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Data Journalism
Top Ten #ddj: The Week’s Most Popular Data Journalism Links
What’s the data driven journalism (#ddj) crowd tweeting about? Here are the week’s Top Data Journalism Links on Twitter (for February 20-26), including items from Morgenpost, Journalism.co.uk, Untapped Cities, and Zeit Online, among others.
Case Studies
YanukovychLeaks Update: “The Project Is Becoming Bigger”
The extraordinary story of how Ukrainian investigative reporters saved thousands of documents left by fleeing ex-president Viktor Yanokuvych has gone viral. YanukovychLeaks.org, the site thrown together by an impromptu team of journalists and hackers, has received more than 600,000 visitors since going live on Tuesday – and those documents have been viewed 3.8 million times. “That means people really do care about transparency. It is valued,” says Drew Sullivan of the nonprofit Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which is helping provide resources for the project.
News & Analysis
“The Walls Have Fallen” – Inside YanukovychLeaks Investigation
This is a great time to be an investigative journalist in Ukraine. It is a moment of big disclosures. We had been reporting on the ultra-luxurious style of Yanukovych’s life and his corrupt ties for a long period, when this information was very well-guarded and kept as a big secret. It’s like one was trying to get into a closed, dark room for a long time. And then suddenly the walls have fallen.
News & Analysis
YanukovychLeaks: How Ukraine Journalists Are Making History
In the hours after Ukraine President Viktor Yanukovych fled Kiev, reports started surfacing that there were documents floating in the reservoir on his palatial 350-acre estate outside the capital. The estate is well known to the media as an off-limits location; journalists, in fact, had never entered more than 300 yards past the front gate, and even at the height of Yanukovych’s openness and good relations, journalists had only been allowed to the front door to receive cakes on journalism day.
Data Journalism
11 Ways to Rethink Open Data and Make it Relevant
It’s time to transform open data from a trendy concept among policy wonks and news nerds into something tangible to everyday life for citizens, businesses and grassroots organizations. Here are some ideas to help us get there.
News & Analysis
Investigative “Stakeholder Media” Emerge in U.S., France
The Marshall Project’s recent launch announcement confirmed that in coming years, many new investigative news media will resemble stakeholder media — vehicles that are aimed at specific communities of interest. This non-profit Marshall Projectorganisation’s strategic goal is to become the central information hub for public insight into the criminal justice system. But within that general public, the first target will clearly be those directly concerned by the system. The stakeholder community for this venture is immense. It includes present and former prisoners, their families, law enforcement and auxiliaries, justice departments, the courts, lawyers — an audience of millions.
News & Analysis
New Global Consortium for Investigative Journ Educators
This week the Investigative Journalism Education Consortium begins a new initiative in bringing together journalism educators from throughout the world who teach investigative reporting. The idea to expand the range of IJEC emerged from the Global Investigative Journalism Conference held in October in Rio de Janeiro where the conference organized, for the first time, a professor track of sessions and presentation of papers. Professors from six continents found they had much in common and were eager to continue the conversations and share research and teaching methods.
Data Journalism
Top Ten #ddj: The Week’s Most Popular Data Journalism Links
What’s the data driven journalism (#ddj) crowd tweeting about? Here are the week’s Top Data Journalism Links on Twitter (for February 13-19), including items from The Tow Center, The Financial Times, and IJNet, among others. Also, it’s funny to note the influence of Valentine’s Day on the list.
Case Studies
Reporting that Makes an Impact? Some Answers from Pakistan
On February 15, Pakistan became one of only four countries in the world that make tax records public. The other three are Norway, Finland and Sweden. A year ago, no one would have thought this was possible. Pakistan, after all, is a cesspool of corruption and a paragon of opacity. But check the website of the Federal Bureau of Revenue and you’ll find prominently displayed there a link to the Parliamentarians’ Tax Directory. Click on the link and you’ll get a PDF that lists how much income tax each and every member of Parliament paid in 2013. On March 31, a similar listing will be made publicly available for the tax payments of all citizens. How in the world could this happen in Pakistan?
Data Journalism
Top Ten #ddj: The Week’s Most Popular Data Journalism Links
What’s the data driven journalism (#ddj) crowd tweeting about? Here are the week’s Top Data Journalism Links on Twitter (for February 6-12). This week our links include items from Morgenpost, Más Investigación, and Twitter blog, among others. Thanks to Marc Smith of Connected Action for gathering the links and graphing them.
News & Analysis
Reporters Without Borders Releases Press Freedom Index
Reporters Without Borders today released its 2014 World Press Freedom Index, spotlighting major declines in media freedom in such varied countries as the United States, Central African Republic, and Guatemala while noting marked improvements in Ecuador, Bolivia, and South Africa. The same trio of Finland, Netherlands, and Norway heads the index again, while Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea continue to be the biggest information black holes, again occupying the last three positions. You can find RSF’s full index and a 3-dimensional map here. The report is also available in several languages other than English.
A Resource Guide to the Millennium Development Goals
IPI has compiled a set of useful resources and contacts for journalists covering topics related to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). While certainly not exhaustive, the links below may help point the intrepid reporter in the right direction.
Stories of the Week: A Global Selection of Investigative Reports
Here are some of the best investigative stories of the week, compiled by the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN). Today’s links include stories from Expressen.se, Tehelka, The Sochi Project, the New York Times, CBC, and Foreign Policy.
Reporting Tools & Tips
Holding Big Fish Accountable: How to Uncover Corruption
In a 2011 Transparency International survey, more than 3,000 business executives from around the world were asked to assess the effectiveness of various approaches to weeding out corruption. The result: nearly half (49%) indicated that investigative journalism played a critical role. Respondents from Pakistan (73%) and Brazil (79%), countries where the press reports fiercely on suspected acts of corruption, placed particular faith in the media’s ability to uncover wrongdoing. Why did the participants feel so strongly that journalists can help?
