Award from the Public Interest Technology University Network is part of $3 million “Network Challenge” to grow the field of public interest technology. Three Columbia professors working at the intersection of human-computer interaction (HCI) have received a grant from the Public Interest Technology University Network (PITUN) to support creation of new curricula on designing computational technology that
CategoryProject Updates
A 2018-19 Magic Grant Profile
By Alex Calderwood. One hundred journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000. These journalists were mostly investigating cartel activity and corruption in the Mexican government, and they were explicitly targeted for their reporting. Yet, according to a report by The Committee to Protect Journalists, “the Mexican government has only intermittently recognized anti-press violence as
A 2018-19 Magic Grant Profile
By Alex Calderwood. You’re browsing Instagram and you see someone wearing a winter coat that speaks to you. You comment on the post and ask “Love the jacket, what kind is it?.” A few minutes later, the poster responds “Canada Goose, obviously.” You remember something about the brand and other designer clothes being banned from
‘Hacking Voter Suppression’ Project Begins
For the 2018-19 Magic Grant Season, the Brown Institute at Columbia is funding Hacking Voter Suppression, a project by Columbia Journalism School Professor June Cross and Charlotte Braithwaite, a Theater Director and Assistant Professor of Music and Theater Arts at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The project seeks to explore how foreign interference, gerrymandering, and
Canners NYC Launches on Gothamist, WNYC
The Brown Institute is proud to announce the launch of the project Canners NYC, an immersive multimedia experience in the world of canners, people who pick up cans and bottles on the streets. Journalist Francesca Berardi spent a year conducting oral history interviews, tracking paths, collecting data, making drawings and occasionally picking cans, in order
Brown and the UN-DESA Stat Division launch Data Storytelling CfP
The Columbia Journalism School’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation in collaboration with UN-DESA’s Statistics Division is pleased to announce a call for project proposals on data storytelling, aimed at nurturing new collaborations between national statistics systems (NSSs), including national statistical offices (NSOs), and journalism outlets. Proposals are due 20 July 2018, and winners will be
DataShare, Explained
Reporting and breaking the Panama Papers and Paradise Papers investigations required a centralized platform that made it possible for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists’ to collaborate while exploring tens of millions of files. As successful as these probes proved, the platform failed to make a searchable database that connected data stored in individual reporters’ computers. Supported by a 2017-18 Magic Grant
Reporting from Rwanda
Francesco Fiondella, principle investigator of the Data Interrupted Magic Grant, has spent the past week in Rwanda, collecting artifacts, conducting interviews, and reporting on data loss in the country due to the 1994 conflict. Fracesco has spent the week digging through archives, unearthing unlogged weather data that might help strengthen existing climate models. He has interviewed
Dark Inquiry Launches Bail Bloc Project
The Brown Institute announces the launch of the latest project from the Dark Inquiry Magic Grant team. Bail Bloc starts with the premise that cash bail streamlines mass incarceration by preventing low-income, usually people of color, from exercising their right to a fair trial. The team writes that “prosecutors and judges work in concert to coerce low-income people