The impact of leaking on investigative journalism
Shrinking states, expanding civics
This year we've talked about the expansion of government surveillance powers and its impact on citizens and journalists' sources.
This month we're going to dive into another facet of this — the reliance on leaks and the need for technology to protect and collaborate.
This month's speaker, Dr Stefan Baack, believes the evolution of data journalism has been shaped by the Wikileaks — namely on the normalisation of leaking and the proliferation of data sharing.
Dr Baack is a research associate at the Weizenbaum Institute, and a research and data analyst at the Mozilla Foundation in Berlin.
If you'd like a taster, this 2016 commentary on the Panama Papers will set you up for his presentation this week.
6pm: Arrive, grab a drink, socialise
6.30pm: Dr Stefan Baack
7pm: Food, another drink (but no pressure), more chats
8pm: Close
ICYMI
Is the "structure of data journalism ... a Wild West in need of a lasso"? The AP thinks so, so they've developed a tool "to make it easier for newsrooms and journalists to collaborate"
We're all drowning in plastic, and this visual Reuters story does an excellent job of showing you exactly what that means
If you're creating graphs or other visualisations, it's important to make sure readers can interpret what's going on. In this piece, the New York Times explains what those hurricane-forecast maps actually mean
If you want to better understand what's going on in Hong Kong, you need to know a bit of its history and this amazing ABC News feature can help you there
About last month...
We had a great time wrapping our heads around "physical" journalism with Dr Skye Doherty and A/Prof Stephen Viller from UQ at our last meet-up.
We separated into groups and picked a news story, a technology, a framework and a constraint. We then had to brainstorm how to tell the story using the technology and within the framework, being mindful of the constraint.
It was so interesting to hear what all the groups came up with. Some of the ideas included:
Using drones to drop bushfire information to residents
A computer game that reveals the workings of the justice system
A storytelling festival about drought
A bedtime story that projects visuals onto a ceiling or wall
If you're curious about the materials we used, Skye and Stephen have made them available here.
Our AGM is being held on November 6. More details on time and where closer to the date. If you'd like to become a member please chat with Simon, Dan or Rosie at any of our meet-ups, or get in touch via the links below 👇