Engaging and interactive journalism is still possible even without an extensive knowledge of coding. But how? We’ve taken the guesswork out, scouring the internet to find the most accessible tools to create multimedia content.
A growing cadre of journalists is pursing assertive reporting on the deterioration that they see and experience daily, and which represents, for many of them, a more acute threat than the battles over radical Islam that dominate American coverage of the region.
The relationship between transparency and political stability in democracies is simple: More transparency means more stable democratic rule. As transparency rises, democratically elected leaders are less likely to be ousted through extra-constitutional methods like a coup. In non-democracies the situation is more complicated. But greater transparency still means fewer coups.
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting? Here are top links for Aug 9-14: NYT interactives (@archietse); Trump’s tweets (@drob); Olympics data viz (@thegamma_net); Kenya teen abortions, HIV (@dailynation); Mapbox (@mcrosasb); US household debt (@lenkiefer); & more.
At First Draft, we frequently receive emails from a whole range of people asking how they can start doing the sort of online open-source investigation and verification that they’ve seen us doing. The skills and methodologies used are all something that can be learnt through a little persistence, but here are a few pieces of advice to get you started.
Threats to NGOs and civil society actors have escalated in a number of countries across Asia and the Pacific, among them the arrests of activists opposing the referendum in Thailand and supporters of the West Papua freedom movement in the Pacific.
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting? Here are top links for Aug 2-8: poverty redefined (@nytimes); Spain’s elections (@politibot); Nigeria’s debts (@BudgITng); subway directions, shown above (@nicolaskruchten); PokemonGo social divide (@lemondefr); 3D incident reconstruction (@TB_Times); & more.
There is a silent crisis afflicting our democracy: the implosion of journalism as we have known it. Its most obvious symptom is the tens of thousands of journalists who have lost their jobs in the last decade. Those jobs were never refilled. Economists may call this destruction of traditional journalism “creative” but it is nothing less than a pressing matter of national security.
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting? Here are top links for July 25-Aug 1: terrorism deaths (@guardiandata); US demographics (@jh_viz); global science collaboration (@storybench); China’s Africa aid (@EvaConstantaras); Alcohol use (@data_match); Nigerian money (@smartmonkeytv); & more.
In everyday journalism, to get the public to pay attention to your story, to make it not only truthful, but also credible and attractive, is a hard task. And it has become even harder in the digital era. Information flows constantly through our portable electronic devices, like a river of muddy waters, dragging the authentic pieces of story-telling together with the fake; the verified; and the gossip. So if journalists want to have any chance at succeeding in this battle, they must not only find good stories, but must also elevate their story-telling to an art.
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting? Here are top links for July 18-24: Trump and more Trump (@chiquiesteban, @washingtonpost); data-driven justice (@Esri); create your own database (@flexiodata); Onodo data viz tool (@civio); wind map (@planetlabs); German commutes (@zeitonline).
In the very early days of building Sonr*, we talked to newsrooms all over New York City and London to get a sense of what tools journalists are currently using to get the job done. Some of these newsrooms were more traditional than others, but we found that there was a core set of digital tools that most writers and editors couldn’t get through the day without. Let us know what you think, or if this list is missing anything in the comments!
When Gustavo Cerati, a legendary Argentinian musician and songwriter, was asked to share his best advice for new musicians, he refused—saying instead that “experiences are not transferable.” You may agree or may not with his statement, but if you’ve ever worn an Oculus Rift or a similar virtual reality (VR) headset, you’ll know we are getting closer and closer to transferable experiences.
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting? Here are top links for July 7-11: Our World in Data (@MaxCRoser); narrating networks (@JWYG); sentences off the grid (@edwardtufte); FiveThirtyEight’s ddj workflow with R (@FiveThirtyEight); Netzwerk Recherche conference video (@spreerunde); & more.
For the image on her new Twitter account, Congolese journalist Nanythe Talani features part of a quote by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “If you can’t run, then walk, if you can’t walk, then crawl, but whatever you do, you have to keep moving forward.”
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting? Here are top links for June 23-30: Brexit data (@webk1d & @timesredbox); Aleph data search tool (@pudo); spatial data (@enjalot); digital startups & human rights (@dw_akademie); humanizing data and Mexico’s missing women (@gijn).
Over 100 outstanding Chinese journalists have received prizes in the six years that our awards have been handed out. During this time we have seen for ourselves the decline of the news industry – but also seen many fine journalists bucking that trend by carrying on the baton of journalistic ideals and professionalism. Journalism has never been an easy job, and those who possess the ideals and the strength of character of a good journalist will flourish even in the hard times.
Mexican newspaper El Universal has put a face to the 4,534 women who have gone missing in Mexico City and the State of Mexico over the last decade: Ausencias Ignoradas (Ignored Absences) aims to put pressure on the government and eradicate this situation.
How can you search and analyze collections of documents on your own computers with simple tools? At DataHarvest, Robert Gebeloff and I ran a workshop to answer that question. As people were seemed interested, here’s a write-up of the two key tools we worked with: Apache Tika for content extraction and regular expressions in Sublime Text as an advanced search tool.
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting? Here are top links for June 10-22: Voting habits of Americans (@nytimes); Eurocup players (@br_data); FT dataviz guide (@digiday); stats for journalists (@ddjournalism); #ddj awards recap (@smfrogers); nursing homes in Germany (@source); & more.
With the growing relevance and popularity of data journalism, it may be easy to prioritize numbers over people, and spend our time emphasizing the data through graphics, maps, charts, and other visual products. But sometimes the faces and names behind the data get lost. Fortunately, we have some guiding lights to keep us on the path of good journalism. Consider these highlights from the panel Humanizing Numbers at IRE16…
When it’s time to start a new investigation, journalists prepare themselves in different ways: from doing the research to pitching the story to building the narrative. It’s not about a single formula, but about integrating different resources and strategies. Here, we present a selection of the tips presented at the 2016 conference of Investigative Reporters and Editors (#IRE16), useful for starting and developing investigations.
The awards luncheon at the annual IRE conference featured a moving keynote address by Columbia University’s Sheila Coronel. Her speech focused on the contagious and empowering spirit of collaboration taking hold among investigative journalists worldwide.
The results from last week’s election of GIJN board candidates are in: electronic voting by GIJN members elected two new board members: Syed Nazakat, representing Asia/Pacific, and Eva Jung, representing Europe. In all, seven seats were up for election, each for a two-year term. Five other board members were re-elected: Anton Harber (Wits University Investigative Journalism Programme), Carlos Eduardo Huertas (Connectas), Oleg Khomenok (Internews), Bruce Shapiro (Dart Center), and Margo Smit (VVOJ).
Ten years ago, when I first moved to New York and gave my first lecture at the Columbia Journalism School, I told students that I believe we are at the dawn of a Golden Age of global muckraking. They were a great class, but they didn’t believe me. But look at where we are now.
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting? Here are top links for May 31-June 9: EU Swings Right (@NYtimes); #ddj newsrooms (@niemanlab); German commutes (@zeitonline); French police violence (@BuzzFeedFrance); Dataharvest HackDay (#thesponge.eu); Ethnic America (@WashingtonPost); & more.
