Google Journalist Studio: Top 5 Tools for Effortless Reporting
Why do people flock to their favourite news sites when seeking in-depth coverage of events? It is like choosing a fine wine; you go for the one with the reputation that consistently delivers the best.
Quality journalism is digging deep and sifting through the peaks of information, events, videos, documents, images, and audio recordings.
Journalists are now tech-savvy detectives, using state-of-the-art newsroom technology and tools to ensure that what appears on your screen is as trustworthy as possible.
This underscores the value of Google Journalist Studio—a powerhouse of tools you might have heard of but never had the chance to explore fully. No worries, though! This article is your cheat sheet, a curated guide to the digital arsenal inside Google’s Journalist Studio.
What do we cover?
Top tools inside Google’s Journalist Studio
Necessary tools for the reporting game
How do you use tools for different types of reporting?
How do you pair outstanding journalism with innovative tech?
What is Google Journalist Studio?
Journalist Studio is a collection of Google’s tools in one place. It assists journalists by simplifying data search, identification, and curation processes. The tools help to streamline complex tasks, enabling journalists to gather, analyze, and organize information efficiently.
Journalist Studio attempts to ensure journalists can focus more on storytelling and less on tedious tasks. Its intuitive interface and powerful features enhance productivity and support journalists in delivering well-researched, high-quality content.
Pinpoint
What is Pinpoint?
The headache of investigative journalism is wading through documents—PDFs, handwritten notes, news articles, fact-checks, and archives. Pinpoint steps in, like a seasoned detective with a magnifying glass, helping reporters quickly navigate hundreds of documents.
‘Pinpoint’ is powered by Google Search and AI technology. The tool identifies and organizes the most frequently mentioned people, organizations, and locations, making your investigation less of a maze and more of a guided tour.
How does Pinpoint Help You?
Search through data effortlessly: Upload thousands of files directly and let Pinpoint do the complex search. You can upload files in seven languages.
Fine-tune your search: Pinpoint lets you check information, names, and locations with direct matches, combine keywords, and even exclude specific options to narrow your search.
Transform interviews into text: Whether audio or video, Pinpoint turns interviews into searchable text, saving you hours of transcription work.
Edit and highlight with ease: Copy, highlight, and edit the generated text to focus on what is truly important in your investigation.
Convert complex data into simple formats: Turn large tables, like property records or complex mathematical data, into manageable spreadsheets.
Collaborate and fact-check seamlessly: Share, highlight, filter, and organize text, making fact-checking a breeze.
According to Google, Pinpoint has profoundly affected newsrooms worldwide, becoming a vital tool for investigative journalists.
USA TODAY used Pinpoint in their in-depth investigation into 40,600 COVID-19-related deaths tied to nursing homes, uncovering the accurate scale of the tragedy.
Washington Post utilized this tool to piece together the complexities of the opioid crisis, providing readers with a complete look into one of the most pressing health issues of our time.
How do you Access Pinpoint?
You can get direct training on Pinpoint from the Google Journalist Studio.
Explore the case studies to see how it has helped newsroom reporting globally.
Sign in and get access, and start working right away.
The Common Knowledge Project
Imagine a massive swimming pool, but instead of water, it is filled with tons of numbers. The common knowledge project is your go-to spot for all things data that journalists can convert into customized charts to share with your community.
Suppose you are diving into demographics, education, and economics. Think of it as the ultimate data buffet where you can grab economic stats from countries around the globe, transform them into striking graphs, and whip up eye-catching visuals to wow your community.
The data transformation process is like turning a boring spreadsheet into a masterpiece worthy of a gallery. Polygraph, with help from the Google News Initiative, provides all this data goodness.
How Does the Common Knowledge Project Help you?
Think of the Common Knowledge Project as your personal data playground, packed with everything from demographics to economics. Major categories are
People
Economy
Health
Education
Crime
Each of these main categories includes many subcategories. All of these data come with a ready-made graph. You can tweak these graphs to your content—add a dash of this, compare data, remove a bit of that, or even start from scratch if you feel creative. Once satisfied, you can download and share your masterpiece, tailored to your preferences.
How Do You Access The Common Knowledge Project?
1. Log in to the Common Knowledge Project. This is your first step to unlocking a world of data.
2. Pick your location: You can select a location that interests you, setting the stage for the data you will explore.
3. Choose your data category: Each data category contains different data types just waiting to be explored.
4. Select your time span: Do you want to see trends over a decade? Or the past year? The choice is yours.
5. Pick your graph and background style: From bar charts to pie charts, there is something for every data story. Plus, you can choose a background that suits your style.
6. Customize your content: For free, you can create a stunning, shareable infographic chart with a few clicks.
Real-time Content Insights
Real-time Content Insights within Google's Journalist Studio are like having a live dashboard for your newsroom. They give you a front-row seat to see how your content is performing in real time.
Imagine it as your backstage pass to all the action—tracking everything from who is reading your articles to how many visitors are coming to your pages. You will get a deep dive into audience details, business metrics, website information, and all the juicy real-time data tied to each category.
How does Real-time Content Insights Help you?
Once you have logged into real-time insights and connected your website, you will get all the information on content, audience, business, and website metrics.
You can tweak your content strategy and craft personalized pieces that hit the right note with your readers. It is like having your own personal data-driven coach, helping you make each story better than the last.
You can measure information for a week, month, and custom range based on your preference.
It offers actionable insights to make your data better and get more engagement.
You can get your popular content and real-time reader information.
All of them are colorful graphs and visual information that makes more easier for you to analyze the data.
How Can You Access Real-time Content Insights?
