The Brown Institute is pleased to announce our Magic Grant project ‘Documenting COVID-19‘ has received the 2021 Sunshine Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. This is the project’s fourth major prize, following similar awards from The First Amendment Coalition, the Brechner Center for Freedom of Information, and the Los Angeles Press Club’s Charles Rappleye
AuthorJuan Saldarriaga
Live Storytelling Events for Newsrooms
If you are a newsroom thinking about running a live event, you can now apply to partner with our newest Impact Grant – and former Magic Grant – Local Live(s). Local Live(s) is a project by Back Pocket Media funded through an Impact Grant from the Brown Institute for Media Innovation. The goal of Local Live(s) is to
2020-21 Magic Grant Profile: Self-Moderating Online Focus Groups and Deliberation
Our 2020-21 Magic Grant Self-Moderating Online Focus Groups and Deliberation is building a tool for better online deliberation. Through an automated moderator that provides equitable, respectful, and constructive conversation the team behind this grant aims to support deliberative democracy, developing a scalable online platform that addresses current challenges such a small group who dominates the
2020-21 Magic Grant Profile: Documenting COVID-19
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
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