ICFJ Knight Fellowships

Five Essential Research Tips for Journalists Using Google

In the age of digital journalism, advanced online search techniques are becoming requisite skills for successful careers in journalism. With hundreds of millions of sites indexed, Google is undoubtedly the most powerful search engine, but it’s easy to miss out on a lot of that power if we don't know the best techniques for asking questions. Although Google will almost always have answers, the goal is to find the relevant ones.

Fortunately, there are a number of search techniques that journalists (and researchers in general) can use to dramatically improve search results.

Tanzanian Journalists Connect to Audiences With WhatsApp

In August of last year, Orton Kiishweko, a reporter with Tanzania’s Daily News, stumbled upon a story making the rounds on WhatsApp, the mobile messaging app.

“I read from a WhatsApp group that some Muslim Tanzanian clerics had been kidnapped by rebels in Eastern Congo and were demanding ransom,” Kiishweko recalls.

A bit of Googling corroborated the initial reports. But details were sketchy.

ICFJ Knight Fellows Showcase 10 Free Open Source Investigative Tools for Journalists

The ICFJ Knight International Journalism Fellows create a culture of news innovation and experimentation worldwide to deepen coverage, expand news delivery and engage citizens in the editorial process.

Data Journalism Academy Alum Defends Uses of Spreadsheets in Journalism

Dear fellow journalists,

I write to you with concern, as it has come to my attention that many, if not most of you dread working with spreadsheets.

I understand this fear. Journalists tend to come from arts or politics backgrounds, and so have never needed to interact with a computerized accounting tool.

Working on a spreadsheet might seem daunting, but how is this different from word processing? Back in the days before PCs, words were not processed but crafted.