As the public’s fascination with crime stories grows, so too does the responsibility of those who bring these stories to light. Whether through traditional journalism or increasingly popular true crime content, the way these narratives are crafted can shape perceptions, impact communities and, significantly, affect the lives of victims and their fa…

Our guest on this episode is Jessica Hill, senior investigations and features reporter for Schools Week and FE Week. Jessica was the first journalist to reveal to the general public how reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) was ‘a ticking time bomb’ making school buildings ‘liable to collapse’. She brought the scale of the danger to an even…

Our guest on this episode is Paul Morgan-Bentley, head of investigations at The Times newspaper, who has just scooped Investigation of the Year at the Press Awards for undercover reporting that exposed the force-fitting of British Gas meters in the homes of vulnerable people.In our conversation, Paul explains how he reported this story, why he thin…

Our guest on the latest episode of the J-Lab podcast is Martina Lees, a senior writer for the Sunday Times. Next month sees the sixth anniversary of the Grenfell Tower disaster, when fire destroyed a 23-storey tower block in West London, killing 72 people. Martina has spent much of the last few years seeking answers to why the disaster really happe…

Our J-Lab guest this episode is Hannah Barnes, investigations producer for the BBC’s Newsnight programme.Hannah’s reports with science correspondent Deborah Cohen and her subsequent book about the rise and fall of the Gender Identity Development Service (Gids) for children at the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust in north London are the re…

Around 4,300 cases a week are heard in the family courts in England and Wales and the number of applications for children to be taken into council care has is around 13,000 each year. And yet remarkably little is known by most people about what goes on in family courts.In this latest episode, our guest is Louise Tickle, a multi-award winning freela…

In this interview with Find Out Why the founding Executive Director of Digital Trust and Safety Partnership David Sullivan talks about the mission of the organization to produce digital trust and safety standards, reviewed through internal and independent third-party assessments, that ensure transparency and reduce harms associated with online cont…

Prof. Jason Ā. Josephson Storm, chair of Science and Technology Studies at Williams College talks to Elena Gkiola about his latest book, Metamodernism, The Future Theory. A thought-provoking and inspiring revision of the current theoretical systems of analysis in humanities and social sciences. His ideas enrich our understanding of Web 2.0 and Web …

New laws banning independent coverage of the invasion of Ukraine have forced many news outlets to leave Russia.Meduza claims to be Russia’s biggest independent media outlet even though its editors have been based, in exile, in neighbouring Latvia for most of the last 10 years.In recent years Meduza’s reporting has ranged from exposing the presence …

Our guest this time is Joshi Herrmann, who began the pandemic intending to write a book in the Czech Republic… but instead launched a venture in Manchester that shows there might after all be a viable future for good quality, local news reporting.In just 18 months, Joshi Herrmann has signed up 16,000 free subscribers (and more than 1,000 paid) to T…

In this interview, Maryia Ditchkowska, lecturer at the European Humanities University in Lithuania, talks about the post-truth practices in political communication and their digital manifestation during events of great uncertainty, like the pandemic. Support the showAv Find Out Why

In this episode, our guest is a journalist who has had three features shortlisted for this year’s British Journalism Awards – in one, she meets women who clear landmines in Lebanon, in another she talks to female footballers tackling France’s on-pitch hijab ban, while in the third she reports on the conditions endured by asylum seekers in the contr…

Eliot Higgins is founder of online investigative collective Bellingcat which, over the last 10 years, has used open source investigation techniques to prove that Syria’s regime used chemical weapons against its citizens, find evidence of Russian involvement in the downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight MH17, and unmask the “kill teams” who poisoned R…

If you've seen Oscar-winning documentary Icarus, you’ll no doubt have been astounded by the scale of the state-sponsored doping of Russian athletes. And in this episode of J-Lab – a podcast brought to you by the Civic Journalism Lab at Newcastle University – our guest is Nick Harris, one of the two Mail on Sunday investigative journalists who expos…

With governments trying to restrict online gaming in their societies, Find Out Why is raising awareness about the political aspects of games in culture, the preservation of freedoms, and the social impact of gamer communities. We reach out to dr. Leandro Borges Lima who specializes in digital games, cyberculture, social networks and sociability on …

Annabel Deas, an investigative journalist who works for BBC Radio 5 Live and Radio 4, has just won the Orwell Prize for Hope High, a seven-part podcast documenting the year she spent with a community in Huddersfield where a number of children were being exploited by county lines drug dealers. Judges described Hope High as “British public service jo…

Alice Stollmeyer, the number one female digital EU influencer in 2019 and 2020 and the Founder and Executive Director of Defend Democracy, talks to Find Out Why about the importance of defending democracy from the threat that the business model of big tech companies poses to societies and shares her reflections on the issue of online manipulation b…