Reporting Tools & Tips
The Art of the Interview
The interview is one of the—if not the—most important tools we as journalists have to obtain information, to expand on information we may have from other sources, and to clarify facts and see things from different perspectives. We use the interview to expand upon the basic “who, what, where, how, when and why” of newsgathering. This is true whatever beat we may be covering: health, economics, politics, or issues having to do with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Data Journalism
Top Ten #ddj: The Week’s Most Popular Data Journalism Links
What’s the data driven journalism (#ddj) crowd tweeting about? Here are the week’s Top Data Journalism Links on Twitter (for January 30-February 5). This week our links include items from HybLab, the Verification Handbook, and GIJN, among others. Thanks to Marc Smith of Connected Action for gathering the links and graphing them.
News & Analysis
On the Trail: How To Request Information from Authorities
Power sets barriers and the reporter pushes back against them—it’s an unwritten rule on which Colombian writer Gabriel García Márquez believed all journalistic work is based. Some governments, however, have begun to voluntarily lower these barriers by approving legislation designed to make information more accessible to their citizens. To date, approximately 90 countries globally have freedom of information laws, which establish rules and deadlines for facilitating the collection of data.
News & Analysis
Resources: A Guide to Investigative Books and Films
In June 2013, we invited our colleagues in the Global Investigative Journalism Network to name the book-length works of journalism, scholarship, and even fiction that had influenced their practice as investigators. The resultant list isn’t comprehensive – though we invite you to help complete it by sending us your favorites, including full title, authors, publication or broadcast date, a one-line bio to identify yourself so we can give you credit, and two or three lines that explain why you find a given work special. (Let someone else recommend your own stuff, please.)
Methodology Research
Covering the Money behind the Millennium Development Goals
There are the two essential questions a reporter covering business, the economy, or just about any topic should always ask: ‘How much does it cost?’ and ‘Where will you get the money from?’. These simple questions are not only key to gaining information about your current story’s topic, but they offer greater insight into reasons for decisions that have a direct impact on a country and its citizens.
News & Analysis
A Dose of Advice: Tips on Covering Healthcare
In his 1999 book Development as Freedom, renowned economist and Noble laureate Amartya Sen stated that investment in healthcare can lead to success in meeting a wide range of development targets, such as those identified by the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Indeed, good healthcare improves quality of life, reduces morbidity and mortality, and raises economic productivity. As such, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recognised the importance of universal health coverage (UHC) and urged its member states to adopt programmes providing essential health packages.
News & Analysis
“Don’t Talk of Hanging” – A Week of Investigative Reporting in Pakistan
How do you cover corruption in Pakistan’s national security agencies? With caution and plenty of guts. Such reporting got investigative journalist Umar Cheema kidnapped, tortured, and nearly killed in 2010, but the founder of the Center for Investigative Reporting in Pakistan hasn’t backed down. Check out the latest from the Islamabad-based Cheema, who this week revealed that elite counter-terrorism officials used a secret agency fund to buy wedding gifts, luxury carpets, and gold jewelry for relatives of ministers and visiting dignitaries.
Methodology Research
Global Is Local, Local Is Global: Tips on Covering the Environment
The environment is the overarching issue of the 21st century for two reasons:
1. The environment includes and touches everything: air, water, food, health, climate, energy, development, poverty, economics—the list could go on without end.
2. Nearly every major environmental indicator is in decline.
We are pushing up against the limits of the Earth’s ability to support us. Climate change, biodiversity loss, and nitrogen pollution are moving toward crisis levels, according to recent studies. There is little public awareness of this reality, which means journalists covering the environment have a plethora of important stories to cover.
Data Journalism
Top 10 #ddj: The Week’s Most Popular Data Journalism Links
What’s the data driven journalism (#ddj) crowd tweeting about? Here are the week’s Top Data Journalism Links on Twitter (for January 23-29). If you click on an image, you’ll be redirected to GIJN’s new Pinterest board, where you can find links to the stories.
This week our links include items from the Global Editors Network, Journalism.co.uk, Askmedia.fr (and GIJN’s own data resource page in Spanish. Thanks to Marc Smith of Connected Action for gathering the links and graphing them.
For Whom Does the Flag Wave? Tips on Covering Gender Equality
Although egalitarian societies with a pattern of matriarchy still exist in Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania, the decline of matriarchal societies in the world has made way for patriarchal domination. Gender discrimination has become rampant. World history is, indeed, “his-story” and not “her-story”. The way we live today is influenced by, and based on, male-derived principles, which bring about male dominance and universal patriarchy. No matter where women live, they do not share equal rights with men. Sensitive and justice-seeking journalists should expose this social malady at every opportunity, so that the lives of women can improve.
Data Journalism
Data Journalism Project Maps Drilling Profits and Aid in Kenya
In Kenya’s poor, dry Turkana region, recent discoveries of water and oil could change the lives of residents who depend on food aid for survival. In March 2012, the country’s President Mwai Kibaki announced that oil had been discovered in Turkana after exploratory drilling by an Anglo-Irish oil firm. And last year, UNESCO announced that large reserves of groundwater had been discovered in the drought-ridden area. How much will the new resources help Kenyans, and how much of the new wealth will flow back to European investors? The answer is complex, but a team of data journalists is working to make it more clear. Land Quest, a cross-border investigative journalism experiment which launched last week in beta, is using data to illuminate the competing financial interests in Kenya. It maps the flow of aid money from Europe to Kenya, and the flow of profits from Kenya back to Europe.