Migrants and refugees have become a pressing topic not only for journalists but for politicians, police, and the general public. The number of international migrants reached 244 million in 2015, up a striking 41% since 2000, according to UN data. That's enough people to make up the fifth most populous country on Earth.
Journalists around the world are reporting on this mass movement of people, often giving it a human face. There is no shortage of great investigative stories to do: deadly smuggling routes that have killed thousands, a shadowy industry of brokers and smugglers, the fate of prostitution and forced labor that await many, and misspent or misused aid money. This is an issue likely to grow even greater in importance. If you want to know where the stories are and how to report on them, this session is for you.
Do you crave a visualization tool that won't take much of your time on a busy election night? Or while publishing a breaking story? Datawrapper is a simple yet effective tool for creating interactive charts. It’s easy to learn even for the up-and-coming data journalist. In this demonstration session, you will learn how to import data into Datawrapper, refine the design of the charts, and then embed them.
Participants should create a free account at datawrapper.de prior to the session.
The police should be there to serve and protect. The same goes for security forces and the judiciary that are there to service their people. It is very difficult to investigate those that do the opposite: that become perpetrators. Members of the law enforcement that end up breaking their political contract and abuse their power for personal or departemental gain. These investigative journalists look at serious abuse, murder and cover-ups by the police and security forces. They do this work with great risks since the ones they are exposing have so much institutionalized power.
From infectious disease epidemics to the pharmaceutical industry, from the quality of health care to fraud and fake drugs, covering medicine and health is a rich but challenging topic for investigative journalists. One needs a knowledge of science with an enterprising approach to sources and data. Here are four varied approaches that offer a gold mine of ideas -- from tracking black market organs in Pakistan to drug company operations in the developing world.
This virtual reality showcase is hosted by and presented by award-winning film producer Cassandra Herrman of the Emblematic Group, a California-based studio pioneering immersive virtual reality for investigative journalism. Cassandra will demonstrate Emblematic's work done in collaboration with Frontline, the U.S. Public Broadcasting Corporation’s flagship documentary series.
The room-scale walk-around VR experience, After Solitary, will place the viewer physically and emotionally inside an otherwise inaccessible world. Using state-of-the-art technology such as photogrammetry and volumetric 3D video, the experience pushes the boundaries of immersive storytelling while exploring what virtual reality can bring to journalism.
Also at the demo, we'll be screening “We Who Remain,” a 360-film experience created by Nuba Reports and Emblematic, produced with the New York Times, AJ+ and Arte. The film ushers the viewer into the heart of a forgotten conflict in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan after war broke out between the Sudan government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N) in 2011.
The sales of weapons and military technology is big business, both legal and illegal. Since the outbreak of the war in Syria weapons have flooded that region. What are the sources of the global arms trade? Who are the people making fortunes from war? What are the pipelines and who are the brokers behind them? How can you get your hand on documentation of weapon sales and check if they are legit? These are not just stories of shady dealers but also of corrupt governments, as in India where it took digging to expose the Choppergate scandal involving helicopter sales tied to politicians and military officials.
This all-star panel will help you follow the trail of weapons and money around the world.
The art of storytelling keeps on evolving. Not only are media houses publishing stories in multilple formats -- say, print and video -- but stories are increasingly multi-dimensional, using a combination of text, video, audio, images, animation and interactive content in one production.
What are the challenges for journalists in the field who want to create a multimedia story? Can they focus enough on their research or is the variety of formats creating distractions and dictating the reporting. What works well and what doesn’t? And are there ways to create your own multimedia package even with limited resources? Here are three award-winning, multimedia journalists from a range of backgrounds -- National Geographic, REVEAL, and Peru's OjoPublico -- with a wealth of tips on how to report, edit, and produce a great investigative multimedia story.
This virtual reality showcase is hosted by and presented by award-winning film producer Cassandra Herrman of the Emblematic Group, a California-based studio pioneering immersive virtual reality for investigative journalism. Cassandra will demonstrate Emblematic's work done in collaboration with Frontline, the U.S. Public Broadcasting Corporation’s flagship documentary series.
