Time for a new collection of resources and research reports. Today’s roundup features two online databases — one on nuclear reactors, the other on health — and the latest international research reports from Brussels, London, and Washington. Global Health Facts from the Kaiser Family Foundation is an organized and frequently updated collection of browsable and searchable data.
In spite of official efforts to control news coverage of last week’s deadly explosions in the Chinese port city of Tianjin, Chinese media have responded swiftly not only to cover the fast-moving disaster, but also to probe the why and how of the tragedy. Within hours of the blast, leading Chinese media, both traditional and online, began investigating reasons for the toxic facilities to be built next to residential developments, the ownership of the storage, the failure of government oversight, and the botched response to the disaster.
China’s leading investigative news company, Caixin.com, is pushing the boundaries of data journalism in that country. In this exclusive look, Caixin Data Editor Huang Chen writes on how its journalists are using data in one of the toughest countries in the world to report on. Caixin’s challenges will sound strikingly familiar to Western data journalists: messy formats, unreliable data, and problems with access. Despite this, the team at Caixin is pushing forward in ways that should bring a cheer from its colleagues around the world.
This video was taken by a drone and then posted on a popular web portal in China. It provides an aerial view of the luxurious home of the son of Zhou Yongkang, the country’s security chief. There’s not much commentary here, just tracking shots of a white, two-story mansion built in the traditional style. But the real evidence showing corruption in the Zhou family wasn’t dug up by drones. Instead, it was names etched on tombstones in a village in China’s Jiangsu Province that allowed reporters to find the corruption trail.
