News

'Salama' App Aims to Keep Journalists Safe

During his ICFJ Knight Fellowship, security expert Jorge Luis Sierra is creating applications to help reporters assess their physical and digital risk.

In an interview with ICFJ, Sierra talks about Salama, a risk-assessment app he’s building that will help journalists and bloggers work more safely.

New Data Journalism Program Helps Africans Improve Lives

The International Center for Journalists and Code for Africa have launched a $4.7 million initiative to improve the lives of Africans through data journalism and civic innovation.

The Beginnings Of The Tech Revolution In Pakistan

Pakistan’s media landscape is new to the use of technology in the newsroom. One of the biggest challenges is reconciling the different cultures that collide when technology, journalism and data cross paths.

The tech community in Pakistan is vibrant but has largely been associated with commerce. Consequently the developer community has limited experience interacting with and understanding the needs of media and civic organizations.

Rewriting the Rules: The New Voice of Journalism

As the head of the International Center for Journalists, I constantly try to assess the future of our field. The technology is evolving at a dizzying rate, transforming everything about our profession. I now own an Apple Watch, so I can talk from experience about "glance journalism" and "snackables," bite-sized pieces of information that appear regularly on my wrist.

But what interests me most now are not the appetizers or the new gadgets, but the new voice of journalism.

ICFJ Knight Roundup: Cyber Attack in Guatemala, New Knight Fellows Announced

Each week as part of the Knight International Media Innovators blog, the ICFJ Knight team will round up stories focused on how their fellows are making an impact in the field.

Find out more about the fellows' projects by clicking here.

How An Indian Newspaper Found Breaking Stories Before They Hit The Wire

In February this year, an express train crash near Bangalore killed 10 passengers and injured over 150 others. News alerts from national publishers and broadcasters began trickling in as text-only tweets a few minutes before 9 a.m. IST.

But these weren’t the first tweets about the accident. Local users had already been posting details and images from the site for more than an hour and a half.

ICFJ Knight Roundup: The Human Cost of African Mining, Tracking Argentine Elections

Each week as part of the Knight International Media Innovators blog, the ICFJ Knight team will round up stories focused on how their fellows are making an impact in the field. Find out more about the fellows' projects by clicking here.

Tracking election campaigns in Argentina, the dirt on industrial mining in Africa, drones banned in Kenya and more from the Knight Fellows in this week's roundup.

The Promise and Perils of Drone Journalism

In January, CNN and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reached an agreement to test the use of drones in reporting. This announcement came in the face of federal regulations banning the use of drones for commercial purposes. In the same month, Kenya banned civilian drone use.

From restrictive laws to societal stigma, drone journalists face many challenges in reporting with this innovative technology.

Why African Media Should Embrace Mobile Technology

When the next billion people come online, almost all of them will do so via a mobile device. This is especially true for the countries across Africa that I’m working in as part of my ICFJ Knight Fellowship.

In Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa and Tanzania, mobile networks are often the only way that people can get connected owing to a lack of landline networks outside the major cities.

The Ethics of Social Data: Insights for the Digital Newsroom

In the fast-paced news environment, reporters are inclined to publish a story, push it out on social media and move on to their next piece. But if journalists aren't carving out time to reflect on the article's performance or how their audience interacted with it, they're missing out on a crucial piece of the engagement puzzle.