Nieman Journalism Lab: One Way for News Organizations to Squeeze Value From Their Archives

Nieman Journalism Lab: One Way for News Organizations to Squeeze Value From Their Archives

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 8 /PRNewswire/ -- When news breaks, some folks will want the latest information. Others are more interested in learning the background behind the news. A new project called NPRbackstory tries to automate the process of providing that context, according to the Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard University.

NPRbackstory is a Twitter service that uses Google search data to see what are the hot topics people are searching for information about. It then searches National Public Radio's massive database of past stories and identifies pieces related to those topics. Those are automatically posted as links to the Twitter account.

Rather than trying to serve up the latest news, NPRbackstory is an attempt to draw upon one of the greatest resources any news organization has: its archives. "If somebody OD's in their hotel room, or they get busted for drunk driving, NPR probably wouldn't do a story," developer Keith Hopper told the Lab. "So you get the last time Terry Gross interviewed them, or something from NPR Music. You get a true backstory when that happens."

It began as an informal project for Keith Hopper; he has since joined NPR's staff, although NPRbackstory remains unofficial. Complete details about the project can be found at:

http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/05/nprbackstory-finding-value-in-news-archiv es-through-automation/

The Nieman Journalism Lab is a project at Harvard University to figure out the future of quality journalism online. Its site is http://www.niemanlab.org/.

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Source: Nieman Journalism Lab

CONTACT: Joshua Benton, director of Nieman Journalism Lab,
joshua_benton@harvard.edu

Web Site: http://www.niemanlab.org/

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Profile: International Entertainment