The room-scale walk-around VR experience, After Solitary, will place the viewer physically and emotionally inside an otherwise inaccessible world. Using state-of-the-art technology such as photogrammetry and volumetric 3D video, the experience pushes the boundaries of immersive storytelling while exploring what virtual reality can bring to journalism.
Also at the demo, we'll be screening “We Who Remain,” a 360-film experience created by Nuba Reports and Emblematic, produced with the New York Times, AJ+ and Arte. The film ushers the viewer into the heart of a forgotten conflict in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan after war broke out between the Sudan government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N) in 2011.
Worried about your digital security? You should be. Our communications and reporting have never been more vulnerable.
We've assembled a top-notch panel of security experts from Buzzfeed, The Intercept, and the Tactical Technology Collective. They're ready to offer invaluable advice on the best security tools and practices to protect both yourself and your sources. Find out how to safeguard your email, instant messaging, video and audio calls, and more. They'll also advise on what to you when something goes wrong, and they'll take a peek at privacy threats around the corner, like facial recognition.
“Bitter Grapes” is an investigative documentary about the South African wine industry. The program finds that, 22 years after the fall of Apartheid, conditions for farm workers in South Africa are abysmal. Workers in the flourishing wine country, the Western Cape – toiling 9-12 hours a day for as low as € 3,5 -- are denied the most basic rights, according to the industry itself. Unions are denied access to their members, while worker housing is falling apart.
Meanwhile, tourists and wine experts tour the vineyards on wine safaris and wine tasting tours – living in lush and restored houses once inhabited by the workers. The workers head to townships where they live without running water, sanitation and electricity – in cardboard houses and tin sheet roofs.
“Bitter Grapes” is made by acclaimed Danish director Tom Heinemann – twice awarded “Outstanding Investigative Journalist” in his native Denmark.
Slavery is thought by many to have been banished in an earlier age, but millions of people remain in forced labor around the world. Migrant workers, who account for some 60% of the world’s 244 million international migrants, are particularly susceptible to abuse, as are those trafficked and pressed into prostitution. Here are four journalists on the cutting-edge of reporting on this major human rights issue, reporting from Africa, Asia and Europe. The group includes an expert on tracking “supply chains” of goods produced by forced labor, and a member of last year's Pulitzer Prize-winning team that helped free 2,000 slaves in Indonesia.
The assertion of rights by LGBTQ communities around the world, combined with a backlash and continued discrimination against them, has brought issues affecting those communities front and center in many societies. The areas for journalistic inquiry are as broad as are the communities themselves, ranging from shifting demographics and health care to hate crimes and discrimination.
Among the most pressing issues are human rights abuses. Members of LGBTQ communities often fall victim to discrimination and persecution. In many countries it is still illegal to be gay. In others they don’t have the same rights or there are social taboos. In South Africa, for example, they are protected from discrimination in the constitution and people of the same sex can marry, but many live in fear. Murders and so-called “corrective rapes” have targeted the communities.
Our speakers will look at the methodology of investigating hate crimes, the exposure of a brutal anti-gay purge in Chechnya, source development and protection, and the use of data journalism techniques on LGBTQ issues.
Having half an hour, an hour or more time on TV or in the cinema to tell your investigative story is a dream for many investigative journalists. But it also comes with a lot of challenges of how to tell your story in the best visual way as possible. Some investigations fit better for the screen than others. A panel in which accomplished directors and journalists talk about their productions and explain what works and doesn’t work in investigative documentaries. Also tips on where to start if you plan to make your own investigative documentary, including where to get funding.
Covering disasters -- whether natural or human-caused -- takes a special set of skills. Investigative journalists today are using a combination of tech-savvy approaches with time-tested methods of on-the-ground reporting. They are also learning to better deal with the tragedy and trauma around them. Here are four veterans who have experienced very different disasters and learned how to cope under pressure.
It's a video world and, increasingly, even hard-core print journalists are working in multimedia. But producing for broadcast presents unique challenges: telling a story visually, using different interview techniques, writing a tight script, and explaining complex concepts in limited time. Here are three top-flight journalists who specialize in telling in-depth and investigative stories on TV and video. See how they've adapted their craft to very different environments in India, Kenya, and Sweden.
