The rise of conflict imagery on social media has provided open source researchers valuable material to identify explosive ordnance.
GIJN talked with reporters doing the difficult work of covering the Hamas attack on Israel and its aftermath, including preparations for the October 7 assault.
As co-founder and inaugural executive director of the Global Investigative Journalism Network, David Kaplan has led the organization from an initiative with a few hundred followers in 2012 to a “network of networks” spanning some 244 groups in 90 countries. WAN-IFRA sought his insights on the future of investigative journalism in a divided world.
With more sophisticated AI technologies emerging, researchers warn that “deepfake geography” could become a growing problem. As a result, a team of researchers that set out to identify new ways of detecting fake satellite photos warn of the dangers of falsified geospatial data and call for a system of geographic fact-checking.
When a former Russian double agent collapsed on a bench in a quiet British cathedral town, it looked like an assassination attempt. Experts soon identified the poison nerve agent Novichok A234. The team at the open source investigative site Bellingcat were watching, and waiting for a chance to dig into what had happened and who was behind it.
GIJN is pleased to announce four free digital events for journalists on cutting-edge online investigative techniques. They will be led by the globally-renowned data journalist, open source reporting expert and trainer, Henk van Ess. The December webinars are open to all and last for 90 minutes. The January workshops are limited to a maximum of 25 people, by application only and will last five hours.
For this week’s Friday 5, where GIJN rounds up key reads around the world, we found stories about freelancers commissioned to write for a massive Russian-backed disinformation campaign, how to (not) get your pitch read by an editor, and a guide for reporting on US elections.
TikTok, a video-sharing site where users can post videos of themselves dancing, lip syncing, and doing viral challenges, has seen a surge in popularity in recent years. While many posts are focused on jokes and music, TikTok has surpassed 2 billion downloads and is popular around the world, which presents opportunities for the open source research community to use the platform in investigations. This guide explains how.
In a GIJN masterclass webinar presented to 700 journalists from 94 countries, BBC internet research expert Paul Myers described the open source tools, syntax tricks, and search techniques that can help unearth elusive content, images, and social media posts. Myers cited searches for information on COVID-19 in numerous examples, and stressed the need for logical thought in order to unlock the power of advanced search tools.
Reporting on the ground and interviewing people face-to-face have become high-risk activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. But there are ways to continue investigative work using your computer and cutting-edge online techniques – critical skills at all times. Join us for this GIJN webinar, Online Research with open source sleuth Paul Myers, part of GIJN’s series Investigating the Pandemic.
