It's been said: “Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to see them being made.” Nevertheless, it falls to political journalists to keep tabs on the activities of legislatures that are churning out a stream of bills every session. Is there a way to apply large language model AI systems to help journalists keep up with the action and zero in on potential stories?
Joe Germuska
Chief Nerd
Joe runs Knight Lab’s technology, professional staff and student fellows. Before joining us, Joe was on the Chicago Tribune News Apps team. He is the founder of CensusReporter.org, and a proud board member of City Bureau.
Projects
Projects Joe Germuska has worked on.
Journalism AI Readiness Scorecard
Artificial intelligence (AI) drives innovation at news organizations around the world. Journalists use algorithms to find patterns in data to inform investigations and identify breaking news. Automation enables more efficient news production. AI helps drive subscriptions and personalize news for consumers. Yet AI advantages are largely limited to larger, national and international media. Many small, locally focused newsrooms lack the resources and skills to understand the potential of AI and are afraid to commit to experiments without a clear payoff.
The Knight Foundation has funded an initiative to help local news organizations expand their use of AI, harnessing it for long-term sustainability. As part of this effort, The Associated Press and the Knight Lab are developing a scorecard for AI newsroom readiness. The benchmark will help news organizations determine whether they are ready to implement AI systems.
In this Knight Lab Studio project, students will work with AP’s technology leaders and Knight Lab to develop a framework for testing and assessing a newsroom's AI readiness. This includes researching best practices, interviewing those news outlets already using AI, and those who wish to. It also includes evaluating and recommending effective product designs for the scorecard to maximize its usage and performance.
Coding skills are not required to participate in this project.
Audience Engagement and Onboarding with Hearken
Students are working closely with the team at Hearken, and are gaining valuable insights into how important audience engagement is to our media landscape.
Cape to CairoCurating a Transcontinental Collection
In 1953, Lydia Luhman Pederson, a resident of Caledonia, Illinois, traveled from Cape Town, South Africa to Cairo.
Along her transcontinental journey, Pederson shot movies, crafted a photo album scrapbook, and collected one-of-a-kind objects that are currently housed in the Herskovits Library of African Studies at Northwestern University. The Herskovits Library seeks to create a digital exhibition integrating emerging and engaging technologies to animate these objects and media.
Civic Engagement with City Bureau
As local news organizations shrink, many civic advocates fear that no one will be monitoring the day-to-day processes that make city governments run. As part of their innovative approach to closing news gaps and promoting civic engagement, Chicago’s City Bureau has developed their “Documenters” program to train citizens to observe and record public meetings. As they develop this team of citizen journalists, they are now considering the complementary question: what is the most effective way to make the work they produce available and useful to Chicagoans?
For this project, the Northwestern student team will conduct design research and prototyping to explore solutions. Students will be expected to be in close contact with City Bureau’s team, with current documenters, and with engaged citizens who want to stay informed about what’s happening at the heart of these civic processes. Students should be prepared to go out into Chicago to meet with these people face to face for interviews, observations, and prototype testing.
Coding for JournalismMake meaningful contributions to open source
Did you know that people working in news organizations have created or contributed to some of the most popular open source software in the world? Among others, the Django content management system was developed at the Lawrence Journal-World, and the creator of D3.js worked at the New York Times for several years. News organizations have constrained budgets to purchase commercial software, and also often need control over the code they use, so building with open source tools is key.
Creative Co-Author
Creative Co-author is a creative writing enhancement tool that focuses primarily on pounding out the first draft. It is type-ahead cranked up to eleven. It types ahead, lurks behind, and generally peers over your shoulder while you pound out words in a speed-draft writing reverie.
Crowdsourcing for JournalismMany hands make short work, crowdsourcing document interpretation
Many important news stories are buried amidst huge numbers of documents. And sometimes, those documents are hard for news organizations to process, either because of the sheer number, or the formats in which the documents are published.
Da Concierge!Developing a chatbot to support Chicago tourism
Chicago is a big city. And for many visitors, Chicago is the big city. Whether it’s for work or pleasure, when visitors travel to Chicago it means figuring out how to experience a city that’s both large and diverse. That can make it challenging for visitors to discover and enjoy all of Chicago’s unique neighborhoods and experiences. For this Knight Lab Studio project, students will partner with Choose Chicago (the official destination marketing organization for Chicago) to develop and deliver a conversational A.I. (“chatbot”) with a distinct and memorable personality that helps visitors find and experience more of Chicago.
Journalistic Diversity Dashboard
In recent years, much attention has been drawn to the social and cultural identities of journalists, and the ways in which those identities are often quite different from those of the audiences those journalists cover. From race and gender to education level and economic class, audiences and even the news organizations are looking for data to help them put stories into perspective. For this project, students will focus on the design of a system which could help track and convey this information. They will research how underrepresented communities perceive different news organizations as well as what people in the field of journalism have already been exploring in this area. They will identify key identity types or other traits that advance this understanding; they will explore what it would take to gather and sustain a database like this; and, they will explore and test multiple data visualization concepts to see which are the most effective for making sense of the data. If students identify promising paths to building and sustaining a tool like this, Knight Lab is interested in the future possibility of developing this into an ongoing public project.
