INJECT: A Digital Inspiration Tool for Journalists

Published 30.11.2017
This week, the INJECT team gathered at the University of Bergen in MCB for the pre-launch of a EU funded, creative discovery tool that aims to inspire journalists.

INJECT is a toolkit with a wide range of features that will support productivity and creativity in the newsroom. The tool uses creative news search algorithms and machine learning, and searches selected databases for articles, individuals, concepts and visuals associated with the search query. At this stage the tool uses six search algorithms to deliver creative news angles and sparks.

– Limited resources and a constrained set of sources are some of the challenges that journalists face today. Inject can help the journalist discover new ideas for stories, explore articles and find original sources for the article, said Professor Neil Maiden, project leader for the INJECT project.

EU Project
INJECT is part of an international EU project, and has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. 14 partners across six European countries are currently collaborating on the project, including The University of Bergen and M’Labs from the Norwegian Media Cluster. Together with three local newspapers, these companies make out the INJECT Norway Ecosystem.


Demonstration of the tool. Video: INJECT. 

INJECT searches through over 2.3 million news articles and 40,000 digital cartoons in over 300 news sources. 

Tested in three Norwegian newsrooms
Local newspapers Hallingdølen, Hordaland and Sunnhordland have tested the tool over the summer, with the three of them also "plugging in" their own news archives into the tool.

– Inject is a small and agile project with a duration of only 18 months, and we have come a long way since January. We have had valuable feedback from journalists using the tool, and we have developed it accordingly. Now, Inject is doing what the journalist community has asked it to do, Maiden said, adding that there is still work to be done.


Journalist Ingvild Siglen Berger (Avisa Hordaland) talked about her experience with the INJECT tool. Left: Aleksander Tonheim (UiB).

When will INJECT be available?
The tool will be on the market early next year, and the project is funded till July 2018. You can read more at http://inject.no/ and https://injectproject.eu/