Zach Wise

AI Art Generation for Journalism

Tools like Stable Diffusion and Midjourney are shaking up the art world in large part because they are accessible for almost anyone to use. The limits of what they can create is still being tested. Many journalism articles lack visuals which are essential in today's platform centric media landscape. A tool to automagically generate art for many of those articles could help smaller newsrooms without a budget for visuals (art/photography).

AI Editorial Model Training

This research project focuses on improving the fairness, diversity, and quality of AI-generated images by training models to produce unbiased representations of individuals across various professions. The study explores challenges in generating fair and balanced depictions of workers, particularly in roles such as construction, fast food, and social work, where biases in gender representation and artistic styles were prevalent. Key objectives include refining captioning strategies to reduce bias, enhancing the diversity of training data, and addressing technical limitations that influence image generation quality. The research employs tools like IP Adapter to mask or modify biased features in generated images, while also leveraging negative prompting to guide the model toward more cohesive and unbiased outputs. The findings highlight significant progress in mitigating biases but also reveal ongoing challenges, such as the subjective nature of defining "unbiased" outcomes and the persistent influence of artistic styles and language prompts on image generation. This research underscores the importance of iterative testing, diverse datasets, and advanced tools to develop AI models capable of producing fair and inclusive representations across professions. This project serves as a foundation for future work aimed at improving AI's ability to generate equitable and realistic depictions of individuals in various roles, ultimately contributing to more inclusive and unbiased applications of AI technology.

AI Influencer driven TikTok Stories

This project will continue our work in using AI to create Tik Tok videos from articles. We have created AI personalities complete with voices that can take news articles and turn them into video scripts that fit their personalities. This project will build on the progress of previous teams in creating useful tools and methods for turning text articles into visual storytelling for social media including refining the output of TikTok videos and exploring other social media outputs.

Resurrecting History for VR

Automated Photogrammetry. As AR and VR increasingly becomes the focus as we move away from smartphones, media organizations will have to find ways to produce content native to those mediums. These same organizations have a wealth of stories that continue to have value over time. Flat video and photo will become less desirable as we continue to move into these new spaces. Previous projects in the lab have surfaced an opportunity to take existing video and process it using photogrammetry software to produce a 3D model.

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.

Democratizing and Decentralizing News MediaExploring how DAOs might help Journalism with diversity and representation

Traditional, centralized news organizations are failing the emerging majority of Americans. The current average age of cable news viewers is 60 and the racial diversity of newsrooms has not budged since the 1970s. Yet most Americans are now under the age of 40 and members of either the Millennial or Z generations, the two most heterogeneous in American history. — Imara Jones

What do Bitcoin, democracy and journalism have in common? Not much at the moment, but as blockchain technology is really taking off and decentralizing power in finance, the potential application of those models and tools in other industries and governments is getting a lot of people excited. The concept of programmed organization and rules has people excited about how that can be used to curb bias and create more reflective representation and allow a diversity of voices to help drive the organization. The idea of DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) is still a utopian dream at the moment but the idea is catching fire in finance and government operations. We think journalism should be one of the early use-cases as the idea and technology develops. Even if it addresses just a fraction of the systemic inequity we see in our industry today, it would have been worth it.

Crypto Media

For all the good we’ve achieved, the web has evolved into an engine of inequity and division; swayed by powerful forces who use it for their own agendas. — Internet pioneer Tim Berners-Lee What do Bitcoin, security and journalism have in common? Not much at the moment, but as Web3 and smart contracts on blockchains are starting to take off and decentralize power in finance, their application in other industries and governments is getting a lot of people excited.

NFT FTWExploring NFTs for Journalism

You may have heard of NFTs. You may even know that NFT stands for Non-fungible token. Most of the hype around these digital assets is in the digital art market, but Time Magazine, The New York Times and others have sold NFTs of their articles and photographs. The New York Times Buy This Column in the Blockchain! originally sold for 350 Ether, which is around $1.5 Million dollars at the time this description is being written. The Associated Press's collection of 24,000 Unique Moments NFTs sold out in just over one minute! The demand from collectors is there. This project seeks to explore how NFT digital assets can leverage assets from other types of news organizations: quite literally proving the value of journalism. There's a lot to be excited about here.

Newsletters, Publishing and the Future of Web3Exploring NFT subscription models

You may have heard of NFTs. You may even know that NFT stands for Non-fungible token. Most of the hype around these digital assets is in the digital art market, but Time Magazine, The New York Times and others have sold NFTs of their articles and photographs.

Data Streaming

Automated live streaming data dashboards and curated video mosaics of other live streams have become popular on platforms like Twitch. Stock checkers, inventory checkers and multi-streams of protests have all done well on Twitch. They inform their niche audience with real-time data and video in a way that other journalism organizations can’t. What other types of streaming data might meet the needs of an audience on Twitch? For this project, a team of students will research and identify real-time data sources that could meet the needs of a potential audience. The team will then build a dashboard using web technologies that could be streamed to Twitch. Some collaboration with the Live Streaming the News project will occur throughout the quarter in an effort to find the right audience for the stream and foster a community.

