iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

I got all excited at the contemporary art museum because I thought found the original of @jerthorp.bsky.social’s amazing book’s cover, but it was just a visually related work 🤣🤦🏽‍♂️

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

"caravan" IS popping up more in immigration-related news as the US election data approaches. Media Cloud partisan-ish media data confirms. Sampled headlines suggest spike in attention from left-ish media is reactionary reporting about political right-ish using term. tinyurl.com/mc-caravan-s...

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Good news for @mediacloud.bsky.social users: our software speed-ups have enabled us to *double* the weekly default query quota. Hope this helps your work! We'll keep increasing if the servers can handle the growing usage.

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Another SciCAR highlight: Prof. Francesca Morini from @uclab.bsky.social at FH Potsdam summarized insights from viz research for data journalists. I always enjoy a talk translating research findings into concrete and tips 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

How can we learn & teach AI for data journalism? Honored last week to present a SciCAR keynote with new reflections. I think bringing back "computer assisted reporting" as a phrase might help here, to retain power and control by learning "CAR-efully" 😉

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

What do you think of the 80s? This op-ed will probably change your mind. Prof. Kaufman (my boss!) summarized the thesis of his new book for the NYT: "The Decade That Ruined Everything" www.nytimes.com/2026/09/09/o...

"Many look fondly at the 1960s — the protests, the music, the social revolution - and bypass the decade that is easily mocked but was just as consequential. It is time to set aside the wistful nostalgia for shoulder pads, Rubik's Cube, and Pac-Man and recognize that the 1980s actually built the architecture of the world we inhabit today.
Dismantling it is the first step to escape."

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Quick keyword-based analysis suggests 1/2 is about resistance or banning (needs more digging). I choose a ridgeline here to try and show the growing wave by state, which indicates a nation conversation to me. There isn't a strong spatial connection so I didn't map it.

Line chart showing one series for stories about flock and another for those that also include banning terms. The banning line moved in lockstep from the start of the year, buy grows a bit in Aug

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

Discussions of Flock surveillance cameras, privacy & misuse are growing across communities in the US. Local news coverage reflects this. I did a quick state-by-state dive into @mediacloud.bsky.social data from the start of the year and there is a clear growing wave of coverage.

Ridgeline chart showing rising local news coverage of Flock across U.S. states from February to August, with layered waves per state peaking in August. Colorado, Florida, New York, Texas, and Wisconsin show greatest numbers of stories.

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 28/08/2026

Media Cloud update: a small change to how we de-deduplicate by URL made a *major* impact on our disk I/O, speeding up every interaction with the index! You should see more responsive and faster search results, and we should see less backlog build-up on story import 🎉 Thx to Phil for this!

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The way a stroopwafel should be eaten. My take: the fresh made ones are not worth it... they have no difference in texture and you can't dip them!

A pre-made thin dutch caramel pancake sitting on top of a cup of tea

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Through a curtain you find human stories, interactive experiences, corners for playful discussion, and more. So different from things like the Arctic exhibit at Boston MoS. Will be citing in my teaching.

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

How does a museum of anthropology tackle climate change? The ways of knowing we privilege in our civic spaces matters, and produces different outcomes for visitors One of my fav museums in the world answers the question Wereldmuseum Amsterdam (formerly Tropenmuseum).

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

Considering applying for our Data Theatre replication grants? The team has scheduled office hours to answer any questions from potential applicants on Aug 27th 1-2pm EDT. More background at www.athe.org/page/dtgrants

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 12/08/2026

Lovely public data sculpture from the "Zero Flags" project in Amsterdam. The long row of flags attracts interest & attention... but then walking up you discover that they are all countries that outlaw homosexuality in some way! Details on the bottom of each flagpole. www.zeroflagsproject.nl

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

I approve of the font options for customizing your Swiss Army Knife. I’d pick Futura… you?

