Reynolds Journalism Institute

Stay updated with the newest trends in entrepreneurial and innovative journalism. Discover top-notch industry research, practical how-to guides for both journalists and the general public, along with reports on the latest findings in media innovations.

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Articles

Embracing AI as ‘assistant’ opens door to better election coverage

3 weeks ago | rjionline.org | Austin Fitzgerald

Playbook walks community newsrooms through creation of AI-assisted election dashboardThis article is part of “AI is here,” a series from RJI highlighting AI innovation in journalism. Read more here. Bay City News, a digital news service covering 13 counties in the San Francisco Bay Area, has developed an AI-assisted strategy for local election coverage that creates opportunities for deeper and more efficient coverage — especially for community news organizations with limited time and resources.
Scientific evidence belongs in any beat

3 weeks ago | rjionline.org | Rachel Zamzow

Our interactive toolkit is almost ready for beta testingThe views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Reynolds Journalism Institute or the University of Missouri. We’ve been hard at work developing an interactive toolkit to help journalists on any beat bring more scientific evidence and context into their stories.
Introducing the 2025-2026 RJI Fellows

1 month ago | rjionline.org | Austin Fitzgerald

The Reynolds Journalism Institute at the Missouri School of Journalism has announced the 2025-2026 class of RJI Fellows, who will work to create and test free, open-source resources for journalists and community newsrooms. Over the course of eight months, the Fellows will build practical solutions designed to address industry challenges in accessible and adaptable ways, adding to a growing collection of easy-to-implement resources.
SMS-based news service wins $10,000 grand prize in RJI Student Innovation Competition

1 month ago | rjionline.org | Austin Fitzgerald

A pair of master’s students at Columbia University have won the 18th Student Innovation Competition hosted by the Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI), which is housed at the Missouri School of Journalism. A recording of the live awards ceremony can be viewed here. Alex Klavens and Justine Landis-Hanley created an interactive text-messaging service called Here Today that provides three curated news stories to audiences daily, keeping people informed without overwhelming them with information.
Journalism innovation often skips the necessary because of a failure of perspective

1 month ago | rjionline.org | Gabe Schneider

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Reynolds Journalism Institute or the University of Missouri. Grid News and Punchbowl News. Two new national newsrooms launched during the pandemic. Both claim to be different takes on how to reinvent journalism in the U.S. But beyond being well resourced, it’s not yet clear how either of these newsrooms will be more innovative than their predecessors beyond attrition.
Using public state data to build a bill tracker

1 month ago | rjionline.org | Sophia Anderson

A conversation with Caleb Bedillion of the Marshall ProjectCaleb Bedillion is a staff reporter at The Marshall Project, where he reports about Mississippi’s criminal justice system, focusing on civil rights, courts and jails. Bedillion and Daja E. Henry, another staff writer, created a digital tool to track proposed legislation involving courts, policing and criminal laws in Mississippi.
Finding a legislation tracking tool that fits your newsroom’s needs

1 month ago | rjionline.org | Sophia Anderson

Six tools for tracking bills and topics across different statesThe Appeal, a nonprofit newsroom that exposes systemic racism in the criminal justice system and spotlights alternatives to traditional methods of policing, was looking for ways to monitor evolving legislation across the country. Because every state’s government records its legislation differently, our goal was to find a tool that helps the Appeal find pertinent bills across the U.S. — and keep track of them as they change.
The surprising truth about ‘pink slime’ journalism

1 month ago | rjionline.org | Austin Fitzgerald

Pink slime news is low quality — but not because of political bias, according to research from the Missouri School of JournalismYou’ve probably seen one before: a news website filled with an overwhelming amount of aggregated content from all over the internet, with just enough local stories thrown in to capture your attention.
Re-evaluating what news delivery looks like at CivicLex

2 months ago | rjionline.org | Emily Lytle

Centering the community’s needs while finding an innovative formatWhile news creation is one aspect of what CivicLex does, the nonprofit organization based in Lexington, Kentucky, works to strengthen the civic health of its communities through many different initiatives, including K-12 education programming, community events and workshops, tools and resources, community engagement consulting — and more.
Leah Becerra joins RJI as product director for DODS initiative

2 months ago | rjionline.org | Austin Fitzgerald

Under Becerra’s stewardship, the DODS Learning Center will make digital training resources more accessible to publishersLeah Becerra, formerly the senior digital editor at the Boston Globe, has joined the Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI) as the product director for the Digital on Demand Services (DODS) startup.