Environmental Reporting with Sensors

Sensor journalism uses sensors to collect information about our environment. It opens new possibilities for journalists enabling them to collect and process data that might not be available or at a level of detail not previously available.

Augmented Reality Visualizations

An experimental design project that explores visualizing data in three dimensions for augmented reality. Visualizations that can be examined and inspected by physically getting closer or understood by walking around them, open up exciting possibilities for how we communicate complex ideas and data that reveals hidden truths.

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!

Storytelling with GIFsFacilitate simple visual social sharing.

This project will build upon prototypes and research conducted in the Fall 2019 Studio class, but participation is open to any interested student. As the open-web continues to die, storytellers need tools that help them create sharable artifacts suitable for a variety of social networks and platforms. Brevity and portability are of the utmost importance. This project is concerned with designing a tool that allows novice storytellers to create simple 5 frame (5 images) GIFS that when combined with text for the post, are sharable on a variety of platforms and social networks. This iteration of the project will be focused on UX and UI design and building a sustainable application for the creation of visual stories saved in the GIF file format.

Information Spaces in AR/VR

An experimental design project that explores an emerging concept of information spaces. This concept is behind Microsoft’s pivot to create future Windows operating systems that exist in mixed reality headsets. Students will explore the concept of a news/information app that exists in AR and/or VR. For example, a political news feed might exist on a wall in your living room, and breaking news would appear on a coffee table, twitter reactions surround the coffee table on the floor. Students will also explore the same concept in a virtual environment.

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.

Live Streaming the NewsExploring opportunities on livestreaming platforms

Platforms like Twitch are growing audience at break-neck speed thanks in part to covid lockdowns. But we haven’t seen as much interest among most news organizations. When we do see legacy news organizations streaming to places like Twitch or YouTube live, they simply stream their broadcast instead of creating native content that allows user engagement. The form tends to be much more casual and success tends to come from interacting with the audience to a degree we rarely see from a news organization.

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.

Navigating Virtual Reality

Though many in journalism are excited about VR, few are addressing real issues with making it attractive and interactive for their audience. This story team will explore the idea of making multiple three-dimensional VR photos around a scene and linking them together so that the user can navigate it. They’ll be exploring complex VR design challenges, such as how to move around space without disorienting the user and how to easily author interactive environments.

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.

OscillationsImmersive Virtual Experiences in the Performing Arts

Advancements in neuroscience and immersive technologies offer mechanisms for engineering an entirely new mode of performance art one that engages audiences to unprecedented degree. Using the latest VR production techniques, students used motion capture and machine learning to teach a computer to improvise a performance, creating an engaging VR experience.

Photojournalism in 3D for VR and Beyond

In this project, students will use modern approaches to making 3D images both with hardware and software processing.

Podcast Discoverability

The podcasting landscape is overcrowded, with larger voices from legacy broadcast media sometimes drowning out new entrants. Browsing for new-to-you, quality podcasts is hard, with shows scattered across distribution platforms. This team will explore how we might provide users a better path to discovering new podcasts.

Privacy Mirror

The average person today that has a smartphone, walks around leaking information about themselves over radio signals. WiFi, bluetooth and NFC radiate personal information into the public airwaves. These signals can tell you a lot about a person without their knowledge. To raise awareness around privacy and security for digital devices, this project will seek to create a “mirror” that reflects back information that is radiating out from anyone who stands in front of it. Frequencies include: RFID cell phones, WiFi, bluetooth, Misc RF at 900Mhz 2.4Ghz 5Ghz

Projection MappingSpatial Augmented Reality

Imagine that any wall, building floor or doorway could come alive and tell stories. Using projection mapping, many artists, advertisers and industries are already doing it. In this project, students will explore ways in which projection mapping is currently being used and adapt them for journalistic purposes. Students will build and prototype their adaptations.

Smarter News

How might we better understand how to reach our audience, delivering the right news at the right moment, or for the right mood, or for the right amount of time?

Storyline: Charts that tell stories.

One of the most common problems we see in data storytelling is how and when to introduce an editorial layer onto a visualization. Mobile devices afford us very little real estate to work with, and interactivity must be limited. But without a “story” layer, users are left without the context to understand what events might impact or inform a trend. They see something going up or down but don’t see why. “Storyline” will be a tool for creating stories around line graphs.

Storytelling Layers on 360 Video

In this project, students will film 360 video and explore the best ways to add on that additional layer; students will finish the quarter with two videos, and will document their findings to make their storytelling methods more accessible to others.

Design Research in Youth MediaExploring opportunities for local news

As local news sources dwindle there is one group of reporters in every community that continue to keep journalism alive: high school students. High School news and newspapers are the only source of news in many news deserts. They are also important for education in media literacy and the first exposure many people have to what journalism is. Many high school publications rely on free repurposed systems and content management systems to publish their work. They are often presented in forms that are different from their peers' typical media habits. There's an opportunity here to make high school journalism more relevant to not only youth in schools but also to their parents and communities.

Zach Wise

Projects