The April gathering in Ouagadougou marked the start of operational activities of the Norbert Zongo Cell for Investigative Journalism in West Africa, an investigative hub where journalists can access grants, resources, mentoring and form cross-border collaborations.
The topic of big media ownership is often left unquestioned, but Mexican investigative journalist Marcela Turati believes that it is important to unveil the hidden interests of big companies because companies that disguise their business strategies as journalism can do much harm.
Here are top data journalism tweets for May 1-7, per our NodeXL mapping: delayed cherry blossoms (@TheEconomist); dataviz how-to (@albertocairo); 20 million starving (@washingtonpost); Munich route planner code (@Munichrocker); FB German filter bubble (@SZ); Open Data Index (@pinardag); and more.
There is a huge amount of data available on pollution and disease caused by the Matanza River – widely known as River Riachuelo – the problem was transforming it into information that those affected could easily understand. In a special multimedia report, La Nación used open data and data visualization to illustrate the extent of the problem.
The Oxford Dictionaries named “post-truth” as the Word of the Year 2016. It is an adjective defined as ‘relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” This attitude of readers choosing their own beliefs over facts has been a huge problem that beset journalism in the past year, with media outlets trying to regain readers’ trusts and debunking false news from dubious digital sites. Here is a list of initiatives to combat fake news that have popped up in response to this challenge.
Here are top data journalism tweets for Apr 24-30, per our NodeXL mapping: draw it yourself interactives (@br_data); visualizing Google searches (@albertocairo); opinion polls analysis (@SZ); Politibot’s graphics (@politibot); French election (@BIQdata); ProPublica jobs (@ProPublica); and more.
Today, on World Press Freedom Day, GIJN was honored with its first award, the Difference Day Honorary Title for Freedom of Expression. Awarded by two prominent Brussels universities, VUB and ULB, the Honorary Title is given annually “to a journalist, writer, artist, cultural thinker or any other person, association or institution that has made a vital contribution to protect and promote freedom of thinking and expression in an ever changing, democratic society.”
This year, World Press Freedom Day’s theme “Critical Minds for Critical Times” drives home the need for everyone to sharpen their minds to defend the freedoms — free, independent, and pluralistic media — that are essential for justice and peace. Without audiences demanding well-researched and conflict-sensitive narratives, critical reporting will be increasingly side-lined. Every citizen has a direct stake in the quality of the information environment.
It has only been 26 years since the world’s first website and server went live. Since then, digital journalism has evolved quickly through the portal era, the search era, and the social era. At present, digital journalism has entered a new phase — the Stories as a Service (SaaS) era — where journalism is paid for by readers, for readers, which will likely result in quality journalism, trustworthiness, and the building of new communities.
Global press freedom has continued its decline, now at its lowest point in 13 years in 2016 due to unprecedented threats to journalists and media outlets in major democracies, intensified crackdowns by authoritarian states, and moves by Russia and China to increase their influence beyond their borders, according to Freedom of the Press 2017, the latest edition of Freedom House’s annual report on media freedom worldwide.
Tras cuatro años de trabajo y 8.000 sentencias judiciales procesadas, el equipo de Univisión Data reveló que en Costa Rica una persona tiene más probabilidad de ser condenada en un juicio si tiene un defensor público que si tuviese uno privado. La metodología incluyó “web scraping”, R regresión logística, un método estadístico de uso muy frecuente en las ciencias sociales pero prácticamente inexplorado por las salas de redacción.
Here are top data journalism tweets for Apr 17-23, per our NodeXL mapping: French voting (@lamontagne_fr); music festival gender (@pitchfork); mapping US homeless (@FastCompany); Scottish fact checking (@FerretScot); Spanish voting (@Politibot). tilegrams (@bhaskar_vk); & more.
Reporters Without Borders this week released its 2017 World Press Freedom Index of 180 countries, and the news is not good. The report found media freedoms falling in democracies and that “nothing seems to be checking that fall.” Nearly two thirds (62.2%) of countries measured had deteriorated freedoms, while the number of countries where the media freedom situation was “good” or “fairly good” fell by 2.3%.
Tracking down local government expenses is a recurrent theme for many successful freedom of information requests. Some recent examples suggest that quite a variety of information is potentially available — about credit card charges, salaries, retirement parties, and even costs of leak investigations. Have a great story you developed using a FOI/RTI request? Send it to us at freeinfo@email.gwu.edu. We’re currently looking for examples regarding immigration.
