Summer Conference Events
Open Source: The GRU Globetrotters, Tracking Clandestine International Operations
Tracking agents of the Russian secret service and their European operations requires employing the full range of open-source intelligence techniques. This class will show you many tips and tricks, while explaining how they were used in a range of investigations looking into GRU activities in Switzerland, Bulgaria and elsewhere.
Online Toolkits and Resources for Data Journalists
First aid for your data journalism learning problems. When you’re diving into a new field of expertise, it can be overwhelming. Our trainer is here to help: tell her what you’d like to learn and why it hasn’t worked out so far, and she’ll try to point you to the online toolkit or resource you didn’t know you needed.
Build a Better News Mousetrap: A Crash-Course in Design Thinking
Design thinking is a methodology for building better news products. It is used by some of the largest, most innovative news sites in the world to rapidly develop and test new products and features. In these hands-on workshops, we will learn the basics of design thinking, and how this approach has revolutionised the process.
Accessing Information under FOIA
Session 1: This session will outline the basics of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), and how you can apply it to your research, campaigns and investigations. We’ll go through the type of information that can be accessed from government bodies and how you can draft effective requests to get the most out of the Act.
Covert Filming
This session on covert filming has evolved over the years into a state-of-the-art technical workshop looking at methods to acquire evidence for public interest investigations. It is taught by a leading undercover technician and an experienced television reporter who discuss the process and ethics of going undercover and look at the latest high-quality equipment.
Excel
Data Journalism – Google Sheets
Web Scraping for Journalists
In these hands-on sessions you will be introduced to some of the basic techniques to get started on scraping data for investigations: investigation ideas: how to spot opportunities to use scraping and automation in investigations scraping basics: finding structure in HTML and URLs; what’s possible with programming simple scraping jobs: how to write a basic scraper in five minutes data journalism tools: the challenges of scraping hundreds of webpages, dozens of documents, or the invisible contents of databases.