GIJN Webinar: Investigating Elections
The state of democracy is at its lowest point in decades. Around the world, free and fair elections face growing threats from disinformation campaigns, foreign interference, voter suppression, campaign corruption, violence, intimidation, and more.
Covering elections as a political “horse race” has never been enough. This approach to campaign reporting is even more inadequate today, as autocrats and would-be autocrats use electoral systems to seize and dismantle the guardrails of democracies. Independent media and watchdog journalists have a vital role to play: to dig beneath the surface of elections, while also protecting themselves, their sources, and free expression itself from assault by anti-democratic forces. To do this, they require tenacity, planning, collaboration, good sources, and the latest tools and techniques.
In this 90-minute GIJN webinar, we bring together five senior journalists with experience in investigating electoral processes. They will offer tips on cutting-edge tools, investigating candidates, developing sources, and tracking disinformation.
Juliana Dal Piva is a Brazilian journalist, a columnist for UOL news outlet, and the author of the podcast “A Vida Secreta de Jair” (The Secret Life of Jair), which revealed President Jair Bolsonaro’s involvement in an illegal scheme to pay advisors’ salaries when he was a federal deputy.
Rowan Philp is a staff reporter for GIJN and author of its new Elections Guide for Investigative Reporters. He was formerly the chief reporter for South Africa’s Sunday Times. As a foreign correspondent, he has reported on politics, corruption, and conflict from over two dozen countries.
Craig Silverman is an award-winning journalist, author, and one of the world’s leading experts on online disinformation, fake news, and digital investigations. He is a reporter for ProPublica covering voting, platforms, disinformation, and online manipulation.
Denis Teyssou is the Head of AFP Medialab, where he leads a team of journalists and engineers developing new tools for the newsroom. Among many other innovations, he helped develop the InVid Twitter SNA tool to help elections digging.
The moderator is Sheila Coronel, professor of journalism and director of the Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism in New York. She began reporting in the Philippines during the Marcos dictatorship, co-founded the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, and served as the Center’s first executive director.
As noted above, GIJN has just published a new resource, the Elections Guide for Investigative Reporters, which offers a broad array of tools and techniques to help watchdog reporters dig into almost any election.
Sign up for the webinar here!
Date: Tuesday 03 May 2022
Time: 10:00 AM EDT – What time is it in my city?
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License
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