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Editor’s Pick: Best Investigative Journalism in Sub-Saharan Africa 2020
In this year’s GIJN’s Editor’s Pick series, Africa editor Benon Herbert Oluka compiled a list of some of the top investigative stories produced and published or broadcast by media organizations based in sub-Saharan Africa in 2020.
Reporting Tools & Tips
My Favorite Tools 2020: Top Investigative Journalists Tell Us What They’re Using
This year, in our My Favorite Tools series, we asked 12 of the world’s top journalists what their go-to tools are. From VeraCrypt and OnionShare to Aleph and the Wayback Machine, here are GIJN’s favorites.
News & Analysis
Editor’s Pick: 2020’s Best Investigative Stories from China and Taiwan
As part of our annual Editor’s Pick series, read on to discover the best investigations in China and Taiwan published this year, selected by GIJN Chinese Editor Joey Qi.
News & Analysis
What We’re Reading: Tracking the Global Arms Trade, PPE Procurement Watch, and International Support for Whistleblowers
For this week’s Friday 5, where GIJN rounds up journalism news in English from around the world, we’re reading about the new Corruption Tracker for the international arms trade, dodgy deals in personal protective equipment procurement, and a recently launched organization to support whistleblowers legally, as well as financially.
News & Analysis
The Problem with Current Vaccine Trials: What Journalists Need to be Asking Drug Companies
People around the world believe the several promising COVID-19 vaccines were designed to do the two things we most want them to do: reduce severe illness and death, and reduce the spread of the disease. But a central problem, experts say, is that none of the new vaccine trials were designed to achieve either of those goals.
Data Journalism
Data Journalism Top 10: Chocolate Box Audit, Vaccine Lineup, COVID-19 Antigen Testing, Scraping Is Not a Crime
As the United Kingdom begins its rollout of the first COVID-19 vaccine this week, the world is watching with bated breath. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from November 30 to December 6 found Bloomberg tracking the development of nine of the most promising vaccines around the world, The New York Times creating an interactive for Americans to establish where they are in the line before they can get vaccinated, and Spain’s El Pais examining the advantages of using antigen testing for COVID-19 infections. Meanwhile, ITV News’ Stephen Hull did a fun data analysis of the assorted chocolates in a Quality Street tin.
News & Analysis
Editor’s Pick: 2020’s Best Investigative Stories in French
As part of our annual Editor’s Pick series, read on to discover the best investigations in French published this year and selected by GIJN French Editor Marthe Rubio and GIJN Francophone Africa Editor Maxime Domegni.
Using Theater—and Zoom—to Tell Stories of Investigations into Solitary Confinement
After spending time in solitary confinement in Iran, Sarah Shourd started to explore what confinement meant in the United States and has produced a body of work about what she found in prisons around the country. Her play about confinement – “The BOX”– was broadcast over Zoom, bringing a story about the desperation of solitary confinement to audiences experiencing isolation around the world.
News & Analysis
The Teen Muckraker Who Exposed Police Training Materials Quoting Hitler
On October 30, the student news site of duPont Manual High School in Louisville, Kentucky, in the United States, published a bombshell of an investigation: While training officers, the Kentucky State Police had used a slideshow that quoted Adolf Hitler. The reporters behind the story were a 16-year-old and his younger brother.
Data Journalism
Data Journalism Top 10: Scented Candles, COVID Risk Simulator, Trump’s Final Regs, Sigma Awards
Are scented candles a casualty of the coronavirus crisis? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from November 23 to 29 found researcher Kate Petrova’s data analysis revealing that scented candles have suffered a blow in online reviews and a decrease in ratings, possibly linked to the coronavirus’ ability to affect people’s sense of smell. Elsewhere, Germany’s Zeit Online created a COVID-19 infection risk calculator, the COVID Tracking Project explained how holidays and weekends disrupt the recording and publishing of virus data, and Reuters analyzed the shortcomings of the coronavirus contact tracing system in England. Meanwhile, the Sigma Awards, which celebrate the world’s best data journalism, have opened for entries.
News & Analysis
Three Investigations that Explored the Devastating Blast that Rocked Beirut
On the evening of August 4, 2020, a devastating blast at the port in Beirut shook the Lebanese capital. It was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in history. GIJN spoke to three outlets whose investigations all played a pivotal role in understanding what led to the explosion and why a ship and its deadly cargo were stuck at the port for so long.
News & Analysis
Document of the Day: A Look at Pfizer’s Vaccine Press Release
A November 18 press release, claiming a safe vaccine that protects 95% of people against COVID-19, by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and BioNTech was greeted with excited headlines. In this article, two leading health reporters shared tips on how to read such releases and balanced cautious optimism with the provision that the release relied on interim results from a trial in an accelerated setting.
