Digital Investigative Journalism

Data, Visual Analytics

and Innovative Methodologies

in International Reporting

EDITED BY

OLIVER HAHN AND FLORIAN STALPH

D I G I TA L

I N V E S T I G AT I V E

JOURNALISM

Digital Investigative Journalism

Oliver Hahn · Florian Stalph

Editors

Digital Investigative

Journalism

Data, Visual Analytics and Innovative

Methodologies in International Reporting

Editors

Oliver Hahn

Centre for Media and Communication

University of Passau

Passau, Germany

Florian Stalph

Centre for Media and Communication

University of Passau

Passau, Germany

ISBN 978-3-319-97282-4 ISBN 978-3-319-97283-1 (eBook)

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97283-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018950725

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018

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v

Contents

1 Digital Investigative Journalism 1

Oliver Hahn and Florian Stalph

Part I Data-Driven Investigation and Computational

Journalism

2 The Rise of Investigative Data Journalism 9

Andrew W. Lehren

3 Zeroes and Ones: Investigating with Data 19

Paul Bradshaw

4 Measuring the Unmeasured with Data 31

Nicolas Kayser-Bril

5 Understanding and Contrasting the Data

and Exploratory News Outlets 43

Felipe De La Hoz

6 Uncovering International Stories with Data

and Collaboration 55

Emilia Díaz-Struck and Mar Cabra

vi Contents

7 Data-Driven Human Rights Investigations 67

Alice Kohli

8 Following the Money Trail: Investigative

Data Journalism 79

Miranda Patrucic

Part II Immersive Storytelling and Visual Investigation

9 Drone Journalism: Storytelling from a New Perspective 91

Ben Kreimer

10 Immersive Journalism: How Virtual Reality Impacts

Investigative Storytelling 103

Marcus Bösch, Stephan Gensch and Linda Rath-Wiggins

11 Visual Storytelling: Show, Not Tell? Show AND Tell 113

Jens Radü

12 Interactivity to the Rescue 123

Johanna Fulda

13 Visual Analysis: Verifcation via Geolocation and

Photographs 137

Eliot Higgins

14 eyeWitness to Atrocities: Verifying Images with Metadata 143

Eleanor Farrow

15 A Matter of Perspective: Truth, Evidence

and the Role of Photography as an Investigative Tool 157

CJ Clarke

16 The Context Verifcation of Digital Photographs 171

Alexander Godulla

Contents   vii

17 Photo Manipulation: Software to Unmask Tampering 179

Alessandro Tanasi

Part III Authenticity, Identity and Transparency

18 Fact-Checking as Defence Against Propaganda

in the Digital Age 193

Anna Sarmina

19 Crowdsourced and Patriotic Digital Forensics

in the Ukrainian Confict 203

Aric Toler

20 In-Depth Crisis Reporting 217

Natalia Antelava

21 eJihad: Behind the Use of Social Media by ISIS 229

Asiem El Difraoui with Oliver Hahn

22 Truth Corrupted: The Role of Fact-Based Journalism

in a Post-Truth Society 237

Florian Stalph

23 The Future of Investigative Journalism in an Era

of Surveillance and Digital Privacy Erosion 249

Julie Posetti

Index 263

ix

Notes on Contributors

Natalia Antelava is a co-founder and editor-in-chief of Coda Story.

Marcus Bösch is a journalist, lecturer for mobile reporting, newsgames

and virtual reality and a co-founder of Vragments.

Paul Bradshaw runs the data journalism and multiplatform and mobile

journalism master programmes at the School of Media, Birmingham City

University, UK. He also works as a data journalist with the BBC data

unit.

Mar Cabra is a board member of the Global Editors Network and

member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists

(ICIJ), where she was head of the data and technology team until

September 2017. She is one of the pioneers of data journalism in Spain.

