Category

Description

Number of tools

Data

Data journalism, databases, data protection tools

Geo & Chrono location

Open source satellite and mapping services

Maps, Satellites & Streetview

1. Baidu Maps

Baidu Maps is a desktop and mobile web mapping service application, offering satellite imagery, street maps, street view and indoor view perspectives

2. Bing Maps

Bing offers more recent and higher resolution imagery than Google, e.g. in Afghanistan and Iraq.

3. Coordinate converter

Geographic Tools; Coordinate Conversion / Datum Transformation

4. Copernicus

Better resolution than Landsat

5. Descartes Labs

Descartes Labs is using its data refinery for satellite imagery. They are currently processing images from the major NASA and ESA satellite constellations. They do not charge journalists

6. Digital Globe

Satellite imagery, derived data, and space infrastructure.

7. Dual Maps

Dual Maps combine synchronised Google Maps, Aerial Imagery and Google Street View into one embeddable control.

8. EOS Landviewer

EOS Landviewer provides free services for up to 10 images. More images and analysis are available to journalists at a discount.

9. ESA Earth Online

The web portal provides a vast amount of content, grown and collected over more than a decade: Detailed technical information on Earth Observation (EO) missions; Satellites and sensors; EO data products & services; Online resources such as catalogues and library; Applications of satellite data; Access to promotional satellite imagery.

10. ESA SNAP

The Sentinel Applications Platform (SNAP) is a data analysis framework ideal for the exploitation of Earth Observation data.

11. Earth Explorer

The EarthExplorer (EE) user interface is an online search, discovery, and ordering tool developed by the United States Geological Survey (USGS).

12. GIJN resources

Here you can find resources for finding and using satellite images.

13. GeoNames

A wide variety of different spellings in various languages. Draws upon many sources, including NGA’s Geonames.

14. GeoVisual Search

GeoVisual Search works on two different imagery catalogues, showcasing multiple resolutions, and national and global scale search.

15. Geograph

Geograph is a concept and open source code for an online website to create a comprehensive collection of photographs capturing every part of given region.

16. Google Earth Engine

Virtually any satellite imagery collected from NASA, NOAA, USGS, etc. is available.

17. Google Earth Pro

Add a Bing Maps satellite imagery layer. Historical imagery.

18. Google Maps

3D modelled places in the Americas, Australia, Europe, North Africa, and SE Asia.

19. HERE WeGo

Here WeGo is a web mapping and navigation service.

20. IndustryAbout

Database of industrial facilities.

21. Map checking

Map checking provides more recent satellite imagery than Google in, e.g. Iraq.

22. Mapillary

Mapillary is the street-level imagery platform that uses computer vision to fix the world’s maps. With computer vision, Mapillary connects images across time and space to create immersive street-level views and extract map data.

23. Mapotic

Mapotic is a mapping platform.

24. NASA EarthData
25. Old Maps Online

Old Maps Online are a useful addition to Google Streetview.

26. OpenStreetCam

OpenStreetCam is a project to collect crowdsourced street-level photographs

27. OpenStreetMap

A wide array of satellite and aerial images; broad search criteria; and other mapping and visualisation tools such as FIRMS for fires. Access to more than a dozen NASA data centres and associated satellite data products. NASA Earth Observations: More than 50 datasets on atmosphere, land, ocean, energy, environment and more.

28. StoryMap

Mapping stories across a geography

29. find2places

Allows querying Google Maps API for two specific places in precise distance from each other within a given radius. Useful for geolocating from photographs.

Handbooks & Tips

Handbooks, courses and tips for reporters

Courses

1. Collaborative Journalism Handbook

This set of guides and workbooks is designed to help newsrooms design and manage collaborative journalism projects.

2. Coronanewsroom

Coronanewsroom offers stories, webinars, lesson and guide on how to run a newsroom in the time of COVID-19.

3. Digital Journalism Courses

Free digital journalism courses with mixed media lessons, concise tip-sheets and practical exercises.

4. EJC Video

EJC's video courses

5. FINDING: MODI – Find Where & When a Photo Was Taken (Geolocation & Chronolocation)

This tutorial covers how to geolocate an image (find where it was taken on a map), and then chronolocate the image (identify the time, using shadows visible in the image).

6. Free Digital Skills Courses

Free digital skills courses for all levels.

7. Fundamental Search for Journalists

In this course we're going through some of the tips and tricks on how to make your own research faster and more accurate using Google's tools. We will go from advanced search through to verification, touching upon visualisation and finishing up with Geo mapping tools to help you tell your stories in a beautiful, interactive way online.

8. Global Muckraking: Investigative Journalism and Global Media

This course is a fast-paced introduction to global muckraking, past and present, and includes penetrating interviews with historians and investigative journalists.

9. Google News Initiative Courses

It provides various courses for journalists, verification and vital tools such as Google Search, Scholar, Trends, and much, much more.

