Throughout 2021, journalists have used data projects to interrogate the coronavirus pandemic, climate change, conflict, and tax evasion. Here we select our top 10 data journalism projects of the year, rounding up projects that gave a different perspective on global events and helped readers grasp complex matters through interactive storytelling.
In his acceptance speech for the Nobel Peace Prize, Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of Russia’s leading independent media outlet, Novaya Gazeta, said: “The award today goes to the entire community of investigative journalists.” Four days later — in a webinar interview with GIJN — Muratov set out the true stakes for investigative journalists who now share that high honor.
The GIJN Resource Center is a leading source of tipsheets, videos, and guides on investigative and data journalism, fundraising, freelancing, and security. It’s used by journalists in 100 countries per day in 14 languages.
From investigating wildlife trafficking to reporting in the Gulf, here are our best guides and tipsheets published in 2021.
Can Snapchat, an outlet famous for avatars and disappearing videos, be used by investigative journalists as a reporting tool or as a publishing outlet? How can they use it? And what are the best ways to approach it?
At GIJC21, two investigative journalists who have used their cutting-edge expertise in media manipulation to expose scamsters, far-right propagandists, and secret troll farms discussed tracking digital footprints, free resources for content verification — and the kind of tips that might just break a big story.
Among five leading environmental journalists who covered COP26, there is cautious optimism, but also a recognition that there is still much to be done. Speaking at the GIJC21, they highlighted a wide range of topics related to climate change that are still underreported by newsrooms around the world.
Indigenous communities are often under siege by dominant cultures, and suffer the consequences of colonialism. Their resources stolen, and their people subjected to discrimination and abuse. Indigenous journalists from Australia, Canada, and the United States talk about their award-winning investigations, ranging from forced displacement to fake tribes, and deaths in custody.
At GIJC21, hard-hitting investigations journalists shared some great story ideas that could be replicated by reporters across the globe to bring about changes in their society.
In an expert panel on visual investigations at #GIJC21, three members of the New York Times’ pioneering team showed that it is now possible to report exactly who did what, and when, at various incidents.
After 80 panels and workshops — presented by 200 speakers and attended by close to 1700 editors and reporters from 148 countries — the 12th Global Investigative Journalism Conference closed with renewed resolve for innovative investigations, and a broad invitation to an in-person conference in Sydney in 2022.