Dr. Luci Pangrazio, author of the book ‘Young People’s Literacies in the Digital Age’ and Research Fellow at the Centre for Research in Educational Impact (REDI) talks to Find Out Why about the data literacies in young people's digital worlds. Dr. Pangrazio argues that creative ways to materialise digital data are necessary in critical analysis. Su…

The appetite for showbiz and celebrity news has only increased during the last 12 months and our guest for this episode is Katie Hind, showbiz editor at the Mail on Sunday newspaper. In the last year alone, Katie has broken stories that forced Victoria Beckham to withdraw her application for government furlough money; that blew the whistle on James…

George Arbuthnott and Jonathan Calvert of the Sunday Times Insight team have published the first major book telling the inside story of Britain's battle with coronavirus and exposing failures at the top of government which may have cost thousands of lives.In this episode, George explains the reporting behind the story and discusses the methods used…

Dr. Aída Ponce Del Castillo, senior researcher at the Brussels based Foresight Unit of the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) talks to Find Out Why about the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA). DSA is a legislative proposal which aims to regulate online and intermediary platforms that bring together users and providers of goods and services as well…

Find Out Why is delighted to present Gyurka Jansen whose work has played an important role in the Dutch innovative media ecosystem. Jansen is a new media and online communities analyst and journalists' consultant. In our discussion he shared his views on issues such as freelance journalism monetization systems & building online communities, instead…

Bettina Chang, the co-founder of City Bureau - a civic journalism lab based in Chicago- talks to Find Out Why about the future of journalism, the value of civic journalism, the debate around the financial models of news business and the need for a democratized access to journalism so that meaningful civic engagement and equitable news production ca…

Our guest for this episode of the J-Lab podcast is Christina Lamb, award-winning chief foreign correspondent for the Sunday Times. Christina has spent more than 30 years covering wars and conflicts around the world. She has written nine books, including one with Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Taliban in northern Pakistan because of her campa…

Our guest for this episode is Zing Tsjeng, the executive editor of VICE UK. Most recently, Zing ruffled a few establishment feathers with her Empires of Dirt short-form video series about British colonialism. Zing is a podcaster too, host of United Zingdom on BBC Sounds. She launched the UK edition of women’s website Broadly, while her four-book se…

Dr. Marina Tulin, post doctorate at Erasmus University in the Department of Media and Communication and the Coordination Manager of the TRESCA project, talks to Find Out Why about the effective communication of science, the importance of social science knowledge and how trust is built online. Support the show…

The News Literacy Project (NLP) is a US based NGO that focuses on supporting young people become critical thinkers, news and media literate. In this interview, Damaso Reyes, journalist and NLP's ambassador in Europe, talks about the skills that are required today in order for young people and the general public to understand, interpret and successf…

Reporting by journalists like the BBC's John Sudworth has revealed the scale and severity of the Chinese government's large network of detention camps, in which more than a million Uighurs and other minorities are thought to have been detained, mistreated and abused.And in the last couple of weeks, in addition to the heavy restrictions already plac…

Find Out Why interviews Imran Ahmed, the founder of the Center of Countering Digital Hate, a London-based advocacy group that counters “hate groups” and individuals from spreading their narratives at major social media outlets. Support the showAv Find Out Why

Stephanie Kirchgaessner’s exclusive investigative report of January 2020 about a multi-billionaire, a royal prince, phone hacking and murder was jaw-dropping. And it won the Guardian’s investigations correspondent in Washington DC a British Journalism Award in recent months.In this latest episode of J-Lab – a podcast brought to you by the Civic Jou…

Find Out Why reached out to Dr. Thomas Arnold, assistant professor at the philosophical seminary of the University of Heidelberg. His views on logic, reasoning and ethics are uniquely appealing. He has designed a project which is sponsored by the Alfred Landecker Democracy Fellowship and it explores ways of achieving a form of public philosophy. Th…

In his book, “Democracy’s Detectives: The Economics of Investigative Journalism", James T. Hamilton Stanford University Professor and Director of the Journalism Program, proposes an economic framework of analysis that measures the return on investment of investigative reporting and ultimately its impact to democracy and society. This is what he dis…

In a year that has seen very little live sport, the Telegraph’s chief football writer, Sam Wallace, unearthed a story that rocked the world of football: plans to reduce the size of the top division in England, scrap or modify some of the cup competitions and introduce B teams.In this episode, Sam gives some insight into how he got hold of these con…

Alexandra Heal is an investigative reporter whose work for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism on domestic abuse by police officers won her the Private Eye Paul Foot Award 2020. Alexandra’s reporting has also led to lawyers submitting a nationwide "super-complaint" with police regulators.In this episode, Alexandra explains how her research and r…

