Rainforest Investigations Network fellow Hyury Potter used data reporting and machine learning to investigate the link between clandestine airstrips and illegal mining in the Brazilian Amazon during the past two years.
GIJN Spanish associate editor Mariel Lozada offers a behind-the-scenes look at a reporting collaboration that uncovers the vast scale of illegal mining and illicit smuggling in Venezuela’s Amazon region.
For newsrooms looking to deepen their understanding of how artificial intelligence could be used for investigative reporting, the 150-year-old Argentinian newspaper La Nación is blazing a trail and has produced a diverse range of stories assisted by AI technologies and has created an AI lab.
The democratization of satellite technology and the entry of private companies into the field of space means it’s now possible to have access to high spatio-temporal data at a very minimal cost, leading to interesting investigative stories. In the coming years as the democratization of satellite technology gathers pace, more and more cases that had been undocumented or unreported will see the light of the day.
Throughout the coronavirus pandemic, we’ve seen heated debate on whether to best solve the health crisis through “herd immunity” — the indirect protection that occurs when much of a population becomes immune to infection. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from May 11 to 17 finds FiveThirtyEight creating a simulation calculator which shows that getting to herd immunity without a vaccine isn’t quite that simple; The Marshall Project tracking COVID-19 cases and deaths in prisons across America; the BBC’s Media Show highlighting data journalists as the media’s latest rock stars; and Istories and MediaZona examining elder abuse in Russia, which experts fear may worsen during the pandemic with so many people staying home.
What’s the global data journalism community tweeting about this week? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from March 2 to 8 finds a list of COVID-19 related data visualizations selected by health activist Joel Selanikio, Folha De S. Paulo analyzing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s tweets, VoxEurop highlighting the potential disappearance of the world’s beaches due to climate change, and Davis Vilums mapping every central London street over four years by cycling.
This week’s Friday 5, where we round up our favorite reads from around the online world in English each week, includes a story from The Washington Post about how The New York Times scooped its own collaboration with ICIJ, Ben Heubl’s tutorial on how investigative journalists can use machine learning in their reporting, and tips from Witness on how to capture and preserve video documentation during internet shutdowns.
GIJN asked investigative journalists around the world to look ahead at what’s in store for 2020. Here are the trends, key forces, and challenges they expect will affect investigative and data journalism in the coming year, as well as the new skills and approaches we should be thinking about.
What’s the global data journalism community tweeting about this week? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from November 18 to 24 finds Google Trends mapping the busiest places and times for Thanksgiving, Al Jazeera profiling the work of data journalist Mona Chalabi and her hand-drawn visualizations, the Tow Center for Digital Journalism examining the use of machine learning and artificial intelligence in journalism, and the Investigative Reporting Workshop collating useful public datasets in one place.
What’s the global data journalism community tweeting about this week? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from October 21 to 27 finds a panel of leading data visualization practitioners discussing the practice of visualization in an age of disinformation, Kloop exposing how Kyrgyzstani authorities privatized large swaths of a public park with no oversight, and The Guardian highlighting the minimal changes between former British prime minister Theresa May’s Brexit deal with current PM Boris Johnson’s new deal.