CJ Clarke is an award-winning flm director and photographer. He is

the author of “Magic Party Place”, a ten-year project mapping the rise

of the right and the roots of Brexit. The book was shortlisted for the

Aperture Paris Photo First Book Award.

Felipe De La Hoz is a freelance politics and immigration journalist

based in New York City and writing regularly for the Village Voice and

Gotham Gazette, among others.

Emilia Díaz-Struck is a research editor at the International Consortium

of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

x Notes on Contributors

Asiem El Difraoui, Ph.D. is a political scientist, economist, and docu￾mentary flmmaker. He is also a researcher at the Institut d’études poli￾tiques de Paris (Sciences Po), France, and a senior fellow at the Institut

für Medien- und Kommunikationspolitik in Cologne, Germany.

Eleanor Farrow is the Project Coordinator for the eyeWitness to

Atrocities project under the auspices of the International Bar Association

in London.

Johanna Fulda is front-end developer and data visualisation designer

at Cumul8. She was a member of the InfoVis Group at the University of

British Columbia, Canada.

Stephan Gensch is a journalism technologist and head of product

development and a co-founder of Vragments.

Prof. Dr. Alexander Godulla is Professor of Empirical Communication

and Media Research at the University of Leipzig, Germany.

Prof. Dr. Oliver Hahn is Professor of Journalism at the University of

Passau, Germany.

Eliot Higgins is the founder of Bellingcat. He is a visiting research

associate at the King’s College, London, UK, and visiting research fellow

at the Human Rights Center at the University of California, Berkeley.

Nicolas Kayser-Bril is a data journalist, and was a co-founder and

manager of Journalism++ from 2011 to 2017, and former head of data

journalism at Owni.

Alice Kohli is a researcher for Public Eye in Switzerland and a former

data journalist at the Neue Zürcher Zeitung.

Ben Kreimer is an independent journalism technologist and advi￾sor for the Drone Journalism Lab. He was BuzzFeed’s frst Open Lab

fellow, and has worked with many academic institutions and organisa￾tions, including Columbia’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, USC

Annenberg, CCTV Africa, The Times of India, and the USA TODAY

Network.

Andrew W. Lehren is a senior investigations editor for NBC News, spe￾cialising in data journalism. He was a long-time reporter for The New

York Times. He is the director of investigative reporting at the City

University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Notes on Contributors   xi

Miranda Patrucic is an award-winning investigative reporter and regional

editor for the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project

(OCCRP).

Julie Posetti is a multi-award-winning Australian journalist and journal￾ism academic who is a senior research fellow with the Reuters Institute

for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, UK. She is the

author of UNESCO’s Protecting Journalism Sources in the Digital Age.

Jens Radü is a journalist and Head of Multimedia at Der Spiegel.

Linda Rath-Wiggins, Ph.D. is a former Tow-Knight Center fellow

and a co-founder and CEO of Vragments.

Anna Sarmina, Ph.D. is a lecturer at the Taras Shevchenko National

University of Kyiv, specialised in propaganda and information warfare.

Florian Stalph, M.A. is a Research Associate in Journalism at the

University of Passau, Germany.

Alessandro Tanasi is a security researcher and lead developer at Ghiro

Project.

Aric Toler is the lead researcher and trainer for Eastern Europe/Eurasia

at Bellingcat and the Lead Digital Researcher for Eurasia at the Digital

Forensic Research Lab of the Atlantic Council.

