@innovations | Washington Post on news innovation

WHEN I'M HANGING OUT WITH A BUNCH OF AWESOME LADYJOURNOS

Tue, 08 May 2012 17:55:11 -0400

Thank you Emi!!

This new Paul Ryan meme got us thinking about other political...

Wed, 02 May 2012 11:38:00 -0400

This new Paul Ryan meme got us thinking about other political Tumblrs. We’re looking for good ones that we may not have heard of. So, if you know of any, please share. We asked readers the same question on WashingtonPost.com:

Tumblr isn’t a household name in politics. Yet.

For those of you who don’t know what Tumblr is, it’s — basically — a new(ish) blogging platform that allows seamless sharing of videos, links, quotes and almost anything else you can find on the Internet. (Check out our music Tumblr — it’s called Sir Fix-A-Lot — for an example of what it looks like. SELF PROMOTION ALERT!)

And Tumblr is starting to catch on in the political world.

Take the Tumblr “Hey Girl It’s Paul Ryan” , which came to our attention today and hinges on the the Wisconsin Republican’s efforts to eliminate the deficit and imagines that Ryan — like heartthrob actor Ryan Gosling — is able to make women swoon.

Generic shots of Ryan are paired with lines like “Hey Girl, let’s move forward with our relationship… by cutting spending and putting our love on a path to prosperity.” (That “Hey Girl” line builds off of a Ryan Gosling Tumblr that took off in 2010.)

The (Paul) Ryan Tumblr comes on the heels of “Texts From Hillary”, a Tumblr so popular that President Obama joked about it during his White House Correspondents Dinner speech on Saturday night .

The Fix — ever in search of the next big thing in politics — wants to hear from our community. Do you have a favorite political Tumblr? Do you run a favorite political Tumblr? Make your suggestions in the comments section and we will round up the best of the best in a separate blog post later this week.

via Chris Cillizza and T.J. Ortenzi.

Knight News Challenge: Truth Teller

Fri, 16 Mar 2012 15:48:00 -0400

Knight News Challenge: Truth Teller :

newschallenge:

1. What do you propose to do? [20 words]

Truth Teller — a mobile and desktop news application that captures, analyzes and fact checks events and speeches as they happen.

2. Is anyone doing something like this now and how is your project different? [30 words]

Crowd-sourcing and fact-checking are not new. But doing both in real time, through existing social networks, is unprecedented and would profoundly alter what leaders say and what people know.

3. Describe the network with which you intend to build or work. [50 words]

The application would convert political speech to text that could be parsed in real time to determine semantic intent and context that would be compared to the news organization’s data and Wikipedia with an algorithm to determine a level of truth. The truth level of the speaker’s sentence would be displayed on the live video as soon as the sentenced finished with a link to access the data that determined the truth level. Reaction from Twitter would also be displayed.

4. Why will it work? [100 words]

One of the biggest complaints about political coverage is that it allows untruths to go unchecked. This instantly dices the rhetoric and calls out statements that do not reflect reality. News organizations attempt to do a lot of this now manually. This would be an instant value in the newsgathering space and also add a real-time journalism layer to the increased world of in-the-moment news productions. For the mobile app build, it is convenient, immediate, simple and sharable and would reach corners of the world where other live streams may not be available to be checked.

5. Who is working on it? [100 words]

A cross functional team at the Washington Post that could expand, if needed, with funding.

Cory Haik, Executive producer, news innovation

Steven Ginsberg, National Political editor

Yuri Victor, UX Director

TJ Orentzi, Senior social media editor

6. What part of the project have you already built? [100 words]

The Post currently has a strong fact-checking brand on our site (http://wapo.st/zQed5i), and we already do crowd-sourced fact-checking around live events (http://wapo.st/xPHG3S), though these are manual and not in real time. We have seen success with engagement on these productions. The Post is committed to stretching this into a real-time, crowd-sourced and programmatic entity.

7. How would you sustain the project after the funding expires? [50 words]

The Washington Post would use Truth Teller for its own production and reporting purposes and would sustain the infrastructure of the product. But it is also envisioned as a tool to help journalists and others improve democracy across the country, and we would distribute it as widely and cheaply as possible.

