Article SYEN News story rewrites itself depending on where you are

News story rewrites itself depending on where you are

by
Rob Beschizza
from on (#SYEN)

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The lede and various details in The Best and Worst Places to Grow Up: How Your Area Compares, an article at the New York Times, are rewritten automatically based upon the reader's location.

It's not overly clever. Simple, compelling details are used to frame and contextualize a dry, fact-driven story, and it works very well.

News reports generated by computers from raw data are not new, but they tend to be obvious and a bit daft, like the ersatz commentary in sports video games. This Times piece is a high-quality example of code with an appropriate editorial voice. It needs careful planning and restraint and can't just be glued together from journalistic clichi(C)s and data.

(Redditors, however, have managed to trick it into writing some rather daft phrases.)

Previously: North Korea Press Release Generator

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