Shows / Storybench
Episodes
- Storybench
Gone Analog: Why generations raised with streaming are paying to own physical media
Roughly half of Gen Z and millennial CD buyers don’t own a CD player, according to Luminate. And yet they’re buying CDs, along with millions of vinyl…
- Storybench
The Art of Communicating a Public Health Crisis: How Journalism Can Help Rebuild Trust in Science
In the wake of the largest measles outbreak in recent US history, there’s a growing divide between Americans’ who trust in science and those who don’t…
- Storybench
Horror Beyond the Jump Scare
Scary movies can be much more than a monster hiding in the dark. That’s the surprise hidden in several recent horror films that are pushing the boundaries of…
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Six reporting lessons from the Cornell sexual assault investigation
From student journalists who stayed with the story for nearly two years to national newsrooms parsing police interviews, Title IX records and court documents…
- Storybench
How AI Slop, Agents and Vibe Coding Are Going Mainstream
“AI slop,” “AI agent” and “vibe coding” once sounded like expressions used mostly by developers and people who closely follow artificial intelligence. Now, all…
- Storybench
Journalists weigh in on data, graphics and polling ahead of the midterm elections at Storybench roundtable
As Americans begin to cast their votes in the Nov. 3 midterm elections, polling efforts have picked up steam. The task of making sense of this flood of…
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How The New York Times’ Larry Buchanan Uses Art as a Tool for Fighting Distractions
Once a month on a Monday, Larry Buchanan dares the reader to do something novel – sit still and pay attention. Buchanan, a graphics and multimedia editor at…
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How Copernicus Makes Climate Data Simple and Easy to Understand
Each January, journalists around the world cite the same source when reporting on the planet’s temperature: the annual climate visuals from the Copernicus…
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Follow the money: How we used AI skills in Claude to research a campaign finance investigation
Every campaign dollar raised in Massachusetts leaves a public record on the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance (OPCF)website: who…
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Wait, you can do that with HTML?
HTML has been gobbling up swaths of what used only to be doable using JavaScript. Read on for a bunch of dynamic functionality that we can now achieve with…
- Storybench
Turning Data Into Sound with R
You will know you have created something incredible when other people are still thinking about it 16 years later. I am Other People, and I’ve been obsessed…
- Storybench
The Baseball Playoffs are Here. Which Catchers Just Lost Their Secret Weapon?
For decades, the best catchers in baseball have been masters of the quiet art of “framing”: receiving a pitch just outside the strike zone and…
- Storybench
How to Analyze News About AI Data Centers Using Topic Modeling
The explosion of AI data centers across the country this year has become a hot topic from small towns to the halls of Congress. That’s been reflected in the…
- Storybench
What’s the real story behind the spread of AI data centers? It depends where you get your news.
Research by Adam Perhala Artificial intelligence may live in the cloud, but the infrastructure powering it is very much on the ground. That split is reflected…
- Storybench
How we’re using topic modeling to understand news coverage of data centers
Data centers have become a growing part of news coverage across the country, bringing together stories about AI, energy, jobs, costs and local development. But…
- Storybench
Northeastern local news project expands to five newsrooms, opens applications for innovation fellowships
Research Project Will Fund Digital Content Creators To Engage Younger Audiences Media researchers at Northeastern University’s School of Journalism and Media…
- Storybench
AI and journalism Summer Roundup: The Reckoning Season
As Labor Day weekend came and went, so did any illusion that AI in journalism was still in its experimental phase. This summer alone, the New York Times’…
- Storybench
Sit Down, Slow Down, Feel Something: Inside GBH’s Local Lens documentary series
In the wake of slashes in federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, public media stations nationwide are bracing for impact. But one program…
- Storybench
How to use an AI-assistant workflow to do background research for a news story
As a data journalist, you often find yourself working on a topic you know very little about: a highly technical issue or a field that requires specialized…
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How Hollywood Miscasts Asian Americans: Dorothy Lu on Using Data Visualization to Set the Record Straight
Freelance data journalist Dorothy Lu, along with her roommate, illustrator and developer Anna Li, created “How Accurately Are Asian Americans Cast in…
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The Power of Words: Trump on Twitter
Data suggests a correlation between anti-Asian tweets and hate crimes with Trump's “Chinese virus” Tweets. The post The Power of Words: Trump on Twitter first…
- Storybench
Moneyball Strikes Out: Do Higher Payrolls Buy you More All Stars?
Does more money buy more talent? That’s a debate in professional sports, and it’s driven Major League Baseball front offices to adopt different…
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How “Streetscape Creator” Matthew Dickey Went From Independent Video Artist to On-Air Media Personality
Matthew Dickey didn’t start in a newsroom. He started on the streets of Boston with his phone and an idea. As the creator behind “Streetscape Creator,” Dickey…
- Storybench
KSL-TV is proving news organizations can make money on social media. Here’s how.
When KSL News, one of Utah’s top ten outlets, asked Christie Taylor to build them a social media team, she was hesitant.  Taylor, who was working in…
- Storybench
Turning the Threat to a Distant Glacier into a Local Story Through Data Visualization
In January, New York Times climate reporter Raymond Zhong and photographer Chang W. Lee joined a team of scientists on an expedition to Thwaites Glacier…
- Storybench
Does your next data story need a social media bot? Here’s how to build one.
The age of AI chatbots is upon us, but news innovators have been experimenting with the idea of chatting to get your news for decades. Social media bots…
- Storybench
New to the World Cup? Here’s a Guide to Understanding it Through Data
The 2026 FIFA World Cup has 48 teams. If you are an American sports fan who doesn’t follow soccer closely, that can feel overwhelming — you need a team to root…
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Scrolling for Something Real: The Antidote to “Doomscrolling”
Scrolling on social media often feels like a mindless time warp.  What once served as a place for users to connect with friends by posting casual content…
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How Georgia Makely is Using Podcasting to Bring Fashion’s Untold Stories to a New Generation
Fashion has always had gatekeepers. The editors who decide what’s in. The publications that decide who matters. The press dinners where the right people…
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How The Washington Post combined data and human stories to cover Hurricane Helene’s aftermath
Climate change is both vast and personal making it an ideal  for immersive stories that combine visuals, data and human narratives. Behind these seamless…
- Storybench
How Wall Street Journal Social Media Editor, Gianna Barberia, is Expanding Engagement
Newsrooms across the country need to meet their audience where they are. For many consumers of news today, that means on their phones, on social media. …
- Storybench
Whose Quotes Get Cleaned Up? How News Orgs Normalize Some Voices and Scrutinize Others
In mid-February, The New York Times ignited a storm of criticism with a piece about Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez at a security conference in…
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Where Should Data Journalists Be This Spring and Summer?
Spring and summer 2026 are packed with events for journalists: from a free three-day conference in New York City to a hands-on data bootcamp in Missouri…
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AI Can Fake the Crowd—But Not Replace It
Large language models fall short as replacements for human respondents in policy and opinion research, though they can help draft survey questions and run…
- Storybench
Making Trillions Make Sense: How Reuters Visualized the AI Economy
When journalists report on economic forces such as AI investment, infrastructure spending and historic market shifts, the challenge is hardly ever a lack of…