Plain Text Zine: How We Illustrate Tech (and AI) at The Markup
A lot of what we cover is tough to visualize. We've developed a number of tricks to help—and a comic to tell you all about them.
Sisi Wei
Editor-in-Chief
Sisi Wei is the editor-in-chief at The Markup.
Before joining The Markup, she was co-executive director of OpenNews, where she envisioned and executed transformative initiatives for journalism. As part of her work, Sisi founded the DEI Coalition, a journalism community dedicated to sharing knowledge and taking concrete action in service of a more anti-racist, equitable, and just journalism industry.
She was assistant managing editor at ProPublica from 2018 to 2020, where she oversaw three editorial teams focused on news apps, interactive storytelling, and visual investigations. She also managed large, interdisciplinary investigations across the newsroom, one of which won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting in 2020. Sisi worked at ProPublica for seven years, investigating abuses of power and betrayals of the public trust across a range of topics, including health care, higher education, government, and immigration.
In 2021, IWFM awarded Sisi the Gwen Ifill Award, which recognizes an outstanding woman journalist of color whose work carries forward Gwen’s legacy, especially by serving as a role model and mentor for young journalists. In 2019, Sisi and her fellow Journalists of Color Slack admin team won the ONA Community Award, which recognizes a person or small team in online journalism that has made outsized contributions to creating tools or work environments that allow digital journalists to do their best work.
Sisi also serves on the board of News Revenue Hub.
Hello World
Ayúdenos a investigar inmigración, justicia penal y responsabilidad gubernamental
Conozca a nuestra periodista de investigación, Monique
Hello World
Help Us Investigate Immigration, Criminal Justice, and Government Accountability
Meet our new investigative reporter, Monique
LevelUp
Solving the Case of the Tricky Timeout Bug
Sometimes, fixing a bug requires “sheer persistence”
News
Pyramid Schemes Are Illegal. MLMs Are Not. What About the Tech That Powers Them?
Multi-level marketing companies have captured the public’s attention in recent years. Behind them is a little-known industry of software providers
LevelUp
How to Legally Scrape EU Data for Investigations
Data collection laws are much trickier to navigate in Europe than in the U.S.
Machine Learning
AI Detection Tools Falsely Accuse International Students of Cheating
Stanford study found AI detectors are biased against non-native English speakers
Still Loading
Magic Spreadsheets That Equip the Public
Use these tools and techniques to bring “receipts from streets” with little-to-no code
Pixel Hunt
Help Us Investigate Surveillance Marketing Using Facebook Data
Surveillance marketers are upping their game. Instead of relying on tracking pixels, companies are now sending tracking data directly to one another
Inside The Markup
Ese Olumhense, Tara García Mathewson, Monique O. Madan, and Soo Oh Join The Markup
We’re thrilled to welcome four journalists to our team of investigative reporters and editors
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