Photo of sign with options like Modrome, Futura, Futura Italic, and Avant Garde. You pick a font to etch your name in the blade and case of the Swiss Army knife

Poster with examples of each font option available for etching onto the Swiss Army knife case and blade

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

As a US citizen in Berlin, it's impossible to overstate how hard the Nazi and Stasi museums hit right now. The first few parts of *every* exhibit echo what is happening in the US. I know people are saying it, but seeing it here is different. 🧵

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 21/07/2026

Great example of interactive exhibit design at the Disgusting Food Museum in Berlin. This box releases a terrible smell and captures how your reaction changes in photos. A delightful piece I'll use in my future interactive exhibit design teaching 👏🏽 disgustingfoodmuseum.berlin/en/disgustin...

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

Powerful data mural in Berlin: artist Susanne Kunjappu-Jellinek commemorates the 136 people who were killed while trying to escape over the wall from GDR. Each flower represents one individual, and the text highlights escape as a form of resistance. www.chronik-der-mauer.de/en/sites/184...

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 14/07/2026

New work from SDU using Media Could to help study where Danes get their news in an election season, where political elites post (& partisanship), and related chatbot use. Great example of cross platform work to understand an information ecosystem more. findresearcher.sdu.dk/ws/portalfil...

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 29/06/2026

Funding Opp: We (Data Theatre Collaborative) wabt to see what you think community data theatre can be! With Association of Theatre in Higher Education we're offing pilot grants for faculty, students, artists, community orgs, and civic folks. 📆 Apply by Oct 1 www.athe.org/page/dtgrants

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 24/06/2026

The Data Theatre Collaborative is prepping new community performances about food security for early Aug. So excited to be invited to rehearsals again, looking at SNAP and food bank data in the Boston area.

Rahul speaking with his hands with blurred classroom background

four theatre professionals on the floor of a class room reading over a data handout

three actors positioned in different poses, representing data they saw on a handout

two actors reaching for each other in the foreground, with one higher than the other

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Amazing performance by 🇨🇻 with a draw against 🇪🇸!!! Boston has one of the biggest US populations of Cabo Verdians. So happy for my neighbors 🎉

population map of the us by county showing where cabo verdians live

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

News: I’ll be doing this Professor thing for a while 😄🎉 Giant hugs & thanks to amazing partners, colleagues & mentors who’ve supported me and given me opportunities on the way to tenure. I hope I can meet the high bar to create impact & nurture future academics and practitioners across the domains.

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 10/06/2026

The World Cup is here!!! Honored to be playing at local FanFests around Boston with my Brazilian drum troop. Come and watch the games with us this week 🎉 Fri: Fan Fest Boston @ 2pm Sat: Fan Fest Everett @ 5pm Sun: Fan Fest Chelsea @ 12:30pm, 3pm, 6pm

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 29/05/2026

How can off-the-shelf tech help hyperlocal newsrooms assess their coverage against their mission? Older work (finally) published in News Research Journal, with former Scope editor @thescopenu.bsky.social & @megheckman.bsky.social. "A content audit case study" journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 27/05/2026

I'm off to @icwsm.bsky.social this week, presenting our new dataset @mediacloud.bsky.social paper. This documents the datasets, and context, of our re-engineered online news archive and the directory of media sources that feeds it. Come say hi if you're here too. 👋🏽 ojs.aaai.org/index.php/IC...

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

ICYMI for US data wranglers: CT changed from counties to "planning regions" and that's been rolling out across census data over the last few years. I'm updating an my our-cup app for this year's World Cup and (surprise!) needed to update my static list of counties 😤 firstlogic.com/insights/con...

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

The knots at the top of each represented our year or arrival, encoded via one of the conventions from Incan times. Then below we were invited to add strips of fabric that represented important life milestones, each color indicating a category.

closeup of one string with some knots and ribbon attached

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 20/05/2026

Lucky to participate in a wonderful workshop from local artist Laidy Saenz on making Incan-inspired Quipu to tell our own histories of migration. The activity led to sharing of some amazing stories of the journeys of my immigrant neighbors. A lovely invitation to make and share 👏🏽

A women speaking with a clothesline to her side with colored strings hanging, each with knots and colored ribbons on them.

Closeup of colored ropes with knots and pinned cloths with names of the creators on them.

