When we come up with a project topic, [...]]]> NewsBeast Labs – Data Journalism at Newsweek & The Daily Beast

Since June, NewsBeast Labs has been developing interactive data projects on such topics as the 2012 election, access to abortion services in America and the national gun debate. Our projects use everything from traditional computer-assisted reporting techniques and web scraping, to new techniques in interactive mapping and presenting readers’ stories as part of the narrative.

When we come up with a project topic, we design for two speeds: What can we do today and what can we do if we had a whole month? For instance, following the Newtown shooting, we did a quick turnaround interactive asking readers to complete the sentences “I own a gun because…” or “I don’t own a gun because…” to see what readers had to say about gun ownership in the wake of the shooting. As a longer project, we created a database of all 530+ members of congress and categorized their stance on gun control based on recent statements and voting records. We created a tool — This Is Your Rep On Guns — to let readers find their representatives, see their recent statements and contact them. We also created a Twitter bot — @YourRepsOnGuns — that retweets representatives when the discuss guns. The bot keeps the project alive and lets the topic become a part of readers’ daily feed.

On a visual level, we also design for two speeds: Some readers will spend two seconds with the story and some will spend two hours — we design the visuals to convey the story instantly but also include all the complexity of the issue in data that interested readers can explore. You can read more about our projects at http://newsbeastlabs.tumblr.com or get in touch at michael.keller@thedailybeast.com

THE PROJECTS

I was MS ’07/MA ’11. Along with my collaborator, Ayman Oghanna (MS ’08), I traveled to Libya, Tunisia, and Italy during the Libyan civol war to report a series of print and multimedia stories about the migration crisis precipitated by the Arab Spring: the abuse of dark-skinned subsaharan Africans in Libya after the start of the war; the [...]]]>

Zero Hour: the Covert Struggle for Control of Tripoli and the Future of Libya

I was MS ’07/MA ’11. Along with my collaborator, Ayman Oghanna (MS ’08), I traveled to Libya, Tunisia, and Italy during the Libyan civol war to report a series of print and multimedia stories about the migration crisis precipitated by the Arab Spring: the abuse of dark-skinned subsaharan Africans in Libya after the start of the war; the flight of hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants across North Africa; the dramatic exodus of boats headed to Italy’s Lampedusa Island; allegations of neglect by NATO warships of migrant boats in distress; the reluctance of European states to increase annual asylum quotas or engage in “burden sharing”; the impact of recent border-patrol agreements between Italy and Libya, France and Tunisia; and the evolution of pan-European border enforcement. Our project, supported by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, was innovative in the scale of the reporting and the array of media we published in (newspaper, magazine, a literary journal, web video, and blogging.

Since our project, Ayman has been reporting from Syria and Turkey and I completed another project on rising xenophobia and the ascendance of neo-fascist parties in Hungary and Greece that was published in The New York Times and TheAtlantic.com. Next month, we will return to Libya as the inaugural winners of the Groundtruth Fellowship from the Overseas Press Club to produce a Special Report for GlobalPost.

THE PROJECT

A common theme in stories on sex workers is the helplessness and exploitation of the women in business.

While it is true that many are forced into prostitution and later resign themselves to it because of the difficulty to be accepted back in society and the lack of alternate livelihood options, I personally thought the issue could be dealt with more objectively than just routinely [...]]]> A Peek Into A Prostitute’s Life

By Gauri Gharpure / @gaurigharpure

A common theme in stories on sex workers is the helplessness and exploitation of the women in business.

While it is true that many are forced into prostitution and later resign themselves to it because of the difficulty to be accepted back in society and the lack of alternate livelihood options, I personally thought the issue could be dealt with more objectively than just routinely portraying these strong women as “victims.”

For this article, I met a 51-year-old prostitute who is actively involved with an NGO and who advocates safe-sex practices amongst her peers. Her family is still not aware of her profession.

I thought writing about the feisty, no-nonsense woman just as matter-of-factly as she talked – without any melodramatic regrets about the turns her life took  - would have greater impact on the reader.  Luckily, my editor agreed.

THE PROJECT 

Goa, The Last Hippie Bastion

The first group of hippies settled in Goa in the early 1960s.  Even today, many of the old-timers, some of them in their late seventies, camping in Goa for at least six months of the year. From Austria, Sweden, Europe and other assorted dots on the globe, they come to Goan beaches like Arambol and Anjuna, where the Flower Power era is still not lost as nostalgia.

