Blogs

Dec 202013

Mandela: My Brush with Greatness

by Jerelyn Eddings

It was winter in South Africa but the political season was hot, searing with the tensions arising from the crumbling of apartheid. The year was 1990, and Nelson Mandela had been free for only a few months after 27 years in prison. Other anti-apartheid activists were similarly tasting freedom for the first time in decades, returning home from prison or from exile around the world.

On this day in June, I slowly made my way toward the Voortrekker Monument outside of Pretoria. It’s a symbol of apartheid and shrine to the Afrikaner people who created that peculiar system of racial oppression.
Dec 192013

Crackdown in Egypt: Lessons Learned by the International Center For Journalists

by Joyce Barnathan

This piece was originally published on the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD)'s website.

Some moments in history seem ideal for helping the media to develop. Right before and after the Arab Spring, the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) saw tremendous opportunity to help Egyptian journalists produce investigative pieces and to train bloggers and other citizen journalists and link them with mainstream media.
Nov 122013

Why Journalists Need to Understand “The Data on our Data”

by Mariano Blejman

Now that we know that Dropbox snoops in our files and that Google shares our data with the NSA and the FBI, journalists must acquire new skills to avoid leaving a trace behind or let others track anonymous sources.
Nov 122013

Tracking Poachers: A Breakthrough Tool for Data-Driven Journalism

by Gustavo Faleiros

JEO is a WordPress theme that enables journalists to create data-driven maps without help from a developer. Environmental news site Oxpeckers is using JEO to track and visualize rhino poaching in national parks.
Oct 152013

Why Data Ownership Matters to Journalism

by Gustavo Faleiros

The narrative about big data often focuses on their vigor and potential. The possibilities of using big data for civic good are, in fact, exciting. Big data are used for everything from improving crisis response during natural disasters like Hurricane Sandy to providing mobile banking to Africa’s poorest citizens.
Oct 12013

Geojournalism Handbook Puts Earth Science Data at Reporters’ Fingertips

by Gustavo Faleiros

Journalists worldwide who want to improve their data-wrangling skills to better cover the environment have a new resource. The Geojournalism Handbook is a free, online guide to mapping and visualization technologies. It explains environmental data such as satellite imagery and even shows you how to build your own balloon to take aerial pictures.
Aug 142013

Journalists Learn to Work with Environmental Data to Reveal the Earth’s Stories

by Gustavo Faleiros

The Lekki Conservation Centre in Lagos, Nigeria, holds the last patch of the city's original flooded forest. The reserve, which represents a unique habitat between the lagoon and the sea, is squeezed in amid reclaimed land and urban settlements. If you look at a satellite image of the area, you see that most of the green space has given way to the grey of buildings and asphalt.

I had the opportunity to visit Lekki on a rainy day in July with a group of environmental journalists I was training.
Aug 142013

Citizen Journalism Gives the People of the Niger Delta a Voice

by IJNet

Somewhere far from the capital city, far from most newsrooms, and, for that matter, most news consumers, a dilapidated hospital stops functioning. Maybe it happened because the faltering power system failed, or maybe the unpaid staff members finally quit. Either way, the result is the same: people in a remote place just lost their access to healthcare.

In the city, people start noticing when the lines at the local health facility grow longer with people from the countryside who have come because they have nowhere to go for treatment back home.
Jul 302013

New Group Makes Costa Rican Women Journalists Tech Savvy

by Mariana Santos

This blog was co-authored by Mariana Santos and Elisa Tinsley.

Women who want to thrive at the intersection of media and technology must not be afraid to share their knowledge or to fail, because what they learn along the way is the most important thing, said Hassel Fallas Lopez, a data journalist at Costa Rica's La Nación newspaper.

Fallas spoke during the inaugural meeting of Chicas Poderosas, the first group dedicated to increasing the number of women in Latin America who work with technology in media.
Jul 302013

Tearing Down Barriers to Open Data in Buenos Aires

by Mariano Blejman

A few days before holding our first Media Party in August 2012, our Hacks/Hackers Buenos Aires chapter realized we were going to need a megaphone to announce some our activities to hundreds of participants.

On Twitter, I asked for a loaner, and the crowd came through. Someone left one in the door the first day of the event, and I returned it a few months later.

The collective construction process is arduous and hazardous, but always entertaining.

Recent ICFJ Bloggers

Jerelyn Eddings

Program Director

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Joyce Barnathan

President

Barnathan is president of the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing quality journalism worldwide.

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Mariano Blejman

Knight International Journalism Fellow: Argentina

Blejman is an editor and media entrepreneur specializing in data-driven journalism.

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Gustavo Faleiros

Knight International Journalism Fellow: Brazil

Faleiros is an environmental journalist and media trainer who specializes in data-driven journalism.

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IJNet

The International Journalists' Network, IJNet, keeps professional and citizen journalists up to date on the latest media innovations, online journalism resources, training opportunities and expert advice.

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Mariana Santos

Knight International Journalism Fellow: Brazil, Chile and Costa Rica

is a visual storyteller who did groundbreaking work as a member of the interactive team at The Guardian in London.

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Elsabet Samuel Tadesse

Knight International Journalism Fellow, Ethiopia

Tadesse is a radio journalist and media trainer who specializes in health, gender, migration and human rights issues.

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Miguel Paz

Knight International Journalism Fellow: Chile

Paz is a Chilean journalist and founder and CEO of Poderopedia, a data journalism website that highlights links among Chile’s business and political elites.

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Jennifer Dorroh

Editor, Knight media innovators' blog, IJNet

Dorroh, IJNet's former director, is developing a new blog from the Knight International Journalism Fellows on global media innovation.

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Jorge Luis Sierra

Knight International Journalism Fellow, Panama

Sierra is an award-winning Mexican investigative reporter and editor.

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