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

Another set of work from my data storytelling students . We played with making data sonifications with TwoTone as an in-class exercise. They found it fun and interesting , but not very strong in narrative capacity. 🤔 Here's a video demo with snippets

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 15/05/2026

Shoutout for CNN web editors for bringing us the headline of the day 👏🏽🤦🏽‍♂️

screenshot of CNN webpage with image and headline say gin "Hantavirus briefing led by penile implant specialist who pushed election conspiracy theories"

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 11/05/2026

Random new work: recently I took a super-fun weekend "Steampunkinetics" class with Bruce Rosembaum and I made some pieces I'm proud of! More photos at www.connectionlab.org/studio-art

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 08/05/2026

Boston friends: I'm honored to be invited with Grooversity to play at the @bostonlegacyfc.com "Noite Brasil" on Tuesday @ Gillette Stadium! Marta vs. Gutierres ⚽️🎉🪘See you there! Special discount tix www.gofevo.com/event/Groove...

poster for game with headshots of Marta and Guterres

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

* NFL stadiums with public transit options: Datawrapper dot-map

dot map showing NFL stadium locations in US with 2 in orange indicating that they don't have train access

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

* don't get measles on vacation(!): Datawrapper choropleth

map of US with counties colored red showing where outbreaks are, and pins showing top amusement parks, overlaps in Colorado and South CA

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

* real estate prices and farming in New England: Datawrapper choropleth

Choropleth map of MA counties with color showing that Boston and islands had biggest decrease in value, and cape cod having highest increase

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

* flood risk and construction in Boston: Tableau multi-shapefile map

Map of MA counties with an orange overlay indicating flood risk areas, with lines pointed at South End, East Boston, and Seaport areas

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

* data center debates around the US: ArcGIS Storymaps tour widget

screenshot of map interface with dot-map in background (6 dots) and a overlaid feature on left detailing protests to data centers in Virginia

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

* ICE Detainer requests in MA: Datawrapper choropleth

choropleth map of MA towns colored by number of detainer requests, with Boston being the highest rate (darkest color)

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 06/05/2026

More student work from my undergrad data storytelling class🎉 They wrote data stories that centered map-based visuals. Datawrapper, StoryMaps, Tableau, Flourish. 🧵

grid of maps detailed further in thread that follows

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 04/05/2026

🏆 "Data Drums" won a 2026 Data Sonification Award! I'm excited to continue exploring the overlaps between percussion performance and data storytelling 🪘👏🏽📊 Big thanks to my amazing co-creators Marcus Santos & Lily Gabaree and the performers. dataculture.northeastern.edu/2026/04/29/d...

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 23/04/2026

📆 Next virtual data crafting circle from @datavizsociety.bsky.social is Monday night the 27th. Sadly it conflicts with the in-person studio nights we run in our garage, so I can't join. But maybe you're free? www.eventbrite.com/e/data-craft...

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 20/04/2026

More @mediacloud.bsky.social behind-the-scenes: this new viz shows us how stories move through our ingestion system. About 85% of the URLs we fetched over two days made it into our index. Great work from our dev team 👏🏽 I love a good sankey diagram!

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 17/04/2026

It was my birthday recently and I thought all you data nerds might enjoy this card my family got me last year 🤣

printed humorous greeting card with a pie chart on it. biggest slice of pie chart is labelled "get a card with a pie chart on it".

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

and a sanity check: football coverage is seasonal dataculture.northeastern.edu/our-own-term...

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

"American" is used more in headlines on right dataculture.northeastern.edu/our-own-term...

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

"trump" still dominates headlines; the right even writes about him over xmas(!) dataculture.northeastern.edu/our-own-term...

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

"illegal" is consistently used on by the right in headlines dataculture.northeastern.edu/our-own-term...

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 15/04/2026

Project upgrade: explore a partisan breakdown of top words used in American online news headlines each week. Using Media Cloud data. dataculture.northeastern.edu/our-own-terms/ Some initial things I noticed 🧵

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Rahul Bhargava @rahulbot.bsky.social · 13/04/2026

Recently upgraded my in-office @mediacloud.bsky.social internals data dashboard display to an even bigger one! Now I gotta get a proper wall mount for it so I'm not worried it will slip and fall 🤞🏽 Powered by a tiny Raspberry PI. Shows how our data pipeline and servers are performing live.

photo of a large vertical monitor showing a grid of charts and graphs

closeup photo of the top half of a vertical mounted monitor showing a handful of charts and graphs

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