One of the central ethical tenets of professional journalism is “first, protect your sources.” But in this digital age, it is becoming more dangerous to keep your sources safe as governments are able to track reporters and their sources digitally. Here are 20 guidelines for working with whistleblowers in the digital era. What’s missing?
In a recent training session in Kyiv, producer Matt Sarnetski and journalist Anna Babinets talked about how they created Killing Pavel, a documentary about the murder of the well-known journalist Pavel Sheremet. GIJN has rounded up the key takeaways.
A Berlin-based group of researchers has launched the world’s first publicly accessible database of chemical weapons attacks in Syria. Aimed mainly at human rights organizations, it could also help investigative reporters in some potentially surprising ways. A GIJN original.
Raising money for your news organization via crowdfunding is difficult and can be stressful. Hungary’s Direkt36, which has run four successful crowdfunding campaigns so far, offers 10 tips from their experience to help you plan a good campaign. A GIJN original.
There are lots of different tools to measure analytics in the newsroom, but Google Analytics is one of the most widely used. Plus it’s free. Here are some ideas to help those working in organizations that don’t have access to expensive audience monitoring services to move beyond page views to measure the success of their digital content. A GIJN original.
The US Treasury Department hit Russian oligarchs and their companies with a host of new sanctions today, zeroing in on the country’s energy sector and cronies of President Vladimir Putin. Among those blacklisted: seven oligarchs, 12 companies and 17 senior government officials, including metals magnate Oleg Deripaska, who is tied in media reports to Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort. Here’s a look at the actual documents.
OCCRP Data, part of the Investigative Dashboard, offers journalists a shortcut to the deep web. It now has over 170 public sources and more than 100 million leads for public search – news archives, court documents, leaks and grey literature encompassing UK parliamentary inquiries, companies and procurement databases, NGO reports and even CIA rendition flights, among other choice reading.
Bellingcat, a UK-based open source and social media investigation site, put together a seriously impressive comprehensive list of open source verification and research tools. It includes satellite and mapping services, tools for verifying photos and videos, websites to archive hyperlinks and much more. Dig in!
This step-by-step guide explains how to do a reverse image search right on your mobile phone to check whether the photo you saw on social media is the real thing.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll be rolling out our new video series on investigative tips and tools. This compact set of crash seminars features leading experts with insights on what investigative journalism is, as well as how to follow public records, investigate with data, understand financial records and the best online search strategies.
When Glenn Simpson was an investigative reporter for the Wall Street Journal, he was among the best in the biz in following dirty money. Now the US Congress has released Simpson’s testimony on his private investigative firm’s role in digging into Donald Trump, and it’s a case study in sources and methods, showing how the firm tracked Trump’s investments and Russian ties using interviews, public records and smart detective work.
Journalism collaborations across news organizations have reaped countless benefits in recent years, resulting in more accurate and impactful reports, offering protection for professionals in danger and making possible stories which would have been impossible stories to do alone. Here is top notch advice, crowdsourced from collaborations with more than 500 journalists around the world.
Verifying videos is important, but first you have to find them. This Bellingcat guide will provide advice and some tips on how to gather as much video as possible on a particular event, whether it is videos from witnesses of a natural disaster or a terrorist attack.
Ren LaForme, the tool guy over at Poynter who runs their Try This! — Tools for Journalism newsletter, put together a list of his readers’ favorites from 2017. A quick, fun and helpful must read highlighting journalism tools from the Pipl app to FOIA Slack and a dirt cheap phone tripod.
There is a growing number of media and journalism schools and research centers investigating new trends, helping to understand digital disruption and its impact. With their newsletters, websites and interactive online training, they can inform you about inspiring innovations, share academic research, spot threats, provoke critical thinking, highlight valuable journalistic endeavors and report on moves in the industry that will affect how stories reach people. Here are 13 you don’t want to miss.
Bots in newsrooms are becoming increasingly commonplace as a growing number of publishers experiment with various automated services to expand their coverage, help journalists do their jobs better or improve relationships with readers. Here’s a quick history of the bot in newsrooms, and ideas for employing them in yours.
The creative use of social media has given journalists new ways to solicit tips as well as tap readers’ expertise, opinions and personal experiences. GIJN’s Toby McIntosh has rounded up some of the best examples of community engagement in stories as well as a list of resources and ideas for crowdsourcing.
A staggering 40 million people in the world exist in some form of slavery today. Learn how to investigate this inherently secretive industry from top journalists in the field.
Show me the money! Experts from around the world shared their tips about how to track looted wealth at the 2017 Global Investigative Journalism Conference.
In September, the Danish national newspaper Berlingske, in partnership with the OCCRP and other international media partners, exposed a complex money laundering scheme led by Azerbaijan’s elite. The stories revealed that, between 2012 and 2014, $2.9 billion connected to the country was siphoned through European companies and banks. Here’s how they got the story.
For the inception of a BBC’s R&D project to explore alternatives to conventional news formats, the BBC’s Tristan Ferne conducted a review of the landscape of digital news, looking for innovations in article and video formats online. Here’s the 12 categories he came up with — along with a few others that didn’t quite fit his model.
In the wake of Hurricane Maria’s devastating impact on Puerto Rico, amid shortages of food, water and electricity, international and local media have set up shop in the island’s Convention Center, creating a de facto newsroom where officials give press conferences and citizens look for resources. Among those leading the way are journalists from GIJN member Centro de Periodismo Investigativo.
Women journalists are far more likely than male journalists to be targets of online harassment, which quickly descends into graphic sexual and physical violence. Here’s what you — and your newsroom — can do to deal with the issue.
What member participation activities are most useful to investigative news sites and most rewarding to members? The Membership Puzzle Project asked investigative news startups in Europe what they’ve been trying out.
This ready-made course by Mike Reilley from The Journalist’s Toolbox is great for beginners or for trainers. It covers Google Earth Pro, Google Earth Engine Timelapse and Google Earth for Chrome and comes complete with ways to implement Google Earth into your own multimedia and specifics on teaching it in data journalism courses — all the way down to suggested assignments.
The podcast got a major boost with the wildly popular Serial and hasn’t slowed down since. Susan Valentine rounded up a brief history of the humble podcast, showcasing best practices, useful tools, success stories, some of the latest research findings — and why it’s a great outlet for investigative journalism.
More than 20 journalists worked across four countries to uncover the hidden abuses behind the production of sugar, cacao, bananas, coffee and African palm with slave-like conditions for workers, illegal business practices and sustained environmental damage. Here’s how they did it.
