Covering Oil: Big Data, Big Tools, and Journalism - Presentation by Anya Schiffrin & Erika Rodriguez

A N Y A S C H I F F R I N & E R I K A R O D R I G U E S

COVERING OIL:

BIG DATA, BIG

TOOLS, AND JOURNALISM

Eiti.org // magazine.cim.org

STATISTICS

In EITI

• 29 nations in 2011

• 10 reporting extractive revenues >25% of

government budget

• 6 of them >50%

Globally

• 30 countries reporting natural resource rent >20% of

national economy

• 6 of them >50% of GDP

STATISTICS

• Estimated global market capitalization of publicly

traded gas, oil, and mining co.

• 6.1 trillion Euros

• Extractives co. trading in three primary American

exchanges

• 3.7 trillion Euros

Eiti.org // magazine.cim.org

american.com // un-rok.org // cia.gov

More Data

& More

Transparency:

wwwnc.cdc.gov

• Lack of resources

• Developing experienced beat reporters

• Sending reporters out

• Lack of access to far-flung places

• Transparency is still lacking

• Poorly-funded news sources

REASONS FOR WEAKNESS IN THE

COVERAGE OF EXTRACTIVES

REASONS FOR WEAKNESS IN THE

COVERAGE OF EXTRACTIVES

Multiple sources as a tenet of good

journalism:

National US newspapers:

90% 3+ sources

48% 4+ sources

African newspapers:

21.45% 3+ sources

Nearly 50% only one source

• Wealthy oil, gas, and mining companies

• Outspending media outlets

• Pressure on journalists

• Costly and drawn-out lawsuits

• Infinito Gold vs. Costa Rican Professors

• Widespread support as a source of revenue

• Corruption

REASONS FOR WEAKNESS IN THE COVERAGE OF EXTRACTIVES

EXAMPLES OF WATCHDOG REPORTING

ON THE EXTRACTIVES

• Maka Angola, founded in 2008

• African Centre for Media Excellence (ACME)

• Legal pressures on journalists

• Rafael Marques de Morais

• Ugandan media houses (closed May 2013)

• July 2013 New Yorker article, Patrick Radden Keefe

EXAMPLES OF WATCHDOG REPORTING

ON THE EXTRACTIVES

• Impact on policy

• Mozambique: protests new legislation

• Mozambique’s EITI application

• Uganda (June 2013): government disclosure

• Marques incarceration in 1999 Angola’s Press Law

changes

OPENING UP THE DEBATE

• Grey area between no impact and immediate

impact

• Vietnam in 2007

• Reasons bloggers/journalists are effective

• Amplification effect

• Draw attention and reframe the debate

• Fluidity between platforms

• Obtaining complete data sets

ASYMMETRIES OF INFORMATION

AND OF POWER

• Teaming up with other voices and unblocking

information

• = journalists not working in isolation

• Mexico debating opening up its hydrocarbon

sector to foreign companies

• Dodd-Frank wall Street Reform and Consumer

Protection Act passed in the US in 2010

• Cascading effect of good reporting

• Ory Okollah from Omidyar Network

• Peter Rosenblum from Bard Law


AND OF POWER

• Public campaigns

• Private campaigns

• Benjamin Saldana Rocca, founder of La Sanccion in

Iquitos

• E.D. Morel, founder

of The West African Mail

WEST AFRICAN MAIL


AND OF POWER

• Government surveillance

• 2010 coordinated attacks on Maka Angola

• Joshua Ross on Democratic technology

• So while more of us are capable of holding an open, peer-

to-peer discussion, we are doing so with the consent and

under the watchful (or subpoena-able) eye of just a handful

of corporations or governments. And when citizen calls-to-

action conflict with government calls for quiet, the

government holds more of the cards.

http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/02/egypt-technology.html
















WEST AFRICAN MAIL ON THE CONGO

TOOLS/PLACES TO GET INFORMATION

SITES AIMED AT JOURNALISM

Oct 5th, 2013


SITES WITH AN EXTRACTIVES FOCUS

Oct 5th, 2013



Oct 5th, 2013



Oct 4th, 2013


NATIONAL SITES

Oct 4th, 2013


NATIONAL SITES

Oct 5th, 2013


ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE AND FLOWS

Oct 5th, 2013


REVENUE MANAGEMENT

AND TRANSPARENCY

Oct 5th, 2013


ARBITRATION PROCESSES

Oct 5th, 2013


SITES TO CONNECT PEOPLE

Oct 5th, 2013


RESOURCES AND INSPIRATION

Oct 5th, 2013


MAPPING/VISUALIZATION TOOLS

Oct 5th, 2013

IDEAS FOR FUTURE STORIES

• Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform

• Section 1504

• Conflict diamons & Section 1502

• Non-required transparency of environmental damage

• Follow-up stories: what the extractive sector

companies are spending in the countries where

they work

• Are bilateral investment treaties undermining

national sovereignty?

• Unfairness of international arbitration

• Mexico and the opening up of Pemex to foreign

investment

IDEAS FOR FUTURE STORIES

• Chris Taggart campaign from Open Corporates

• Anniversary celebrations of joining EITI

• Forward-looking pieces

• Azerbaijan drawing down reserves, costly building projects

• Perennial story ideas

• Economic consequences in remote, underdeveloped areas

• Resettlement of populations living near sites of extraction

• Effects on social fabric

CONCLUSION

THANK YOU!

Covering Oil: Big Data, Big Tools, and Journalism - Presentation by Anya Schiffrin & Erika Rodriguez

Education

Transcript of Covering Oil: Big Data, Big Tools, and Journalism - Presentation by Anya Schiffrin & Erika Rodriguez