The Markup

The Markup is a nonprofit newsroom that reports on technology and its impacts on society. This award-winning newsroom is staffed predominantly by quantitative journalists who conduct complex data-driven investigations aimed at helping its readers understand the role that technology has on every aspect of their lives. This grant provides travel support to enable a staff member of The Markup to attend the Skoll World Forum in April 2024 as part of a MacArthur delegation of Foundation staff and grantees.

The Markup is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates how powerful actors use technology to reshape society. It seeks to expose the ways in which new technologies are deepening and exacerbating existing social inequalities. To achieve this, The Markup is staffed with quantitative journalists and investigative journalists who work side-by-side to advance impactful service journalism. The organization pursues its stories through a three-step process it calls The Markup Method: 1) The Markup staff ask questions and collect or build the datasets needed to test their hypotheses; 2) stories go through a rigorous review process, inviting external experts and even subjects of investigations to challenge findings; and, 3) The Markup shares its research methods by publishing its datasets and code whenever possible, and explaining its approach in detailed methodological write-ups. Through its work, The Markup produces a mix of high-impact investigative journalism; weekly explainers about specific technology and society issues; and, the creation of open-source tools to persistently monitor harms, like Blacklight, a real-time website privacy inspector. The award provides general support to organization.