Center for Collaborative Investigative JournalismCenter for Collaborative Investigative Journalism
Journalists can’t be everywhere. So sometimes we rely on technology to find verifiable information on our behalf. And guess what? There are open source tools that can help journalists effectively investigate people and companies, including tracking commercial aircraft and cargo ships or satellite imagery to confirm locations in photos and videos. But many journalists are unaware of these tools. Open-source intelligence is the data collected from open source and analyzed to produce actionable intelligence.
This two-part session will introduce some of these web tools to journalists and show them how they can use the tools to undertake computer-assisted investigation. NOTE: Attendees need reliable internet for successful in-session practice for both sessions.
During part 2, attendees will see examples of how satellite imagery and social media research can help to confirm your reporting. Led by CCIJ Project Editor Carolyn Thompson, this session will go through some examples of reporting done with these tools, comparing images obtained from sources and through public channels with satellite imagery to locate their precise site. Attendees will explore how social media research can be used for fact-checking, and we will do a hands-on exercise for participants to test out their new skills for themselves.
Part 2: Tuesday, June 20, 2023
3:00 PM – 4:00 PM Central European Time /
9:00 AM – 10:00 AM US Eastern Time
Virtual via Zoom
Free
Project Editor, CCIJ
Carolyn Thompson is a project editor at CCIJ, and a freelance data and investigative journalist. Her work has been published by Al Jazeera, the Washington Post, CBC, Radio-Canada, France 24, NPR, News Deeply, and Maclean’s Magazine, among others. Her Forced Out project in South Sudan using mobile phone research, statistical analysis, and satellite imagery won the third place Philip Meyer Award through the IRE in 2019. She has spoken at numerous conferences about her reporting, including the International Journalism Festival, NICAR, MozFest, and DataDriven. She was a Dart Center Ochberg Fellow in 2022, NewsCorp News Media Fellow through the International Centre for Journalists in 2020, the Visiting Journalist in Forestry at the University of British Columbia in 2018 and participated in the Investigative Journalism Intensive at the Banff Centre for the Arts in 2017.