Research at the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy show that email and SEO are critical to audience development and monetization in single-subject newsrooms. They offer some tips of how to improve and adapt these old-school web strategies to local newsrooms.
If you host your investigative documentary or journalism video on YouTube, check out this useful graphic on YouTube SEO statistics created by tech enthusiast Saksham Kumar. Knowing the ranking factors that YouTube takes into account could give you ideas on how to optimize your video to reach the largest audience it can.
There are different ways fake news sites fake us out. In GIJN’s latest tutorial, Olga Yurkova, co-founder of the Ukrainian fact-checking project StopFake, runs through the six main techniques used and offers up some simple tools to vet them.
Exposing the connections between the products we buy and the circumstances of their creation has proved to be fertile ground for investigative journalism. In seeking to understand the origins of our food, raw materials and manufactured goods, reporters have uncovered slavery, environmental crimes, corruption and human rights abuses. In this new GIJN resource page, we identify the investigative tools used for tracking the “supply chains” that link fields, oceans, mines and factories with the end products we buy.
The past few years have seen an explosion of digital tools that can be used to enhance journalism research and reporting. In this new monthly feature GIJN’s IT Coordinator Alastair Otter takes a look at some of the best and latest tools and techniques for enhancing investigative and data-driven journalism.
Is personalization the next revolution in the news industry? John S Knight Journalism Fellow Titus Plattner argues that at a time when more and more news outlets are shifting from an advertising-based revenue model to a subscription based model, personalization is the best way to reinforce the relation to the real client.
Starting a fact-checking organization in a country with limited media freedom is difficult, but not impossible. Some, like Rouhani Meter, which fact-checks Iran’s president, may have to operate from outside the country and be creative about how they distribute their content. Daniel Funke writes about fact-checkers who have found a way to work in less-than-friendly environments.
Miranda Patrucic has led numerous cross-border investigations and successfully uncovered intricate money laundering networks, billion-dollar bribes and the murky business dealings of oligarchs in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. She spoke with GIJN on how she does it.
Search engine optimization is particularly important when a publisher’s content solely exists online. Optimizing your stories for SEO for a digital-only news site is like placing the newspaper on the front row of the newsstand, face up. Emily Roseman has tips for your newsroom on how best to implement SEO optimization.
The documentary “Killing Pavel” won the prestigious IRE Medal this weekend. Top Ukranian journalist Dmytro Gnap shares tips for effectively collecting the CCTV footage which played a key role in the investigation.
In part two of this Mojo Workin’ column on developing and producing the story, Ivo Burum focuses on equipment, coverage and audio perspective.
Mobile journalism expert Ivo Burum is back with a column on the most frustrating part of mojo — developing and producing a story. He offers tips on developing your story idea and sharpening your focus on story structure, character and shots coverage.
De Correspondent has been tapping into the experience and expertise of its readers to build and research their stories. But instead of one-off engagements with their audience, they are reinventing their approach to the conventional rolodex: verifying their readers expertise and inviting them into conversations surrounding their stories.
There are hundreds of stories in business registries and court documents around the world just waiting for a journalist to uncover them. Emmanuel Freudenthal shares his five tips on finding open-source secrets in Africa with GIJN — helpful guidelines which can be used around the world.
Deep fakes — videos which feature one person’s face on another’s body — are rapidly becoming more sophisticated. Samantha Sunne talked to some of the world’s experts on the techniques which can help you learn the weaknesses of this new phenomenon that’s got everyone talking.
Journalists can increase people’s trust and create a loyal audience by engaging with their readers in the comments section. This guide by The Coral Project has tips on how journalists can best interact with their audience, deal with potential abuse and find real value in the comments.
More than 90,000 commercial ships make up the world’s commercial fleet, their locations closely tracked and the resulting data available for free. GIJN has compiled a comprehensive list of resources to track ships (including big yachts and fishing boats). We link to four dozen valuable sources of information. At the 2023 Global Investigative Journalism Conference, […]
Journalists are not usually in the frame of mind for grants. They pitch their story to an editor, the editor says “no” or “yes” and they get to work. But drafting a grant application is a somewhat complex technique. Here is a list of mistakes that tend to kill many fledgling journalistic projects before they even stand a chance.
One of the central ethical tenets of professional journalism is “first, protect your sources.” But in this digital age, it is becoming more dangerous to keep your sources safe as governments are able to track reporters and their sources digitally. Here are 20 guidelines for working with whistleblowers in the digital era. What’s missing?
In a recent training session in Kyiv, producer Matt Sarnetski and journalist Anna Babinets talked about how they created Killing Pavel, a documentary about the murder of the well-known journalist Pavel Sheremet. GIJN has rounded up the key takeaways.
With an estimated 257 million migrants in the world, migration has emerged as one of the most contentious national and international issues. GIJN has gathered resources on this topic, including: Useful sources of factual information Reporting guidelines and media criticism Information on journalism prizes (and the winners) concerning migration Examples of recent and varied stories […]
A Berlin-based group of researchers has launched the world’s first publicly accessible database of chemical weapons attacks in Syria. Aimed mainly at human rights organizations, it could also help investigative reporters in some potentially surprising ways. A GIJN original.
Raising money for your news organization via crowdfunding is difficult and can be stressful. Hungary’s Direkt36, which has run four successful crowdfunding campaigns so far, offers 10 tips from their experience to help you plan a good campaign. A GIJN original.
There are lots of different tools to measure analytics in the newsroom, but Google Analytics is one of the most widely used. Plus it’s free. Here are some ideas to help those working in organizations that don’t have access to expensive audience monitoring services to move beyond page views to measure the success of their digital content. A GIJN original.
The US Treasury Department hit Russian oligarchs and their companies with a host of new sanctions today, zeroing in on the country’s energy sector and cronies of President Vladimir Putin. Among those blacklisted: seven oligarchs, 12 companies and 17 senior government officials, including metals magnate Oleg Deripaska, who is tied in media reports to Donald Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort. Here’s a look at the actual documents.
OCCRP Data, part of the Investigative Dashboard, offers journalists a shortcut to the deep web. It now has over 170 public sources and more than 100 million leads for public search – news archives, court documents, leaks and grey literature encompassing UK parliamentary inquiries, companies and procurement databases, NGO reports and even CIA rendition flights, among other choice reading.
Bellingcat, a UK-based open source and social media investigation site, put together a seriously impressive comprehensive list of open source verification and research tools. It includes satellite and mapping services, tools for verifying photos and videos, websites to archive hyperlinks and much more. Dig in!
