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
CategoryProject Updates
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
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
Announcing ‘Points Unknown 2021’ at Columbia
News unfolds in places and every newsworthy event is shaped by the details of location. Those details might include the specifics of a neighborhood as it is today or of the history leading to its current configurations. Alongside the development of web technologies, journalistic organizations have incorporated web-based maps to enhance reader engagement with stories.
The Brown Institute, Lenfest Local Lab and Philadelphia Inquirer are partnering to build content audit tools
Our collaborative project won the Google GNI Innovation Challenge, securing $300,000 to build and test machine learning-based tools that help newsrooms analyze equity and representation in their work at scale. Editor’s note: This post was co-written and edited by Michael Krisch, Deputy Director of the Brown Institute; Sarah Schmalbach, Product Director of the Lenfest Local
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