Jonathan Stray | Nieman Journalism Lab

Articles by Jonathan Stray

Jonathan Stray is a senior scientist at the Center for Human-compatible AI at UC Berkeley, where he studies how algorithmic media drives political conflict. Previously he was an editor at the Associated Press and taught computational journalism at Columbia University.

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April 25, 2024

“Objectivity” in journalism is a tricky concept. What could replace it?

“For a long time, ‘objectivity’ packaged together many important ideas about truth and trust. American journalism has disowned that brand without offering a replacement.”

More algorithmic accountability reporting, and a lot of it will be meh

“When reporters find a suspect algorithm, they should also try to cover what could be done better.”

A boom in responsible conservative media

“Conservative audiences deserve no less, even if they never read the Times again.”

January 11, 2016

How much influence does the media really have over elections? Digging into the data

“My sense is that what we have here is a feedback loop. Does media attention increase a candidate’s standing in the polls? Yes. Does a candidate’s standing in the polls increase media attention? Also yes.”

March 3, 2015

Take two steps back from journalism: What are the editorial products we’re not building?

“Imagine all the wildly different services you could deliver with a building full of writers and developers.”

May 22, 2013

Objectivity and the decades-long shift from “just the facts” to “what does it mean?”

“Investigative journalism may have pride of place within the mythology of American news, but that’s not really what journalists have been up to, by and large.”

April 10, 2013

How does a country get to open data? What Taiwan can teach us about the evolution of access

Assumptions about government openness vary from country to country. Here are a few lessons a cross-national perspective can bring to the open data movement.

October 31, 2012

Data, uncertainty, and specialization: What journalism can learn from FiveThirtyEight’s election coverage

Nate Silver’s number-crunching blog is perceived as a threat by some traditional political reporters — but its model has lessons for all journalists.

August 29, 2012

Focus and web-only content: How the Deseret News supports a local newsroom with a national strategy

The Salt Lake City company is breaking out of the newspaper mold by building online-only products that aim at an audience beyond Utah’s borders.

August 17, 2012

Metrics, metrics everywhere: How do we measure the impact of journalism?

We need to get beyond counting pageviews and ad impressions and build better ways of judging how our work changes the world around us.

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