This post is part of a series of profiles of our current 2019-20 Magic Grants. It gives us an opportunity to brag about the great work being done by our grantees, and also to encourage you to consider applying for one of next year’s grants! Funding could start as early as July 1, depending on
CategoryProject Updates
2019-20 Magic Grant Profile: Stories as Programs
Among the projects funded as 2019-20 Magic Grants is a novel technology for teaching “computational thinking.” With their grant, Griffin Dietz and Elizabeth Murnane, computer scientists based in Stanford, are producing A Voice Based Interface for Storytelling and Programming in Early Elementary Years — a voice assistant-style application that teaches elementary school students the basics
Voces Silenciadas, the Podcast of Democracy Fighters, Launches
Today, the Democracy Fighters Magic Grant is proud to announce the launch of Voces Silenciadas (Silenced Voices, in English), the projects podcast. The project can be listened to on the Democracy Fighters website or on Spotify. Each episode of this non-fiction documentary tells the story of a journalist killed in Mexico. Through their life stories, the
A 2018-19 Magic Grant Profile
By Alex Calderwood. In 2008, Noya Kohavi found herself employed as a reporter for the Israeli fashion magazine Signon. She got the job “by accident,” after signing on to write profiles for them. “It was really fun, but I didn’t know anything about fashion,” she says. When Kohavi was assigned a story — Spring trends
A 2018-19 Magic Grant Profile
By Alex Calderwood. One hundred journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000. These journalists were mostly investigating cartel activity and corruption in the Mexican government, and they were explicitly targeted for their reporting. Yet, according to a report by The Committee to Protect Journalists, “the Mexican government has only intermittently recognized anti-press violence as
A 2018-19 Magic Grant Profile
By Alex Calderwood. You’re browsing Instagram and you see someone wearing a winter coat that speaks to you. You comment on the post and ask “Love the jacket, what kind is it?.” A few minutes later, the poster responds “Canada Goose, obviously.” You remember something about the brand and other designer clothes being banned from
‘Hacking Voter Suppression’ Project Begins
For the 2018-19 Magic Grant Season, the Brown Institute at Columbia is funding Hacking Voter Suppression, a project by Columbia Journalism School Professor June Cross and Charlotte Braithwaite, a Theater Director and Assistant Professor of Music and Theater Arts at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The project seeks to explore how foreign interference, gerrymandering, and
Canners NYC Launches on Gothamist, WNYC
The Brown Institute is proud to announce the launch of the project Canners NYC, an immersive multimedia experience in the world of canners, people who pick up cans and bottles on the streets. Journalist Francesca Berardi spent a year conducting oral history interviews, tracking paths, collecting data, making drawings and occasionally picking cans, in order
Brown and the UN-DESA Stat Division launch Data Storytelling CfP
The Columbia Journalism School’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation in collaboration with UN-DESA’s Statistics Division is pleased to announce a call for project proposals on data storytelling, aimed at nurturing new collaborations between national statistics systems (NSSs), including national statistical offices (NSOs), and journalism outlets. Proposals are due 20 July 2018, and winners will be