Pro Projects by J-Schools

J-schools created the following high-profile professional resources. All blend education, outreach, and service to the industry into opportunities for students (and faculty) to help build nationally recognized projects.

Reporter’s Lab

The Duke Reporter’s Lab “explores new forms of journalism” with a speciality in fact checking. Staff and students coordinate the respected Share the Facts and Share the Falsehoods feeds — with help from the major fact checkers, including WaPo, PolitiFact, and FactCheck.org. They also maintain the international map of fact-checking websites.

Tweets by sharethefact

Knight Lab

Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism manages the Learn and Knight Lab projects. For the latter, students and faculty actively maintain several well-loved storytelling tools, including StoryMap and TimelineJS.

Storybench

Northeastern’s Media Innovation program publishes Storybench, which: “reinvigorates and reimagines what digital journalism can be, providing an ‘under the hood’ look at the latest and most inventive examples of digital creativity — from data visualization projects to interactive documentaries to gamified journalism.” One example: “How to build a timeline using TimelineJS”, a step-by-step guide for the above-mentioned Knight Lab tool.

Advanced Media Institute

UC Berkeley’s Grad J-School offers free tutorials on digital journalism. In 2012 a group of their grad students tested dozens of phone-based multimedia-production tools. They published their ratings and results in an iOS app filled with video, audio, and photo examples, the Mobile Reporting Field Guide.

PolitiFact Missouri

Mizzou’s J-School is one of 18 state PolitiFact partners. Guided by faculty and PolitFact staff, student “reporters and researchers examine statements by Missouri elected officials and candidates and anyone else who speaks up on matters of public importance.” Their fact checks run nationally at PolitFact.org and locally in the Columbia Missourian.

Journalists are told to never print something we don’t understand â€” but how often do we print information that our sources aren’t quite clear on or don’t have backup for? Sometimes we don’t know how credible our sources are because we don’t ask where they got their facts.
â€”Adam Aton (grad student), “How Mizzou Journalism Students Help Fact-Check for PolitiFact”