Nexo is a Brazilian digital newspaper, launched in November, 2015, as a pioneering initiative on contextual journalism in Brazil. We seek to value the access of a diverse audience to a clear, plural, explanatory material that collaborates to subsidize opinion formation and qualification of public debate. Using diverse resources of design, technology and research, we value interactive features, charts and videos for a better visualization of information and data, along with continuous development of technological tools.
This format allows us to create interactive and responsive content, as we explain with these examples:
Through a data-journalism effort combined with a clean design and a fine user experience, the feature “What are the discordance and agreement rates among Justices of the Brazilian Supreme Court” presents graphically unprecedented information about the most powerful Justice institution in the country. Raw data from around 9,000 decisions of the court plenary was collected and a code was developed to identify how each Justice voted and which were absent during the trials. The reader can interact with the charts, selecting which Law branch they would like to dive in. Our work also explains to laic readers what is the importance of the Supreme Court and who are its Justices, making it accessible to any citizen interested in better understanding national justice.
In “Mariana: a tragedy genesis”, reporters, designers and developers show, step by step, what were the mistakes in the conception, construction and operation of the Fundão mine, in the city of Mariana, that led to its rupture, the worst environmental disaster in Brazilian history. Through a compelling visual narrative that mixes texts, maps, illustration, bidimensional and tridimensional graphs, the piece presents new and exclusive reporting on the catastrophe.
The special feature “100 Years of Music with Samba” tells through several means, such as video, music, text, and audio, the story and transformation of Samba over one century. Launched in 2016, it celebrated 100 years since the composition of the first recognized samba music. The editorial content takes us through several groundbreaking styles that our readers can follow listening to musical examples while reading the text.
As part of our editorial model, we value interacting with our readers through different channels, creating a sense of community around Nexo. Every interaction on our social media accounts is read by a staff member. We give feedback when required and moderate what is displayed on our pages in order to stimulate healthy discussions. We also present our commentary policies in private to those who infringe it, contributing to enhance the culture of tolerance online. Our Facebook page, as a result, frequently displays fine debates that work as an extension to our journalistic pieces.
Social media is also used as a source for the journalistic content produced. One example of infographics created with data extracted from Twitter is “How Twitter reacted to the recordings of Temer and Dilma,” which contributed to understanding the population’s reactions in two important moments of the current Brazilian political crisis.
