News

How a Journalist and Technologist Collaborated to Improve Maps for News

In the current news environment, journalists and developers are increasingly calling upon and benefiting from one another's skills and expertise.

The nearly one-year-old InfoAmazonia is a product of such a partnership–and a testament to the power of collaboration.

How to Overcome the Lack of Health Coverage in Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, where journalists usually vie to cover the economy, crime and entertainment, a new collective of 100 journalists and communicators is shining a spotlight on an often-neglected beat: health.

Ethiopia’s first organization of health journalists, the Addis Ababa Health Journalists Initiative, formed last month with the goal of boosting the quality and breadth of health coverage in the country.

'Part App, Part Map' Tracks Amazon Forest Loss

"As the endangered Amazon forest faces tougher challenges – deforestation, forest fires, and mining and oil drilling, among them – there must be a way to track the destruction," writes Chelsea Diana of Reuters Alertnet.

Knight Fellow Moderates Historic Kenyan Political Debate. The Hot Issue: Land Reform.

Election campaigns in Kenya are normally noisy, lively and bloody. But this one had a difference. Instead of the usual three or four presidential candidates, there’ve been eight. There’s also been less bloodshed, but certainly more money spent in wooing the voter.

And for the first time ever, all candidates seeking the keys to State House – seven men and one woman – appeared together in public debates. There were three in February, broadcast live on radio and TV and streamed on the Internet.

How Making Maps is Evolving Online

Just 10 years ago, creating an interactive online map was complicated, if not impossible, for most Web users. Now, journalists can design attractive maps in the cloud and publish them in minutes.

And in recent years, the news industry has seen exciting opportunities for Web-based maps beyond Google. The two-year-old company MapBox is an important driver of this development.

A product of the Washington-based company Development Seed, MapBox gives newsrooms and bloggers the ability to control how maps look and what data appears on these maps.

What Journalists Can Learn From the Citizen Science Movement

Knight International Journalism Fellow Gustavo Faleiros is tapping ordinary, environmentally concerned citizens in the Amazon region to help contribute data and information to InfoAmazonia, his digital mapping project that tracks deforestation. Faleiros says "citizen science" movements like this one can be a powerful force for connecting communities, for telling stories about the environment and health, and for helping explain the problems and issues to policymakers.

Students Tell CEOs Why to Hire Them

Students in Professor Lee Miller's Corporate Strategies class pitched their talents to corporate CEOs in the final project of the semester.

Health Reporting Helps Reduce Stigma and Discrimination in Zambia

Media coverage of health issues can break down barriers to better information about health, resulting in improved services and care. During her Knight International Journalism Fellowship, Zarina Geloo trained journalists to produce higher-quality stories and launched a health segment in the Times of Zambia.

The Role of Transparency and Corruption in Sustainable Development

In November, Gustavo Falerios moderated a panel about sustainable development and transparency at the International Anti-Corruption Conference. As a Knight International Journalism Fellow, he helps journalists use data to improve environmental reporting in Brazil. Read Faleiros' take on the role transparency and corruption play in environmental sustainability here.

Data “Boot Camp” Helps Kenyan Reporter Expose School Sanitation Woes

Irene Choge arrived at the data boot camp with little experience using spreadsheets. But the reporter for NTV in Kenya knew that learning how to use data could help her nail down an important story: why girls in rural school districts started performing badly as they reached adolescence.