Investigative Research and Data Skills Training
organization
The Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ)
description
The CIJ provides training and related resources in investigative research skills and new tools such as data reporting for journalists and other researchers in order to foster investigative journalism, especially in the United Kingdom. Their offerings include events and classes throughout the year, a biannual symposium, as well as a three-day annual summer conference and a one-day regional conference that are hands-on, appropriate for a wide range of skill levels and include training on in-depth analysis of company accounts. They offer bespoke training, including covert filming, data training, freedom of information, company accounts, data visualisation and open source intelligence. The CIJ has published several manuals, including one on understanding corporate accounts. Participants with a wide range of skill levels attend their training, including reporters at various stages of their career, students, academics, as well as unions, charities and NGOs, such as Global Witness, ActionAid and others. Their recent collaboration with Google Access to Tools has enabled the CIJ to provide training in a range of cities across the UK.
The CIJ trainers include staff, past participants and some specialists, including in areas such as analyzing company accounts, advanced online search, covert recording and filming and freedom of information. Their trainers are generally available for follow-up conversations or correspondence after a course. Collaborations may also arise.
The CIJ has dedicated particular attention to provide regular training and follow-up with community or citizen journalism outlets, as well as single-issue groups concerned about what is happening in their community, such as The People vs. PFI, a group opposed to public private partnerships to finance public works that was set up by a CIJ investigative fellow. The training “afterlife” tends to be better with local, community journalists because they have an entrepreneurial spirit and see the advantage of this work. In 2020, the CIJ plans to maintain a community of trainees in a more structured way to facilitate follow-up support and share learnings from reporters in different parts of the UK with potential overlap between community and national-level journalism.
impact
Illustration of Impact: The People vs. PFI gained skills in freedom of information requests that helped reveal information that helped shift the conversation around Public Finance Initiatives to become more critical. Their research allowed them to show the discrepancies between what was going wrong in contrast to what politicians were saying. In 2019, several journalists who attended CIJ trainings won awards for their coverage of important social and economic justice issues. Danny Lavelle, who attended the 2019 CIJ summer training won the 2019 British Journalism Awards for Features Journalism with Simon Hattenstone for the Empty Doorway series (published in The Guardian) which looks at the lives of some of the hundreds of people who are dying homeless in the UK in the context of austerity policies. Ayo Awokoya, who was a 2018 CIJ bursary recipient, won the 2019 Frontline Club Award for Print for her investigation with Tobias Jones about the exploitation of migrant labour on Italian tomato farms which was also published in The Guardian.