Speed Reading RobotsPowering up City Bureau's Documenters Program
Local governments hold a lot of meetings which are meant to allow the public to observe and comment on policy and legislation. But local news organizations are cutting back and often can’t cover them. Chicago’s City Bureau has developed a program called Documenters, which trains citizens and pays them to cover those meetings. Along the way, they have developed software which grabs not just the schedule of these meetings but the agendas, handouts, and other documents -- documents which may have important information about future plans and laws, but which usually go unread.
Exploring AI-Powered Local Newsrooms
Generative AI is transforming all kinds of industries, including local news. Newsrooms need to know what tools to trust, how best to use them, and what they might cost. Automation can aid writers, create images, detect patterns in data, identify potential news events, promote content, convert articles to email newsletters and much more. Local news needs a playbook for automation.
What's next for Social Media?
After many years of flying high, public sentiment around social media in general, and specifically around certain platforms has turned sour. A 2020 Pew Research Survey found that nearly two-thirds of Americans believe that social media has a mostly negative effect on the way things are going in this country. In a recent article on the Columbia Journalism Review, Sarah Grevy Gotfredsen wrote “When Elon Musk completed his $44 billion purchase of Twitter last year, journalists around the world looked on in alarm,” and those fears earned credence weeks later when Musk banned journalists who criticized him from Twitter.
Fact FlowEfficiency for editing. Credibility and trust for publishing
Editorial fact-checking is a mess at best and readers don't see the benefits. Typically they doubt it happens or don't appreciate the work it takes to make it happen. On the editing side, almost everyone who does it uses an antiquated process derived from print production habits even though most writers and editors are drafting in Google Docs. This can be better. Let's make it better for both editorial and readers!
Follow the MoneyTracking Local Campaign Finance
Each year, political campaigns break records for money raised and spent. Where does all that money come from? Who’s giving it? What are their interests in supporting any given candidate? Researching these questions has become a key part of national political coverage, and between the Federal Election Commission and various public interest organizations, basic access to campaign finance data is well understood. Things are much different for state and local elections. Reporting regulations vary considerably from state to state, and local news organizations are often short of the resources required to deal with the complexity of even gathering contribution data, let alone analyzing it.
Tinder for Freelancers
Freelance journalists struggle to connect with editors, land assignments and establish steady cash flow. Meanwhile, news organizations need freelancers with diverse experiences and subject matter expertise to contribute a broad array of articles, photographs and other content. The Center for Independent Journalists (The CIJ) launched in September 2021 aiming to bridge the gap between these groups by providing support, community, education, tools and advocacy to freelancers and by offering editors access to a diverse group of independent journalists. For this project, the team will seek to better understand the barriers of information, trust and communication that prevent editors from hiring diverse freelancers -- which ultimately often ends up pushing freelancers of color out of the field. In consultation with the Center for Independent Journalists, students on this project will conduct design research and develop concepts and prototypes of a matching system which may inform future development by the CIJ.
Historical Census Data
Census Reporter is a tool that helps journalists find and understand data from the US Census American Community Survey (ACS), making that data much more easily accessible and digestible. However, it only presents data from the most recent ACS releases.
Journalism and Democracy AppliedProviding context to government and politics reporting
Many newsrooms crank out a steady flow of government and politics stories. Behind the daily stories is a lot of history and context. How might newsrooms better organize their publishing to provide this background information? How should that background information be organized to support the casual audience who is trying to catch up? How should it be organized to serve the “political junkies” who want to see how all of the pieces connect?
Journalism and Democracy beyond the ElectionWhat comes next?
After what seems like a never-ending election season, many folks are ready to think about anything else. On the other hand, millions of people are activated and ready to be more civically engaged. Traditional journalistic work mostly proceeds as though there’s nothing to do until the next time the polls open, but is that all there is? Meanwhile, activist organizations and social media users often don’t worry so much about facts and fairness. For this Knight Lab Studio project, we’ll conduct a broad design research study, looking for “civic media” opportunities which adapt and evolve journalism’s traditional role in supporting democratic society in light of how information systems really work today.
JuxtaposeImproving a Storytelling Tool
Juxtapose helps storytellers compare two pieces of similar media, including photos, and GIFs. It’s ideal for highlighting then/now stories that explain slow changes over time (growth of a city skyline, regrowth of a forest, etc.) or before/after stories that show the impact of single dramatic events (natural disasters, protests, wars, etc.). This popular tool could be more useful to storytellers and web-makers if it had a couple of key features that have come up in user feedback. Auto aligning images and animated GIF social sharing are two features that would be of great improvements.
