Stories
Data Journalism
GIJN’s Data Journalism Top 10: Dear Abby Data, South Africa’s Pit Toilets, The Economist’s Inequality, Politico Goes Open Source
What’s the global data journalism community tweeting about this week? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from November 19 to 25 finds society’s most urgent concerns in the textual data of a long-standing @dearabby column, a kerfuffle over @The Economist’s regional inequality graph, dangerous pit toilets in Africa highlighted by @SECTION27news and a gift of sorts from @politico, who open sourced their elections data management system.
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Case Studies
How Partnerships are Boosting Local Investigative Journalism
With the cost of investigative journalism untenable for too many struggling newsrooms, how are they able to play the role of watchdogs and hold local public officials accountable? New models, replicating global collaborations like the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, may be the answer. Marthe Rubio, the editor of GIJN in French, spoke with editors heading these initiatives in France and the UK.
Case Studies
How They Did It: Uncovering the Top 15 “Dark Money Groups” in US Politics
Non-partisan advocacy organization Issue One spent a year combing through thousands of financial filings over a six-year period to figure out where the money for campaign advertisements in the USA was coming from and who it was going to. They ultimately compiled a database that outlined the top 15 “dark money groups” — organizations that receive millions of dollars of donations from companies and businesses to fund campaign ads.
Meet the Chinese Journalist Taking on Public Records Obstacles
Reporter Feng Xin tells GIJN about the challenges Chinese journalists face with open records, and about her ongoing John S Knight Journalism Fellowship research to find some answers.
In Conversation with Carole Cadwalladr: The Features Writer Who Broke the Cambridge Analytica Story
Breaking the Cambridge Analytica scandal has reinvigorated features journalist Carole Cadwalladr’s belief in journalism and how important it is. She talks with Jacob Phillips about Facebook, social media and the future of investigative journalism.
Reporting Tools & Tips
MOUs: How to Get Everyone on the Same Page for Collaborative Projects
As collaborative journalism becomes a common practice across the media industry, news outlets may need clear documentation to guide their projects. Drafting a memorandum of understanding between collaborating partners can help get everyone on the same page. Stefanie Murray, from the Center for Cooperative Media, gathered six MOU template examples as a guide.
Reporting Tools & Tips
A Tiered Approach to Researching and Pitching Investigative Stories for Freelance Writers
How do freelancers carry out a yearlong investigation when they only get paid at the end? Investigative reporter Samantha Sunne has a tiered approach to keep you from spending precious time and resources.
Reporting Tools & Tips
Want People to Read Your Investigation? Make Sure You Tell a Good Story
It’s not difficult to figure out if your story is understandable — if your grandmother can’t understand it, you have failed. At this summer’s MezhyhiryaFest, the annual investigative journalism festival in Kyiv, the OCCRP’s Ilya Lozovsky offered up some tips to help investigative journalists tell better stories. GIJN’s Olga Simanovych pulled them together.
News & Analysis
Latin American Investigations Honored in Bogotá
Winners of the Javier Valdez Latin American Award for Investigative Journalism were honored during the 2018 Latin American Conference of Investigative Journalism (Colpin), which was held from November 8 – 11 in Bogota, Colombia.
Data Journalism
GIJN’s Data Journalism Top 10: Number Jungles, Gender Gaps, Uber Maps, Brexit Woes
What’s the global data journalism community tweeting about this week? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from November 5 to November 11 finds employment problems in the UK from @FinancialTimes, Polish data counter-narratives with @gazeta_wyborcza, cool geospatial analysis toys from @Uber, plus the launches of new data labs with @AlterEco_, data articles with @fstalph and @eborgesrey and data newsletters with @voydorg_en.
On the Frontlines of Russia’s Propaganda War, Here’s How Ukrainian Groups Are Fighting Back
A wave of misinformation is flooding the region, much of it courtesy of agencies backed by the Russian government. Olga Yurkova, co-founder of StopFake, writes for GIJN about how Ukrainian civil society is taking the fake news epidemic head on — with a little help from their (Western) friends.
Case Studies
New Models: How Academics, Nonprofit News and Government are Collaborating
The Global Reporting Centre has launched an ambitious project investigating labor abuse, environmental impact and corruption in global commerce. Here’s the Centre’s Peter W Klein on how Hidden Costs will bring together award-winning journalists, scholars and major media organizations — including the New York Times, PBS Frontline, the Toronto Star, Smithsonian Channel, NBC News, DigitalGlobe and Google News Labs — to undertake investigative-reporting projects.