I also supported this write-up with an audio-visual clip (URL: http://youtu.be/t-4Bal2QWmI) of the group singing songs by the beach on New Year’s Eve.

THE PROJECT 

Painting in Prison, For Art’s Sake

Fifteen convicts of the Aguada Central Jail in Goa, serving sentences ranging from assault to murders, took part in The Blue Shores Prison Art Project.

To meet my deadline, I got bureaucratic permissions to meet the convicts in a day (drove to and for around 55 miles on a bike to different bosses). Though the permission was just to talk with the group leader Jayaram, on behalf of the group he invited me inside the jail (the warden gave in) and proudly showed me around the jail, including the dining area, volleyball court, the studio, a small chapel and their living quarters.  I left the jail with a bunch of paintings and Thank-You cards as mementos. This is definitely my most fulfilling assignment till date.

THE PROJECT

My radio piece is a profile of an Indian immigrant, Srini, who was a paraplegic and lived at Goldwater Hospital, for about a third of his life. The hospital is a relatively unheard of city-owned nursing home and rehabilitation center on Roosevelt Island. In-spite of his disabilities, Srini’s started many programs to benefit patients. He was the [...]]]> Remembering Shrini, a leader in a hidden community in New York 

Ramaa Reddy Raghavan/ @ramaredraga

My radio piece is a profile of an Indian immigrant, Srini, who was a paraplegic and lived at Goldwater Hospital, for about a third of his life. The hospital is a relatively unheard of city-owned nursing home and rehabilitation center on Roosevelt Island. In-spite of his disabilities, Srini’s started many programs to benefit patients. He was the president of the hospital’s Resident Council, the Auxiliary and the Community Advisory Board. In each of these positions, Srini acted as a liaison between patients and the administration, sometimes fundraising to start programs to benefit patients, and at other times advising patients of changes in the healthcare system and in the hospital. For Srini, Goldwater became his home.

THE PROJECT

Live video creates a powerful real-time connection allowing viewers to get closer to a story. With connected mobile devices capable of streaming video across the globe, Stringwire is a service for news organizations to request video through Twitter, and eventually from a global network of verified contributors, or ‘stringers’.

These stringers provide live footage of breaking stories with direction from the [...]]]> Stringwire

Adam McCauley and Phil Groman

Live video creates a powerful real-time connection allowing viewers to get closer to a story. With connected mobile devices capable of streaming video across the globe, Stringwire is a service for news organizations to request video through Twitter, and eventually from a global network of verified contributors, or ‘stringers’.

These stringers provide live footage of breaking stories with direction from the requesting party, creating a greater level of audience engagement and wider perspective. For events and stories that have a real-time visual component, Stringwire offers dynamic content at low cost; and an agile, efficient method for news gathering and content generation.

 THE PROJECT

“Pakistan through a Foreign Lens” is an in-depth multimedia feature on how Pakistan is viewed by the international media- the strengths, the weaknesses, the challenges and the biases in reporting (if any). Since, Pakistan has been at the forefront of international headlines for the past decade, the manner in which the country is covered by the foreign media is often scrutinized and criticized. There is also [...]]]> Pakistan Through A Foreign Lens

Sarah Munir/ @SarahMunir1

“Pakistan through a Foreign Lens” is an in-depth multimedia feature on how Pakistan is viewed by the international media- the strengths, the weaknesses, the challenges and the biases in reporting (if any). Since, Pakistan has been at the forefront of international headlines for the past decade, the manner in which the country is covered by the foreign media is often scrutinized and criticized. There is also deep appreciation for those who put a lot at stake to come and report on the on-ground realities. The question this piece seeks to answer is whether the coverage of the country is fair, balanced and accurate? The print and video component contains the views of many seasoned foreign correspondents who have worked in the country, along with local journalists who cover the same stories. It also includes research on trends observed in major newspapers like The Guardian about the nature and number of stories emenating from the country in the past 10 years.

THE PROJECT

The story is about the undocumented student movement and the DREAM Act. The DREAM Act is a bill that would allow youth who came to the US at a young age and are now undocumented to work and attend school legally. The undocumented student movement has been the movement to get this act passed. It is lead by undocumented students who have come out [...]]]> Undocumented Students and the DREAM Act

By Helga Salinas/ @helga_salinas

The story is about the undocumented student movement and the DREAM Act. The DREAM Act is a bill that would allow youth who came to the US at a young age and are now undocumented to work and attend school legally. The undocumented student movement has been the movement to get this act passed. It is lead by undocumented students who have come out publicly about their statuses and their lives.

