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SONAR

Journalism supported by technology

Challenge

Sonar is a service that aims to bring politics closer to people and show them how it affects their lives. It is also an innovative website that combines news with features that engage the reader in a completely new way. Sonar shows how media can respond to trends such as data-based journalism, user-created content and community building, big data and personalized content, interactivity and use of public data. It is an example of data-driven publishing.

Components of Sonar

Solution

We carried out this project in partnership with wyborcza.pl. That means we have been present at every stage of the project - from the idea, through design, UX, coding and data analysis and the development of business and marketing strategy. During each stage we worked together with Gazeta Wyborcza's team - designing the website together, but also involving a team of their programmers. Thanks to that we created a modern website which fully integrated with Agora's IT and marketing systems. Frontend and backend of the website communicate only through API, which allows carrying out any work related to the layout of the website without affecting the content or vice versa - work on the backend without changing the appearance of the website. The project was created within the Google Digital News Initiative fund, that was created to support media and modern journalism.

SONAR IS
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Management
Practical Scrum

Working in sprints (weekly blocks) allowed for regular changes and corrections in the service. Also thanks to our agility, the first version of the service (only in mobile form and without target graphics) was published 6 months before its official release.

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Technologies
Unique access to API Google Trends showing popularity of politicians

The uniqueness lies in the possibility to compare the number of searches for a given phrase over time and to complete queries with a "verification" module, i.e. adding reference words to the query so that data can be compared.

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Customization system
User-specific content without filter bubble effect

Based on the topics observed, answers in quizzes and polls posted on the website and other Wyborcza sites, the system "suggests" content of interest to the user and allows for the analysis of users answers and political preferences.

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We obtain data (and keep it up to date) through bots and the use of APIs, which status and mode of operation can be viewed and tested in the internal system on an ongoing basis.

Automatic export of downloaded data for administrators and editors in CSV format

Application PoDane – tool for editors

DataStorage – internal database with data that the editors of wyborcza.pl can use in their daily work on articles

Sonar integrates data from, among others, websites of both higher and lower houses of Polish Parliament, MamPrawoWiedziec.pl, Facebook, Twitter, National Company Register and archives of wyborcza.pl.