Course Intro

Do you trust the news?

Let's kick off the day with a few rounds of questions:

• What factors have chipped away at trust in the news?
• What factors make you trust the news?
• What could be done differently to improve trust in the news?

For each round, grab 2-3 Post-its and throw your thoughts on the whiteboard.

News apps, broadly defined

News applications have a rich and long history (okay, about 15-20 years).

Early news apps typically involved a dynamic, database-backed web application with a more user-friendly interface. They often allowed basic search alongside the ability to "drill down" through pages to explore detailed data about sports, congressional votes, and other data.

The advent of web frameworks such as Django and Rails sped up this trend. Newsrooms realized they could easily provide public access to databases traditionally used for in-house research and analysis.

The more ambitious added visual components and auto-generated narrative alongside the data; the less ambitious provided little more than a thin veneer over raw public databases. Think mugshots or government employee salaries. These latter "apps", devoid of any narrative or visual storytelling elements, came to be known as the dreaded "database ghetto": designed as little more than an opportunity for voyeurism and generating page views.

Fortunately, the landscape has evolved since those early days. Newsrooms are spending more time thinking about how to engage the public and even enlist them in the news process. They're building storybots to speed up the responsiveness of news, and using interactive games and AR/VR to provide new story experiences.

They're tapping into satellite imagery and ocean tide sensors -- or even building their own sensors -- to uncover the news. They're building tools and platforms to support the news gathering and publication process.

As news app developers or, more broadly, data journalists, we have the ability to restore some of the trust that has been lost in news. For starters, we can apply best practices from the scientific and open source communities to increase trust in our process. Many news organizations already publish detailed methodologies on their work alongside major investigations. And a growing number publish the raw data and code used in analysis, tools and applications.

The combition of code + journalism uniquely positions us to tell engaging, creative stories and invite the public into our process.

About this course

In this course, we'll adopt a broad definition of news apps as the convergence of code, design and journalism -- all in pursuit of engaging the public in new and interesting ways and sustaining the mission of public accountability journalism.

On the technical front we'll learn the fundamentals of web development and collaboration as we build out personal project sites that host our class work.

We'll also have visits from industry practitioners to discuss design thinking; collaborative projects and data gathering; and the use of sensors and machine learning/AI in the news.

Syllabus and instructional approach

Let's review the syllabus briefly and discuss any questions.

This class loosely follows a flipped model. More often than not, you'll be expected to level up on the basics of a new tool or technology before arriving in class so that we can apply the skills in hands-on work during class.

If you're new(ish) to programming and web development, some of this work could take quite a few hours. This is a good thing. The more reps you get in off-line, the more successful you’ll be in this class. That said, don’t beat your head on the keyboard for 8 hours just to discover a missing comma in your code. Apply the 15-minute rule. Often, the simple act of explaining the problem to someone will reveal a solution.

How to succeed in this course

• Release the fear. Programming is a skill that anyone can learn. Put fear on time-out and trust that you too can do this.
• Be kind. We have a ZERO-tolerance policy on techtosterone. If you’re steeped in a topic, share your knowledge. If you see someone struggling, help them or nudge them to ask for help.
• Unleash your curiosity. Be ambitious in your project ideas. Explore interesting technical nooks and crannies. Ask questions in or out of class. If we can’t answer them straight off, we can explore them together.
• Collaborate. We all bring different experiences and perspectives to our work. Share your experience and perspective and listen to the contributions of others as we tackle assignments and projects.
• Prepare. In order to collaborate and keep pace with in-class exercises, you must do assignments before class.
• Perspirate. As with most things worth learning, programming takes work. Invest real time on assignments, follow your curiosity and challenge yourself to apply newfound skills in and out of class.

Assignment 1

Technical ramp-up

• Install VSCode (if you don’t already have a code editor)
• Sign up for Slack and join our channel (comm177t-news-apps)
• Create a Github account and Github Desktop and git
• Sign up for an AWS account and install the AWS command-line tools
• If you're new to git and version control, skim the Git Handbook

Written assignment: Elements of a news app

This write-up should be uploaded to Canvas as a Word document.

Review the ICIJ Implant Files database and The Force Report. Write 500 words on features you noticed in these apps. Some questions to consider:

• What features are common?
• What features are in one but not the other?
• What user behaviors are these apps trying to enable?
• What would you add/change to improve the app or its trustworthiness from a user perspective?