
Stories


The Research Desk: Tips on Digging into Scholarly Research Journals
Some think of scholarly or academic journals and the articles they contain as boring, not easy to read, and not useful if you’re not an academic. While this might be the case for some articles, the belief that this is the case for all articles in all publications is wrong. Academic and scholarly publications can be of tremendous value to the journalist and researcher.

Data Journalism
Top Ten #ddj: The Week’s Most Popular Data Journalism Links
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting about? The Top Ten links for April 3-9: doing ddj in Afghanistan; +40 data journalism projects in France, 100 cool historical map visualizations, a South Africa calculator for paying your domestic worker, cost of medicine worldwide, and more.

News & Analysis
Secrets to Fundraising: A Great Cause and Plenty of Courage
One of the most common things you hear people say when you tell them what you do for a living is “Oh, I hate fundraising! I could NEVER do that for living!” Nice. Yes, there are all kinds of fun responses we can think of. But what it tells us over and over again is that fundraising is widely perceived as something dirty, ethically challenged, or at least uncomfortable. People think that talking to someone about their own money is akin to talking to them about sex, politics, or religion. It’s not.

Data Journalism
Top Ten #ddj: The Week’s Most Popular Data Journalism Links
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting about? Top Ten links for March 27 – Apr 5: journalists and coding, 30+ free data tools, #ddj for beginners, asbestos in Italy, political money in Germany, and more. This list is determined by NodeXL, a social media network mapping program. The full map is available at the bottom of this roundup.

News & Analysis
2014 IRE Award winners Announced
The annual awards are out from Investigative Reporters and Editors, the world’s largest and oldest association of investigative journalists. Each year the organization honors “outstanding investigative work” with its highly regarded IRE Awards. The prizes are given in 16 categories that include small to large markets, broadcast and multimedia, books, FOI, students and more. A GIJN founding member, IRE began in 1975 and is based at the University of Missouri Journalism School.

News & Analysis
South African Awards Showcase Inspiring Investigative Reports
The just announced 9th Taco Kuiper Award for Investigative Journalism is South Africa’s highest prize for investigative journalism. The award recognizes “outstanding examples of journalism, that reveal untold stories, hold the powerful to account and question those in public life.” GIJN is pleased to reprint below the awards speech by Wits University Journalism Professor Anton Harber, given March 27 in Johannesburg.

Data Journalism
Top Ten #ddj: The Week’s Most Popular Data Journalism Links
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting about? Investigating unusual trading patterns at a Chinese solar company (@FT), tracking the rising Right in France (@Rue89Strasbourg), looking back on a year of fighting Ebola (@MSF), and announcing @ICFJKnight fellowships. Read on!

Data Journalism
Top Ten #ddj: The Week’s Most Popular Data Journalism Links
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting about? Top Ten links for March 13-20 feature investigating water aid from El Confidencial, IndiaSpend’s manipulating data in India’s most populous state, explaining the Middle East in 40 maps from Vox; & Poynter’s interactive storytelling lessons.

Investigative Events in Four Nations Showcase Muckrakers on the Move
(Tonsberg, Norway) From an international film festival in London to bustling conferences in Scandinavia and Latin America, investigative journalists turned out by the hundreds over the weekend in search of training and inspiration. The events, sponsored by GIJN member organizations in four countries, are part of an increasingly crowded calendar sparked by the growing global practice of investigative journalism.

Data Journalism News & Analysis
Lies & Statistics: Fudging Data in India’s Most Populous State
Statistics collected by state governments across India can be and are easily fudged. GIJN Member IndiaSpend–India’s first data-driven journalism initiative–analyzes reported data on disease outbreaks, crime, and traffic accidents in the country’s most populous state and compares it to better governed and richer neighbors. What unfolds is a story of lies and statistics.

