In the digital world, finding information is easy. Open your email, Twitter or Facebook account, and it will find you. Search and you'll be flooded with content algorithmically judged important to your life – much of it sponsored by those who want to sell you something.
But finding a pure stream of valuable content amidst the torrent? That’s still a challenge. And that’s why St. Louis Public Radio and The Beacon launched a new feature this week called Rundown. In it, our reporters and editors give you a few carefully chosen recommendations for content from other sources that we think might be worth your time and attention.
Shula Neuman, our editor for Health, Science and Innovation, kicked off Rundown on Tuesday with a look at some recent reporting on ways big data might transform agriculture. The topic is the latest chapter in the ongoing debate over food production, ethics and the environment. The discussion is of special consequence in St. Louis, home to Monsanto, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and some of the world’s leading plant science research.
Our weekly schedule for Rundown sets a focus for each day:
- Monday – Education, Health or Science
- Tuesday - Economic Innovation
- Wednesday - Arts
- Thursday - Politics
- Friday – Week’s highlights from our own work.
We hope you’ll appreciate Rundown as a shortcut through the digital wilderness. We take our role as guide seriously and hope that the time we spend finding and vetting content means time saved for you.
Of course, we also remain committed to providing a steady stream of our own enterprise work – breaking news, investigations, data visualization, analysis and thoughtful discussion. But neither we nor any other news organization can cover everything. Sharing our recommendations on the work of others makes sense for all.
Here's one more recommendation: If you have a few minutes to spare this Valentine's Day, have some fun listening to our Valentine to St. Louis as the city turns 250 years old. Maria Altman's sound-rich tour takes you through some of the region's signature moments and features. Our St. Louis 250 coverage this week also included Pat Rice's look at history. In coming weeks, we'll continue to explore the things that make us unique. Think you already know St. Louis? Try our quiz.