Ten years ago, terror attacks in Norway claimed the lives of 77 people and seriously injured at least 40. Our NodeXL mapping from July 5 to 11 found an interactive timeline piece by Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang telling the story of a tragic event that impacted an entire nation. In this edition, we also feature an investigation by Reuters into a Chinese company harvesting genetic data from pregnant women, a series on gun violence in Chicago by The Trace, and a look at “silent” Russian politicians by IStories.
The World Bank is supporting governments in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, providing about $14 billion to more than 100 countries. But how is the money being spent and who is getting the contracts?
Tracking the use of this money can be facilitated by World Bank data online along with national procurement records.
When the COVID-19 pandemic took hold last year, editors scrambled to rapidly assemble teams to cover the crisis. Steps ahead were the outlets already dedicated to investigating health as a subject who knew how to source and build networks of public health and vaccine experts, and crucially, how to investigate both the science and the politics behind the pandemic response.
Cuando la pandemia de COVID-19 empezó, los editores se apresuraron a reunir equipos para cubrir la crisis. Un paso adelante estaban los medios que ya se dedicaban a investigar la salud como un tema que sabía cómo generar y construir redes de expertos en salud pública y vacunas y, lo que es más importante, cómo investigar tanto la ciencia como la política detrás de la respuesta a la pandemia.
The figures for Canada’s Jewish population dropped by half in five years. But nothing happened to this Jewish population. Rather, this is a perfect example of how careful we must be about data collection methods.
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.
In a filing to the Supreme Court in the United States, a raft of media organizations including the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, Associated Press, The Boston Globe, BuzzFeed, The Center for Investigative Reporting, The Daily Beast, Dow Jones, VICE ,and The Washington Post, have argued that the interpretation of the country’s Computer Fraud and Abuse Act needs to be narrowed to avoid “serious constitutional concerns.” In the document, which can be read in full here, the organizations argue that an interpretation of the law by the court of appeals “chills ordinary journalistic activity protected by the First Amendment.”
For data journalists there is a balancing act between publishing information vital to a story and protecting the person behind that information. Vojtech Sedlak explains the pitfalls and offers tips on how journalists can protect the people that feature in the data without compromising the story.
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.
With traditional media funding models in disarray, membership offers news outlets an alternative way of ensuring their profitability or survival. GIJN spoke to the Membership Puzzle Project’s Ariel Zirulnick about their latest guide and her top tips for organizations considering going down this route.