Dr. Anna Berti Suman is the principal investigator of the project SensJus with the mission to “provide newly required research capacity in the EU by redefining citizen sensing as source of evidence acceptable in environmental litigation and as a tool for mediating environmental conflicts”. Dr. Anna Berti Suman is a postdoctoral fellow at the Europe…

Vox pops are much maligned, seen by some as the lowest form of journalism. Just filler at the end of a news package on TV or radio bulletins. A tick box exercise to include different voices. But over the last 10 years, the Guardian’s John Harris and John Domokos have discovered that vox pops, done thoughtfully, given time and conducted with an open…

Nick Martin of Sky News was one of the first journalists to report the coronavirus crisis inside care homes. His reporting was eventually praised by health secretary Matt Hancock, who promised to increase access to testing and send more PPE to care homes.In this episode of the J-Lab podcast, Nick – who began his career on the Whitley Bay Guardan, N…

In an exclusive interview with Find Out Why, Zoë Papaikonomou, an Amsterdam based investigative journalist, author, keynoter, media educator and diversity advocate shares compelling insights into the practices of inclusive journalism. Zoë answers timely questions: -how mainstream media outlets can foster a culture of belonging where everyone's tale…

It was one of the biggest news stories of the year: an important insight into our country’s handling of the coronavirus and a slightly bizarre tale of politics and power in a pandemic.The flouting of lockdown rules had already cost a government scientist and Scotland's chief medical officer their jobs. So when the prime minister’s controversial chi…

In this episode, we focus on how journalists are meeting the challenges of reporting the coronavirus crisis. We talk to Nico Piro, a foreign correspondent for Italian TV station TG3, about how he is using mobile journalism skills — learned while reporting conflicts in Sierra Leone and Afghanistan, the ebola epidemic of 2015 and refugee crises in Gr…

Official Secrets is the name of a film released at the end of last year, which tells the true story of Katharine Gun, a GCHQ whistleblower who leaked information to the Observer newspaper about a dirty tricks campaign by US and UK intelligence agencies as they tried to justify invading Iraq. On this episode, we speak with Yvonne Ridley, the journal…

Unlike broadcasters, the UK press – in print or online – has no state regulator like Ofcom requiring it to be impartial. There are many implications to this – and the press must balance this freedom to probe, investigate and criticize with a responsibility to report accurately, ethically, fairly and sensitively.In some people's eyes, there is littl…

Duncan Campbell was the crime correspondent of the Guardian and chairman of the Crime Reporters’ Association. He has written four books on crime, including his latest, We’ll All Be Murdered in Our Beds, the Shocking History of Crime Reporting in Britain. Most recently, he acted as consultant on King of Thieves, the 2018 film starring Michael Caine …

HuffPost UK executive editor Jess Brammar, who’s a former deputy editor of Newsnight, gives us her thoughts on investigative reporting in a digital age. And HuffPost UK special correspondent Emma Youle — who is a previous winner of the Paul Foot award — describes how she and colleagues discovered that Kensington and Chelsea council made £129 millio…

In this episode, we hear from someone who has probably done more than anyone else in the last couple of years to highlight pay discrimination. As the BBC’s China editor, Carrie Gracie clashed with the broadcaster over gender-pay inequality and left her role after learning she was being paid much less than her male counterparts. But she continued to…

In this episode on the persona of journalists on social media, we'll hear the thoughts and experiences of Ash Sarkar, senior editor at Novara Media, contributor to the Guardian and Independent and regular commentator on politics and society on BBC Question Time, Newsnight and Have I Got News For You; Susie Boniface, journalist and author who uses t…

In this episode on the reporting of Brexit, we'll hear the thoughts and experiences of LEWIS GOODALL, political correspondent for Sky News; LISA O'CARROLL, Brexit correspondent for The Guardian; FERGUS HEWISON, political correspondent for BBC North East; and DR DARREN KELSEY, author of Media and Affective MythologiesHas the media done a better job …

The focus of this podcast episode is artificial intelligence and how it might shape the future of journalism. Taken from our Can Technology Reboot Journalism? event, we hear the thoughts and experiences of PETE DAYKIN, CEO of Wordnerds, whose career has taken him from writing for football fanzines to teaching computers to understand humans.(If you …

Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn have been a huge disrupter for news organisations – and it’s where millions of people now get their fix of daily news.In this podcast episode - taken from our Can Technology Reboot Journalism? event – we hear the thoughts and experiences of KATIE CARROLL, managing editor of the US and UK Da…

As part of our Can Technology Reboot Journalism? event, we hear the thoughts and experiences of Paul Gallagher, who is digital innovations editor at Reach plc, formerly Trinity Mirror, which is the UK’s largest news publisher.(If you want to watch a version of this podcast and see Paul's slides, visit https://youtu.be/3oj4hX_EoQM)For much of the la…