CNN and Twitter are collaborating on a tool called Dataminr for News that would help journalists sift through the blizzard of tweets for breaking news and feature story ideas, reports TechCrunch’s Anthony Ha.
The CNN team cited a few examples of how they’ve used Dataminr for News already — they said it helped them spot stories or find eyewitness sources in the past weekend’s mall shooting, in the recent Beijing-bound flight that had to turn around due to turbulence, and in the story of a Brooklyn cupcake shop that was bombarded with Obamacare-related calls.
The tool will be available to other journalists later in the year, with pricing still to be revealed.
Dataminr uses detection technology to cull through tweets and quickly find “actionable information” for clients, its website states. For Dataminr for News, the company cites the example of an explosion in December at a security building in Mansoura, Egypt, that it claims it flagged out an hour before media outlets sent out their alerts.
Based on pattern-recognition algorithms used in Dataminr products targeting financial industry professionals and government officials, the news tool is customizable and can be integrated into the client’s workflow, according to the company’s information.
