fix the experience of reading and writing on the Internet
Evan Hansen
August 20, 2015
The Value of Slow Journalism in the Age of Instant Information
Features

The Value of Slow Journalism in the Age of Instant Information

As news cycles speed up, 'slow' journalists take months—even years—to report and tell in-depth stories
Michael Blanding
August 19, 2015
NPR correspondent Frank Langfitt, NF ’03, finds his best stories behind the wheel of a free cab he drives in Shanghai
Niemans @ Work

NPR correspondent Frank Langfitt, NF ’03, finds his best stories behind the wheel of a free cab he drives in Shanghai

In the summers during college, I drove taxis in Philadelphia. All sorts of people opened up in the anonymity of a cab. Three decades later, while covering China for NPR,…
Frank Langfitt
August 19, 2015
With his new virtual-reality project, Karim Ben Khelifa, NF ’13, fosters empathy
Niemans @ Work

With his new virtual-reality project, Karim Ben Khelifa, NF ’13, fosters empathy

after 15 years of assignments in war zones around the globe, I’ve found that the hopes, dreams, and nightmares of enemies are often more similar than they are different. This…
Karim Ben Khelifa
August 17, 2015
Independent Journalism Finds its Voice in Egypt
Features

Independent Journalism Finds its Voice in Egypt

Amidst a challenging political and economic environment, young Egyptian reporters are developing innovative journalism and business models
Magdi Abdelhadi
August 7, 2015
Margie Mason, NF ’09, collaborated with AP colleagues to report stories that helped free enslaved fishermen in Southeast Asia
Niemans @ Work

Margie Mason, NF ’09, collaborated with AP colleagues to report stories that helped free enslaved fishermen in Southeast Asia

So often, journalists are quick to dismiss stories that have been done before, especially those that have been written over and over again. But what if you could take a…
Margie Mason
July 22, 2015
How to Deter Doxxing
Watchdog

How to Deter Doxxing

Newsroom strategies to prevent the harassment that follows the public posting of home addresses, phone numbers and journalists’ other personal information
Rose Eveleth
July 17, 2015