NEW ORLEANS — In the 2024 election season, the age-old adage “the news breaks itself” proves reliable, as journalists publish headlines and trends around the clock.
Many journalists are looking to implement more intentional analytical strategies in their newsrooms through this process while covering the hustle and bustle of an election season. Samantha Sunne, certified Google tools trainer, presented to members of the Society of Professional Journalists at the “Jazzed about Journalism” Conference in New Orleans, teaching ways to enhance storytelling through data journalism, utilizing Google Earth, and more.
“I try to do that because I know that journalists are busy,” Sunne said. “I try to share tools that will make everything easier and make them able to accomplish more without adding too much time.”
Matter of fact
The first slide presented by Sunne covered Google’s fact check explorer tool, which holds a database of fact checks from an estimated 80 sources. Both journalists and everyday people can utilize this information base to ensure facts and statements are accurate and reverse image search photos for origin.
Sunne explained that Adobe Photoshop displays EXIF data and metadata to help users determine whether a photo was manipulated, providing context behind the image’s origin.
Crunching the numbers
Sunne taught the audience how to refine search results, such as controlling which site(s) are visible, the type of files, and the order in which key phrases are processed, to make journalists’ research more efficient when looking for primary sources.
Additionally, Sunne explained how to quickly and effectively incorporate data journalism into stories and provided several free sites for visualizing data of all sizes.
“It’s a very busy election year; I think journalists are doing their best to keep up with everything,” Sunne said. “There’s a lot of breaking news, and people are also trying to do good due diligence on background and candidates and stuff while staying on top of everything else. So, I really try to emphasize tools that just can be integrated into a workflow right away. “
Do Due Diligence
In a post-session interview, Sunne said she thinks the internet has undermined people’s trust in what used to be primary source documents, like images and videos. Artificial intelligence will make doctoring photos and videos much more accessible in 2024. However, Sunne said that people should take advantage of the tools she presents every day and take the time to find primary sources. A lot of information about candidates for elections is public records; it just takes diligence to find it.
“I definitely encourage everyone, obviously, to drill down to primary sources,” Sunne said. “A lot of times, you can find claims on a politician’s website, for example, but you can also look up if they’re an incumbent, you can look up their voting history – and that’s all information that’s out there.
“It’s public – but it might not be easily findable,” she added. “Or maybe the average person isn’t used to looking up stuff like that, but there’s a lot of tools out there.”