Data Journalism
Top Ten #ddj: The Week’s Most Popular Data Journalism Links
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting about? Tracking EU politicians on data protection regulations (@LobbyPlag), updated #NICAR15 tools + tutorials (@MacDiva), Big Pharma profits from taxpayers (@SRFData), and more…

GIJN Joins OSCE in Call for Release of Crimean Centre Editor Kokorina
The Global Investigative Journalism Network joins OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media Dunja Mijatović in calling for the immediate release of Natalya Kokorina, an editor with GIJN member Crimean Centre for Investigative Journalism. Ms. Kokorina was detained today by authorities in Crimea.

Case Studies
Behind the Scenes of Swiss Leaks — ICIJ’s Biggest-Ever Collaboration
The Swiss Leaks team included more than 160 journalists from 50 countries and 63 media outlets — ICIJ’s biggest collaboration yet. Here’s an inside look at how they did it and what they learned.

Data Journalism
Top Ten #ddj: The Week’s Most Popular Data Journalism Links
What’s got the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting about? Here are the week’s Top Ten links for Feb 27-Mar 5: cool #NICAR15 tools + tutorials (@MacDiva), mapping power in Africa (Guardian), how to find, extract + use #OpenData (IJNet), and the history of immigration in England + Wales (Times of London).
News & Analysis
Muckraking Environmental Documentary Too Much for Beijing
The 103-minute documentary on pollution that has taken China by storm — Under the Dome — has proven too much for officials in Beijing, who have removed the film from popular Chinese video sites. After the video’s online release on February 28, Under the Dome garnered an extraordinary 100 million views in under 24 hours.

Data Journalism
Digging for Truth with Data: Computer-Assisted Reporting
The media’s now widespread embrace of data journalism has made the book Computer-Assisted Reporting as relevant as it was 20 years ago. With this newly revised, fourth edition, Brant Houston has expanded on his previous work. Take a look at how to use the tools of the trade.

News & Analysis
Jailed Journalist in Azerbaijan Denies Charges, Rebukes Regime
Khadija Ismayilova is an internationally recognized investigative journalist known for her work digging into the hidden financial dealings of Azerbaijan’s first family. In jail and facing up to 12 years in prison, Ismayilova released her closing statement at her most recent trial through her lawyer. It’s published here.

GIJN Welcomes Seven New Members from Six Countries
Seven journalism organizations from six countries are the latest groups to join the Global Investigative Journalism Network. This increases GIJN’s membership to a record 114 organizations in 53 countries. Please join us in welcoming our newest members!

Data Journalism
Putting the “Open” in Open Data: Creating a Global Standard
Open Data is spreading across the globe and transforming the way data is collected, published, and used. But all of this is happening without well-documented standards, leading to inconsistent metadata, no or little corroboration of sources, and conflicting terms of use. The Data on the Web Best Practices Working Group is working to change this.

Data Journalism
Top Ten #ddj: The Week’s Most Popular Data Journalism Links
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting about? Here are the week’s top ten data journalism links for Feb. 20-26: @jeffrey_heer on data viz’s future (O’Reilly Media), measles in Germany (Der Spiegel), Open Data boosts democracy (Guardian), Greece’s debt (WSJ), cheap data tools (@nilmulvad), and more.

News & Analysis
Untold Stories: A Survey of Freelance Investigative Reporters
Project Word asked about the challenges and opportunities facing contemporary freelance investigative reporters. The organization surveyed more than 250 journalists in 36 states in the U.S. and 26 countries. Among its key findings: increasingly dire conditions in the freelance economy are forcing many journalists to abandon public-interest stories.

Data Journalism
Drilling Down: A Quick Guide to Free and Inexpensive Data Tools
Newsrooms don’t need large budgets for analyzing data–they can easily access basic data tools that are free or inexpensive. Editor and Associate Professor Nils Mulvad explains how.

Data Journalism
Top Ten #ddj: The Week’s Most Popular Data Journalism Links
What’s hot on Twitter for #ddj? Here are the week’s most popular links for February 13-19.

News & Analysis
21st Century Muckraking: Investigative Reporting Unleashed
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.

