Google's tools for journalists
Google on Wednesday announced Journalist Studio, a suite of tools that uses technology to help reporters do their work more efficiently, securely and creatively, along with launching two new products for reporters.
The first tool called Pinpoint helps reporters quickly go through hundreds of thousands of documents by automatically identifying and organizing the most frequently mentioned people, organizations and locations.
Instead of asking users to repeatedly hit "Ctrl+F," the tool helps reporters use Google Search and Knowledge Graph, optical character recognition and speech-to-text technologies to search through scanned PDFs, images, handwritten notes, e-mails and audio files.
"Reporters can search documents in Pinpoint, which will highlight those terms and synonyms," said Megan H. Chan, News Ecosystem Lead.
Pinpoint is available now and reporters can sign up to request access. The tool currently enables journalists to upload and analyse documents in seven languages: English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish.
To boost collaboration, Google has partnered with The Center for Public Integrity, Document Cloud, Stanford University's Big Local News programme and The Washington Post to create shared public collections that are available to all users.
The second tool is a beta preview of The Common Knowledge Project, a new way for journalists to explore, visualize and share data about important issues in their local communities.
Reporters can create their own interactive charts from thousands of data points in minutes, embed them in stories and share them out on social media. The Common Knowledge Project is built by Polygraph, an award-winning visual journalism team, and supported by the Google News Initiative (GNI).
"Quality journalism is critical to our societies. In launching these tools, we look forward to continuing to use the best of Google to support that important work," Chan said.