Log-into Journalist Studio
Click on the ‘Get Started’ button
Connect your GA4 account
You are all set to explore the content metrics
Imagine a magic mirror that shows you how your content is performing and helps you understand the whole story behind those numbers. Real-time content insight is an all-in-one solution that goes beyond your wildest imagination, giving you the power to grasp how your content is resonating with your audience truly.
Real-time Content Insight Chrome Extension
Another option inside Journalist Studio is the ‘Real-time Content Insight Chrome Extension,’ which you can download and install as an extension to get all the necessary information.
Check out the success stories and see how newsrooms around the world are leveraging this incredible feature from Google. You will discover how they use it to fine-tune their strategies, boost engagement, and stay ahead of the curve.
Fact-Check Explorer
What is Fact Check Explorer?
In a world where readers demand trustworthy journalism, battling fake news is challenging. But don't worry—Google’s Fact Check Explorer is here to lend a helping hand and make your job a bit easier.
How Can You use Fact Check Tools?
As the name suggests, the Fact Check Explorer is your go-to tool for verifying facts. Whether you want to check the credibility of a specific publisher or dive into general information by entering keywords, URLs, or even images, this tool has got you covered. It is like having a truth detector at your fingertips.
How do You Get Access to Fact Check Tools?
Simply click on the Fact Check Explorer inside the Journalist Studio. You will see the options Explorer, Markup tool, and API.
1. Fact Check Explorer: This tool allows you to search for fact checks from various sources, giving you a comprehensive view of the information you are investigating.
2. Fact Check Markup: This feature lets publishers tag their content with fact-checking information, ensuring that the facts you are reading or sharing are validated.
Together, these tools are designed to help you verify the accuracy of the facts you are researching, making your fight against fake news a bit more manageable.
Google Trends
What is Google Trends?
Google Trends is like your personal crystal ball for understanding what is hot and what is not in the world of search. This nifty tool from Google lets you see how often specific search terms, topics, or keywords have been entered into Google Search over a set period.
How does Google Trends Help You?
Google Trends reveals the rise and fall of search queries, helping you spot trends, patterns, and even seasonal spikes in interest.
It provides real-time data on what topics are currently trending. You can identify the topics gaining momentum and create stories around them.
Google Trends allows users to compare multiple search terms simultaneously, making it easier to see how different keywords perform against each other.
The tool offers historical data. Journalists can identify how each topic was gaining momentum over time.
Data is presented in easy-to-read charts and graphs, visually representing the trends.
Why Should You Use Google Journalist Studio?
Google Journalist Studio is packed with tools that can supercharge your reporting game. These features are like the secret sauce that can take your content from good to great, helping you rank higher and reach a wider audience. What else is inside?
Do you need to dig up a mountain of accurate data?
Tools like Data Commons, DataSet Search, and Google Public Data Explorer are your go-to goldmines for finding valuable and precise curated data sets.
Would you like to enhance the visual presentation of your data?
If you wanted to make your data look good, you have a whole toolbox for data visualization. Flourish, Google Data GIF Maker, and Tilegrams are about turning numbers into eye-catching visuals that tell a story at a glance.
Are you concerned about the security and protection of your data?
Tools like Outline, Project Shield, and the Advanced Protection Program are like personal bodyguards, ensuring your work stays secure and protected.
Crafting Stories is Just the Beginning: What Else Matters?
Crafting stories is not just the start—it’s the decisive start. A strong story is like a well-oiled machine; it helps your content rank and reach the right audience.
People value quality content, trustworthy journalism, and impactful information, but let’s be honest—how you present that content is just as crucial as how you create it.
Even with all the tools at your disposal, there are times when you hit a wall trying to upload and present your work just the way you envisioned, right?
That is where the magic of an innovative DXP platform comes into play. You need a smart CMS solution that is as innovative as your content.
Pairing Outstanding Journalism with Innovative Tech
This is where Quintype steps in with our robust back-end. Your bold story needs the ‘BOLD CMS.’ We allow you to upload stories in all formats using customizable templates. Whether it is data, images, or graphics, you can upload it all without any technical hiccups.
Imagine uploading images and graphs with everything falling into place perfectly. You can make quick edits on the fly and ensure each visual gets the credit it deserves with appropriate attribution and spot-on captions.
For instance, when adding a chart to highlight trends, you can swiftly tweak it, caption it just right, and have it ready to impress your readers in no time.
Imagine presenting an interview like a well-spun tale, flowing smoothly, while a listicle snaps together like building blocks, making complex ideas easy to digest. It’s like giving each story the spotlight it deserves, letting it shine in its own way.
Think of your stories as pieces of a puzzle, each with its own unique shape. With Quintype products, you can customize and place them exactly where they belong, fitting perfectly into the bigger picture.
We have an innovative Pagebuilder solution. With it, you can customize website designs, provide appropriate tags, and unleash the full potential of your content, creating an unforgettable reader experience.
Here are some more features that makes BOLD the perfect fit to present news
Advanced features to create interactive content for engaging experience.
Inbuilt AI tools to enhance the content and automate mundane tasks
Editorial features to streamline the workflow.
Secure, innovative, and cost-effective infrastructure.
Final Thoughts
Imagine crafting compelling content using top-notch tools like Google Journalist Studio—you are firing on all cylinders, and everything is clicking into place. But when it is time to showcase your masterpiece, you are stuck without an innovative CMS to present it properly.
For example, you might have a brilliant interactive feature ready to wow your audience, but if your CMS can’t handle it, you are left with a square peg in a round hole. Without the right platform, all that hard work could go up in smoke.
Don’t worry, you are just one step away from pairing your content with the innovative backend tech. Quintype is designed considering all the content and tech requirements of newsroom. Ready to leap? Schedule a demo.