November 2021: Claim and suggestion: The claim is, that collaboration between journalists in different newsrooms is a competence. The suggestion is that collaboration as a competence can be transferred to other fields, where journalists collaborate with non-journalistic groups – be that scientists, public authorities or civil society. Interesting discussion at the SciCAR conference in Dortmund on a panel with probably the longest title I’ve ever spoken about. And realised that translating ‘collaborative journalism’ into German gives a lovely long word: Zusammenarbeitsjournalismus.
November 2021: Some of the graduates from MIJ at University of Gothenburg have started to publish material from their investigative journalism exam projects in June. For example this mini-series of two articles on lobbying ahead of the EU’s AI directive and on the role of Big Tech in EU’s AI ethics group.
October 2021: Out and meeting people again – crucial to set up cross-border collaboration teams and to plan interesting collaborations. Te 2021 cohort of the European Collaborative Journalism Programme by the Alfred-Töpfer-Stiftung went on a retreat by the Baltic Coast. Let’s look forward to interesting stories being prepared!
October 2021: Out and meeting people again – the Data SKUP conference in Oslo by SKUP.
September 2021: Out and meeting people again! In Berlin for various meetings including the 2020-2021 in-person celebration of the European Press Prize, including a meeting with the nominees for the Money To Burn investigation where I had the pleasure to mentor the editorial coordinator during the production. An investigation, that was planned during the 2020 retreat of the European Collaborative Journalism Programme by the Alfred-Töpfer-Stiftung.
June 2021: The Master Investigative Journalism at the University of Gothenburg offers investigative, data and crossborder journalism. From late August 2020 to June 2021, an international class of 37 students worked hard and did impressive work. For example, they contributed research to this documentary about dodgy adoption practices. Several of them already landed interesting jobs or internships, some of them already published as freelancers in major media. It was a pleasure to work with the MIJ20/21 class, and though I have not met them in person due to covid19-restrictions, I miss them already!
May-June 2021: Dataharvest – the European Investigative Journalism Conference Digital. Over three weeks from mid-May to early June. Very happy to partner with major organisations this year, the European Press Prize and EJTA, the European association of journalism teachers and trainers. Fabulous to work with my precious and super competent colleagues at Arena!
May 2021: Invited to be a member of the advisory board of Re-Check, a Swiss nonprofit organization specialized in investigating and mapping health affairs.
April 2021: An idea has come to live and on April 28th reached a stage to stop and have a look: The idea of building a journalistic network to work with one societally important topic. In 2018, upon the question of an appreciated colleague, I developed the idea to focus on the problem of affordable housing in Europe. To do so, since 2019 Arena worked with the fabulous Jose Miguel Calatayud to develop the Arena Housing Network. We first invited to the Housing Track at the Dataharvest-EIJC in 2019. Jose then developed a variety of useful infrastructure tools for journalists and other experts in the field. And now – along with a team from 15 countries – the first big crossborder investigation was launched: Mapping the power of corporate landlords and how they affect the life of the tenants. The Cities For Rent project published this April builds upon the network that has grown since 2019, it not only brings a wee bit of transparency into this opaque business field, it also shows just how closely connected tenants all over Europe are facing very similar problems caused by the commodification of housing. The Cities For Rent project was mentioned in the podcast by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung about the housing crisis.
March 2021: Next generation is coming! Two new textbook anthologies on investigative journalism published these days. For the English language Investigative Journalism 3rd Edition edited by Paul Lashmar and Hugo de Burgh I contributed a chapter on covering Europe and collaborative journalism. This book provides experience from practitioners describing trends in investigative journalism in the anglosaxon part of the world and beyond. In Danish language, editors Lene Rimestad and Jannie Møller Hartley offer an overview over Investigative Journalism Methods, structured along the work process from idea to publication. This anthology, too, is written by experienced practitions, and I contributed with a chapter on filing FOI requests in Denmark and the EU and with a chapter on cross-border collaborative journalism.
March 2021: The first Arena/Dataharvest pop-up session: The making of Open Lux, featuring Maxime Vaudano, Maxime Ferrer and Jeremie Baruch from Le Monde, who developed this crossborder, data journalism project. Open Lux unveils not only dodgy tax avoidance practices but also the structures allowing them.
Brigitte Alfter 