The 103-minute documentary on pollution that has taken China by storm — Under the Dome — has proven too much for officials in Beijing, who have removed the film from popular Chinese video sites. After the video’s online release on February 28, Under the Dome garnered an extraordinary 100 million views in under 24 hours.
The media’s now widespread embrace of data journalism has made the book Computer-Assisted Reporting as relevant as it was 20 years ago. With this newly revised, fourth edition, Brant Houston has expanded on his previous work. Take a look at how to use the tools of the trade.
Khadija Ismayilova is an internationally recognized investigative journalist known for her work digging into the hidden financial dealings of Azerbaijan’s first family. In jail and facing up to 12 years in prison, Ismayilova released her closing statement at her most recent trial through her lawyer. It’s published here.
Seven journalism organizations from six countries are the latest groups to join the Global Investigative Journalism Network. This increases GIJN’s membership to a record 114 organizations in 53 countries. Please join us in welcoming our newest members!
Open Data is spreading across the globe and transforming the way data is collected, published, and used. But all of this is happening without well-documented standards, leading to inconsistent metadata, no or little corroboration of sources, and conflicting terms of use. The Data on the Web Best Practices Working Group is working to change this.
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting about? Here are the week’s top ten data journalism links for Feb. 20-26: @jeffrey_heer on data viz’s future (O’Reilly Media), measles in Germany (Der Spiegel), Open Data boosts democracy (Guardian), Greece’s debt (WSJ), cheap data tools (@nilmulvad), and more.
Project Word asked about the challenges and opportunities facing contemporary freelance investigative reporters. The organization surveyed more than 250 journalists in 36 states in the U.S. and 26 countries. Among its key findings: increasingly dire conditions in the freelance economy are forcing many journalists to abandon public-interest stories.
Newsrooms don’t need large budgets for analyzing data–they can easily access basic data tools that are free or inexpensive. Editor and Associate Professor Nils Mulvad explains how.
What’s hot on Twitter for #ddj? Here are the week’s most popular links for February 13-19.
During the first decade of the 21st century, a transformation in journalism began in Europe and spread to other continents. A movement in the use of data for investigations has helped lead to a resurgence of investigative reporting and has spurred the creation of small online newsrooms, as well as non-profit journalism. As ever, the conundrum of paying for it remains.
Despite concerns over government surveillance, a recent survey by the Pew Research Center of investigative journalists found that few have let those worries prevent them from pursuing a story or reaching out to a source. The survey also found a more pressing concern–decreasing newsroom resources.
What’s the data-driven journalism (#ddj) crowd tweeting about? They are sharing links about the NYTimes’ Upshot’s “redesign of news,” Vox’s data journalism approach, avalanche myths from France’s ESJ Lille, and much, much more.
Think tanks are no less susceptible than any other institution to the temptations of money and power. There is a real need to address the single most important ingredient of a think tank’s quality: the integrity of its research. Journalists can do their part by treating claims of impartiality more skeptically and providing context about possible conflicts of interest.
What’s the data-driven journalism (#ddj) crowd tweeting about? Why does the world have more men than women; where is the most expensive place in Africa to run a presidential campaign; and what is “precision medicine?” Find out here!
A growing number of reports of self-censorship, hacked websites, and intimidation and arrest of writers in Serbia has prompted public warnings by the U.S. government, EU and OSCE. One of the country’s top journalists, Branko Čečen, is firing back with a hard-hitting critique on the sorry state of the nation’s media. He asks: Who’s really interested in accountability and real reporting in Serbia today?
GIJN has partnered with the Centre for Investigative Journalism, India to launch a new feature, Watchdog Reports. This daily feed on CIJ’s website curates items on investigative reporting from India and around the world, including news of the latest tools, techniques, fellowships, awards and more. India’s center, founded last year, is working with leading journalism schools and media “to train a new generation of Indian investigative journalists.”
What’s the data-driven journalism (#ddj) crowd tweeting about? African Cup of Nations athletes, Berlin bus tours, ATMs that tell us how rich our cities are, and more!
As Japan imposes new laws that threaten to restrict the freedom of the press, some Japanese reporters and activists are seeking new ways to conduct investigative journalism. The problem for Japan now is finding its own sustainable business models, as happened in other Asian countries such as South Korea or the Philippines, where there are now thriving investigative reporting centres.
Online FOI tools have gone global, but how well do they really work? UK-based nonprofit mySociety, which makes the Alaveteli FOI platforms came to some surprising conclusions about the sites’ impact and who uses them. Read the reports’ highlights to find out.
What’s hot among the data-driven journalism (#ddj) twitterati? A bus tour of Berlin, 30 years of reporting on HIV/AIDS in Kenya, 100 ways to visualize a text, and when correlation does not equal causation. Time for this week’s Top Ten #ddj!
What’s the data-driven journalism (#ddj) crowd all in a Twitter about? Here are the new year’s Top Data Journalism Links for January 1-8. Included in this week’s items are visuals from Le Temps, FiveThirtyEight, and OpenDataCity.
As I write, the news coverage of the massacre at Charlie Hebdo’s offices has been remarkably good, detailing the weekly’s provocations of Islam over the years. Less has been said about Charlie’s running battle with the French extreme right, and its role in widening the space for investigative reporting in France… This assassination has failed, stupidly and massively. It has created a bigger public than Charlie ever created on its own.
What has the data driven journalism (#ddj) crowd been tweeting about all year long?? What are the most popular hashtags? The most searched domains? The top mentions? We look back on…a year of “things” (BBC), guesting with strangers in à la Airbnb (Le Temps), all of history in “one click” (Herodote.net), the genius of Edward Tufte, and so very much more!
More than 320 journalists from the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf met in Amman in early December for the 7th annual Forum for Arab investigative journalists, the largest ever. The ARIJ annual meeting has become the main networking forum for investigative journalists across the Arab world. In spite of an increasingly hostile media environment, many Arab journalists are still engaged in in-depth reporting, pushing against the narrowing borders of free reporting, and raising standards for documentation.
In today’s globalized, interconnected world, free and unfettered information is more essential than ever. It’s essential for markets and for trade. And it’s essential to empowering the emerging community of global citizens and ensuring that they are able to participate in a meaningful way in the decisions that affect their lives. Likewise, those who are deprived of information are essentially disempowered. We live in a world in which the abundance of information obscures the enormous gaps in our knowledge