10. Introduction to Data for Business Leaders

A leadership course that goes beyond the hype surrounding data by focusing on the practicalities of achieving business outcomes.

11. Introduction to Machine Learning

This course will introduce you to the potential of machine learning and help you reflect on how you can use it responsibly to enhance your journalism.

12. Journalist's Toolbox: Scraping Data from Web Pages

Learn how to scrape data off web pages.

13. Online Course on Mobile Journalism

The course is open for journalists or media professionals from the Western Balkans who are interested in using their mobile phone for complete production of powerful journalistic stories. The self-paced online courses are available in three languages – Macedonian, Bosnian/Serbian and Albanian.

14. Online Harassment: Strategies for Journalists’ Defense

This resource page features course content from the Knight Center for Journalism in the America's massive open online course (MOOC) titled “Online Harassment: Strategies for Journalists’ Defense.”

15. Protecting Health Data in the Modern Age: Getting to Grips with the GDPR

Learn how the GDPR helps to protect health data and get familiar with rights, obligations, risks and safeguards.

16. The BBC's Introduction to Podcastology

In this Podcastology series you'll get to know: how to produce a successful podcast; how to develop an audience; and how to promote your podcasts.

17. The GNI Digital Growth Programme

The GNI Digital Growth Program has been designed with industry experts and news publishers across the world to help small and medium sized news organizations grow their digital businesses, through a range of free playbooks, interactive exercises, digital workshops and labs.

18. Totem

Totem is an online learning platform that offers educational courses about digital security and privacy, and related tools and tactics for journalists, activists and human rights defenders in a safe, online classroom environment.

19. Tutorials & Tech Support Guides

Tutorials on basic computer concepts, spyware removal, security, software, and operating systems.

Handbooks

1. COVID Links

Collection of links to resources, tools, data, and knowledge to support COVID analysis.

2. Coronavirus Tech Handbook

A crowdsourced resource for technologists building things related to the coronavirus outbreak.

3. Coronavirus: Resources for Reporters

First Draft’s resource hub has created and collected guidance to support accurate and responsible reporting on coronavirus, which will be regularly updated with new information.

4. Digital Helpdesk of RSF

Digital Security for Journalists

5. EJC Handbook

EJC's Data Journalism Handbook

6. GIJN Asset

Asset Disclosure

7. GIJN Supply Chains

Supply Chains

8. GIJN Tracking Ships

Maritime Shipping

9. GIJN’s Global Guide to Freedom of Information: Resources

National, regional and international sites filled with advice and information, as well as governmental and nongovernmental sites that facilitate the filing of requests online.

10. GIJN’s Guide for Investigating Health and Medicine

A comprehensive guide for understanding health care, evidence-based medicine, clinical trials & handling medical experts &their testimonies.

11. Investigative Reporters and Editors Resource Hub

The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 25,000 investigative stories, as well as more than 3,500 tipsheets from our national conferences, Watchdog Workshops, and on-the-road training on how to cover specific beats or do specific stories.

12. Journo Code

Data journalism dictionary

13. KUNFU.AI

Tracking Coronavirus Disinformation on Twitter

14. Local News Lab Focus Groups

Focus Groups guide

15. Local News Lab Newsletters

Newsletters guide

16. Membership Puzzle Project & Tow Center Audience Revenue Glossary

Membership Puzzle Project & Tow Center audience revenue glossary

17. News Nerdery

Media technology resources

18. Press Freedom Police Codex

These are important guidelines on how the police should interact with journalists. Also, the tool offers overview on recent projects, education programs, information sources and dialogue settings to improve the relationship of police and press.

19. Reporter’s Guide to Investigating Organized Crime

From money laundering to human trafficking, GIJN’s guide tells you everything you need to know about investigating organised crime.

20. Researching Government Contracts for COVID-19 Spending

As countries rapidly spend billions of dollars to fight the coronavirus pandemic, digging into government contracts is taking on a new urgency.

21. Resources: Guides to Finding Expert Sources

Here are six services with functioning, reliable databases used by journalists searching for expert sources.

22. Safety of Female Journalists Online: A #SOFJO Resource Guide

The safety of women journalists online directly affects the quality of our democracies and the right of society to access a plurality of information. This #SOFJO Resource Guide responds to the gaps that exist in addressing the safety of women journalists online.

23. Solutions Story Tracker

The Solutions Story Tracker® is a curated database of rigorous reporting on responses to social problems.

24. Tools for Investigating Coronavirus Fakes and Disinfo

Bellingcat presents a wide array of tools and guides to conduct online investigations during this difficult time.

25. Types, Sources, and Claims of COVID-19 Misinformation

In this factsheet we identify some of the main types, sources, and claims of COVID-19 misinformation seen so far.

26. Verification Handbook

This book equips journalists with the knowledge to investigate social media accounts, bots, private messaging apps, information operations, deep fakes, as well as other forms of disinformation and media manipulation.

