People

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.

Submit profile updates or corrections

Matt’s work on Source

Projects

  1. Die, Bot, Die!
  2. True Facts, Maybe
  3. Kill All Your Darlings
  4. Telling Your Boss “No”
  5. Handling Data about Race and Ethnicity
  6. Slouching Toward Sensor Journalism
  7. Finding Stories in the Structure of Data
  8. Welcome to OpenNews Learning on Source
  9. Public Info Doesn’t Always Want to Be Free

Articles by Matt

  1. Five Years in News Nerd Careers (Part II)

    A state-of-the-community roundtable to celebrate Source’s five-year anniversary

    Posted on

    Marking our five-year anniversary with a community roundtable on what’s changed since we launched—part two.

  2. Just One Thing: A Year in Review, Part 3

    Appreciation of usefulness and bar-raising at the end of a long, complicated year

    Posted on

    As 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.

  3. Die, Bot, Die!

    When and How to Say Goodbye to a Bot Gone Wrong

    Posted on

    When and how to say goodbye to the bots when something has gone terribly wrong…or when no one’s really laughing anymore.

  4. True Facts, Maybe

    Matt Waite thinks epistemology (and a little fake software) could save journalism—here’s why

    Posted on

    Matt Waite thinks epistemology (and a little fake software) could save journalism—here’s why.

  5. Quakebots and Pageview Quotas: Bot or Be Botted?

    Matt Waite on Daft Punk, hamster wheels, and journalism’s Rushkoff moment

    Posted on

    Matt Waite on Daft Punk, algorithmic news, hamster wheels, and journalism’s Rushkoff moment.

  6. Kill All Your Darlings

    Matt Waite on what to do when things don’t work out like you planned

    Posted on

    Matt Waite on what to do when things don’t work out like you planned.

  7. Telling Your Boss “No”

    Matt Waite says just because you can make it doesn’t mean you should

    Posted on

    Matt Waite says just because you can make it doesn’t mean you should

  8. Handling Data about Race and Ethnicity

    Or, How Matt Waite Got his Butt Kicked

    Posted on

    Or, how Matt Waite got his butt kicked.

  9. Slouching Toward Sensor Journalism

    Matt Waite on the making of a drought sensor—and why sensors matter

    Posted on

    Matt Waite explains his drought sensor project and breaks down the promise of sensor journalism.

  10. Finding Stories in the Structure of Data

    Matt Waite sees structure in unstructured data, and you should too

    Posted on

    Matt Waite sees structure in unstructured data, and you should too.

  11. Public Info Doesn’t Always Want to Be Free

    Matt Waite on the ethics of a news app: Tampa Bay Mugshots

    Posted on

    Matt Waite on how using mug shots of recently arrested perps lead to a cascading set of ethical quandaries.

Current page