The investigative team behind a story in The Washington Post that focused on two military helicopters that roared over demonstrators in Washington, DC on June 1 shared the exploratory scripts used to analyze and visualize flight data for the aircraft which monitored protesters in the city that day.
Once confined to bands of protesters, the Black Lives Matter movement has spread across America. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from June 15 to 21 finds The New York Times mapping the protests in more than 2,000 US cities and towns over a two week period. On the coronavirus front, The Telegraph analyzed the widening racial wealth gap caused by the pandemic, the Guardian and Liberty Investigates looked into police enforcing lockdown measures disproportionately against Blacks, Asians, and other minorities, while Important Stories and Holod Media examined the fines issued by Russian courts for lockdown violations during the pandemic.
The death of African American George Floyd in police custody has resulted in a major uproar against structural racism in the United States. Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from June 1 to 7 finds The New York Times examining police use of force in Minneapolis, the city in which Floyd died after being pinned down by a police officer. The Washington Post also dug into data of every fatal shooting in the US by police officers since 2015.
The Global Investigative Journalism Network condemns attacks by law enforcement on journalists in the US covering protests of the police killing of George Floyd. “The attacks on, and intimidation of, journalists legitimately covering protests and social unrest in the US are unconstitutional and unlawful,” stated the executive committee of the GIJN Board of Directors. “These attacks… threaten the very core of a free and democratic society.”
What’s the global data journalism community tweeting about this week? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from January 20 to 26 finds the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering mapping the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak, Al Jazeera analyzing the impact that Ethiopia’s mega-dam project will have on the Nile river and its surroundings, Der Tagesspiegel outlining the changes in America over the course of Donald Trump’s presidency, and Alberto Cairo highlighting the importance of annotating data visualizations.
Covering street protests involves risks that every journalist should be prepared for. Knowledge, experience and planning can help reduce these risks. To help journalists worldwide, Abraji has developed a guide, packed with tips and anecdotes from professionals who have experienced risky incidents while covering protests. Here’s an excerpt, covering how to prepare and how to act during the event.