These students include those in the story: Tereza Lee, the so-called original DREAMer; Gaby Pacheco who lead the Trail of Dreams in 2010, and Julio Salgado who embraces the term ‘undocuqueer’ and blogs his artwork about the movement. Despite the DREAM Act being introduced in 2001, most of the social media campaign and coming out stories became visible in 2010.

The undocumented student movement is marked by the students telling their stories to public through tweets, blogs, vlogs, pictures, statuses, links, and art. To incorporate all of these elements, I wanted to design a web page that connected the dots between the story and social media, allowing the reader the choice to interact with them during the reading experience. I’ve also included a timeline to present the chronology of the movement, which is also another place to include the YouTube links, articles, tweets, hashtags, etc.

HOW IT’S MADE
 

http://twitter.com/Cooperintnews

The conventional wisdom in newsrooms is that international reporting is in decline. The economic model that has sustained American journalism is broken. More and more overseas bureaus, which are costly to maintain and not necessarily necessary, are shutting down.

And anyone within the industry will tell you that [...]]]> New Global Journalism 

Sonia Paul, Jefferson Mok , Laurent Peter, Sana Beg, Hira Nafees Shah, Trevor Bach, Camilo Vargas, Sadef Alli Kully, Kathryn Brenzel , Coleen Jose , Katie Campo, Katherine Jacobsen , Ngozi Onuoha, Alexandra Katsoulis, Anastassia Smorodinskaya, Wenxiong Zhang, Ann Cooper

http://twitter.com/Cooperintnews

The conventional wisdom in newsrooms is that international reporting is in decline. The economic model that has sustained American journalism is broken. More and more overseas bureaus, which are costly to maintain and not necessarily necessary, are shutting down.

And anyone within the industry will tell you that journalism is not just facing a financial crisis, but an identity crisis as well. As technology continues to democratize news, the role of the journalist is changing just as the definition of journalism is changing. YouTube videos, tweets, Weibo watchers, freelancers, activists, bloggers, social media editors, citizen journalists — these names and more are part of the new international news landscape. What does their presence signify for foreign affairs reporting and understanding?

Under the guidance of Prof. Ann Cooper, the students in her International Newsroom course are probing this very question by undertaking a class project that examines these trends from four different regions of the world: China, Syria, Mexico and Ethiopia. These are places where people have chosen, for one reason or another, not to rely on traditional news sources. The reporting techniques vary from country to country, but they all indicate that we are in a new age of global journalism.

THE PROJECT • HOW ITS MADE

As a continent, Africa has in recent history been associated with war, poverty, famine and corruption. While post-independence Africa has faced a variety of challenges, the stereotypes fail to capture the complexity and diversity of the continent. By looking at refugees we can learn a lot about the state of Africa as a whole. We can see when, on aggregate, there have been times of war and peace, and what [...]]]> Africahist

Anjli Parrin/@anjliparri, Yue Qiu/@YueQiu_Columbia

As a continent, Africa has in recent history been associated with war, poverty, famine and corruption. While post-independence Africa has faced a variety of challenges, the stereotypes fail to capture the complexity and diversity of the continent. By looking at refugees we can learn a lot about the state of Africa as a whole. We can see when, on aggregate, there have been times of war and peace, and what major events have shaped the continent since most countries gained independence in the early 1960s.We will chart the total flow of refugees over time across the continent, creating a visualization showing where they are coming from and going to. This way we will paint a picture of the involuntary movement of persons in Africa. In addition, we have divided Africa into 5 sub-regions, and will create visualizations for each of these areas showing in more detail the movement of refugees across borders. We will create these pictures for 1981 and 2011, so that we can compare the change over time.

However, the story of modern-day Africa is also one of post-colonialism, and by looking at the non-African countries that the most refugees went to, we can begin to understand the contemporary nature of colonizer-colony relationships. Therefore, for every instance that more than 10,000 refugees in a country went to a non-African country in a year, we will chart the flow of refugees out since 1975, looking at the ebbs and peaks of the movement of persons between the two states. We will compare this with conflict data, to try to understand how the imperial experiences may have been different between say, Britain and France, and how states interact in times of crisis.

HOW IT’S MADE