Requested amount from Knight News Challenge:

700K

Expected amount of time required to complete project:

Six months to a year

Total Project Cost:

1M

Name: Cory Haik

Twitter: @coryhaik

Organization: The Washington Post

Country: USA

We have an idea and we need your help to make it a reality. We want Knight to help fund a project that would take politicians’ rhetoric and fact-check it in real time.

To win funding from Knight, we need to prove that there’s an interest in the project. Help us prove that the truth matters (and that this project has potential) by reblogging this — and sending along your suggestions to make this project better.

@MentionMachine: A conversation with @CoryHaik

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 13:19:00 -0500

By Emi Kolawole

If you’ve been following the Post’s political coverage, you’ve probably come across @MentionMachine. The tool, which tracks mentions of the 2012 presidential candidates on Twitter and in the media generally, launched Tuesday and is the brainchild of Executive Producer Cory Haik.

I spoke with Haik Friday morning to discuss how @MentionMachine came to be and the impact it might have on election reporting.

“Well, we’d been talking about Twitter and the elections since I’d walked in the door of the Post,” said Haik, who started a little over a year ago as deputy editor of the Post’s Universal News Desk. She has since become Executive Producer for News Innovation and Strategic Projects.

Concepts can either fizzle or thrive depending on available resources. In this case, Haik had already chosen a name. “I feel like once you give something a name, it becomes a thing,” she said. “I squatted on the Twitter account long before it was even an official project, because I thought, ‘This thing’s gonna’ work.’”

After a series of memos, meetings, and presentations on a wash-rinse-and-repeat cycle, Haik started to bring newsroom resources to bear on the project, teaming up with Washington Post National Digital Editor Amanda Zamora, Developers Jesse Foltz and Sean McBride, Designer Katie Parker and PostPolitics Social Media Producer Natalie Jennings.

What resulted is a tool that is more complex than the otherwise simple menu bar would indicate. Click on a candidate and you can see how often they are mentioned on Twitter relative to other Republican primary candidates and President Obama.

But wait, there’s more.

“We keep talking about Twitter, but we’re also counting Trove,” said Haik of the Post-acquired company that brings in more than 10,000 publications, targeting them to users’ preferences. “So, that’s an awesome win there.”

Jennings reports on the @MentionMachine data regularly, mining it to help inform the Post’s journalism. ”The daily data is proving itself,” said Haik, “and doing that reporting is a big part of the machine. It’s not just the numbers.”

The @MentionMachine has a profanity filter, but tweets with profanity are counted among the candidates’ mentions. Try to get any more specific than that, and you run into what Haik calls “a special sauce” — the programming muscle that powers @MentionMachine. Haik says she and others refer to it as a combination of Twitter, her own unique innovations, and the execution engine Kangaroo.

Registered voters are not given preference, since @MentionMachine does not target those in the U.S. or provide U.S. geotagged tweets any additional weight. @MentionMachine does, however, feature “Top Tweets” — or tweets that are considered to be driving the conversation about a particular candidate at the given moment. “We have a very unique formula algorithm for top tweets, it’s not just retweets,” said Haik, emphasizing that there are safeguards in place against individuals trying to game the system.

“We’re making sure that our top tweets are tweets that are driving the conversation,” she continued, “So, the point is we’re trying to show people exactly where people are spiking and when.”

The Post is not the only organization trying to mine what has come to be known as “big data” when it comes to the 2012 election. CNN debuted a similar Twitter tracking tool on Iowa caucus night, and other Web sites are drawing from the Twitter API data pipeline as well. Regardless of what others are doing, Haik said she’s confident that @MentionMachine has carved a unique place for itself as a transparent tool able to provide journalistic value. “We tried to make the machine programatically do some journalism for us,” she said.

While @MentionMachine shows candidate mentions, Haik is often asked about sentiment data — or whether a tweet or media mention can be classified as falling into one or more emotional categories, such as sarcasm, anger, sadness, and joy. “Sentiment data’s not there yet,” said Haik, “I don’t feel like you have to have sentiment data to get a good read on where the
conversation is on a person.”

The @MentionMachine is by no means static. It is continually tweaked and improved. “I’m calling it a very mature prototype,” said Haik. She provided a preview of one impending change: “What you’re going to see next week is when you hover over that spike tweet, you’re going to get that exact top tweet for that moment.”

