Global Investigative Journalism Network (https://gijn.org/category/tips-tools/)
Good audio is essential to quality mobile reporting and because mobile journalists — or mojos — often work unassisted, they require equipment that’s easy to use and quick to set up. Here are some newly-released smartphone audio offerings, as recommended by GIJN’s resident mojo expert Ivo Burum, that can help.
The Internet Archive is a nonprofit library that is best known for the Wayback Machine, a staple for investigative journalists around the world. Launched 20 years ago, the Wayback Machine now archives much of the public web at the rate of more than 1 billion archived URLs per day.
For GIJN’s series on journalists’ favorite tools, we spoke with Elie Guckert, a French independent journalist who focuses on far right groups and armed conflict for sites including Mediapart and Bellingcat. Guckert shared several geolocation tools, as well as a key tip about the value of right wing propaganda as a source of information about the intentions of those groups.
Journalist Maeve McClenaghan was scrolling through Twitter when something caught her eye: a post from a local community member about a homeless person’s death. Digging deeper, she soon realized no one was collecting the relevant data to build a nationwide picture of how many homeless people were dying across the UK, sparking an 18-month investigation involving a network of over 1,000 contributors.
At the recent NICAR21 data journalism conference, organized by Investigative Reporters & Editors, experts shared dozens of new tools and plugins that can save time or add efficiency and insight to any investigation.
No law enforcement agency announced any criminal investigation into the attempted murder of Russia’s leading opposition figure, Alexey Navalny, after he was poisoned with a chemical weapon in Russia last year. Instead, investigative journalists stepped forward. In a GIJN webinar, journalists from Bellingcat and Russia’s The Insider explained how, and why, they used black market data to help expose the true culprits behind that attack.
In a GIJN webinar on audience engagement, editors and digital marketing experts shared tips and resources on how to reach and engage with audiences by maximizing the impact of stories, and by using carefully curated newsletters.
For our “My Favorite Tools” series, we spoke with Brazilian journalist Gustavo Faleiros, editor of environmental investigations at the Pulitzer Center where he leads the Rainforest Investigations Network (RIN), about mapping deforestation and using data to chart what is happening in global forests.
Smartphones have bigger hard drives and more power than some laptops. And while there are millions of apps, many of them used for filming and photography by mobile journalists, Ivo Burum says that the standard features of ordinary smartphones should be mastered first.
In this interview, Amnesty International’s Sam Dubberley discusses how open source techniques can help in the investigation of human rights abuses and gives advice for journalists interested in this type of research.
Contracts to buy COVID-19 vaccines are being kept largely confidential by the global purchasing entity started by the World Health Organization and by national governments. Here GIJN’s Toby McIntosh offers a guide to reporting on the creation and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines and combating government secrecy at both the international and national levels.
