hacking journalism: using the internet to save the world

HACKING JOURNALISMUsing the Internet to save the world

Dan Schultz@slifty

The man pulling radishespointed the way

with a radish

Kobayashi Issa

My professional life

2013

Carnegie Mellon

2005

Information Systems

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

in 90 seconds

2013

Carnegie Mellon

2005

PhillyColorQuickSpeaker Text

PBS

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

My professional life in 90 seconds

2013

Carnegie Mellon MIT

2005

Information EcologyCivic Media

Philly

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

My professional life in 90 seconds

eco.media.mit.edu

civic.mit.edu

2013

Carnegie Mellon MIT OpenNews

2005

The Boston GlobePhilly

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012

My professional life in 90 seconds

Knight-Mozilla OpenNews is about building an ecosystem to help journalism thrive on the open web.mozillaopennews.org

Developer

Newsroom Developer

Creative Technologist

Hacking is all about building and changing systems.

People

Technology Process

People

This means hacking is more aboutidentifying needs and opportunities

than it is about mastering technology.

Process

People

How to Hack Anything

1. Know what’s possible2. Identify your goals3. Understand your stakeholders4. Learn as needed5. Make things

The Internet will

Destroy

the world.

?

How did we fight this kind of stuff before?

It is our responsibility to make surewell-informed communities continue to exist.

It is our responsibility to make surewell-informed communities continue to exist.

(notice what this doesn’t say)

Let’s talk about...

think more carefully

remix media content

Step 1: Credibility

Step 1: Credibility

Step 2: Critical Ability

Step 1: Credibility

Step 2: Critical Ability

Step 3: Profit

(your critical ability should be triggering right now.)

Step 1: Credibility

Step 2: Critical Ability

Step 3: Profit

You could tie yourself to a bungee cord, close your eyes, and jump off a cliff… or you could read the New York Times.

lyladuey.com

Help the worldhold information to your standards

Confirmation Bias

Disconfirmation Bias

Familiarity Backfire Effect

Overkill Backfire EffectHostile Media Effect

Continued Influence Effect

Motivated Reasoning

Motivated Skepticism

Selective Exposure

Fluencey EffectIllusion of Truth Effect

Enhanced Negation Effect

Lack of ControlInformation Deficits

Identity and Race

Limitations of Memory and Cognition

Source QualityBelief Perseverance

At the end of the daywe are all struggling to protect our identities

when consuming information

TRUTHTELLER

Explore Sources

Train everyone toexpect a certain experience

Train everyone toexpect a certain experience

(one that empowers critical ability)

Make sure that experience is either expensive or impossible for phonies to replicate

Make sure that experience is either expensive or impossible for phonies to replicate

(anyone that isn’t credible)

Satire

Bias Bashing

Empowerment

A suspected teenage gangbanger, blasted to death in a hail of bullets on his Mattapan doorstep, was battling to leave behind his troubled youth, a devastated colleague said.

Jermaine Perry, an 18 year old from Mattapan, was blasted to death in a hail of bullets on his Mattapan doorstep. A devastated colleague said Jermaine was battling to leave behind his youth which sources suspect may have included involvement in gang-related activities.

Expose stories that would be overlooked

Continue even after the mainstream forgets

Disrupt consumer biases

Satirize contentious issues

Reframe descriptions of your communities

OPENED CAPTIONSBack to the light, with

The Problem:Writing applications based on what’s happening on TV is damn near impossible.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/interactive/2012/nov/06/america-elect-graphic-novel

Step 1: Extract

OCR

Speech to Text

Face RecognitionVideo Analysis

Audio Analysis

Closed Captioning

Fingerprinting

Closed Captioning

OCR

Speech to Text

Face RecognitionVideo Analysis

Audio Analysis

Fingerprinting

Line 21 Decoding

Step 2: Distribute

Information Flow

Video Feed

Opened Captions Server

Information Flow

Video Feed

Extract

Opened Captions Server

Opened CaptionsClients

Information Flow

Video Feed

ExtractDistribute

TRADITIONAL WEB INTERACTIONS

Request

Response

WEBSOCKETS

Handshake

Messages

Easy to Code Against

That’s great, but...How do you hack from the inside?

Simple!Get good at effective troublemaking.

Rule 1: Ask Obnoxious Questions

Rule 2: Broadcast your Brilliance

That other thing...What was it...OH RIGHT

Actually talking

Rule 3: Ignore the Food Chain

Rule 4: Shamelessly Create

Ruffle FeathersCatalyzePush BackInvent

ContributeObserveLearn

Communicate

Side A Side B

My Troublemaking MixTape

@slifty

FOR INSTANCE....Client Says

Show me the front page of the NY Times

Server Responds

Sure thing, enjoy reading glorious journalism!”

Do I have any new emails?Here are your 423 new emails

you popular netizen

I DEMAND ANIMATED GIFSYou got it, boss, I proudly

present Obama slicing a salami with his hands

HOW WOULD YOU SAY...

Let me know when...

This is awkward.

I was kind of thinking our relationship would be a “one

time” deal.

Keep me updated with...

Push me a notice if...

How bout now?

I’m betting there are some now.

What about now?

POLLINGThe Younger Sibling

Approach

Do you have any new tweets?

New tweets?

I don’t know if you knew this, but I’m looking for new

tweets

You’ll never guess what I’m about to ask for. Holy crap. I’m gonna go shut

down now.

It’s been like 10 seconds you have to have some by now.

Easy to Modify

Video Feed

Content Forking

Video Feed Opened Captions Server

Content Forking

Video Feed Opened Captions Server

Clients

Content Forking

Video Feed Opened Captions Server

Clients

Content Fork

Content Forking

Video Feed Opened Captions Server

Clients

Clients

Content Forking

Content Fork

Video Feed Opened Captions Server

English-speaking clients

Spanish-speaking clients

Content Forking

Content Fork(Spanish Translation Mod)

Easy to Set Up