Bespoke Training

The CIJ offers training for universities, NGOs and media organisations. These are based on existing courses but are tailored to the specific needs of the organisation or individual.

We are able to draw on a pool of experts and pioneers in investigative journalism to offer training in the latest techniques.
If you are interested in bespoke training for your organisation, please contact Minal: minal@tcij.org

The CIJ specialises in training in the following areas:

Database Journalism or Computer Assisted Reporting (CAR)
As Freedom of Information Acts open up governments and allow access to previously unavailable data, journalists need the skills to be able to make sense of the vast datasets they are often faced with. We teach beginner, intermediate and advanced use of software (Excel, Access, SQL) to help journalists sort through data sets and find stories.
The CIJ has several instructors, trained by Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) and Center for Public Integrity’s (CPI) David Donald and the New York Times’ Aron Pilhofer. Courses are taught using real datasets from British, EU and US sources, and our trainers are CAR pracitioners at major broadcasters and newspapers. As the trainers use datasets regularly in their job they are able to show students recent examples of stories they have found in datasets and encourage students to do the same.

Advanced Internet Research
Using advanced internet research techniques has become a key tool for journalists and our courses give reporters and researchers the tools previously only employed by university level IT academics and police investigators. The course equips delegates with the skills to go beyond Google and access information and open source intelligence that is freely available online but might often be hidden in the deep web.

Understanding Company Accounts
This is the only course in Britain teaching specialised analysis of business and financial documents. Raj Baroliya, one of the UK’s top forensic accountants, takes reporters, financial analysts, corporate investigators and business students into the complex world of corporate accounts, locating tell-tale signs of financial tricks from misrepresentation to fraud.
The course is updated every year to reflect corporate events and is the only critical, investigation-based course we know of in Europe. It is widely attended by financial and investigative reporters from almost all the mainstream press and broadcasters.
This course is for practising journalists or NGO researchers only.

Story-Based Inquiry
Based on a process developed by Mark Hunter, a leading French investigator and academic, and Luuk Sengers, a journalism and research lecturer, this course offers practical training in producing an evidence-based narrative. Divided into four parts, the course shows how to use hypothesis to develop and sell a story, how to manage information in such a way that will help build the story structure, finding sources and mapping them to your story, and finally writing up the investigation into a strong and solid piece of work.

Covert Recording
The Summer School session on covert filming has evolved over the years into a state-of-the-art technical workshop looking at last-resort methods to acquire evidence for public interest investigations. Taught by a leading undercover technician with the latest high-quality equipment and an experienced television reporter, this is a subject that is only taught by the CIJ.

Practical Communications Security
A crucial question for investigative journalists is how to marry information and communication technology with the need for security and privacy? Drawing on guides and programmes from the ‘security in a box’ toolkit, this course gives practical advice on how to protect your computer’s anonymity online and ensure security and privacy for your communications. Various new tools for encryption and circumvention are demonstrated and analysed.

Freedom of Information
This workshop explains how to make effective requests using the UK Freedom of Information Act, which can be a valuable tool for journalists. The course also covers what information to ask for, the format, what you should expect to receive and the timeframes for getting a response to your request, as well as your options if the request is refused. It explains the pitfalls and when there is no point using the Act. Examples of stories that have drawn on information obtained under the Act are used to illustrate the course.

Libel, Defamation and Privacy Law
Another vital course for students and investigative journalists, our trainers are experts in their field and the class covers new developments in libel, privacy and the Press Complaints Commission. Trainers will also discuss how recent cases have affected the law and the growing use of injunctions over privacy that could spread from celebrity to criminality. Even the most experienced of journalists benefit from this course as the law is constantly changing.