Findings and Press

Explore our recent press coverage; publications with Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy; and the research posts we published with RTDNA, the Radio Television Digital News Association.*

*For a deep dive into our recent published findings, please check out the videos and slideshows embedded in the starred RTDNA posts.

News through animation can improve memorability, engagement

Reynolds Journalism Institute

The Innovation in Focus team sat down with Professor Mike Beaudet to learn more about this research and to better understand how animation impacts audience’s perception and understanding of news.

Local TV news takes Gen Z beyond broadcast

Editor and Publisher

A six-year study gleans insight into what resonates with younger news audiences and ponders how to create a talent pipeline for TV newsrooms.

Northeastern University’s Reinventing Local TV News Project kicks off a year of experimentation

Storybench

Northeastern University’s Reinventing Local TV News Project (RLTVN), supported by the Stanton Foundation, is embarking on an exciting new phase in 2024 with the hiring of four fellows who are working in new roles for television stations around the country.

Northeastern Fellows Poised For ‘Most Ambitious’ Crack At Reinventing TV News

TVNewsCheck

Northeastern University’s Reinventing Local TV News Project will place fellows at three major-market stations — WCBS New York, WCVB Boston and WLS Chicago — for a year-long effort to build radically new models for digital news storytelling.

Northeastern, Local TV Stations to Explore Future of Streaming News Content

TV Tech

Project is calling for applicants for three new OTT streaming content producers and one visual content producer/animator being created by the university and stations.

Northeastern Announces Local TV Streaming News Research Project

Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA)

Northeastern University’s Reinventing Local TV News Project is partnering with three leading news stations across New York, Chicago, and Boston as it launches its third phase of research exploring the future of streaming video news content.

The Case for Video Innovation and Animation*

Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA)

To kick off the RLTVN project’s second phase, we created two new roles at our partner test stations, WLS-TV in Chicago and WCVB-TV in Boston…

The Newsroom Animator Experiment*

Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA)

The experiment with animation began with a simple design: start with quality journalism covering meaningful topics, add in creative storytelling using animation, and see if more people will watch. 

Unpacking the data*

Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA)

So much local news coverage is tied to the news cycle at a time when audiences are also expecting insights, context, impact, and an understanding of stories as they unfold…

5 Steps TV Stations Can Take Now*

Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA)

Two years of research has convinced us to double down on a recommendation we first made to local television stations in 2019: improve the quality, design, and explanatory power of your storytelling by embedding an animator centrally in the editorial workflow…

The Case for Video Animation in Local TV News: Summary Report for Newsrooms

The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy

Local news is rapidly disappearing across parts of the country, with media ownership consolidation and the number of shuttered newspapers continuing to rise…

Innovation Challenge Winner

NAB PILOT, the National Association of Broadcasters’ innovation arm

A picture is worth a thousand words. If that’s true, then animation is worth tens of thousands of words. Innovation Challenge winning Northeastern University has done research on…

Reinventing Local TV News

The Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy

The growing crisis in U.S. local news is making it increasingly urgent that local television outlets both improve the quality of news produced and chart a path toward…

TV stations should focus more on depth and emotion in stories, study suggests

Poynter

TV journalists have become conditioned to the idea that when some new study or boss tells them it is time to “re-invent” local news, it’s code for “Cut stories even…

Reinventing Local TV News

NiemanReports

To attract young viewers, stations are going digital-first, crowdsourcing reporting, experimenting with augmented reality, and injecting more personality into the news…