This virtual reality showcase is hosted by and presented by award-winning film producer Cassandra Herrman of the Emblematic Group, a California-based studio pioneering immersive virtual reality for investigative journalism. Cassandra will demonstrate Emblematic's work done in collaboration with Frontline, the U.S. Public Broadcasting Corporation’s flagship documentary series.
The room-scale walk-around VR experience, After Solitary, will place the viewer physically and emotionally inside an otherwise inaccessible world. Using state-of-the-art technology such as photogrammetry and volumetric 3D video, the experience pushes the boundaries of immersive storytelling while exploring what virtual reality can bring to journalism.
Also at the demo, we'll be screening “We Who Remain,” a 360-film experience created by Nuba Reports and Emblematic, produced with the New York Times, AJ+ and Arte. The film ushers the viewer into the heart of a forgotten conflict in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan after war broke out between the Sudan government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N) in 2011.
This session introduces the concept of mapping data as a method of data visualisation. The course covers basic principles of mapping data as a visualisation tool. The primary goal of the course is to enable users to get their data onto a map with open-source online mapping tools to create, geocode and display geographic data.
Create, geocode and display data in a geographic environment
Explain in which context map visualisations are appropriate
Access & apply the required data formats for the relevant mapping applications
Utilise open-source online mapping applications to map geographic data
Explore different map visualisation techniques and to understand which technique applies to which data format
Identify the power of map visualisation as an element of storytelling
Identify the unique ability of data mapping to highlight trends in data
Note: Data Labs have 38 seats with computers. These workshops may reach capacity quickly, so we recommend you arrive early.
The interview is one of the most important tools we as journalists have to obtain information, to expand on information we find from other sources, and to clarify facts and see things from different perspectives.
Unfortunately, too many journalists believe interviewing is simply a matter of asking questions and taking down the responses. Often, we pay little attention to this key skill. But to be a truly effective journalist requires that we hone our interviewing skills to an art. This session will offer tips and guidelines from two of the best in the business.
This virtual reality showcase is hosted by and presented by award-winning film producer Cassandra Herrman of the Emblematic Group, a California-based studio pioneering immersive virtual reality for investigative journalism. Cassandra will demonstrate Emblematic's work done in collaboration with Frontline, the U.S. Public Broadcasting Corporation’s flagship documentary series.
The room-scale walk-around VR experience, After Solitary, will place the viewer physically and emotionally inside an otherwise inaccessible world. Using state-of-the-art technology such as photogrammetry and volumetric 3D video, the experience pushes the boundaries of immersive storytelling while exploring what virtual reality can bring to journalism.
Also at the demo, we'll be screening “We Who Remain,” a 360-film experience created by Nuba Reports and Emblematic, produced with the New York Times, AJ+ and Arte. The film ushers the viewer into the heart of a forgotten conflict in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan after war broke out between the Sudan government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N) in 2011.
Great story projects, new investigative techniques, and collaborations have come out of the Global Investigative Journalism Conference since our first meeting in 2001. We know that good networking is key to this. To better connect people, we have arranged ten networking sessions, based on interests expressed by hundreds of past attendees.
So here’s a chance to meet your colleagues interested in similar topics. No pressure here: we reserved meeting rooms and asked veteran journalists to host an informal discussion about how we can help each other – through sharing resources, contacts, and story ideas. So relax, introduce yourself, share your ideas and come ready to brainstorm and collaborate.
Be sure to add your name and email to the contact list they pass around so we can follow up!
Justice! is an investigative documentary on widspread corruption in Ghana’s judiciary. In September 2015, famed undercover journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas made shocking revelations of payoffs among Ghanaian judges and other court officials. Working undercover with a team of reporters for two years, Anas gathered audio-visual evidence of 34 judges and over 100 judicial staff taking bribes to rule cases in favor of the highest bidder. He and his team produced a three-hour documentary, wrote a series of newspaper reports, and petitioned Ghana’s Chief Justice and President to fire the corrupt judges.
This low-key, beginner-level session will offer a slow-paced introduction to the Python programming language.
