The Scoop

The job cuts at the Washington Post on Friday have produced a round of comments, broadly summed up by Steve Yelvington earlier today. They certainly begged the question that occurred to me as a former employee of both the Post and WPNI, its soon-to-be merged online operation: “What explains this kind of decision?” First, let [...]

Update: Duke’s Sarah Cohen responds in the comments. The intriguing title of a recent report from scholars at Duke is “Accountability Through Algorithm: Developing the Field of Computational Journalism“. Semi-related to CAR, Computational Journalism is defined as “the combination of algorithms, data, and knowledge from the social sciences to supplement the accountability function of journalism.” [...]

Innovation. We’re told over and over (often by people who don’t actually do much more than talk, but that’s another story) that our industry needs it. So, you ask, how I can get me some of that innovation stuff? In my experience, there’s only so much that a single person (or a small group of [...]

It’s good to see recent writings on the importance of training and skill development for journalists. One of the common responses to such entreaties is exemplified in this comment, which includes this plea: “I understand the need to bolster one’s skill set. But what happened to the days when we actually, you know, worried about [...]

I’ve been at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University since last week, talking to faculty members about using data management and analysis tools (spreadsheets, databases, mapping) in their courses. When they asked me to provide some training on Excel and Access, I agreed, but asked for the chance to make a case for [...]