By Alex Calderwood. Justin Hicks’ deep voice rolls through the microphone, sending blue light across the dark chamber like a waveform, illuminating on the table in front of me a half eaten piece of corn-on-the-cob and the faces of people who until a few minutes ago were strangers. The light reverbs-out with his voice, hinting
Thinking with Computation
“The purpose of computation is insight, not numbers.” Hamming, 1962. Fernando Perez, one of the creators of the Jupyter Notebook, began his talk at the Brown Institute Thursday with this quote from Richard Hamming’s book on algorithms. Fernando, or at least Jupyter, will be familiar to students in the Journalism School who have taken any
The Brown Institute Welcomes Prof. Fernando Perez
Thursday, May 9, Fernando Perez, a co-founder of Project Jupyter, will be the last speaker in our Distinguished Lecture Series in Computational Innovation. His team is responsible for the Jupyter notebook that we use throughout the Journalism School — from the Lede, to the Data MS, to the Dual Degree. It even finds its way
Announcing our 2019-20 Magic Grants!
The Brown Institute for Media Innovation, a collaboration between Columbia Journalism School and Stanford University’s School of Engineering, is pleased to announce its 2019-20 Magic Grant recipients. Each year, the Brown Institute awards $1M in grants and fellowships to foster new tools and modes of expression, and to create stories that escape the bounds of
Brown Institute Welcomes Technology Journalist Kara Swisher
On May 2, Brown welcomed technology journalist Kara Swisher, co-founder of Recode and a contributing writer to The New York Times Opinion Section. She previously wrote for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, and served as executive editor of All Things Digital. Swisher discussed the state of the technology industry and shared her perspectives on media trends
Nicholas Diakopoulos @ Stanford: “Automating the News: How Algorithms are Rewriting the News”
From hidden connections in big data to bots spreading fake news, journalism is increasingly computer generated. Nicholas Diakopoulos, an Assistant Professor at Northwestern University’s School of Communication, and an expert in computer science and media, discussed the present and future of journalism in a world in which news is created by algorithms. Here’s more from The Stanford
“Follower Factory” by NYT & CJS Comp Journalism Class is Finalist for Pulitzer Prize
On Monday, a package of stories including The Follower Factory — an in-depth investigation of purchased followers on twitter — along with other reporting on how Facebook and the big tech firms allowed the spread of misinformation and failed to protect consumer privacy, was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting. The Follower
Open Source Investigation
This post contains reports from two Columbia Journalism School students who attended Bellingcat’s five day Open Source / Digital Research Training Workshop, hosted by Graphika, Inc. The workshop taught students how to conduct investigations into online information sources such as social media feeds, satellite imagery, and user-generated videos. Bellingcat, founded by Eliot Higgins, is known for
Casting the Vote – An American Dinner Party
As part of the Hacking Voter Suppression 2018-2019 Magic Grant, Columbia Journalism School Professor June Cross and Charlotte Braithwaite, a Theater Director and Assistant Professor of Music and Theater Arts at MIT, will host Casting the Vote, An American Dinner Party. The event will take place on April 11, 12 & 13 at the MIT