Explainers - using structured journalism to provide context

Aims

How might we use structured journalism and linked data to enable explanatory journalism at scale?

As part of our push towards fully Structured Journalism, we are working "Explainers" - an additional level of structure beyond the current tagging model.

How will this benefit BBC News?

This is aimed at two needs. In current workflows across BBC News, the same "concepts" (this includes: issues, people, places, events, organisations & themes) are explained again and again.

A structured approach could help us reduce the workflow repetition across our Journalism operation, from news-gathering through to our TV, Radio and online products.

It would also help audiences who are unfamiliar with any of concepts in the text to get an immediate explanation without having to leave the page or lose the thread of the story.

How might this benefit the wider news industry?

This is a continuation of work we started with News Storyline, and the models we are developing are broadly applicable across the News industry.

Tweet us at @BBC_News_Labs if you want to find out more.

Results

• The thinking behind this has inspired several further experiments.