Our 2020-21 Magic Grant Documenting COVID-19 began as a 2019-2020 Magic Grant that shifted its focus to reporting on how local governments were responding to the Covid-19 pandemic. The team has continued its work, issuing targeted Freedom of Information Act requests to build a nationwide repository of Covid-19 related emails between city, county, and state
AuthorJuan Saldarriaga
2020-21 Magic Grant Profile: Wolf Pack
Our 2020-21 Magic Grant Wolf Pack examines for the first time how media coverage of criminal justice helped turn the United States into the most incarcerated country in the world. In collaboration with data scientists at both Stanford and Columbia, the team is preparing a database of national and local media coverage of criminal justice
2020-21 Magic Grant Profile: Leitmotif
Our 2020-21 Magic Grant Leitmotif: Location-Driven Audio Storytelling uses geolocation to deliver dynamic audio storytelling and connect users to stories of people, places, and things they walk by. The team is creating software to enable the generation of location-specific audio stories and a paired smartphone application to allow users to consume audio content. Through this
How Journalists are Working with Maternal Figures – Three Stories Produced with the Support of the Reporting Grants
Ambulance services in Sokoto, a mobile app for midwives in Benue, and how Cross River can support traditional birth attendants. The most challenging aspect of building the Maternal Figures database was finding information about maternal health interventions implemented in Nigeria over the last three decades. Government-funded programs were often abandoned between administrations, some donors didn’t
2020-21 Magic Grant Profile: Improving Remote Learning via Hierarchical Decomposition of Instructional Videos
Improving Remote Learning via Hierarchical Decomposition of Instructional Videos – one of our 2020-21 Magic Grants – aims to facilitate the creation of instructional videos with logical navigation. To do this, the team is using algorithms that automatically learn shared action steps from videos across different tasks. With this knowledge, the team is finding a
2020-21 Magic Grant Profile: Local Live(s)
Our 2020-21 Magic Grant Local Live(s) organizes and hosts live events – virtually for now – with journalists telling the stories behind their reporting. Through these events, the bi-coastal team seeks to create a dialogue between reporters in local news organizations and the communities they serve. Ultimately, the Local Live(s) project wants to establish a
The burden of malaria among pregnant women in Nigeria – an update on the reporting grants from Maternal Figures
Data shows that malaria accounts for 11% of maternal deaths in Nigeria. While it is not the lion’s share of the factors that contribute to maternal deaths, it is a significant one. In a story supported by the Maternal Figures Solutions Journalism Fellowship funded by The Brown Institute for Media Innovation, Premium Times reporter Chiamaka
Local Live(s) – Innovative Storytelling Connecting Journalists and Communities
Crystal Niebla, a reporter from the Long Beach Post, looked through the camera lens and into the homes of people she served. She was recounting a story she reported, about a violent mugging in the Washington neighborhood of Long Beach where she used to live. As the story progressed, Crystal peeled back the layers of
Superpredator: The Media Myth That Demonized a Generation of Black Youth
Our 2020-21 Magic Grant Wolf Pack has published its first piece — a deep dive into the invention of the term “superpredator”. The team “found nearly 300 uses of ‘superpredator’ in 40 leading newspapers and magazines from 1995 to 2000. Fewer than 40% of these articles criticized the term.” As Carroll Bogert and LynNell Hankock