Stories behind the News; Designing an Advanced App for Journalistic Background Information

Abstract

Meanwhile, there is a consensus in the media industry: online will become the prime content delivery platform. Major contributions have already been made at the level of breaking news, but the digital configuration of more complex, contextual information is still lagging behind. With this given in mind, the R&D outlet Medialynx developed a concept for the management of complex background information in a visually attractive way, specifically for display on tablet computers. Together with design agency Essense and the leading Dutch news magazine Elsevier, Medialynx was one of the winners of the 2012 IPI/Google News Innovation Contest, and could on the basis of this grant proceed with the realisation and testing of the concept, initially coined as the Reading Radar. In this research brief, the team presents an inventory of the efforts to further develop the Reading Radar formula into a fully operational prototype and ultimately a launch-ready media service.