What We’re Reading: Infodemic Crackdown, Tips on Covering Elections, and Data Journalism with R

9 Tips for Covering Election Misinformation (API)

Earlier this year, the Pew Research Center found something the polarized populace in the US can agree on: Democrats and Republicans each expect made-up news to target their own party more than the other in 2020. This recent tipsheet also came out of the US, but has relevance for journalists covering elections around the world. It suggests writing direct headlines and covering election administration mechanics, asking your audience what they need, and showing how you verify information. But our personal favorite was about investigating the purveyors of disinformation (which links to a GIJN guide on the topic).

Data Journalism in R (Storybench)

Northeastern University’s Storybench, which explores data and digital stories, consistently puts out great guides and how-tos. Their geeky round-up of how to stories about doing data journalism in R — the popular software which assists with data collection, cleaning, analysis, and visualization — is a great crash course. Among the long list, you’ll find how to calculate a rolling average in R; how to scrape HTML tables and download files with R; and how to build a GIF of satellite imagery in R. Need more R? Check out Datajournalism.com’s video tutorial.

Measure the Impact of Collaborative Journalism (Medium)

Impact Architects and the Center for Cooperative Media at Montclair State University conducted a three-year research project to understand what type of impact collaborative journalism initiatives aimed for, and how they measured success. Using the North Carolina News Collaborative, the Institute for Nonprofit News’ Amplify project, the Solutions Journalism Network, and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists as case studies, researchers found some common practices. These include surveys, advanced digital analytics, documenting cross-publication and media mentions, and using qualitative impact tracking systems. For more on impact, check out GIJN’s impact guide. And for more recent pieces, here’s a Q&A with OCCRP’s Paul Radu on collaborative, cross-border journalism.

The Days of Press Freedom in Hong Kong Seem Numbered (Nieman Lab)

Nieman Lab’s Joshua Benton wrote about the increasing pressure on journalists in Hong Kong after police raided the offices of Apple Daily, a popular pro-democracy news outlet, and arrested its billionaire owner, Jimmy Lai. While Lai was released by Wednesday, this was just one of a number of stories about China’s recent media crackdown. For Germany’s DW, Pulitzer Prize-winning China correspondent Ian Johnson — who was expelled from China in March — talked about how Beijing has targeted investigative reporters. The Atlantic wrote earlier this month about the state of the South China Morning Post, the Hong Kong-based English-language outlet which long played an outsize role in shaping international understanding of China.