The war in Gaza has exacted a punishing toll: over 34,000 Palestinians are reported to have been killed, huge swathes of the strip have been damaged by shelling, and the population faces a humanitarian crisis. “Our office and equipment are gone, so we film using mobile phones. The issue we face is that sometimes there is no electricity or internet, so it can take us two days to get the image out.” — Wattan Editor-in-Chief Muamar Orabi The sheer level of destruction, along with internet and electricity outages, have made it incredibly difficult to report from the area. The conflict has had a pa ..read more

On April 13, the world watched in distress as Israel’s famous Iron Dome missile defense system was put to the test with the biggest attack it has ever faced, after Iran launched roughly 300 drones and rockets toward its territory. The Iranian barrage was a response to an alleged Israeli airstrike on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, Syria, earlier in the month. In a visual explainer, Reuters showed how Israel’s four levels of anti-aircraft defenses work. In this edition of our Top 10 in Data Journalism, which considered stories between April 8 and April 21, we also highlight a guide to the ne ..read more

“For over 20 years, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas has been treated to luxury vacations by billionaire Republican donor Harlan Crow. He goes on cruises in far-flung locales on Crow’s yacht, flies on his private jet and keeps company with Crow’s powerful friends at the billionaire’s private resort. The extent of Crow’s largesse has never been revealed. Until now. -Lede to “Clarence Thomas and the Billionaire,” by Joshua Kaplan, Justin Elliott, and Alex Mierjeski In April 2023, ProPublica published the first story in its investigative series exposing a lack of ethics oversight for US Su ..read more

In a year when almost half of the world’s population is expected to go to the polls in national and local elections, the 25th International Symposium on Online Journalism (ISOJ) featured a workshop that offered suggestions on how journalists and media outlets can use YouTube in their election coverage. “Reach is even more critical during an election cycle because there’s a big opportunity to connect people to trustworthy, high-quality election news and information on YouTube given our scale.” — Nicolette Scott, YouTube News Nicolette Scott, strategic partner manager at YouTube News, gave ..read more

While not a journalist himself, the anti-corruption campaigner Alexey Navalny proved that anyone, after training and practice, can master new investigative tools to expose rights abuse at the highest levels of any government and have an outsized impact with viral video on social media channels. Navalny also provided a last-ditch methodology path for watchdog reporters — from Telegram bots and aerial drones to the unorthodox use of sources — to dig into state-backed crime that even law enforcement doesn’t dare investigate. [Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation] was “probably the most effective ..read more

BBC Media Action is seeking a senior producer, social media to lead the digital production team in creating bespoke content for social media on multiple social networks like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and others, including short form video, photos, infographics, and other relevant formats. To promote content on social media in original ways, best suited for each respective platform. To engage online communities and influencers and facilitate conversations on social media. Build the capacity of digital producers to deliver outstanding social media content including line management of specific ..read more

Almost 25 years ago, The Washington Post reported on the first picture delivered by the brand-new Ikonos satellite. It was the first commercial imaging satellite capable of acquiring data that rivaled the resolution of spy satellites. Curiously, the reporter, D’Vera Cohn, failed to mention that one of the industries that would be changed by satellite imagery would be the news business itself. The launch of Ikonos was one of a handful of developments that allowed newsrooms to expand from reporting on rocket launches and satellite hardware, to using remote sensing data as an essential tool to he ..read more

With the progress of generative AI technologies, synthetic media is getting more realistic. Some of these outputs can still be recognized as AI-altered or AI-generated, but the quality we see today represents the lowest level of verisimilitude we can expect from these technologies moving forward. AI detection tools provide results that require informed interpretation, and this can easily mislead users. We work for WITNESS, an organization that is addressing how transparency in AI production can help mitigate the increasing confusion and lack of trust in the information environment. However, di ..read more

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Cross-platform messaging service Telegram now has more than 900 million monthly active users — on track to hit one billion before the end of 2025. It has become a hub for visual evidence for conflicts, but also for illicit activity, extremist groups, and disinformation. Still, it’s a vital resource for people sharing information from war and conflict zones such as Ukraine and Gaza — and for journalists covering them. “Right now, Telegram gives [journalists] the most amount of data… of any social media network.” — Disinformation expert Jane Lytvynenko Because Telegram, unlike other social media ..read more