Digital Tool Tuesday: Genius annotation

 Genius began as a way to annotate song lyrics, and it still serves this function. But more and more, it’s being used by news organizations to add context to speeches, transcripts or even live events.It’s super easy to use. Sign up for Genius; once it is activated you can highlight a piece of text, click on a pop-up button, add text, links, embeds from social media.The Washington Post used Genius to annotate President Obama’s speech Tuesday announcing new executive measures on gun control. It included links to background stories, tweets from the Post’s columnists and experts, and fact-checking. Just think of how you can use it. For speeches during awards season, or your political leaders’ major addresses. You can use it to fill in the blanks while covering a live event.It also serves as a social network, so you can connect with other publications to share Genius annotations.Learn more by clicking here.