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News & Analysis
Taco Kuiper Award: “We need probing, fact checked, fearless journalism”
In a time where too many editors are perceiving investigative reporting as a luxury which they can no longer afford, South African journalists are still spending their time digging and probing to expose wrongdoing. As Suzanne Venter picked up her Taco Kuiper Award for the story on the mentally ill patient scandal, she cited “not giving up”, “putting in extra hours” and “speaking to everyone involved” as the keys to do good journalism.
Reporting Tools & Tips
Protecting Forests with FOI Laws
Every year the world loses 13 million hectares (32 million acres) of forests, an area about the size of Greece. A critical way to stem this forest loss is to make concessions data more transparent. This information is critical as it gives journalists, civil society groups and the public the information they need to hold the government and the private sector accountable for deforestation.
Case Studies
How Communities Enable Success in Watchdog News
At a time when many legacy publications and platforms are foundering financially, stakeholder-driven media are proving the business case for an advocacy-based, community audience paradigm. What drives it to work is if your organisation has a decent mission that matter to the target community and you deliver in a reliable and accessible manner. Mark Lee Hunter, Luk Van Wassenhove and Maria Besiou explore the success stories of SDMs and analyse the keys to their success.
Data Journalism
Top Ten #ddj: The Week’s Most Popular Data Journalism Links
Here are the top data journalism tweets for March 20-26, per our NodeXL mapping: record low Arctic ice (@NASA); Europe’s STEM gender issue (@MSFTnews); satellite imagery search (@ddjournalism); Western Europe terrorism (@TheEconomist); storm #dataviz (@sciam); data resources (@jschwabish); & more.
The Tax Disclosure Project
Last month, an international group of investigative journalists launched the Tax Disclosure Project – a global initiative requesting politicians in 20 countries to publicly disclose their tax returns. The project, coordinated by Finance Uncovered, aims to ensure transparency, accountability and an avoidance of wrongdoing and potential conflicts of interest among lawmakers. In this piece, Finance Uncovered co-director Nick Mathiason shares with GIJN the process of setting up this cross-border collaboration.
News & Analysis
Why Open Data Is Good For China
Open data can bring much value to China, especially with regard to government efficiency and effectiveness, data-informed decision-making, and increasing the public’s trust through greater engagement. Although there have been improvements in the quality and availability of government open data in China, data expert Yolanda Ma states that there are still many more challenges to overcome.
Data Journalism
Data Biographies: Getting to Know Your Data
Too often, inexperienced data users accept the data they receive at face value. Data scientist Heather Krause cautions that data should be treated similar to a human source. Just as you’d do a background check on a human source before publishing what they told you, you need to understand your data.
News & Analysis
Digital Strategy: Prioritize Community, Not Audience
The old news business model has been serving advertisers and investors at the expense of the most important people in the media equation — the public, the readers, the users. But now that digital media have broken up that arranged marriage of advertising and news content, publishers are rediscovering the importance of focusing on serving readers.
Data Journalism
Top Ten #ddj: The Week’s Most Popular Data Journalism Links
Here are the top data journalism tweets for March 13-19, per our NodeXL mapping: #NICAR17 resources (@MacDiva); Breitbart network analysis (@CJR); climate change calculator (@FT); Trump’s Budget (@washingtonpost); Berlin pickpockets (@berlinerzeitung); Caracas jobless (@CamburYMedio); & more.