In this Q&A, New York Times cybersecurity reporter Nicole Perlroth details the little-understood threat posed by zero-day exploits — hacking capabilities that leverage mistakes in the code populating phones and computers around the world.
WhatsApp’s popularity in Latin America and Africa presents an opportunity for emerging, digital-first titles and smaller newsrooms. Laura Oliver explains how newspapers and startups from Zimbabwe to Brazil and South Africa are using the platform in innovative ways to share their stories.
On the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 crisis being declared a global pandemic, outlets around the world looked back on how the coronavirus has transformed our lives. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from March 8 to 14 found a comprehensive summary of how the health crisis unfolded in the United States by The Washington Post, and a look at the COVID-19 crisis in Hungary. In this edition, we also feature The Economist’s interactive tool estimating the risk posed by COVID-19 based on a person’s health, a story about the ghost towns in Fukushima by NPR, and an analysis of the future of electric cars by The New York Times.
In this GIJN webinar, we bring together two of the authors of the investigation that revealed the names and ranks of officers in the Russian intelligence agency allegedly involved in the poisoning of opposition figure Alexey Navalny and an expert on media ethics. They will discuss the way the investigation was carried out, and how far journalists should go when there is evidence suggesting a crime may have been instigated or committed by government authorities.
Architect Alison Killing says that exploring blanked-out tiles on the mapping site Baidu was the first step in tracking down and identifying the detention centers being built by China in Xinjiang, where up to 1 million people are believed to have been detained.
There is no infallible method for interviewing people who have been victims and survivors of traumatic events such as violence, crimes, disasters, or accidents. But Marcela Turati, co-founder of Mexican investigative journalism nonprofit Quinto Elemento Lab, shares recommendations that can be used as a roadmap to conduct a humane, sensitive, and respectful interview.
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.
If you have tried to mix cocktails at home lately, you’re not alone. Tired of waiting for bars and restaurants to reopen, more consumers have started buying premium alcohol, according to data published by the Financial Times. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from March 1 to 7, which tracks the most popular data journalism stories on Twitter, also found an analysis by Bloomberg showing that global food prices have hit their highest level in six years, an explainer of the connection between bats and virus outbreaks by Reuters, an interactive piece on Atlantic currents by The New York Times, and a musical map by The Pudding.
At least 860 journalists have died from COVID-19 in the last 12 months, according to a European nonprofit that has been tracking cases among media professionals since the start of the pandemic. Latin American countries account for more than half of the tally.
Data analysis and visualization expert Hassel Fallas explains how the visual presentation of facts provided much-needed understanding amid the uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic. She also shared some of her favorite examples of pandemic data visualization from around the world in 2020.
More universities are devoting resources to the teaching and practice of investigative journalism than ever before, and six recently-launched university-based investigative centers joined GIJN late last year. Olivier Holmey spoke to outlets in Norway, Japan, South Africa, and the Americas to find out what lies behind this growing trend.
While female muckrakers are breaking important stories around the world, the obstacles they face in and out of newsrooms can be gender-based, and there are too few networks and resources catering to these issues. So this International Women’s Day GIJN is re-launching an updated version of its guide, “Resources for Women Journalists.”
For decades, environmentalists have been dreaming about climate-friendly transportation. The arrival of hybrid and electric cars has brought us one step closer to travelling without damaging the planet. And this year, a California start-up promises to push the technology even further by rolling out the first mass-produced solar-powered car. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from February 22 to 28 features this story alongside an investigation by the Guardian into deaths of migrant workers in Qatar, a cross-border project revealing Hungarian money flowing overseas, and a creative infographic about animals in space.
This webinar will provide strategies and tips to engage and build audiences. It features a digital media advisor with three decades of experience in marketing and audience engagement, an expert on maximizing audiences via social media, and the CEO of a successful investigative outlet with long experience in the issues. It will focus on practical ways to ensure basic strategies and tools are in place to maximize engagement.
Freedom House, which released its annual report Freedom in the World this week, has documented the 15th consecutive year of decline in global freedom, finding less than a fifth of the world’s population living in what it considers “free” countries.
In a GIJN webinar titled “Investigating the Radical Right: A Global Perspective,” a panel of four veteran journalists with experience in digging into far right groups shared tips, open source tools, and practical insights on how to track their activities.
Outriders, the Polish journalism nonprofit, decided to postpone their membership launch and begin with a newsletter-first editorial strategy, boosted by Instagram influencers, to grow their audience and build a strong foundation for membership. And it’s working.
An alliance of regional radio stations, backed by the Peruvian investigative network OjoPúblico, has begun an unprecedented effort to fight disinformation in Indigenous languages for people living in the Andean and Amazonian regions. To date, hundreds of explanatory pieces about COVID-19 have been created in five Indigenous languages and broadcast by 15 radio stations in eight different regions.
After going through “seven minutes of terror,” NASA’s Perseverance rover managed to successfully touch down on Mars last week. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from February 15 to 21 found reporting by The Wall Street Journal and Al Jazeera, which offers more insight into the rover’s journey to the red planet. In this edition, we also feature a story about the boom in independent journalism in Russia, an analysis of the future of South Africa’s coal mining industry, and a critique of data visualization’s ability to fully convey the realities of large-scale tragedies.
Christian conservative groups are quietly spending millions of dollars in support of controversial movements in Europe, Africa, and Latin America that seek to roll back women’s and LGBTQI rights, and to support authoritarian political parties and causes. In this GIJN webinar we bring together three senior journalists who have investigated these groups and can offer tips on tracking the connections and following the money.
When a former Russian double agent collapsed on a bench in a quiet British cathedral town, it looked like an assassination attempt. Experts soon identified the poison nerve agent Novichok A234. The team at the open source investigative site Bellingcat were watching, and waiting for a chance to dig into what had happened and who was behind it.
Wisconsin-based freelance reporter and writer Howard Hardee writes about the inextricable link between online harassment and disinformation, and what individual reporters and newsrooms can do about it.
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 harrowing account, Sudanese freelance journalist Fateh Al-Rahman Al-Hamdani recounts how he went undercover to document child abuse that was occurring in Islamic educational institutions, known as khalwas, in Sudan. He also writes about his personal experience as a teenager being abused by sheikhs, as well as the actions Sudan’s transitional government has taken since the publication of his investigation.
How can we get students and teachers safely back into classrooms? For many months, this has been a key question for public authorities, school leaders, and parents around the world. This topic and others topped the data journalism stories on Twitter from February 8 to 14. Check out #ddj stories from The New York Times, NPR, the Financial Times, FiveThirtyEight, and The Pudding.
