Call for Papers: GIJC 2023 Academic Track

The Global Investigative Journalism Conference, scheduled for September 19-22, 2023 in Gothenberg, Sweden, will again feature an academic research track. Journalism professors and researchers worldwide are invited to submit research paper abstracts highlighting trends, challenges, teaching methodologies, new developments and best practices in investigative and data journalism.

The History of Data journalism

Many practitioners date the beginning of computer-assisted reporting and data journalism to 1952 when the CBS network in the United States tried to use experts with a mainframe computer to predict the outcome of the presidential election.

That’s a bit of a stretch, or perhaps it was a false beginning because they never used the data for the story. It really wasn’t until 1967 that data analysis started to catch on.

Pandemic Pause Gave Space to Uncover Data Gaps

The COVID-19 pandemic created a limbo in data gathering that has allowed researchers to highlight ambiguities normally glanced over, according to Shannon Mattern’s “How to Map Nothing” article, which was published in the Places Journal March edition.

Mattern, anthropology professor at the New School for Social Research, points to various new visualization and machine-learning tools for “acknowledging and manifesting the gaps” in archivists’ collections.

Per Christian Magnus (third from left) and colleagues in SUJO’s offices in Norway.

The Global Rise of University-Based Investigative Journalism Centers

It was a trip to the University of California, Berkeley, that first got the Norwegian journalist Per Christian Magnus thinking.

During his visit, in 2009, he learned of the Investigative Reporting Program at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism, which teaches students muckraking by having them work on, and publish, their own investigations, in association with some of the top media outlets in the U.S.

University of Illinois COVID-19 complaints and social media reveal how widespread violations were

A review of more than 400 complaints about partying and public health violations, multiple disciplinary actions and partial lockdowns at apartment complexes show the impact of the partying and social gathering was far wider than previously recognized.

While many students obeyed guidelines that included wearing masks and social distancing, a significant number of students held or attended large parties and social gatherings at Greek houses, dorms and apartments.