The CIJ Summer school 2008 ran from 18-20 July 2008 at City University, Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB
The CIJ Summer school 2008 – A great success
More people attended this year's Summer school than ever before, there were more classes, more talks, and more speakers than in previous years. It was judged by all to be a great success.
Speaker handouts and audio recordings of many of the talks will be available here in September.
Summer school speakers included:
We also heard from Mark Schapiro [4], of the Centre for Investigative Reporting, San Francisco, Robert Wardle [5], retired head Serious Fraud Office, Professor Sheila Bird [6] on how the news distorts statistics, and Solomon Hughes [7] author of War on Terror Inc.
Speakers on the environment included: Irene Gerlach [8], Greg Muttitt [9], Julian Newman [10], Andy Rowell [11] and James Sanders [12].
Plus Jim Nichol [13] and Raphael Rowe [14] on miscarriages of justice, Drew Sullivan [15] on investigating organised crime, Mark Hunter [16] on testing and presenting your investigation, Paul Radu [17] tracing the ownership of European companies, Richard Orange [18] on local authority contracts and deals in the UK, look at your online security with Dimitri Vitaliev [19], and update your undercover filming skills with Alan Harraden [20].
Courses included:
- Law for journalists with Philip Conway [21], Justin Walford [22], Heather Rogers QC [23] and Gavin Millar QC [24].
- Understanding company accounts with Raj Bairoliya [25] of FTI Forensic Accounting and a team of financial journalists
- How the Freedom of Information Act can work for you with Heather Brooke [26], whose stories on MPs expenses [27] have filled the press in recent months and David Gordon [28], of The Belfast Telegraph [29] who can claim a scalp.
- Computer-Assisted Reporting – a unique opportunity to learn everything you need to know about using your computer to improve your reporting. Find out how to dig deep to find data, download it, analyse and present it, with our expert team: David Donald [30], Training Director Investigative Reporters and Editors; Tommy Kaas [31], from Denmark, Aron Pilhofer [32] of the New York Times, Heather Brooke [33], Elena Egawhary [34], Francis Irving [35] and Paul Myers [36]. Download the Computer workshops [37] document for more information.
Computer-Assisted Reporting produces some great stories:
All of these stories analysed data produced by Freedom of Information Act enquiries. By the end of the Summer School attendees would have learnt about all the skills needed to do the same. They would have become expert CAR practitioners in just one weekend by joining our CAR A-Z course, part of the Computer Workshops
You can see the full Timetable [40] and read about the Computer workshops [41] by following these links.
The Summer School was open to all. Places costed: £200 for a student, £300 for NUJ/BECTU or similar and £450 full price.