Back in February this year I went to an NUJ skills day at Google News Lab in London. Presented by Google News Lab's Matt Cooke it was a six-hour session in front of about 80-100 freelance journalists.
Google News Labs work with news organisations to train their staff regularly, but this was the first time it had been done with freelancers in the UK.
The idea was to explain some of the lesser-known tools that Google has that could be useful for journalists, and also to explain how to use some of the more common ones better.
By way of putting these somewhere I won't lose them, here are some of the notes I made during the day.
Intro
Presenter: Matt Cooke, Google News Lab
Title: Advanced Search, Google Trends
> Google News Lab: Tools / Data / Programs
> g.co/newslab = designed with journalists in mind. Practical look at things. 50 lessons. Everything from today is on there.
Research > Report > Distribute > Optimise
google.com/insidesearch = the science of search. The knowledge graph
Google Advanced Search: Tips
> ‘definition’ = gives you a graph of usage over time
> ‘compare’ plus two terms = comparison box and comparative data
> “memorable phrase”speech marks = gives google a clue that you are searching for a certain phrase or talk
> ‘impact of rio 2016 -ECONOMIC’ = use minus symbol to get rid of info relating to that word. EG here, removes Economic data.
> site: nasa.gov, solar, file:pdf’ = search a specific site, and search a specific file.
> www.google.com/advanced_search = form filling for google search. OK, but next step is more useful.
> Button: ‘Search Tool’: Drops down menu to filter by country, time, other… Very useful for Google Image search, where you can search on size, colour, B&W, type, time etc. Great for searching for free photos.
> Google Reverse Image search: images.google.com. Also tineye.com does the same. Drag the image into Image Search and it gives you meta data, recognises similar images etc.
> Verifying YouTube or videos online, use: No google tool for verifying video. amnesty International does one called the youtube data viewer.
> Debunking trend
Google Public Data
www.google.com/publicdata/directory
> Useful research tool. Good visualisation tool
> Public data directory. Where lots of big public agencies upload and share data and reports. Search for: ’google public data explorer’. Can play around with data on graphs etc. Animate data. Can embed this stuff in stories. Check what it looks like on mobile. Also good to visualise on maps.
> Google Scholar. scholar.google.co.uk. Research tool for academic reports and metrics. Law, medicine etc.
Google Trends
> google.com/trends
> Good for data journalism
> 3bn searches a day on Google. All this info goes into Google Trends. Tells stories about behaviour.
> Check out vox.com
> Trends = search interest over time
> Date is anonymised, private, not super granular. But real time.
> Real time top 250 stories. Shows searches and also in grey bars the stories published.
> Click on three lines > Explore > Gives you a graph. Select search entity.
> Search results show change in behaviour, not just growth in internet use. Can download the graph as spreadsheet. You get changes, but not specific number.
> Trending Searches: gives you yesterday: Google Trends > Three Lines > Drop down menu> Explore = this will give search behaviour
> Graphs can be embedded.
> Trends show you patterns, they don’t tell the stories. Journalists need to interpret that data.
Experimenting with video
> YouTube arrived in 2005. 1bn unique users a month. 80% outside the US. Reaches more 18-34 yo than any cable network. 33% of searches on YouTube are News related. Second largest search engine after Google.
> The story is mobile. 40% traffic is now mobile. Two years ago it was 6%.
> Best practice:
> Build a home. Eg BBC News. Different style. Shorter. Conversational.
> Welcome video: This is important.
> Branded space. Social.
> Eg The Economist on YouTube.
> Formats
> People want to read it, not here it. e.g. RTE video do masterclass in this.
> BBC News on Instagram. Text only, very visual.
> Short formats for on the go audiences. 30-60 seconds.
> Content needs to be different for each format
> EG Vice news / Capsule. Short format.
> Long form, for library / Quirky and novelty that stands out on social
> Most successful news pieces are sharable, emotional, topical and have broad appeal. Old fashioned story telling.
> Live. ‘Concurrent views’.
> What works? NPR Suggests… Place explainers / Crowd pleasers / Curiosity Stimulators / News explainers / Breaking news / etc
Search, discovery and social
> 1. Title is number one. Then thumbnail. Then Keyword. Then Description.
> Videos rank higher in search if they relate to trending topics
> Focus on publishing your breaking story with great metadata and off-Youtube promotion
> Engage with users on social. ‘Tweet us your question’.
> Annotations are evolving due to mobile. Smaller etc.
> Credits and permissions
Experimenting
> 360, virtual reality etc
> 360 spherical video. 5m cardboard viewers sold since june 2015.
> 360 cameras from £300
> Checkout youtube360 = hub of 360 video. Emerging technology.
> Production: ‘YouTube Stitching 360’ / Youtube 360 Help Centre
Google Hangouts
> Useful for inviting guests to talk about an issue.
> Broadcast live, and is recorded. ‘Hangouts on Air’. Broadcast live conversations to the world for free.
> Pick people you know!
> Check out Channel 4 to see Krishna GM do this.
My Maps
www.google.com/maps/d
> Storytelling with google maps
> Fresh satellite imagery: Sign up for this mailing list: http://g.co/GoogleMediaAlerts
Gives you satellite images of current news stories.
> bit.ly/geomedialab = Can do tutorials etc
> Embeddable maps: Good for adding maps to your content. Go to Google Maps > Find the cog > Share and embed map
> Also Satellite View
> www.google.com/maps/d = allows you to add your own editorial to Google Maps
> ‘Google My Maps’ = the place to go to create new maps. Add links, text, images and video
Google Fusion Tables
google.com/fusiontables
> Two spreadsheets. One with your story on. Secondly, the geography of that story, using long and lat of your places.
> Merge them together in Google Fusion. It turns them into a map! Add own editorial on top
> Can add heat map function and tailor it
> Really powerful. Take time to get the hang of. Find out more at bit.ly/geomedialab.
Google Streetview
> Google Maps API = free version available. Merges 360 views or images / maps. So you can compare them side by side. Eg hurricane damaged.
> Yellow man = “Pegman”
Story Spheres:
Storyspheres.com
> Brings panoramic and 360-degree photos to life
Permissions and licensing
> Google map: Use correct copyright. Happens automatically when embedded.
> Using images and satellite imagery from GE, needs to copyright Digital Globe. Needs to be on there.
> Printed Google Maps: attribute correctly
More on Maps
Email: newslabsupport@google.com
Alerts: g.co/googlemediaalerts
Practice mapping: bit.ly/geomedialab
Project Shield
g.co/shield
No comments:
Post a Comment