Top 10 in Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Connecting China’s Power Players, Tracking Russian Voter Turnout, Drawing the India-Pakistan Border, and Serena Williams’ Trailblazing Career

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The workings of the Chinese Communist Party are shrouded in secrecy, but ahead of the party congress later this year The South China Morning Post published a detailed guide on the key power players. Also this week, an investigation into the arbitrary nature of military justice in the United States, an analysis of Russia’s election voter turnout using artificial intelligence, and charts celebrating Serena Williams’ tennis career.

COVID-19

Tips on Data, Sources, and Angles from Investigative Journalists on the COVID-19 Frontlines

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Three veteran journalists on the front lines of the coronavirus crisis discuss investigative angles into the response in the first of GIJN’s webinar series, Investigating the Pandemic. Gloria Riva of l’Espresso in Italy, OCCRP Editor Drew Sullivan and GIJN Chinese Editor Joey Qi discuss the importance of source-driven investigations and dealing with disinformation and data deficits.

COVID-19

Reporting on COVID-19 in Africa: A Collaborative Story Idea List

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What is the best way into the COVID-19 story? Pick an angle. No matter what your beat is, the pandemic is seeping into almost every story. In response, the Kampala-based African Centre for Media Excellence (ACME) created a running list of story ideas on COVID-19 which stretches across beats: from agriculture and food to the economy, education, religion, sports, and arts and entertainment.

private healthcare
Medical Debt Letters, Healthcare

Reading 50,000 Records to Expose a Hospital Bankrupting Poor Patients

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When Giacomo Bologna was working on his first freelance story, he reached out to the Fund for Investigative Journalism for help. With a grant to cover his gas mileage, the cost of copying records, and his time, Bologna set up shop in a small room on the third floor of a courthouse in Mississippi and started reviewing paper files to trace a large nonprofit hospital’s practice of aggressively pursuing payment from thousands of poor patients.

Data Journalism

Data Journalism Top 10: Climate Disasters, Olympic Running, Russian Healthcare, and Bulgarian Coal Plants

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Our weekly project that maps the most popular data journalism stories on Twitter found several environmental projects this week, including a climate disaster in Germany, air pollution in South Asia, and deforestation in Brazil. We also feature more data-driven coverage of the Tokyo Olympics, an investigation into Bulgarian coal plants, and a guide to creating appealing data visualizations based on simple charts.

freedom of information

Tips on Making FOIA Requests About COVID-19

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Despite government restrictions, journalists around the world are using freedom of information laws to understand the COVID-19 pandemic and the response of international, national, and local authorities. GIJN’s Toby McIntosh outlines how to craft an effective freedom of information request and provides tips and suggestions on where to make requests and important questions to ask.

How They Did It

A Lesson in Investigative Reporting from ICIJ’s Implant Files

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When Washington, DC-based journalist Scilla Alecci began investigating a story that would later become part of the Implant Files, she hit a brick wall: Hospitals in India wouldn’t answer her phone calls. So she took the advice of an Indian colleague and booked a flight over. Together, they started knocking on doors all over the country, leading them to unexpected discoveries.

Abdul Salam

How Pakistani Journalists Subvert Danger — and the Narrative — with Data

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Journalists exposing corruption in countries with limited rule of law face enormous risks and their stories may not necessarily make things better for anyone. In Pakistan, journalists have employed a different — and safer — approach to trigger positive change by avoiding front-page corruption exposés and using data journalism to expose flaws in the system instead. A GIJN original.

Data Journalism

This Week’s Top 10 in Data Journalism

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What’s the global data journalism community tweeting about this week? Our NodeXL #ddj mapping from March 5 to 11 finds everyone keenly sharing data tipsheets from @IRE_NICAR’s NICAR18 conference, @texifter discussing how to identify bots versus humans online and @EdjNet talking to @culukaya about the shocking rates of femicide in Turkey.