xiii

List of Figures

Fig. 11.1 “Der Trump-O-Mat”. The Visual Story about Trump 114

Fig. 11.2 The digital version of Der Spiegel 117

Fig. 11.3 “Rost”. The Visual Story about an Italian steel factory 119

Fig. 13.1 Crowdsourced geolocation via Twitter and Google Street

View 141

Fig. 13.2 Crowdsourced geolocation of advertising sites via Twitter 142

Fig. 16.1 Aspects of context verifcation in press photography 173

1

CHAPTER 1

Digital Investigative Journalism

Oliver Hahn and Florian Stalph

Condensation trails are mainly water-based by-products of aircraft

engines, painting long, cloud-like shapes in the sky. Adding toxic

chemicals—ones that have devastating consequences for our health—

allows weather modifcation, mind control and human population control,

just to name a few options of geoengineering. This theory of so-called

chemtrails is—of course—a hoax. While this might appear as a ludicrous

conspiracy theory, it is a widespread belief. In 2016, the Cooperative

Congressional Election Study, a national study conducted by Harvard

University, found that between “~30 and~40% of the general US pub￾lic appear to subscribe to versions of the conspiracy theory” (Tingley and

Wagner 2017, p. 5). The study also shows that the biggest part of conver￾sations about chemtrails is conspirative and can predominantly be found

on Twitter.

This episode showcases how emerging disruptive technologies such as the

Internet and particularly social networks channel disinformation and mis￾information into the public discourse and infuence the public perception

© The Author(s) 2018

O. Hahn and F. Stalph (eds.), Digital Investigative Journalism,

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97283-1_1

O. Hahn (*) · F. Stalph

Centre for Media and Communication, University of Passau,

Passau, Germany

e-mail: [email protected]

F. Stalph

e-mail: [email protected]

2 O. HAHN AND F. STALPH

of the world around us. Oftentimes, certain digital spheres are—just like

their inherent messages—driven by partisan allegiance or propagandistic

tendencies. Facilitated through an increasingly fractured post-digital society,

such messages can be deliberately and precisely shared among communi￾ties of interest and injected into public communication. An investigation by

Albright (2017), research director at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism

at Columbia Journalism School, has revealed Cambridge Analytica’s effort

to geolocate American voters and combine this information with real-time

emotional sentiment analyses for targeting citizens via social media. Using

that approach, it appears easy to feed relevant information to conspirators

or everyone else, either consolidating their beliefs or shaking their faith.

Such logics of a new ecosystem of information dissemination and consump￾tion require new kinds of tools and new profles of journalists.

Also, the ontology of journalism has changed: New formats and

methods have changed journalists’ everyday work routines that both

emerging professional as well as more experienced reporters have to cope

with. These innovations are accompanied by various challenges: masses

of information provided online and in social media oftentimes leave audi￾ences overnewsed but underinformed. As every piece of information gets

digitised, journalists need to incorporate new practices to access digital

sources, encode new information confgurations and extract meaning

of novel information types. Each kind of information requires specifc

approaches; digital formats can be highly distinct, contain accurate and

detailed information and metadata. Specialists with distinguished skillsets

have always been on the verge of breaking new ground for journalism

innovation. A binary distinction between digital and analogue journalism

is becoming extinct. New emerging technologies of communication are

now an essential part of journalism and expand persistent aspects of a

journalist’s repertoire such as face-to-face communication with sources

and eye-witnesses.

Investigative Journalism is heavily affected by the digital transforma￾tion. As the fourth estate, journalists are “quasi-constitutional watchdogs

acting on behalf of a society’s citizens” (Harcup 2014, p. 109). It is argua￾ble whether journalists and affliated news outlets manage to fulfl this role,

acting as lapdogs not watchdogs (Benjamin 2014). Certainly, investigative

journalism demands a lot from journalists: In order to uncover corruption,

mismanagement, abuse of power or shady money operations and fraud,

journalists are likely to stir up a hornet’s nest bearing risks for their career,

their whole profession and their own safety. By its very nature, investigative

1 DIGITAL INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM 3

reporters encounter resistance as they are trying to reinstate transparency

and balance for the public good and according to democratic values. This

is by no means desirable by those who are investigated. As a result, journal￾ists face obstacles and forces they have to fercely overcome. Powers that

normally fght those who try to unmask them, may be hiding behind insti￾tutions, creeping in governmental bodies, exploiting loopholes and sailing

close to the wind, or running sophisticated cons. Hence, citizens are in dire

need of advocates who call out these wrongdoings. Accordingly, sources

holding incriminating evidence are hard to access. Only few organisations

may be willing to publish or to provide such evidence; usually, such infor￾mation is well kept behind closed doors.