Read more about @MentionMachine and explore the data.

The most popular Washington Post stories on Tumblr for 2011

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:35:00 -0500

Facebook recently released a list of its top 40 most shared news stories this year, which includes three Washington Post stories. But why should Facebook have all the fun?

Here are the most popular Washington Post stories this year among Tumblr users, based on the number of clicks from the Tumblr site. Take a walk down memory lane and remember the year that was.

1. Hurricane Irene: ‘Photo’ of shark swimming in street is fake

2. Five myths about healthy eating

3. Awkward moments at Baltimore anime convention as art form comes of age

4. “Best” Webcomics of 2011: An Open Call for Your Nominations

5. Pepper-spray cop works his way through art history

6. Melissa McCarthy wins Emmy in memorable, beauty pageant moment

7. Facebook and Yahoo test ‘six degrees of separation’ idea

8. On Innovation

9. Clinton says she has ‘no idea’ what was happening when iconic White House photo was shot

10. Bunnies, babies and broads: What is TV trying to tell us about women?

The power of the crowd: Is life getting better or worse?

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:02:43 -0400

This week we launched the Better/Worse Life Project, which looks at population growth, unemployment and median income across the country over the past 30 years and uses that data as a background to frame the very simple, open question ‘Is life in your state getting better or worse?’

It uses your IP address to automatically detect your county and state so that we can ask you about the area that’s most relevant to you at the moment.

After we have your vote, we ask for a couple of simple demographics – age and race – and display a visualization that shows where your state falls on the scale from better to worse based on the votes we’ve gathered. You can then filter the responses based on race and age, or sort the states based on unemployment, median income or population growth, to see if there is trending based on these metrics.

This is one of the first projects to take users opinions and mash them up with actual data to see whether perceptions match up with reality. It’s a fascinating window into how people feel about the places where they live and a forum for a conversation around how things are changing.

There are already some patterns emerging. We are starting to see that, in general, more states with high unemployment are being rated ‘worse’ by users, and more places with low unemployment are being rated ‘better’.

D.C. stands out – though unemployment is high, 83 percent of users (as of publication of this post) ranked it better. One left a comment after rating it ‘better’: “DC is better due to a higher number of permanent residents, community activism, and better stewardship. Welcome to the 21st century!” The comments on why people voted the way they did have been some of the most interesting results of the project we’ve seen so far.

This kind of presentation can be risky. It’s so dependent on user feedback that if no one participates, there will be nothing interesting to look at. But it’s worth the chance – the kind of fascinating information we can gather once it does get going is possible only when you open the doors to participation from users. We’re collecting information on counties in addition to states so that, if we get a lot of responses, we can display a profile of the state that shows whether residents think counties are getting better or worse. It is going to take a lot of responses to get feedback for over 3,000 counties, but it might be possible with your help.

Right now, we have about 4,000 responses, but we need many more. Rate your state here: http://wapo.st/betterworselife

- Kat Downs / Innovations Editor for Graphics

Lululemon: Why has The Post devoted so much coverage?

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:19:00 -0400

Q: Why is the WaPo so consumed with this case? Why are you not treating every lost life with such importance as you are with this one? Yes, a life was lost and that is tragic within itself, but what’s even more tragic is how the WaPo and the rest of the media plays up certain cases because of the zip code and skin color of the people involved. Many people are killed in this region every year, where is their coverage? — kdofour2000

Local blogger Katie Rogers has the answer on Ask the Post.

The Post debuts its new Republican Primary Tracker

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 15:39:09 -0400

The Washington Post’s new Primary Tracker, created by Kat Downs, Ted Mellnik and Karen Yourish of The Post’s Graphics Department, is a one-stop shop for keeping up with the race for the Republican presidential nomination.

The interactive graphic features the newly-finalized primary schedule, state visits by candidate, and historical data from previous GOP presidential primaries. The tracker pulls state visits from PBS NewsHour’s political calendar and aggregates the data by state and candidate. Live results for each primary will be available as they happen.

