Megha Rajagopalan has reported from over 23 countries in Asia and the Middle East, on stories ranging from the North Korean nuclear crisis to the peace process in Afghanistan. Her team’s investigation into prison camps in Xinjiang, China won a Pulitzer Prize. In this podcast, she discusses how she got into investigative journalism and gives her tips for speaking to vulnerable sources.
In a GIJC21 session on using maps and satellite imagery for investigations, three experts explained their approaches to analyzing satellite and drone images, and using open source tools. One of the innovative techniques described led to a Pulitzer Prize this year — for exposing China’s network of Muslim detention centers — while another exposed government deception about fires in the Amazon, and a third literally put a vulnerable community in Africa on the map.
Wondering how to investigate climate change and where to find the best data? At a recent conference, science reporters from BuzzFeed News, NPR, and ProPublica shared tips on little-known data sources that can make climate change stories both easier to report and understand.
Architect Alison Killing says that exploring blanked-out tiles on the mapping site Baidu was the first step in tracking down and identifying the detention centers being built by China in Xinjiang, where up to 1 million people are believed to have been detained.
For this week’s Friday 5, where GIJN rounds up key reads from around the world, we found The Markup creating an online privacy tool, suggestions on how to make your maps more neutral, and practical tips for pitching donors during a pandemic.
The Friday 5, where we round up our favorite reads from around the online world in English each week, includes the Sigma Award winners for data journalism, two stories about increased surveillance on journalists, and an interview with BuzzFeed’s Craig Silverman.
What’s the data-driven journalism crowd tweeting? Here are the top links for Jan. 18-25: Inside the Tennis Racket investigation (@buzzfeed); Mapping Berlin (@morgenpost); Africa grants (@impactAfrica); automated journalism (@towcenter); Amazon deforestation (@infoamazonia); teaching #ddj in EU.
