1 LESSON - 7 MIN
Pinpoint
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Tools Used:
Pinpoint
LESSON 1
Pinpoint: A research
tool for journalists
Explore and analyze thousands of documents with
Google's research tool, Pinpoint.
Lesson Overview
Journalist Studio and Pinpoint
This lesson will help you learn how to request access to
Pinpoint and get started using the tool.
1 Sign-up
2 Get started
3 Find stories faster
3 Transcription
For more lessons, visit:
newsinitiative.withgoogle.com/training
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Sign up
To access our new tool, Google’s dedicated journalism suite of tools, Journalist
Studio
STEP 1 OF 5
Go to journaliststudio.google.com/
STEP 2 OF 5
Journalist Studio is a collection of all of our tools that
reporters can use for telling stories in a single location
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STEP 3 OF 5
Scroll down through the tools until you see Pinpoint or go
to journaliststudio.google.com/pinpoint/ and click get
started.
STEP 4 OF 5
You will need to use a Gmail address to request access.
STEP 5 OF 5
The Google team aims to review all access requests
within 24 hours.
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Get started
You will receive status updates on your access account in the Gmail account you
used to request it. Once you have received the access approved e-mail, you can
begin exploring how to use this tool as a reporter.
STEP 1 OF 5
You can log in to Pinpoint at
journaliststudio.google.com/pinpoint/
STEP 2 OF 5
Pinpoint is is divided into two sections:
“My Workplace” where you can upload and work on your
own documents
and
“Explore “ where you can search through collections from
some of our key partners like Big Local from Stanford
University, The Center for Public Integrity, Document
Cloud, and Big Local from Stanford University.
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STEP 3 OF 5
Once you click on ’Create a new private collection’ you
can upload documents that are in any of the following
formats:
Text: PDF, DOC, DOCX, PTT, PTTX, TXT,
Audio: MP3, WAV, FLAC
Image: JPG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, BMP
Email: EML, MBOX
STEP 4 OF 5
Name your collection
STEP 5 OF 5
Import documents from your Google Drive or upload them directly from
your computer.
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Find your story faster
Using the power of Google’s knowledge graph and AI technology, you can quickly
search through documents, images, and audio recordings.
STEP 1 OF 5
Once you have uploaded your documents, Pinpoint will
automatically create an index of the most commonly
mentioned people, locations, and organisations
mentioned.
STEP 2 OF 5
You can also use the Search bar at the top of the tool to
look for specific words using quotation marks or more
generally synonyms of words. For example, a search for
“moon” may return results for the word “lunar.”
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Step 3 of 5
You can use some search modifiers with in Pinpoint:
Surround any part of your search query with quotation
marks (“) in order to find exact matches. For example,
results for the search “car” will only include documents
where the exact word “car” appears.“”
STEP 4 OF 5
Use a minus sign (-) in front of any word you want to
exclude from your search.
For example, results for the search moon landing -apollo
will not include documents where the word “apollo”
appears.
STEP 5 OF 5
Use the keyword “OR” or the sign “|” between any two
phrases in order to find documents that include any of the
two.
For example, results for the search golf OR car will include
all documents where any of these words appear. The same
is true for the search golf | car.
newsinitiative.withgoogle.com 9
Transcription
Pinpoint uses Google Cloud’s transcription capabilities to create a searchable
accurate document based on your recordings.
STEP 1 OF 5
Using the add documents button you can upload audio
files to your collection.
Supported formats include: .MP3, .WAV, .FLAC. and .WAV
For more information see here
STEP 2 OF 5
Once your audio file is uploaded, Pinpoint will
automatically create a transcription. You can playback the
audio in the tool and click on the blue timecode to jump to
the corresponding piece of audio.
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Step 3 of 5
The menu in the top right gives you options to on your
recording including:
Download transcription and Download audio file.
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Collaborate on your investigation
Work with a team to find your story.
STEP 1 OF 2
The share button in the top right corner allows you to
control who can access your collections
STEP 2 OF 2
Once you enter the email addresses your colleagues can
collaborate on working through the audio, text and image
files in the collection.
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Congratulations!
You completed “Pinpoint”
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7 min estimated time
Reverse Image Search:
Verifying photos
Find photographs and uncover their
backstories.
For more lessons, visit:
newsinitiative.withgoogle.com/training
newsinitiative.withgoogle.com 13