LATINEXTHighlighting Chicago’s Rising Latinx Voices
The Chicago Reporter and Univision Chicago have teamed up to create LATINEXT: a first-of-its-kind cross-platform news team to engage and address the information needs of the 2.1 million strong Latinx community in the Chicago region. This project is radically rethinking the relationship between the newsroom and the audience, “putting the service back in public service journalism.” For this Knight Lab Studio project, students will: conduct design research about the needs of this audience; help LATINEXT prepare to responsibly involve the community in the journalism process; and, propose a near-term roadmap for developing the project further.
Legislator Tracker
Since the last elections, public interest in contacting elected representatives about legislation under consideration has boomed. News organizations could do better addressing the public's interest in understanding how their representatives are planning to vote on various issues.
Design Research in Local Newsrooms
It’s hard to run a local news organization. Advertising dollars have been siphoned away by social media platforms; audiences have many more choices of where to spend their attention and their money. These times call for creative thinking and reassessment of how local news organizations spend their energy and money.
Imagining Magazines in the 21st Century
Today’s media environment is crowded with too much information. Mysterious algorithms exert tremendous control over what many people consume, and unexpected changes to how those algorithms work can upend the income for content publishers, whether they are individuals, collectives, or companies. How might ideas from the heyday of magazine publishing suggest new sustainable models for connecting creators and consumers? Technology has changed—this isn’t necessarily about ink on bundles of paper at a newsstand. It’s about the ideas of voice, perspective, and community that great magazines made manifest, adapted to the information and technology conditions of today.
Measuring Influence & Impact
The world is drowning in content. On Wordpress alone, 70 million posts are published per month. In an ocean of noise, how can you tell which ideas really resonate?
Metaverse Media
A year ago, the word “metaverse” was just a concept from a classic Science Fiction novel, but since then, it has leapt into the public conversation. But what does “metaverse” really mean? And how might the metaverse (or some metaverses) impact, or provide opportunities for journalism?
Music Magazine
Music fans today have trouble finding the stories they want to read. Following all your favorite artists on social media is overwhelming, and searching Google turns up page after page of irrelevant junk. We'll build a system that finds just what a fan wants to read.
New to TownRethinking News Audience Needs
When people move to a new community, they have a million questions about their new home. Meanwhile, news organizations serving that community have an interest in “meeting” those new people and converting them into subscribers. The Indianpolis (“Indy”) Star, one of Medill’s Local News Initiative partners has identified this as an opportunity in their coverage area. This project provides the opportunity to work on a real challenge in media innovation and product development. Students will research the needs of newcomers to the Indianapolis metro area and prototype a service to meet those needs. This work will be done in consultation with the Indy Star, with a goal of designing an experiment for them to execute later this year.
Open Data Reporter
“Open data" might be a buzzword, but there are still significant obstacles to taking advantage of valuable datasets. They can be hard to find, hard to clean, and hard to manage. Human-centered design and a little coding energy can make it substantially easier for people to find stories and explore data. This team will approach a high-value public data set and aim to make the data more usable.
Photo Bingo
Create a mobile application which could be used by a news organization to involve their audience in covering a festival while having fun.
ProPublica Illinois
Students will design, develop, prototype and test one tool for community engagement, with a likely focus on the listening and information gathering stage.
Public Storytelling with Augmented Reality
This Knight Lab project explores the power of Augmented Reality (AR) for public storytelling. Participating students will collaborate with conceptual artist, Bradley McCallum, to create an innovative exhibition that honors the life of freelance war correspondent James Wright Foley.
Rethinking Election Coverage
In the popular imagination of American democracy, the press informs voters so that they can make the best choice at the polls. However, many citizens feel as though that contract has been broken. People are frustrated with “horse-race coverage” of elections—that is, journalism focused more on who is “electable”, who is “winning” and the mechanics of campaigning than on policy and helping voters make the best choice. Rather than seeking a technology-first solution, this project proposes to begin with Jay Rosen’s suggestion that journalists ask "what do you want the candidates to be discussing as they compete for votes?" and work to make the coverage about that.
SidebarContext without Clutter
Publishing a story requires a constant balancing act: you have to get to your point, but you don’t always know whether your audience is fully up-to-speed on the content. Or maybe in your research you found some really fascinating information, but you have to admit it’s kind of a distraction from your main point. The web was developed on the promise of linking between documents, but too often a simple link fails -- it doesn’t give the reader much sense of what sort of information is at the end of the link, and it runs the risk of sending your audience off down a rabbit hole, never to return to your work.
Travellers’ TalesRe-imagining Travel Journalism
While quarantine has had most of us pretty home-bound, there’s no reason we can’t look ahead to the future. Travel journalism has always played a role in helping people learn about places to visit and prepare their journeys, but does it really “work” as well for the audience as it could? In this project, we’ll consider what people really need from travel journalism and how it could be made more useful for its audience.
Writing and Designing for Chatbots
Students will examine conversational user interfaces—that’s to say, using chat as a medium to interact with a bot.