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How They Did It

101 posts

Case Studies

How They Did It: Inside #WestAfricaLeaks’ Exposé of the Offshore Economy

In late May, journalists from CENOZO in West Africa — with support from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists — published #WestAfricaLeaks, the largest collaboration of investigative journalists in the region, exposing tactics used by regional tycoons, multinational companies and politicians to take their money offshore and out of reach. Here’s how they did it.

Case Studies

How One Reporter Uncovered the US Role in a Mexico Massacre

In 2011, Miguel Ángel Treviño and his brother Omar, two of the most wanted drug kingpins in Mexico, sent members of the criminal syndicate Zetas to murder and disappear entire families in Allende, Mexico. ProPublica’s Ginger Thompson spent two years investigating the role of the US Drug Enforcement Administration in the massacre by gaining the trust of the citizens in the town.

Case Studies

How They Did It: Tracking the Copious Travels of Cameroon’s President

The full scale of Cameroon’s President Paul Biya’s jaunts abroad since he took power 35 years ago had never been calculated until now. Journalist Emmanuel Freudenthal details how he and two of his colleagues painstakingly pored over almost 4,000 newspaper pages to establish the number of days Biya had spent overseas on private trips and the amount the lavish trips cost the country.

Case Studies

How They Did It: The Real Russian Journalists Who Exposed the Troll Factory in St. Petersburg

The reason we know so much about Russian disinformation operations targeting the United States is that some Russian journalists are very good at their jobs. What the world learned about these trolls, it turns out, came not from social media firms, governments or Western media, but from enterprising Russian journalists. Here’s how they first uncovered the Russian troll factory.

Case Studies

How They Did It: Inside a Mega-Collaboration on the US-Mexico Wall

More than 30 journalists set out to film and observe every foot of the border with Mexico, from Texas to California. The result was a fully interactive map with about 20 hours of aerial footage of the border, a seven-chapter story about the journey, 14 additional stories about the consequences of the wall, 14 mini-documentaries and an explanation of the history of the border itself. Here’s how they did it.