Using Big Data and Multimedia to Boost Quality and Independent Journalism in Albania
BIRN Albania
Beneficiaries:
Local Journalists; Investigative Reporters;
Journalism students and young graduates;
Local NGO representatives and activists;
Final beneficiaries is general public.
10.2020 - 10.2023
Overall Objective
Enabling environment for Albanian journalists to produce independent content through training, mentoring, technical and financial support, and close cooperation with civil society, thus improving the freedom of expression, and strengthening the media pluralism in the country.
Summary of the Project
“Using Big Data and Multimedia to Boost Quality and Independent Journalism in Albania” project, supported by EU, is being implemented by BIRN Albania.
The action aim to boost the skills and knowledge of young, mid-career and journalists working on a local level in the country, providing them with the mentoring, financial and technical support, as well as investing significant effort to secure high impact of their stories. In addition, the project foresees strong multimedia component in order to make qualitative and trustworthy Investigative journalism available to citizens.
Through this project, BIRN Albania will support 20 local journalists, both men and women, from the 12 regions of the country by involving them in different activities of the project:
Formal training to raise their capacities through data journalism and multimedia reporting training;
On-the-job training and mentoring for the production of 120 in-depth analytical stories, rich with data mined from the database developed by BIRN and visualised through infographics in order to make them accessible to a general audience;
By strengthening their networking with local NGOs and activists.
BIRN Albania will provide funds for 12 investigative reporters working in mainstream media and will offer them on-the-job training and mentoring on investigative techniques and how to dig new information through three main channels: documents obtained though freedom of information requests, human sources from both government and non-profit sector and electronic sources.
The topics for the 12 investigations will be selected through close consultations with civil society in three specific fields: Judiciary, Organised Crime and Public administration and financial management.
The action will provide formal training for 20 journalism students and young graduates from different journalism schools of Albania (Tirana, Elbasan and Shkodra) on topics related to data visualisation and multimedia reporting.
After the completion of the training, the project will support their production of 50 short video reports by young journalism and infographics with on-the-job training and mentoring from BIRN Albania. Finally, the action will result with the production of up to 120 data driven in-depth stories, at least 20 investigative stories, 12 in-depth videos, 50 visualisation stories and 1 TV documentary, reaching close to 1 million people in Albania who will be informed on government’s wrongdoings as well as on key topics of interest related to the EU integration process of Albania.
Activities
Activity Cluster 1: Building capacities of local journalists, journalism students and mid-career journalists, and strengthening high-quality reporting in Albania Training for local journalists Trainings for young journalists On-the-job training and mentoring.
Activity Cluster 2: Bridging the gap between media and CSO sector, strengthening media pluralism and promoting independent media production which serves public interest regional workshops for journalists and CSOs National Round Tables Updating online database.
Activity Cluster 3: Exposing government’s wrongdoings and reporting on topics of interest related to the EU integration process of Albania Data driven journalistic production Investigative production Video production In-depth video stories production Production of data visualisation stories TV documentary production
Promotion of the action.
Results
Increased quality of reporting in Albania on local and national level on topics that serve the public interest;
20 journalists capacitated to produce high-quality news, features and analysis;
20 journalism students and young journalists capacitated for video production and data visualisation;
Boosted skills of 60 journalists/students/mid-career reporters through the on-the-job training and monitoring of their production of quality media content.
Strengthened freedom of expression, and boosted cooperation between journalists and CSO representatives in fields relevant for Albania’s EU accession process, and improved publics’ trust in media;
Boosted cooperation and strengthened linkages between journalists and CSO representatives/activists;
Identified the most underreported topics in the fields of Organised Crime, Judiciary and Public Finances;
Increased transparency of institutions by making at least 150 public documents available for broader use online;
Exposed government’s wrongdoings and public officials held accountable for their misconduct.
Improved quality of journalism on a local and national level through the production of up to 120 in-depth stories;
Significant insight into the government’s wrongdoings in spheres of Organised Crime, Judiciary and Public Finances provided through the production of at least 20 investigative stories;
Albanian government held accountable through the production of at least 12 in-depth videos, 50 visualisation stories and 1 TV documentary;
Close to 1 million people reached and informed on the most pressing issues the country is facing.
