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News & Analysis
How a Polish Nonprofit Newsroom Developed a Loyal Audience by Going “Newsletter First”
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.
News & Analysis
The Indigenous Voices Fighting Disinformation in the Andes and Amazon
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.
Data Journalism
Data Journalism Top 10: Mission to Mars, Myanmar’s Protesters, Sand Mining, Journalism in Russia
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.
GIJN Webinar — Exporting Intolerance: How the Christian Right Is Funding Political Causes Overseas
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.
News & Analysis
Becoming Bellingcat: An Excerpt from Eliot Higgins’ New Book
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.
News & Analysis
How Journalists Can Prepare for Online Harassment, Disinformation
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.
Reporting Tools & Tips
How to Take Better Images on Your Smartphone
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.
Undercover in the Sudanese Schools That Chain Boys
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.
Data Journalism
Data Journalism Top 10: Back to School, Australian Open Underdog, Amazon Oxygen Shortage, Big Tech & Green Energy
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.
Investigating South Africa’s Prison for Profit
The perpetrators of violence in South Africa tend to receive little sympathy and sparse coverage in the national press. But when Ruth Hopkins started to explore allegations of wrongdoing inside the country’s prisons, she was inundated by claims of abuse and torture. This story explores her decade-long investigation into incarceration in the country.
Reporting Tools & Tips
Amnesty International’s Sam Dubberley on Digital Verification and Human Rights
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.
GIJN Webinar — Investigating the Radical Right: A Global Perspective
In this GIJN webinar, we bring together four senior journalists who have investigated the extremist far-right in different parts of the world. They will offer tips and tools on how to track and report on violent organizations and individuals in different contexts, and give guidance on safety.
News & Analysis
The Problem with International Aid Funding of Journalism
Development actors often pay media organizations to publish content that often is just PR material in disguise. Journalist and media development expert Prue Clarke writes that it’s time to rethink a practice that undermines both independent journalism and the aid sector’s credibility.
Member Profiles
The Small Nonprofit Shaking Up French Investigative Journalism
The French investigative journalism outlet Disclose made waves in 2019 by revealing the shocking extent of pedophilia in amateur sports and the widespread use of French-manufactured arms in the Yemen conflict. One of its founders tells GIJN why a reader-supported model is allowing it to exist “halfway between the media and an NGO.”
Data Journalism
Data Journalism Top 10: Biometric IDs, Data Spaghetti, Eviction Avalanche, Remote Working
With countries around the world considering the safest ways to ease lockdown measures, alongside the deployment of COVID-19 vaccines in many places, some are finding reasons to be optimistic about the end of the coronavirus crisis. But returning to once conventional daily activities, such as going to restaurants and sports stadiums, is still a distant prospect. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from February 1 to 7 found Voxeurop covering the dangers of adopting biometric IDs and health passports, a look at Europe’s COVID-19 divide by Reuters, an analysis of leaked smartphone data by The New York Times, and a Twitter thread collection of archived data visualizations in various languages.
News & Analysis
What to Watch: Shortlisted Oscar-Nominated Documentaries in 2021
From the story of an 80-year-old spy in a Chilean nursing home to a whole family fighting the criminal justice system in the US state of Louisiana, 15 documentaries produced under tough pandemic conditions will advance in the Documentary Feature category of the 93rd Academy Awards.
Case Studies
What Journalists Can Learn from Navalny’s Investigative Team in Russia
Despite its overt political objectives, the research section of FBK — an anti-corruption nonprofit founded by Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny — has emerged as a potent investigative team that recently attracted 110 million YouTube views for a video that exposed massive corruption at a Black Sea palace. FBK’s head of investigations told GIJN about the methods the team uses for these investigations, and what professional journalists can learn from their approach.
Data Journalism My Favorite Tools
My Favorite Tools with Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Haddad
In this edition of our “My Favorite Tools” series, GIJN spoke with Mohammed Haddad, who leads Al Jazeera’s interactive team, AJLabs, where he uses data to create compelling visual stories. Haddad explains why he is a fan of RStudio, Nivo, Mapbox, and more.
Data Journalism
Data Journalism Top 10: Polarized America, Australia’s Pandemic, Poland’s Toxic Air, the Arab Spring, Life as Lego
Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from January 25 to 31 found interactive projects by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and The Guardian analyzing these events. In this edition, we also feature environmental reporting by The New York Times and The Economist, a Wall Street Journal story on the GameStop Reddit mania that shook stock markets, and a visual representation of 2020 using Lego bricks.
Reporting Tools & Tips
How to Investigate COVID-19 Vaccine Contracts
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.
News & Analysis
The Rapid Rise of Phone Surveillance
An investigation by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism into phone networks based in the Channel Islands raised questions about the surveillance technology being used by corporate intelligence firms.
Reporting Tools & Tips
Tips for Mining Social Media Platforms with Henk van Ess
Open source reporting expert Henk van Ess has dozens of tricks to find elusive social media information through indirect means, as well as a search app he created. In a recent GIJN webinar on “Investigating Social Media,” Van Ess shared several of these tips.
Data Journalism
GIJN Toolbox: Satellite Data, Tracking Usernames, and Facial Recognition
In this edition of The GIJN Toolbox — which surveys the latest tips and tools for investigative journalists — we’ll take a look at the process of analyzing satellite imagery derived from infrared radiation, a technique The New York Times used to cover a West Coast wildfire. We’ll also explore the controversial practice of using facial recognition technology, how to request NASA satellite data, a new document search tool from Google, and more.
Data Journalism
Data Journalism Top 10: A New President, Trump’s Twitter Insults, Germany’s Elections, Flying Green
As Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States, much of the international media coverage was focused on an inauguration like no other. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from January 18 to 24 found a Washington Post analysis of the president’s first address to the nation and a Bloomberg project visualizing the enhanced measures put in place to deal with concerns about security and the coronavirus.
News & Analysis
Investigations 2021: From Vaccines and Climate Change to Surveillance and the Far Right
Following a seismic year for accountability journalism in 2020, GIJN asked prominent investigative journalists around the world to share topics that their teams will be looking at in 2021. Feedback from editors in 14 countries indicates an unusual amount of subject overlap for watchdog reporters this year, centered around vaccines, technology, and autocracy.
News & Analysis
Planning for 2021: Strategies for Steering Your Organization Through the Year
As the COVID-19 pandemic enters its second year, experts in events, medicine, and fundraising offered advice to nonprofit news leaders on how to plan for another year of uncertainty.