During the first decade of the 21st century, a transformation in journalism began in Europe and spread to other continents. A movement in the use of data for investigations has helped lead to a resurgence of investigative reporting and has spurred the creation of small online newsrooms, as well as non-profit journalism. As ever, the conundrum of paying for it remains.
Despite concerns over government surveillance, a recent survey by the Pew Research Center of investigative journalists found that few have let those worries prevent them from pursuing a story or reaching out to a source. The survey also found a more pressing concern–decreasing newsroom resources.
What’s the data-driven journalism (#ddj) crowd tweeting about? They are sharing links about the NYTimes’ Upshot’s “redesign of news,” Vox’s data journalism approach, avalanche myths from France’s ESJ Lille, and much, much more.
Think tanks are no less susceptible than any other institution to the temptations of money and power. There is a real need to address the single most important ingredient of a think tank’s quality: the integrity of its research. Journalists can do their part by treating claims of impartiality more skeptically and providing context about possible conflicts of interest.
What’s the data-driven journalism (#ddj) crowd tweeting about? Why does the world have more men than women; where is the most expensive place in Africa to run a presidential campaign; and what is “precision medicine?” Find out here!
A growing number of reports of self-censorship, hacked websites, and intimidation and arrest of writers in Serbia has prompted public warnings by the U.S. government, EU and OSCE. One of the country’s top journalists, Branko Čečen, is firing back with a hard-hitting critique on the sorry state of the nation’s media. He asks: Who’s really interested in accountability and real reporting in Serbia today?
GIJN has partnered with the Centre for Investigative Journalism, India to launch a new feature, Watchdog Reports. This daily feed on CIJ’s website curates items on investigative reporting from India and around the world, including news of the latest tools, techniques, fellowships, awards and more. India’s center, founded last year, is working with leading journalism schools and media “to train a new generation of Indian investigative journalists.”
What’s the data-driven journalism (#ddj) crowd tweeting about? African Cup of Nations athletes, Berlin bus tours, ATMs that tell us how rich our cities are, and more!
As Japan imposes new laws that threaten to restrict the freedom of the press, some Japanese reporters and activists are seeking new ways to conduct investigative journalism. The problem for Japan now is finding its own sustainable business models, as happened in other Asian countries such as South Korea or the Philippines, where there are now thriving investigative reporting centres.
Online FOI tools have gone global, but how well do they really work? UK-based nonprofit mySociety, which makes the Alaveteli FOI platforms came to some surprising conclusions about the sites’ impact and who uses them. Read the reports’ highlights to find out.
What’s hot among the data-driven journalism (#ddj) twitterati? A bus tour of Berlin, 30 years of reporting on HIV/AIDS in Kenya, 100 ways to visualize a text, and when correlation does not equal causation. Time for this week’s Top Ten #ddj!
What’s the data-driven journalism (#ddj) crowd all in a Twitter about? Here are the new year’s Top Data Journalism Links for January 1-8. Included in this week’s items are visuals from Le Temps, FiveThirtyEight, and OpenDataCity.
As I write, the news coverage of the massacre at Charlie Hebdo’s offices has been remarkably good, detailing the weekly’s provocations of Islam over the years. Less has been said about Charlie’s running battle with the French extreme right, and its role in widening the space for investigative reporting in France… This assassination has failed, stupidly and massively. It has created a bigger public than Charlie ever created on its own.
What has the data driven journalism (#ddj) crowd been tweeting about all year long?? What are the most popular hashtags? The most searched domains? The top mentions? We look back on…a year of “things” (BBC), guesting with strangers in à la Airbnb (Le Temps), all of history in “one click” (Herodote.net), the genius of Edward Tufte, and so very much more!
More than 320 journalists from the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf met in Amman in early December for the 7th annual Forum for Arab investigative journalists, the largest ever. The ARIJ annual meeting has become the main networking forum for investigative journalists across the Arab world. In spite of an increasingly hostile media environment, many Arab journalists are still engaged in in-depth reporting, pushing against the narrowing borders of free reporting, and raising standards for documentation.
In today’s globalized, interconnected world, free and unfettered information is more essential than ever. It’s essential for markets and for trade. And it’s essential to empowering the emerging community of global citizens and ensuring that they are able to participate in a meaningful way in the decisions that affect their lives. Likewise, those who are deprived of information are essentially disempowered. We live in a world in which the abundance of information obscures the enormous gaps in our knowledge
What’s the data driven journalism (#ddj) crowd tweeting about? Here are the week’s Top Data Journalism Links on Twitter (for Dec. 10-18). Among the items: Zeit Online’s Year in Infographics, new prints by Edward Tufte, and the NYT’s @harrisj on “the wave of bullshit data” coming your way.
Journalists from 33 countries streamed into Manila last month for Uncovering Asia: The First Asian Investigative Journalism Conference. The organizers — GIJN, the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS), and the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) — hoped for at least 150 people, but more than 300 came, full of energy, from Japan to Mongolia. The video above captures the spirit and drive that marked this groundbreaking event. As PCIJ director Malou Mangahas told attendees, “Asia is ready!”
From the Global Investigative Journalism Conference in 2011 to the groundbreaking YanukovychLeaks project this year, Ukraine has become a key link in international investigative reporting. So it should be no surprise that the annual Ukrainian investigative journalism conference is growing into a regional event.
Telling us that traffic accidents happen on streets over time is nice, but it’s just the beginning of an Open Data Odyssey that governments, civil society, and other organizations must begin together to document and describe the tertiary impacts of these events, and many other events, on our collective experiences and lives in large urban ecosystems like New York.
Open Knowledge, the UK-based nonprofit that focuses on unlocking data around the world, has released the latest version of its Global Open Data Index. The index attempts to make sense of the explosion in open government data portals, which have grown from just a handful three years ago to nearly 400 worldwide. The good news: the number of entries and data sets is growing. The bad: only 11% of the datasets surveyed are deemed open by the index.
What’s the data driven journalism (#ddj) crowd tweeting about? Here are the week’s Top Data Journalism Links on Twitter (for December 1-9), including items from Stimme.de, Arnaud Wery, Datawrapper, The Economist, and m0le.net. Thanks to Marc Smith of Connected Action for gathering the links and graphing them.
The Global Investigative Journalism Network has joined a growing chorus of media organizations, human rights groups, governments, and others around the world calling for the immediate release of journalist Khadija Ismayilova. Ms. Ismayilova was arrested on Friday and imprisoned for at least two months on charges that are widely seen as part of a campaign to silence independent media and civil society in Azerbaijan.
Journalist Khadija Ismayilova, a Radio Free Europe/OCCRP reporter, was taken into custody yesterday in Baku, Azerbaijan, in the latest of a series of legal moves to put pressure on her. Ismayilova, known for her investigations into the business interests of the family of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, is charged in the latest case of inciting a man to commit suicide
