Product

Story for You

Writing stories for people who don’t want to read them

Studies have shown that people on opposing sides of political issues use fundamentally different language to discuss their views. One of the effects of this is that people living in News Filter Bubbles can immediately notice and then discard stories that use the terms associated with their opposition.

In this project, we will look at how terms from within one bubble can be identified, extracted and then applied to stories from outside that bubble. The resulting stories could then be crafted to use those terms to make the stories readable to those readers who would never be inclined to look at them at all.

Faculty and Staff Leads

Kris Hammond

Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Prior to joining the faculty at Northwestern, Kris founded the University of Chicago’s Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. His research has been primarily focused on artificial intelligence, machine-generated content and context-driven information systems. Kris currently sits on a United Nations policy committee run by the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR). He received his PhD from Yale.

Project Details

2018 Fall

Important Questions
  • How mindful should journalists be in choosing language that is appealing and accessible to the broadest audience?
  • Is there a point at which accommodating language undermines facts?
  • How can we change the way in which ideas are conveyed while still maintaining the facts at their core?
  • What shorthand do we use that prevents us from actually interrogating important issues?
Outcome

Students will build a tool to help craft stories that can pierce existing news filter bubbles.

Links