Jerry Seinfeld predicts our corrections, and other tales from the copy desk

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 16:55:00 -0400

“One of my jobs as a multiplatform editor at The Post is to put together the corrections for the print edition. It’s a bit of a grim task, staring failure (sometimes my own) in the face, but occasionally I see a correction and can’t help but smile. For instance, one correction in today’s paper was straight out of a ‘Seinfeld’ episode.”

Continue reading at Ask the Post.

“Won” vs. “Received” A reader asks why...

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 14:29:11 -0400

“Won” vs. “Received”

A reader asks why The Washington Post has referred to military decorations as being “won” as opposed to “received.”

Ask the Post has the answer

“Why don’t more Washington Post reporters respond to...

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 15:24:03 -0400

“Why don’t more Washington Post reporters respond to reader comments?”

Good question. #AskthePost has the answer.

Campaign and the economy: what would you ask the Republican presidential candidates?

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:21:00 -0400

Next Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET, The Washington Post and Bloomberg will hold the first Republican presidential debate to focus on a single issue: the economy.

The candidates will assemble at Dartmouth to talk social security, the national debt, health care, taxes and jobs. They will repeat well-rehearsed talking points, try to zing their opponents, and convince voters that their proposals qualify them to win the White House.

But these debates generally contain few surprises. The candidate who can keep to their talking points without tripping over questions tends to “win.” But what about what the candidates don’t say? What about larger political questions that go unaddressed? What about fact-checking?

As we get geared up for Tuesday’s debate, we are partnering with Quora to get help tackling the questions that might otherwise go unanswered, starting off with Wonkblog’s Ezra Klein.

We asked you to pitch questions to three of our bloggers ahead of tonight’s debate, and got some great suggestions.

Wonkblog’s Ezra Klein asked: What questions do Americans want to hear the GOP candidates answer on the economy during the October 11th GOP debate?

John DeMarchi wanted us to look into the infamous ”social security as ponzi scheme” question. Here’s Ezra’s take: http://www.washingtonpost.com/bl…

* * *

The Fix’s Chris Cillizza wants to know which candidate you think is the most vulnerable in Tuesday’s debate:

Who has the most to lose in the economy debate and why?

We thought Matt McDonald was on the right track with Rick Perry’s debate dilemma. Here’s our take: http://www.washingtonpost.com/bl…

* * *

The Fact Checker Glenn Kessler wants your help uncovering the candidate’s chronic misstatements:

What are some other common pearls of wisdom that the Republican presidential candidates have said on the campaign trail that beg out for checking?

Amanda Zamora / National Digital Editor

An Ask the Post reader asks: “Why such weak coverage of...

Tue, 04 Oct 2011 15:35:07 -0400

An Ask the Post reader asks: “Why such weak coverage of the Wall Street protests?”

Washington Post National Economy and Business editor Greg Schneider has the answer.

“Anwar al-Aulaqi” becomes “al-Awlaki” at...

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 14:14:22 -0400

“Anwar al-Aulaqi” becomes “al-Awlaki” at The Washington Post

Find out why the change was made here

New on @innovations: Ask the Post

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:21:56 -0400

Starting today, the @innovations blog will feature questions and responses from our new Ask The Post feature on The Washington Post website. We hope the blog will build on the ongoing conversations between the Post newsroom and readers.

Each day, on Ask the Post we’ll take questions from readers about our Web site and news coverage. You can participate by leaving a comment on the blog or by tweeting a question using the hash tag #askthepost. Use the “Recommend” link on each blog post to vote up your favorite questions (make sure you’re signed in to washingtonpost.com first). We will aim to respond to the most recommended questions throughout the week.

As we have occasionally done with reader chats, we’ll now feature, each week, a Post journalist, who will also respond to reader questions about his or her work and related journalism issues.

Have a gripe about or a favorite feature from the front page of today’s print edition of the newspaper? You are invited to write brief critique of the page in the comments section on the blog. This is a place for a succinct critique of the front page. There are other venues for your opinions and letters, as well as a way to reach the ombudsman.

We’ll hold comments on Ask The Post to the same standard as other comments on our site. While we are looking for constructive feedback from our readers, we’ll remove comments that attack fellow commentators or otherwise violate our discussions policy.

Ask The Post also will keep you updated on new Web site features, upgrades to existing features and other technical improvements. We appreciate your feedback on these issues as well, but if you’re having a technical issue, please report it using this form.

