0%

The original Modular Journalism project was part of the 2021 JournalismAI Collab Challenges. Four newsrooms—Clwstwr (United Kingdom), Deutsche Welle (Germany), Il Sole 24 Ore (Italy), and Maharat Foundation (Lebanon)—with support from Gary Rogers and Robert Dale, set out to build new story formats for audiences poorly reached by traditional media. Modules were defined as discrete elements that could be created independently and combined in different ways. Before building new formats, we developed a clear theoretical framework and a practical methodology to guide modular work.

The prototype showed modular-first news artefacts that were repurposed across multiple story types. Our tests indicated that creating modules at the outset was more coherent and effective than extracting them from legacy articles. This approach supported quality and scale: updating one or two modules could refresh several story versions, and some modules could remain evergreen for use across many pieces.

We grounded the work in a taxonomy of user information needs and in van Dijk’s news schema to keep stories linguistically sound and familiar. From an initial list of about 60 needs, we selected 10 core modules to prove the concept. Key questions included Why is this important, What has got us here, What is the impact on my community, Who is disproportionately affected, What don’t we know, and How can we fix it. A simple slider let users choose formats ranging from a quick update to full context.

Using predefined templates and patterns, the prototype assembled multiple story versions from the same set of modules to meet different needs. The structural work behind the modules provided a robust but flexible algebra that any newsroom could adapt to its workflows. By focusing on the inner structure of news artefacts, we aimed to raise usefulness and trust, reach younger and more diverse audiences, and offer practical guidance that newsrooms could apply in everyday practice.

Read the full essay on modularjournalism.com.