The Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute at New York University and non-profit investigative journalism outlet ProPublica have joined forces to promote "explanatory journalism".

At the centre of the new initiative, which will run for the rest of the 2010-11 academic year, will be Explainer.net. The site has been set up and will be operated by NYU students, who will use it to highlight good examples of explanatory journalism and interview journalists carrying it out.

The project describes explanatory journalism as "a form of journalism that provides essential background knowledge to follow events and trends in the news".

"An explainer is a work of journalism, but it doesn't provide the latest news or update you on a story. It addresses a gap in your understanding: the lack of essential background knowledge. We wanted to work with the journalists at ProPublica on this problem because they investigate complicated stories and share what they've learned with other journalists. It seemed like a perfect match," says NYU Professor Jay Rosen, who will lead the project, in a release.

The scheme is an extension of ProPublica's committment to providing background information and material to help explain complex investigations and stories, the site says.

Graduate students involved with NYU's innovation and web journalism lab Studio 20 will work closely with editors at ProPublica to run the Explainer site and to produce explainers for publication on ProPublica.

"Orienting readers and giving them context has long been a key component of good journalism. But the web allows you to rethink what forms that can take and how it should be done. We're thrilled to be working with Studio 20 and Jay on experimenting with that," says Eric Umansky, a senior editor at ProPublica, in the release.

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