Global Investigative Journalism Network (https://archive.gijn.org/category/tips-tools/page/5/)
It’s increasingly common for criminals to operate across borders. So investigative reporters also need to know how to identify and investigate people whose names use different alphabets, are formed by unfamiliar conventions, or carry unexpected cultural signals. Read these tips from the OCCRP on best practices for investigating names from outside the English-speaking world.
DocumentCloud now includes many more cutting-edge functions — which include extracting personal identification information embedded in large files, importing data from programs like Google Drive, transcribing YouTube audio, and even peering through weak blackout redactions.
At the 2023 NICAR conference, GIJN talked with several data journalism experts and learned 10 simple data journalism errors to avoid that could ruin your investigation.
Converting text documents like PDFs to spreadsheets is tedious and expensive work. To see how well AI tool ChatGPT can extract data from PDFs, data journalist Brandon Roberts wrote a Python script to convert two document sets to spreadsheets.
These new reporting tools and apps, which recently debuted at two Bellingcat Hackathons, can help journalists easily archive videos, locate satellite imagery, and track people via online reviews.
For GIJN’s series on journalists’ favorite tools, we spoke with Elie Guckert, a French independent journalist who focuses on far right groups and armed conflict for sites including Mediapart and Bellingcat. Guckert shared several geolocation tools, as well as a key tip about the value of right wing propaganda as a source of information about the intentions of those groups.
GIJN offers an update to its 2022 reporting guide on investigating methane emissions, with new sources and global projects to help track the greenhouse gas via satellites.
The practice of independent journalism is facing enormous challenges, ranging from authoritarian regimes implementing regressive laws that stifle speech to journalists being unable to make a living from their work. In order to meet those challenges, journalists can benefit from understanding the protections provided by international law.
Impact experts say there are several ways to help direct the attention of change-makers — as well as other media — to your key findings, and even nudge them to action.
Academic research is a crucial tool for investigating societal problems and holding the powerful accountable. Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Neil Bedi, criminologist Rachel Lovell, and Denise-Marie Ordway of The Journalist’s Resource share practical advice on using academic research in investigative journalism.