Matt Waite
Matt Waite is a professor of practice in the College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and founder of the Drone Journalism Lab. Since he joined the faculty in 2011, he and his students have used drones to report news in six countries on three continents. From 2007-2011, he was a programmer/journalist for the St. Petersburg Times where he developed the Pulitzer Prize-winning website PolitiFact.
Matt’s work on Source
Projects
- Die, Bot, Die!
- True Facts, Maybe
- Kill All Your Darlings
- Telling Your Boss “No”
- Handling Data about Race and Ethnicity
- Slouching Toward Sensor Journalism
- Finding Stories in the Structure of Data
- Welcome to OpenNews Learning on Source
- Public Info Doesn’t Always Want to Be Free
Articles by Matt
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Five Years in News Nerd Careers (Part II)
A state-of-the-community roundtable to celebrate Source’s five-year anniversary
Posted onMarking our five-year anniversary with a community roundtable on what’s changed since we launched—part two.
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Just One Thing: A Year in Review, Part 3
Appreciation of usefulness and bar-raising at the end of a long, complicated year
Posted onAs we did last year, we’ve asked a couple of dozen people from all around the news-nerd community to tell us about one thing—article, feature, app, tool, or something else entirely—that they loved in 2015. This week, we’re publishing their responses, from interactives to project management software. We hope you find here at least one thing that eases your work, inspires new angles on your stories, and helps carry you through to 2016.
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Die, Bot, Die!
When and How to Say Goodbye to a Bot Gone Wrong
Posted onWhen and how to say goodbye to the bots when something has gone terribly wrong…or when no one’s really laughing anymore.
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True Facts, Maybe
Matt Waite thinks epistemology (and a little fake software) could save journalism—here’s why
Posted onMatt Waite thinks epistemology (and a little fake software) could save journalism—here’s why.
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Quakebots and Pageview Quotas: Bot or Be Botted?
Matt Waite on Daft Punk, hamster wheels, and journalism’s Rushkoff moment
Posted onMatt Waite on Daft Punk, algorithmic news, hamster wheels, and journalism’s Rushkoff moment.
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Kill All Your Darlings
Matt Waite on what to do when things don’t work out like you planned
Posted onMatt Waite on what to do when things don’t work out like you planned.
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Telling Your Boss “No”
Matt Waite says just because you can make it doesn’t mean you should
Posted onMatt Waite says just because you can make it doesn’t mean you should
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Handling Data about Race and Ethnicity
Or, How Matt Waite Got his Butt Kicked
Posted onOr, how Matt Waite got his butt kicked.
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Slouching Toward Sensor Journalism
Matt Waite on the making of a drought sensor—and why sensors matter
Posted onMatt Waite explains his drought sensor project and breaks down the promise of sensor journalism.
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Finding Stories in the Structure of Data
Matt Waite sees structure in unstructured data, and you should too
Posted onMatt Waite sees structure in unstructured data, and you should too.
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Public Info Doesn’t Always Want to Be Free
Matt Waite on the ethics of a news app: Tampa Bay Mugshots
Posted onMatt Waite on how using mug shots of recently arrested perps lead to a cascading set of ethical quandaries.
Mental Health Strategies for the Non-Invincible Newsroom