News & Analysis
Donors Invest Millions in Investigative Journalism Centers at US Universities
There is one thing everyone in the journalism funding ecosystem can agree on — a free press and informed public is crucial in this age of disinformation. When the media, and truth itself, is under growing attack, philanthropic foundations and individuals are stepping up to the plate — from funding efforts to boost news literacy to building centers for investigative reporting.
News & Analysis
The Death of Bulgarian Journalist Viktoria Marinova: A Scandal, a Murder and a Mystery
A suspect in the brutal rape and murder of a Bulgarian journalist has been apprehended. But questions remain about whether Viktoria Marinova’s coverage of a procurement scandal was the real reason for her killing.
Data Journalism
GIJN’s Data Journalism Top 10: Early Voting Data, News Deserts, Next Gen Network Analysis
What’s the global data journalism community tweeting about this week? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from October 29 to November 4 finds Google search voting predictions from @datavized, hurricane maps reimagined by @_KarenHao, and interactive commuter data from @WDR in Germany.
Reporting Tools & Tips
GIJN Toolbox: Backgrounding People and Companies
When it comes to doing investigations using online tools, there is no one tool that will answer all of your questions. Instead you’ll most likely need to build slowly towards the answer using a jumble of jigsaw pieces — a name here, a connection there. The good news is that there are dozens of tools that can be used to find the pieces to your puzzle. GIJN’s Alastair Otter has pulled together tools that can be used to help build a profile of someone — or their business.
Reporting Tools & Tips
How to Identify Bots, Trolls, and Botnets
Over the past two years, words like “bots,” “botnets” and “trolls” have entered mainstream conversations about social networks and their impact on democracies. Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab laid out some of the working definitions and their methodologies to help identify, expose and explain disinformation online.
News & Analysis
#TruthNeverDies: International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists
Over the past twelve years, close to 1,010 journalists have been killed for reporting the news and bringing information to the public. On average, this constitutes one death every four days. In nine out of ten cases the killers go unpunished.
Data Journalism
GIJN’s Data Journalism Top 10: Forecasting Elections, Counting Fast Food, Kampala’s Swamp City, Gasping for Air
What’s the global data journalism community tweeting about this week? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from October 22 to 28 finds @NateSilver538 talking about election forecasting, @BBCNews highlighting the prevalence of fast food outlets in the UK, @washingtonpost comparing how tough it is for Americans to vote by state, and @business and @HowWeGetToNext on battling for fresh air in India and Europe.
News & Analysis
Writers Under Surveillance: Hunter S Thompson’s FBI Files
The power of the pen — writers are so dangerous that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation deemed it necessary to start surveillance on many of them, including Hannah Arendt, Allen Ginsberg, Ernest Hemingway, Susan Sontag, and Hunter S Thompson. The book “Writers Under Surveillance” gathers some of these investigation files that were obtained with Freedom of Information Act requests by MuckRock.
News & Analysis
The Role of Investigative Journalism in Armenia’s Velvet Revolution
This year’s Armenian Revolution saw thousands take to the streets for almost two weeks to protest then-prime minister Serzh Sargsyan and his government. Journalists in the country say that it wasn’t one story that triggered the people’s ire against Sargsyan’s rule but the cumulative investigative coverage over the years.
News & Analysis
A Billion-Dollar Fine: The Case for Saudi Reparations to the World’s Journalists
For there to be real justice in the case of Jamal Khashoggi, the penalty the Saudis pay must transcend time, place and person, and positively advance the cause of journalism and rights of free speech for generations to come, not just achieve criminal convictions, visa restrictions and economic sanctions. Citizen activist Chuck Fall proposes how that might look.
News & Analysis
IndonesiaLeaks: Officials Attack First Investigative Report From Whistleblower Platform
Top officials in Indonesia are dismissing the first collaborative investigative report from IndonesiaLeaks, which was released earlier this month. The report, which implicated a top police official in a bribery case, has resulted in a massive social media campaign aimed at discrediting the investigation, while one of the group’s media partners was hit by a denial of service attack, knocking it offline for several hours.
Data Journalism
GIJN’s Data Journalism Top 10: Stories with Maps, Tools with Charts, Casting for Shakespeare
What’s the global data journalism community tweeting about this week? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from October 15 to 21 finds @Esri’s @AllenCarroll talking the power of maps in storytelling, @visualizingdata’s catalogue of charts and corresponding tools to help information designers, and @ericwilliamlin’s deep dive into the data of casting decisions in Shakespearean plays since the 1900s.