We look forward to your feedback.

An Ask the Post reader asks: ”Why won’t your Web...

Thu, 29 Sep 2011 16:46:00 -0400

An Ask the Post reader asks: ”Why won’t your Web site auto-detect my phone’s browser? I’d read your site on my phone more if it served the mobile page.”

Read the answer here

Under Suspicion: Voices about Muslims in America

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 17:26:00 -0400

In dozens of video interviews conducted by Washington Post journalists across the country, Americans of all religious backgrounds candidly talk about the roots of suspicion, misunderstandings about Islam and confronting their own fears. Here are a few excerpts from the video project:

“When I was in [military] intelligence, I worked with Arab Muslims and American Muslims, and they are protecting this country with their lives…. Not only did they put their lives on the line, they are saving lives. What do you think those people feel like when they hear that you are an enemy… just because you are Muslim? You have that label: Muslim.”

- Nadia Hassan, 41, writer and editor, Orange County, Calif.

“If most American Muslims are patriotic, nonviolent members of our society as they say they are and just a small percentage are violent extremists, if that’s true, how come we haven’t heard anything from the large number of peaceful, loyal, patriotic American Muslims? Haven’t heard a word from them. Not a word of support for the American way, for the soldiers, for the firefighters, for the victims of 9/11.”

- Elaine Proko, 79, retired lithographer, Anaheim, Calif.

“I know for a fact that there are peaceful Muslims who live here and want to enjoy all the freedoms and liberties that we enjoy. And we embrace them and want them here. But we also have this radical, terrorist-minded group with political motives that are also here, and it’s hard to tell them apart. What many of us would like to see is the peaceful group condemning this radical group. And that would give us a bit more comfort.”

- John Salka, 53, battalion chief, New York City Fire Department, Monroe, N.Y.

View the entire video project here.

A workout at work: 12 office exercises The Post’s infographics...

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:31:49 -0400

A workout at work: 12 office exercises

The Post’s infographics department tested 12 exercises for a week to see which ones real people could incorporate into a workday. These moves were recommended by experts whose jobs involve studying motion, preventing obesity and generally getting people off their duffs.

How did 9/11 change your world?

Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:31:17 -0400

Show us how 9/11 has changed your day-to-day life by sharing photos from your hometown.

• Tweet photos with hashtag #911changes

• Post photos on Facebook: facebook.com/washingtonpost.

• Please include photo location and describe how it relates to 9/11

“

Everyone is so much more paranoid that we’ll be attacked again. Especially the news media. And public school systems. #911changes

flautista2011
August 30, 2011

3 day’s old. This is what I was focused on when 9/11 happened.

Ron Lema

“

@washingtonpost I decided to study Arabic and go abroad to Jordan. #911changes

Loolabette
August 31, 2011

How did 9/11 change me? Now I have a 2nd job as a Bring our war $$ home full-time volunteer. Photo taken by Nicole Moreau in Brunswick, Maine Aug 27, 2011 at Blue Angels Air Show protest with Vets for Peace.

Lisa Savage

Born on 9/11/01, my daughter brought tears of joy to all of the people in my life, on a most difficult day. I call her my Angel….and she is!

Traci Levine

“

@washingtonpost Sadly, it demonstrated how we most often react to violence w/violence; an odd twist to “do unto others” thought. #911changes

mandosally
September 6, 2011

“

@washingtonpost 9/11 took away securities, but it showed that together t greatest challenges can be achieved!. #unity #911changes

Tilly_Kammeron
September 2, 2011

“

#911changes I can’t carry my f*** shampoo on the plane, get scanned/#patdown & my #twitter account gets new followers each time i type #bomb

Malisoko
September 6, 2011

“

@washingtonpost #911changes changes the way I conceive air traveling,from schedules to TimeSpend at airport,from SecurityChecks to destinies

RJML72
September 2, 2011

How the journalism sausage gets made: The Washington Post splash...

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 14:48:32 -0400

How the journalism sausage gets made:

The Washington Post splash page that contains recent and archival 9/11 stories and multimedia was first sketched on an iPad using the Penultimate app. The Post’s website is built on a modular system that allows producers and editors to arrange modules like building blocks to create a full page.

Mark S. Luckie / National Innovations Editor