Reporters’ Lab signs up more journalists for open-source tools

With the beta release of its Video Notebook application, the Reporters’ Lab is providing journalists with an easier solution for annotating and analyzing unsearchable audio and video files. By tapping into social media and closed captioning, reporters can use the tool to match audio and video to existing content. They can then layer in their own notes and transcriptions, using it all to navigate and search quickly through hours of material to find what they’re looking for. The tool is just one of several the lab created as part of its mission to reduce the costs of investigative journalism. Although the open-source code powering the tool is available for anyone to download, the lab is also signing up beta testers for a user-friendly version journalists with no technical experience can use in their reporting.