News & Analysis
Editor’s Pick: 2020’s Best Investigative Stories from Latin America
GIJN’s Spanish Editor Andrea Arzaba rounds up the top investigative stories from Latin American media outlets in 2020, focusing on deep dive investigations into important but often overlooked topics including femicide and migration.
Data Journalism
Data Journalism Top 10: Thanksgiving Dangers, Vaccine Tracker, Crosswords Diversity, Golf Swings, Facebook Fact-checks
Around the world, people are toning down their celebrations in a bid to mitigate spread of the coronavirus. The latest casualty: Thanksgiving. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from November 16 to 22 found FiveThirtyEight’s timely piece explaining the risk of COVID-19 transmission from even small Thanksgiving dinner gatherings. Also popular: The New York Times tracking the status of all vaccine trials in progress, and The Pudding analysis of race and gender in crossword puzzles from five major US news publications.
Reporting Tools & Tips
GIJN Toolbox: SpyOnWeb, VirusTotal, and SpiderFoot HX
In this reboot of GIJN’s popular “Toolbox” series, we walk through the techniques journalists can use to find connections between websites using IP addresses and Google Analytics tags hidden in the source code of websites. We’ll also demonstrate how to use the powerful tool SpiderFoot HX to visualize network maps, which help journalists draw connections unseen in the offline world.
Online Investigative Techniques — GIJN Webinars and Workshops with Henk van Ess
GIJN is pleased to announce four free digital events for journalists on cutting-edge online investigative techniques. They will be led by the globally-renowned data journalist, open source reporting expert and trainer, Henk van Ess. The December webinars are open to all and last for 90 minutes. The January workshops are limited to a maximum of 25 people, by application only and will last five hours.
Data Journalism My Favorite Tools
My Favorite Tools: Alberto Cairo on Data Visualization
For our series on journalists’ favorite tools, we spoke to Alberto Cairo, head of visualization at the University of Miami’s Institute for Data Science and Computing. Cairo shared several user-friendly tools and core principles to help investigative reporters shape their data visually to create new insights for audiences.
Investigative Techniques Methodology News & Analysis Reporting Tools & Tips
Investigating Sexual Assault and Abuse
In a GIJN webinar three journalists who have experience reporting on the #MeToo movement and sexual abuse told reporters how to investigate an often-hidden crime. Among their tips are preparing interviewees for the process, investigating the story doggedly, and using alternative forms of evidence to verify your story. Read these and other tips for investigating sexual abuse allegations in GIJN’s latest tipsheet.
News & Analysis Reporting Tools & Tips
Top 10 Tips for Investigating Health Care, from the Experts
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a public health crisis without precedent in living memory, and journalists have been racing to keep audiences informed. For those new to the health beat, GIJN is here to help with a comprehensive new guide into investigating health care and top tips from experts on what to watch out for, how to check results, and who to talk to about medical innovations.
GIJN Webinar — Investigating the Pandemic: Behind the COVID-19 Vaccine Race
GIJN’s webinar “Behind the COVID-19 Vaccine Race” is the second event to mark the publication of our new guide, “Investigating Health and Medicine.” In this webinar, we are pleased to present a noted physician specializing in vaccine development and an award-winning health journalist. Together, they will cut through the fog to show what red flags to look for both before and after a vaccine is approved.
Data Journalism
Data Journalism Top 10: Simple Google Searches, COVID Contracts, Mining Indigenous Land, Nashville Hot Spots, Blackstone in Berlin
Have you ever noticed how your Google search results now appear with boxes of information extracted from the websites by the search engine? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from November 9 to 15 found The Markup’s new “Simple Search” browser extension, which allows you to view the best results in the “traditional” Google search format. We also discovered a visualization of the connection between members of the ruling British Conservative Party and COVID-19 contracts, InfoAmazonia’s investigation into mining requests in protected Indigenous land in the Amazon, and German daily Der Tagesspiegel showing that the American private equity group Blackstone is a major private property owner in the German capital, Berlin.
News & Analysis
Latin America’s Best Investigative Journalism Honored at COLPIN 2020
Investigations into water exploitation, government spying, and paramilitary murders were among the stories honored with awards at the annual Latin American Conference on Investigative Journalism (COLPIN), which drew hundreds of journalists from more than 20 countries in an online forum.
News & Analysis
Journalist Deaths from COVID-19 Rise Seven-Fold; Nearly 500 Dead Worldwide
At least 462 journalists have died from COVID-19, from 56 countries — with Latin American countries accounting for more than half this grim tally and a recent surge striking India and Bangladesh. One NGO tracking these deaths told GIJN that most journalists who died in the pandemic since October 1 were under the age of 60.