Hey there, Benchies!

Happy almost Halloween 🎃 who’s been to Salem yet? Kidding. We avoid that place like the plague come October, but you reeeeally want to brave the crazies, the MBTA is your friend. Just don your favorite pointy black hat 🧙 and hop on that Rockport-Newburyport line. We digress. Hope you all have been enjoying these last few bonus days of seems-like-summer fall 🍂. We’ve got a whole new batch of fresh content, timely blasts from the past and cool stuff coming your way ⬇️

Buckle up! 

Here is our featured content this week.

Creating mind-bending animation with Apple's free Keynote app

If you’re like me, saying “Apple Keynote” makes you think of that random application on my desktop that sometimes pops up when I didn’t ask for it. I couldn’t even tell you what it does. Turns out, it does some pretty awesome stuff! Martin Gee 朱威華 is an emerging illustration and multidisciplinary creative maverick based in New York. Among his past and present titles: senior art director, designer, illustrator, Emmy-winning animator, visual journalist, storyteller, educator and public speaker. Needless to say, he’s more than qualified to explain just why we’re saying that. This week, he’s breaking down how we can use this awesome FREE software for animation and graphics creation 💻 

Reuters: how the public in six countries think about generative Al in journalism

For better or worse, it seems no industry is safe from the creeping tentacles of generative artificial intelligence. Once considered a distant idea from a futuristic space movie, AI is now becoming part of newsroom workflows, with major organizations like the Associated Press and Bloomberg incorporating it into their news production. But how does the public feel about all this change? Storybench’s own Namira Haris breaks it down for us, using a recent study from the Reuters Institute which looked at public perceptions of generative AI in journalism across six countries as a basis for the discussion. This is one you won’t want to miss!

Cool stuff corner: What are we reading this week?

Charts show a stark difference in the human cost of Israeli-Palestinian conflicts over the years

As we reflect on where we are, a little over a year after the beginning of the war in Gaza, it’s important to know where we came from. Especially with a conflict of this scale, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds of the unprecedented devastation, bogged down in statistics, reports and, at times, one-sided information. This 2023 piece from Joanna Tan of CNBC is worth a reread as we reflect on where we’ve been and where we're heading, affording us that much-needed and often lacking historical perspective by compiling data from multiple sources to illustrate the patterns of devastation that have persisted over time within the conflicts between Israel and Hamas. It’s a sobering read, but a worthwhile one. 

Where Voters Will Decide on Abortion in November

We’ve all been a little preoccupied with the coming election (understatement of the century) but it turns out that’s not the only consequential decision being made this fall. As this New York Times article reminds us, voters in 10 states will decide whether to enshrine abortion rights in their state constitutions this fall. For those who support abortion rights, the idea of further restrictions is alarming, but there is some solace in the fact that since Roe v. Wade was overturned in 2022, every ballot measure to protect abortion rights has passed and every measure to restrict or weaken those rights has failed. This is certainly cause to breathe a sigh of relief, but we won’t be sleeping easy until this fall is over, for oh so many reasons. But what exactly IS happening in these states? This article has the scoop, breaking down how the measures would amend state constitutions and legal landscapes, and what the polls are already saying. And you know, since we’re talking about it, that the piece is answering all these questions and more alongside lots of innovative and compelling dataviz 😎

From the Vault

The Marshall Project's Innovative Look At Death Penalty Mitigation Specialists

Show of hands for who has heard of something called a death penalty mitigation specialist 👀 anyone? Bueller? That’s what we thought. Mitigation specialists gather and present information about clients’ life experiences in hopes of swaying a jury toward a more merciful outcome. In 2014, Maurice Chammah, a journalist from The Marshall Project, met with death penalty mitigation specialist Sarah Baldwin while reporting on executions. Intrigued by the work, Chammah asked if he could shadow her during one of her cases. Baldwin agreed to bring Chammah as she worked the case of James Belcher, who had been sentenced to the death penalty for his murder of Jenifer Embry. Chammah followed the case through sentencing, where Belcher was released from death row, and documented the story in a long-form narrative piece. After the piece was published, Chammah worked with Jackie Roche, a cartoonist and illustrator to create a graphic novel-style journalistic piece. We spoke with Chammah and Roche earlier this year about the collaborative process, and this interview is one you won’t want to miss.

What's a college worth to you? These data sources go beyond the rankings.

If you’ve been to college in the U.S, you know how much it costs (in short, a lot). And especially given the price tag, the stakes of choosing an institution, for those in that unfortunate position, are even higher. To make things more difficult, online college rankings don’t always paint the full picture, as institutions typically only show numbers that make them look good. Not to worry, Mitali Sarin and the Storybench team are here to help, looking beyond sources like the QS World University Rankings and Times Higher Education rankings to offer you some alternative statistics and data that actually dive into the weeds of what makes a university experience really worth it in the long run. Take a look! 🎓

PHOTO OF THE WEEK 📷 

We’re loving this foliage season, especially with temps hovering around 65 degrees. You couldn’t ask for better conditions for a walk in the park. And one of our favorite things about Boston is how easy it is to do just that – both in the city AND, if you’re feeling a little stir crazy, a short T ride or Uber away. This particular park pictured is called Cushing Memorial Park, and is just a short walk from a commuter rail station. That said, you don't even have to hop on the commuter rail to see those 🍂! Need some inspiration? Here’s a guide to 14 top spots for foliage lovers from Time Out Boston. Happy local leaf peeping! 🍂

[ 📷: @marian_siljeholm_photography ]

That's all we've got for this week! Thanks for reading, and let us know if there's anything you'd like to see in these newsletters or in our coverage at [email protected].

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