Location

MIT Media Lab, 6th Floor

Description

Kevin Hu and Alexis Hope on FOLD:
Imagine reading about the 2008 housing crisis without knowing what a mortgage is. Jumping into complex news stories is difficult, particularly stories requiring historical or technical context. Kevin Hu and Alexis Hope hypothesize that the feeling of frustration and inadequacy that comes with not being able to understand the news causes readers to turn away from specific pieces or entire stories.
FOLD is an authoring and publishing platform allowing storytellers to structure and contextualize their stories to make their work more accessible. Authors can provide “curated tangents” to readers by integrating contextual information from online sources or by reusing other authors’ context blocks. Readers can progress through a story vertically to read the narrative, and side-to-side to access these context blocks. We believe that FOLD can help readers of all ages and backgrounds confidently engage with complex stories.
Matt Carroll will give two lightning talks:
Future of News
A new Media Lab initiative, called the Future of News, is dedicated to designing, testing, and making creative tools that help newsrooms adapt in a time of rapid change. The focus of the group is on technology that helps newsrooms engage more tightly with their readers and viewers; that enables reporters and editors to produce better stories; and that offers the possibility of more revenue.
5 Minutes, 5 Top Media Stories, 5 Hot New Media Trends
Matt will also talk about recent changes in news called, "5 minutes, 5 top media leaders, 5 hot new media trends." The focus will be on how the rapid switch to mobile is causing major shifts in how news organizations report, write, and cover news.