Nerd Alert 88: Are you reading your recommended daily value of books?

HOT LINKS

What we're pondering this week

  Adam: If you’re still measuring “engagement” in likes and retweets, consider this alternate (better) definition of audience engagement from Hearken’s Jennifer Brandel: “Engagement happens when members of the public are responsive to newsrooms, and newsrooms are in turn responsive to members of the public.”

  Ben: Does it seem to you as if public radio stations are clustered at the bottom of the dial? Your hunch is correct, according to Bob Baxley's research. The reason for the clustering is really strange.

  Gabe: A fabulous guide to illustrating Star Wars icons.

  Jack: One of my really smart friends now has 4 Amazon Echos arrayed around his house. As conversational interfaces make their way into more of our spaces, designing news for AI might really become a thing.

  Julia: How (and why) ProPublica got into the elections game.

  RC: Add some new textures to your data visualizations with Textures.js.

  Inndy: I'd like to be able to speak some day, and the latest research from DeepMind looks like I'll have a voice soon.

EVENTS

The happening things

September 14 - Join us at 1 ET for our monthly News Nerd Book Club discussion. This month we'll be reading Spreadable Media: Creating Value and Meaning in a Networked Culture by Henry Jenkins, Sam Ford, and Joshua Green.

September 28-29 - INN is hosting a two-day event for news leaders to discuss everything you need to know about managing technology and product design in your news organization. Travel stipends for INN members are available and we just added some new speakers/mentors. Hope to see you there!

October 31 - The deadline for applying for a 2017 Kiplinger fellowship, a program that brings together journalists from across the country for training in digital reporting tools and tactics.

SHOUT OUT

Work we admire by our journalism peers

A screenshot of Election Databot

ProPublica and Google News Lab have launched Election DataBot, a tool to collect huge amounts of data from tons of source. Read the full list of what's available, and think how you can use it in your newsroom.

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Thanks much!

GET A JOB

Good jobs with good people, doing good work

INN is hiring a program director and an operations manager.

NPR Music is hiring a hip-hop reporter, a social media strategist, and a music news editor.

KERA is hiring a ton of positions in Texas, including two unpaid internships.

Matter, the media startup accelerator, is looking for a New York City associate.

If you're looking for general jobs in nonprofit news, the main INN newsletter had 29 job openings this week. Check it out and sign up here if you'd like to get that in your inbox every week. Receiving two newsletters from INN is twice as good as one!

SOME OTHER STUFF

Kick back and relax

DANCE: Do the alligator ?

WATCH: An analysis of Michael Bay’s filming style. ????

DRINK: Squeeze your own pomegranate juice.

DON'T EAT: Sea squirts, the animal that eats its own brain.


We believe in you!

A pom-pom crab waves its claws back and forth. In each claw is a sea anenome, giving it the appearance of shaking pom-poms.