‘Tis the season of media awards with lots of great investigative journalists — and great investigative stories — getting honored for their muckraking. We’ve picked some notable winners and finalists from the European Press Prizes, the Pulitzers, and the IRE Awards. Big congratulations to the winners and finalists, who have showcased grit and determination in exposing injustices and corruption across the globe. Despite all the challenges we face, muckraking has never been in better hands.
Four years of work and 8,000 judicial rulings later, the team at Univision Data shows how in Costa Rica, a person is more likely to be convicted of a crime if they are assigned a public defense attorney than if they have a private one. Their methodology included web scraping, R and logistic regression — a statistical method common in social sciences but practically unexplored in newsrooms.
The dependence of Mexican media on official advertising, reductions in newsrooms and the search by media outlets to “fill spaces,” meant that investigative journalism is increasingly forgotten, and the little that is done is failing to create the impact it should. In order to rectify this, reporters Alexandra Xanic, Daniel Lizárraga, Ignacio Rodríguez Reyna and Marcela Turati set up Quinto Elemento Lab – to work with and mentor investigative journalists through the progress of investigations.
Here are top data journalism tweets for Apr 10-16, per our NodeXL mapping: Brittany’s posh hotels (@dataspotTLG); Flourish #dataviz tool (@FastCoDesign); US health insurance (@NPR); hexagonal Europe (@MusMekh); visual vocabulary (@ftdata); data internships (@ONS); China’s rising water (@kimmelman); & more.
It’s been a busy first quarter of 2017 for GIJN members — from picking up Pulitzer Prizes to launching crowdfunding campaigns. There have also been new projects and new collaborations forged. Here are some noteworthy splashes made by GIJN members around the world.
মোজো হচ্ছে দক্ষ ডিজিটাল স্টোরিটেলিং এবং টুলসের এমন সমন্বয়, যা প্রাথমিক ইউজার জেনারেটেড কনটেন্ট (ইউজিসি) থেকে একটি পরিপূর্ণ ইউজার জেনারেটেড স্টোরি (ইউজিএস) জন্ম দেয়। অর্থাৎ, যা একজন ব্যক্তির তোলা ভিডিওকে একটি গল্পে বদলে দেয়।
For Ojo Público, the search for new narratives and formats to tell a story is constant. The Peruvian investigative outlet believes in experimenting and betting on new formats to reach new audiences. With this mindset and commitment to innovation, the team has produced stories in an interactive comic format, created an award-winning database and is looking to develop news games this year.
Here are the top data journalism tweets for Apr 3-9, per our NodeXL mapping: #fakenews guide (@PublicDataLab); election bots (@d1gi); data story rules (@surendranb); China climate risk (@nytimes); UK jobs (@sole24ore); #PerugiaPledge (@dw_innovation); & more.
When faced with data journalism, journalists often say “Oh, I can’t do that, it’s too complicated” [or] “I hated math in school, I really can’t take the time to learn how to do this”. However, data expert Helena Bengtsson stresses that data journalism is not that hard, and insists that every journalist should have basic knowledge of how to sort and filter a spreadsheet, and do simple calculations.
We’re delighted to launch a new column — Mojo Workin’ — on tips and tools for mobile journalism by noted mojo expert Ivo Burum. Ivo’s workshops are a popular feature of GIJN conferences. The Australia-based journalist brings over 30 years of experience producing prime-time programing across genres. He’ll be profiling the latest techniques with investigative journalists in mind, so here’s a great chance to get your mojo workin’.
Newsrooms in Asia have traditionally worked alone, guarding their sources and tip-offs fiercely and keeping their stories and investigations in-house. However, after attending GIJN’s Asian Investigative Journalism Conferences and participating in the global Panama Papers investigation, Indonesia’s top newsweekly and leading investigative outlet Tempo have been inspired to pursue their own cross-border collaborations.
Here are the top data journalism tweets for Mar 27- Apr 2, per our NodeXL mapping: interactive graphics (@driven_by_data); ridiculous news (@twisteddoodles); Malofiej Infographics Awards (@malofiej); Germany’s radio masts (@stimmeonline); Republicans voting with Trump (@FiveThirtyEight); & more.
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.