The digitisation of information—be it proceedings, contracts, annual

reports, demographic statistics, economic indicators or audiovisual

material—bears enormous implications for investigative journalism. On

the one hand, journalists are now equipped with new tools that allow

them to run analyses of high computational efforts, work statistical

analyses and present their fndings with a high visual appeal to broad

audiences via the Internet. On the other hand, digital information is

encryptable, decentralised and extremely prone to manipulation and

tampering. To keep up with these challenges, journalists from both leg￾acy media as well as independent activist platforms developed software,

techniques and mindsets to prolong investigative shoe-leather reporting

in the digital era.

In 2010, The Guardian, The New York Times and Der Spiegel

reported on the Afghan War documents leak unveiling unknown facts

hidden in numbers. The publication of these reports can be regarded

as the ascent of data journalism or, at least, as its inauguration into the

repertoires of reputable media outlets. Until then, data journalism had

been a niche phenomenon we could scarcely observe in mainstream

media. However, evolving internet technologies initiated the emergence

of easy-to-use and mostly free tools to refne, analyse and visualise

statistical data, which—due to the ongoing digitalisation of information

in the past decades—would provide a new and seemingly inexhaustible

source for journalists.

An online survey by Garrison (2001) revealed that internet technolo￾gies such as search engines and database services made their way into US

newsrooms, showing that the Internet has been becoming a dominant

source for news collection since the late 1990s. Later, Holovaty (2006)

published a manifesto for database journalism. He calls on newspapers

4 O. HAHN AND F. STALPH

“to stop the story-centric worldview” and to embrace data in their

stories postulating news stories built around data-driven interfaces with

regard for a combination of both text and data.

Today, data journalism can very well be considered as incorporated

into the editorial structures of legacy news outlets such as The Guardian

or The New York Times and we see more and more small data units on

a local and regional level. Furthermore, thanks to the mere existence of

stand-alone data-driven explanatory and analytical data journalism sites

such as Vox, FiveThirtyEight or Quartz, and thanks to the inclusion of

data journalism within journalism education and the growing consid￾eration by the scientifc community, data journalism is no more on the

fringes but a well-known and widely discussed journalistic phenomenon.

Data journalism is symptomatic for the data age: Journalists need tools

to report information that is now saved in digital forms. But not only

words and statements are abstracted and are turned into spreadsheets,

and not only demographic or economic statistics are stored as intelligible

datasets. Audiovisual materials such as photographs and videos are other

information mediums that challenge digital journalism. It is particularly

diffcult to authenticate visual and audiovisual material and to identify the

originators of those contents. How can journalists retrieve data, pictures

and voices that can enlighten stories, provide background information

or will result in exclusive scoops? Data-driven journalism and its tech￾niques of analysing and visualising statistical big data and new visual-an￾alytical tools are cutting-edge approaches to uncover the truth and tell

the story behind the story; whereas the former has found its way into

most newsrooms, visual analytics techniques are predominantly applied

by independent specialists, experts working for independent platforms or

institutions affliated with academia. This edited volume displays various

approaches, technologies and projects that employ innovative practices

within their investigations. By no means does this outset imply that new

technologies and practices for investigative newsgathering replace tradi￾tional techniques and make investigations exclusively desk-bound; how￾ever, new approaches certainly do enhance access to a variety of unique

sources and voices.

This book compiles chapters by both practitioners and academics.

Contributions range from engaging anecdotes or authoritative instruc￾tions to contextualised discussions. As a result, chapters differ regarding

their format and intent. If you are a practitioner yourself, some chap￾ters hopefully prove to be useful hands-on manuals while other chapters