What We’re Reading: Tools for Investigating Coronavirus Fakes and Disinformation

This week’s Friday 5, where we round up our favorite reads from around the online world in English, includes tool from Bellingcat on investigating mis/disinformation during the pandemic, the Journalist’s Resource on what you need to know about referencing biomedical research preprints, and Oxford’s new Government Response Tracker, a project which is is collecting and aggregating publicly available data on government responses to COVID-19.

Spotlight Movie: A “Hard Sell” but $88m in Global Sales

Since premiering in the United States in late 2015, the movie Spotlight has earned US$88 million in revenue, split almost evenly between U.S. ($45 million) and international sales ($43 million). Along the way, the movie has earned two Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Screenplay) and given journalists around the world a needed boost. But winning Academy Awards didn’t lift Spotlight too high. The movie is the second lowest-grossing Best Picture winner in the last 38 years.

Spotlight Wins Oscars for Best Picture, Screenplay

The movie Spotlight, based on the Boston Globe’s investigative reporting into pedophilia inside the Catholic Church, won best picture and best screenplay at the 2016 Academy Awards late Sunday. “We would not be here today without the heroic efforts of our reporters,” declared producer Blye Pagon Faust as she accepted the award. “Not only do they effect global change, but they absolutely show us the necessity of investigative journalism.”