Data Driven 2021

High profile events like those that occurred at the United States Capitol on January 6 tend to be captured and shared online by the perpetrators themselves. Once shared, this data–some of which could contain evidence of crimes and atrocities–is vulnerable to imminent deletion either by social media platforms or by the users who shared it themselves.  In this talk, Giancarlo will speak about Bellingcat’s efforts to crowdsource the collection of digital evidence for analysis and preservation.

Data narratives can transform the impersonality of a merely technical approach to AI by connecting models to what they really stand for: solutions, knowledge, industries, and people. IBM’s Mara Pometti shares how she established a data storytelling culture at IBM by applying an editorial approach to AI use cases.

This hands-on workshop will go through basic Boolean search skills that can be used on Twitter, Google, and other search engines to uncover information about a target or event. This workshop is ideal to people new to creative online searches who want to enhance their skills. It’s useful for reporters working in breaking news environments and investigators alike.

In September The Markup launched Blacklight, a real-time website privacy inspector. Building this tool took 18 months and was a huge technical undertaking. We built this tool because we were investigating the state of tracking on the internet, and wanted to tell the story in a way that left readers with a sense of agency, not apathy.  In this talk I will go through how this tool was built and used internally for our own investigation ‘The High Privacy Cost of a “Free” website’.

A look at how the Digital Data Desk at the Canadian Press developed an automated system for generating COVID-19 stories and multiple charts.  We’ll look at the original design concept, considerations for how data would be updated, the actual generation process and iterations to further automation.

Participants will learn about the founding philosophy and ethos of the newly-minted Investigative Journalism Bureau and the techniques and methods behind its inaugural series.
In this presentation we will discuss three main points:

• Building collaborative partnerships to do more ambitious projects
• Negotiating with governments and institutions for access to data and information in a non-traditional manner (e.g. without using FOI requests)
• Creating unique datasets and databases in partnership with academics and research firms for journalistic purposes

Even a basic understanding of data journalism can give you an edge in story meetings. I’ve spent this past year reporting in a new province as the most junior reporter in a strong newsroom, and my “junior” data journalism knowledge has helped me pitch unique stories while adding new angles to “softer” story assignments. If I can use data to jazz up my stories, so can you.