Summer Conference Events

In an explosive investigation published in March, journalists from BBC News used open source investigative research as well as their sources to track down and name two Bulgarian women who spied for Russia.

Tech companies are harvesting a terrifying amount of personal data from users all the time – and the practice is opaque by design. This talk will look at routes to discovering what data they hold. In particular, we’ll explore how to use subject access requests (SARs) combined with data analysis and other journalistic techniques to paint a picture of how tech and social media companies see and categorise us all.

In her keynote talk Imogen Barrer will look at her investigations into Partygate, Britain's social housing scandal, and the UK's hidden homelessness crisis that won six Royal Television Society TV Journalism Awards across 2022, 2023, and 2024.

Veteran investigative journalist Martin Tomkinson has spent five decades digging through the dirt to uncover corruption in business, politics and the police. From bribes protecting those getting rich in exploitative industries, to dodgy deals between developers and politicians at all levels, so much of his reporting is sadly still relevant today.

The New York Times's investigation into allegations of sexual harassment and assault by the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein in October 2017 led to an avalanche of MeToo stories in the media. These are not easy stories to tell, especially in the UK where laws around both defamation and privacy are much tougher for journalists than in the US.

As journalists we have the ability to share the stories of those who are often left without a voice. What are the challenges reporters face when trying to expose poor care within mental health services?

Data journalism has been key to uncovering patterns for investigations for decades. The availability of open-source tools has made data journalism accessible to all newsrooms. This session will give you a bit of history about data journalism through some groundbreaking work.

Tristan Kirk has spent the last six years digging into the Single Justice Procedure, a secretive court process where hundreds of thousands of people are convicted each year in private hearings. The process was invented to cut costs and fast-track justice, but with few safeguards on the quality of the justice administered or the transparency of decision-making.

How do you add a new skill as a local journalist? From two different perspectives, Helena Bengtsson and Claire Miller will talk about how they educate and inspire regional reporters to work with data journalism methods.

From the potential to erode trust through deep fakes and AI-powered misinformation, to dangers around undermining job security and creative innovation, there are genuine threats and challenges that this technology poses to both journalism and wider society.