Tips

1. 4 Tips for Navigating the COVID-19 Infodemic

How best to deal with falsehoods and misinformation during this pandemic is one of many difficult tasks facing journalists and publishers.

2. 5 Tips for Journalists Working with Whistleblowers

Here are some tips to help guide and inform journalists who are working with whistleblowers.

3. 6 Must-Know Hacks for Investigative Journalists

These tips can help journalists be more effective in their investigations.

4. 6 Tips for Using Open Source Tools When Reporting from Home

The use of open source tools, user-generated content (UGC), and advanced search filters has allowed reporters to break major stories on the COVID-19 pandemic from home quarantine.

5. COVID-19: Expert Advice on Investigative Angles

GIJN asked leading journalists in our global community — including experts in investigating disinformation, supply chains, and open source tools — for their advice to fellow reporters on what we should be scrutinizing during the outbreak.

6. CPJ Safety Advisory: Covering the Coronavirus Outbreak

Safety tips for journalists who are planning to cover the COVID-19 outbreak.

7. Covering Coronavirus: Privacy and Security Tips for Journalists

Insights from First Draft's session on best practices and good habits to protect yourself during online investigations into coronavirus misinformation

8. Creators' Tips for Launching a Podcast

If you are considering starting your own podcast, but don’t know where to begin, here are some tips.

9. Cybersecurity Toolkit

Use this toolkit when you have problems accessing your data/account/device, when someone impersonates you, or intercepts your communication. It also offers a platform to learn about cybersecurity more generally.

10. Digital Security Do's and Don'ts for Journalists

Tips and tools that journalists can use to protect themselves, their data and their story.

11. Disinformation Toolkit

The application provides step-by-step guidelines to using online tools for identifying misinformation in the Western Balkans. It is especially useful for journalists who encounter suspicious content on a daily basis in their work.

12. Enhance Your News Editing Skills

These ten tips will help you improve your news editing skills.

13. Hackastory Tools

A handpicked list of tools and resources to help you build your digital story.

14. How Journalists Can Work from Home Securely

Cybersecurity tips for reporters working remotely in the time of COVID-19

15. Interview Tips for Journalists

5 interview tips every journalist needs

16. Investigating Sexual Abuse: Reporting Tips and Tools

This guide is based on tips and techniques drawn from a November 2020 GIJN webinar, Investigating Sexual Abuse, and augmented by a GIJN Resource Center search of relevant case studies, useful organizations, and guides.

17. Investigative Photography: Supporting a Story with Images

Useful tips for photographing documents, storing images, and recovering lost information.

18. Mental Health Tips and Resources for Journalists

Journalists are often on the frontlines of some of the world’s most challenging events, from crime scenes and road accidents to natural disasters and wars. Now, journalists around the world are working overtime to cover the COVID-19 pandemic.

19. Systems Thinking for Journalists

A toolkit for reporting on complex problems.

20. The Journalism Security Assessment Tool

JSAT is a free, survey-based self-assessment tool that offers practical solutions tailored to each newsroom’s profile and vulnerabilities. The survey takes about an hour to complete, and is followed by an instant diagnosis of an organization’s digital and physical security and resilience.

21. VPN Comparison

VPN Comparison is meant to be a resource to those who value their privacy, specifically those looking for information on VPNs (that isn’t disguised advertising).

Image & Video

Image and video search and verification tools

Image and video tools

1. Advanced Multimedia Storytelling Tools

An extensive dashboard listing mostly-free tools for data visualization and visual storytelling.

2. Auto edit

Fast text-based video editing.

3. ExifPurge

EXIF Purge is a small portable application to remove EXIF metadata from multiple images at once.

4. ExifTool

Read, write, remove, and manipulate metadata for a vast number of file types.

5. Foca

Extracts metadata.

6. FotoForensics

Image forensics tool.

7. GooFile

Extract metadata.

8. Image Forensics

Web-based image forensics tool.

9. InVID

Verification plugin to help journalists verify images and videos.

10. Irfanview

Extract metadata.

11. Jeffrey's Image Metadata Viewer

Extract metadata, online.

12. Planet

Planet is an explorer portal where anyone can download imagery of the tropics for environmental monitoring.

13. Reveal Image Verification Assistant

Forensic providing eight filters to detect still images alterations.

14. Reverse image search

Locates similar images on the internet.

15. SpiderPig

Extract metadata.

16. Splunk

Extract metadata.

17. Tin Eye

Reverse image search.

18. VGG Face Finder (VFF) Engine

VFF is a web application that serves as a web engine to perform searches for faces over an user-defined image dataset.

19. VGG Image Classification (VIC) Engine

VIC is a web application that serves as a web engine to perform image classification queries over an user-defined image dataset.

20. VGG Image Search Engine (VISE)

This standalone application can be used to do a reverse image search on a large collection of images.

Social media

Social media tools for reporters

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