News

Environmental news site CartoChaco reveals deforestation in South America's Gran Chaco region

A new data-driven journalism platform launched today to expose environmental threats to South America’s Gran Chaco, a region that suffers from the world’s highest deforestation rate.

A group of researchers, cartographers, developers and journalists created CartoChaco, which uses news stories alongside maps powered by satellite data to reveal the impacts of natural resource exploitation in the region.

Five data journalism projects win funding from Latin American startup accelerator HacksLabs

Five data-driven projects produced during the regional hackathon La Ruta de Dinero (The Money Trail) will receive support from HacksLabs, the first accelerator of data journalism projects in Latin America.

The projects focus on improving transparency and accountability in Colombia, Chile and Argentina. The regional hackathon, which I coordinated as part of my ICFJ Knight International Journalism Fellowship, took place in 12 Latin American cities and one U.S. city.

Journalists and Civil Society Must Join Forces to Engage the Public With Health News

Now that news reporting is no longer simply a matter of journalists deciding what they think the public needs to know, the mainstream media must make the shift from just reporting about news events to exploring ideas that move the audience to think and act.

Nowhere is that more true than in health coverage, where locally relevant engagement with the news can help individuals and communities identify their health priorities and have a conversation, offline and online, about solutions that can make a difference in their lives.

Civic Patterns is Creating a Common Language For The Builders of News and Citizen engagement apps

While many in journalism are searching for ways to harness their readers' expertise and to use data to tell compelling stories, technologists and NGOs who build civic technologies around the world are asking some of the same questions. Organizations like the UK's MySociety, US-based Code for America, Code for South Africa or Fundacion Ciudadano Inteligente in Chile develop services that aim to improve interactions between government and citizens.

ICFJ Organizes “CodeCamp for the Globe” to Strengthen Citizen Voices Through Data

From May 19 through 30, 2014, ICFJ brought together experts from around the world to the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center in Italy to find ways to use data to advance quality journalism. Ben Colmery helped organize this key summit.

His report:

There is no question that open data is opening new doors to improve people’s lives. Initiatives by governments, multilateral organizations, NGOs and hacker groups have bolstered its potential by creating a flood of data and apps.

But what, of it all, has shown tangible success? What works, what doesn’t?

ICFJ Knight Fellow's Regional Hackathon Follows Funds

Fourteen distinct chapters of Hacks/Hackers across Latin America and Miami gathered participants on June 7 to work on projects that attempt to answer one basic question: Where does my money go?

The hackathon brought journalists and coders together to follow where and how Latin American governments and corporations direct their funds.

ICFJ Knight Fellow's Regional Hackathon Follows Funds

Fourteen distinct chapters of Hacks/Hackers across Latin America and Miami gathered participants on June 7 to work on projects that attempt to answer one basic question: Where does my money go?

The hackathon brought journalists and coders together to follow where and how Latin American governments and corporations direct their funds.

Expert Tips for Making Better Infographics

While infographics are a great way to help readers understand complex topics, journalists should avoid the temptation to make information appear to be simpler than it is.

"Stories are always more complicated than they seem at first," said data visualization expert Alberto Cairo.

São Paulo’s Mural Blog Helps Citizens Shed Light on Neglected Communities

For more than three years, the blog Mural has practiced collaborative journalism, run away from stereotypes and sought quality in local coverage.

Community journalism, citizen journalism, hyperlocal journalism, nonprofit journalism. I do not accept any of these labels. In my assessment, what the correspondents for the blog Mural have done for more than three years is good-quality journalism. Good journalism. Period.

How Argentina's La Nación Data Journalism Team is Verifying Senate Spending Data With Help From the Public

The data sets emerging from our current age of big data aren't always usable by the masses--or even accurate. One Argentine newspaper is working to change that by empowering the public to verify and understand just what the country's elected leaders are spending public money on, from airline tickets to per diems.

La Nación’s VozData initiative, which launched in late March, allows users to review and rate more than 6,500 Argentine Senate spending records from 2010 to 2012. All were originally published on the official Senate website.