You'll learn how to write and run a Python script, and you’ll leave with a basic understanding of data types, common use cases and some examples of how journalists are using programming to scrape data from websites and solve reporting problems. You’ll also learn strategies for overcoming common obstacles for a beginning programmer.
Investigative journalists face an array of legal threats just for doing their jobs. Onerous criminal libel laws, insult laws, dubious charges of violating privacy, national security, and secrecy laws are just a few of the ways that individuals, companies, and governments try to shut down our work. Fortunately, there is a growing body of international law protecting journalists' rights to dig for information and report the truth. We're pleased to present this panel of top media legal experts with the long-time head of Swedish Broadcasting’s premier investigative program. They’ll offer wise advice on how to stay out of court -- and what to do when you're sued.
This virtual reality showcase is hosted by and presented by award-winning film producer Cassandra Herrman of the Emblematic Group, a California-based studio pioneering immersive virtual reality for investigative journalism. Cassandra will demonstrate Emblematic's work done in collaboration with Frontline, the U.S. Public Broadcasting Corporation’s flagship documentary series.
The room-scale walk-around VR experience, After Solitary, will place the viewer physically and emotionally inside an otherwise inaccessible world. Using state-of-the-art technology such as photogrammetry and volumetric 3D video, the experience pushes the boundaries of immersive storytelling while exploring what virtual reality can bring to journalism.
Also at the demo, we'll be screening “We Who Remain,” a 360-film experience created by Nuba Reports and Emblematic, produced with the New York Times, AJ+ and Arte. The film ushers the viewer into the heart of a forgotten conflict in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan after war broke out between the Sudan government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N) in 2011.
Worried that your communications are not secure? You should be. Sending a routine email is like writing your message on an old postcard sent through hand-delivered mail. Here’s a session that will cover how to employ encryption on your email, texts, and documents. This session will give you hands-on training by veteran investigative journalists who routinely use encryption to protect themselves and their sources.
Investigative reporting is a team sport. Here's how to work together on projects using simple collaborative tools. Not every project needs to be top-secret and ultra-protected. Our veteran trainers will explain how to share sources, documents, data, story ideas, discussions and drafts in collaborative and cross-border projects.
The session will present different ways of approaching internal and external collaborations and identify some of the forms collaborations can take. It will also discuss some of the benefits and challenges one can expect to encounter during a joint project and offer some ideas about how to surmount them.
Note: Data Labs have 38 seats with computers. These workshops may reach capacity quickly, so we recommend you arrive early.
Belarusian journalist Pavel Sheremet’s reporting had challenged authorities from Minsk to Moscow and Kyiv. In a murder that shocked the world, he was killed by a car bomb in the Ukrainian capital in July 2016.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko called for law enforcement to find and punish those behind the attack, but authorities have so far been unable to solve the case.
For over nine months, reporters from the Organized Crime & Corruption Reporting Project and Ukraine’s Slidstvo.Info ran their own investigation, both into the murder and into the police probe – and recorded every step of the way. “Killing Pavel” is the result of these efforts.
In exclusive footage and interviews, the film reveals crucial information about the night and morning of the killing that never found its way into the official investigation – and asks why. Come see the film and hear two of the reporters who produced it.
This virtual reality showcase is hosted by and presented by award-winning film producer Cassandra Herrman of the Emblematic Group, a California-based studio pioneering immersive virtual reality for investigative journalism. Cassandra will demonstrate Emblematic's work done in collaboration with Frontline, the U.S. Public Broadcasting Corporation’s flagship documentary series.
The room-scale walk-around VR experience, After Solitary, will place the viewer physically and emotionally inside an otherwise inaccessible world. Using state-of-the-art technology such as photogrammetry and volumetric 3D video, the experience pushes the boundaries of immersive storytelling while exploring what virtual reality can bring to journalism.
Also at the demo, we'll be screening “We Who Remain,” a 360-film experience created by Nuba Reports and Emblematic, produced with the New York Times, AJ+ and Arte. The film ushers the viewer into the heart of a forgotten conflict in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan after war broke out between the Sudan government and the rebel Sudan People’s Liberation Army-North (SPLA-N) in 2011.
No issue cuts across social and economic lines like corruption. Payoffs, conflicts-of-interest, and corrupt practices contribute not only to an unfair playing field but also to poor development, environmental destruction, and organized crime. In its various forms, corruption is perhaps the number one issue faced by journalists. Here are four leading journalists who have investigated extensively on the topic. They'll talk about what techniques they use to follow the money, develop sources, and publish stories that corrupt officials thought would never appear.
Mojo Masterclass – As journalism becomes increasingly competitive, professional and community journalists need a broader digital storytelling skills built around mobile journalism (mojo) literacies and phones.
The Guerrilla Workshop is a two-and-a-half-hour fast track introduction to mobile journalism where participants learn about SCRAP, a digital storytelling language; hardware (smartphones, lights, microphones and tripods); functional apps for shooting, editing,and post-production. More specifically, participants will learn how to shoot clean vision and audio, mix audio, record video interviews, edit narration and video and transfer content. In essence, you will learn how to shoot, edit and publish a complete video story using just your smartphone – all in 2 ½ hours.
This is a practical workshop and you will need the following: iPhone or Android smartphone with the following apps: iMovie (iOS), Kinemaster (iOS and Android) -- download both if you have an iPhone; We Transfer (iOS and Android); Ferrite (iOS); Vont (iOS); iXpand; Airstash. Please download these apps and check that they work prior to the workshop. Advanced apps that will be discussed, which are not free, are Filmic Pro and Camera+. Go Mojo!
Note: This is a two-part workshop and it is mandatory to attend the first part to be able to join the second one.
Are you facing a legal threat? Are you confident your work is legally sound before you publish or broadcast? Threatened by national security or privacy laws?
This informal "clinic" is your chance to get one-on-one advice from some of the top experts on international media law. We're truly fortunate to have our own "Dream Team" of media attorneys available for advice. We've got Northwestern University's Doreen Weisenhaus, the Media Legal Defence Initative's Ayse Bingol, Zimbabwe's Beatrice Mtetwa. and South Africa's Dario Milo.
Welcome to Google Fusion Tables. In this hands-on introduction to the free online tool you'll learn how to import and combine data, do simple analysis and easily turn that into an online map.
This session will be most useful if: You've ever used a spreadsheet. You need to have a Google account.
Note: Data Labs have 38 seats with computers. These workshops may reach capacity quickly, so we recommend you arrive early.
Mojo Masterclass – As journalism becomes increasingly competitive, professional and community journalists need a broader digital storytelling skills built around mobile journalism (mojo) literacies and phones.
The Guerrilla Workshop is a two-and-a-half-hour fast track introduction to mobile journalism where participants learn about SCRAP, a digital storytelling language; hardware (smartphones, lights, microphones and tripods); functional apps for shooting, editing, and post-production. More specifically, participants will learn how to shoot clean vision and audio, mix audio, record video interviews, edit narration and video and transfer content. In essence, you will learn how to shoot, edit and publish a complete video story using just your smartphone – all in 2 ½ hours.
This is a practical workshop and you will need the following: iPhone or Android smartphone with the following apps: iMovie (iOS), Kinemaster (iOS and Android) -- download both if you have an iPhone; We Transfer (iOS and Android); Ferrite (iOS); Vont (iOS); iXpand; Airstash. Please download these apps and check that they work prior to the workshop. Advanced apps that will be discussed, which are not free, are Filmic Pro and Camera+. Go Mojo!
Note: This is a two-part workshop and it is mandatory to attend the first part to be able to join the second one.
Marcus Lindemann and his team have worked with hidden cameras in various settings since the year 2000, and from there they started playing with other gadgets. While their first GPS tracking project on bike theft failed completely (the bike was gone with all the gadgets and only a video of the theft was kept), they later used GPS tracking for a consumer story on parcel services to show why some parcels were not delivered.
To monitor price changes at petrol stations, his team bought and installed time lapse camera, but before the workflow had been established, monitoring fuel prices became much easier. However, once those cameras were there, they came in handy with another story...
Currently they are working on a long-term project using newer and cheaper GPS tools. Marcus will present the tools and video footage in this session.
Note: Data Labs have 38 seats with computers. These workshops may reach capacity quickly, so we recommend you arrive early.
