Lighthouse Reports

Inspired by Big Local News and the The Associated Press shared data unit in the US and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism's Bureau Local and the BBC News' Shared Data unit, Lighthouse Reports had been seeking out an opportunity to put together an investigation around a high-value data set full of opportunities to tell important, localized accountability stories.  We wanted to reveal not large scale corruption, but instead systemic inequality: to tell stories that focus not on a few high profile “bad guys” but rather on the victims of structural inequality and the policy, societal and economic failures in each country that created and perpetuates the status quo. "Brain waste” has been that opportunity for us. Read the first two parts of the series here: https://lnkd.in/g2Cf_MKn The EU Labour Force Survey unlocked potentially dozens of stories but also, as we quickly found out, could easily overwhelm our capacity, leading us producing literally hundreds of regressions that we had no capacity to evaluate. I was surprised about the lack of guidance available on how to pull together this kind of collaborative shared data project, so I have been sharing some lessons we are learning as we go. I’ll start off with what we learned about our data approach when we published Part 1 in April. It requires many, many ongoing conversations for data team members and reporting team members to speak the same language and reach a common understanding of what the data can and cannot tell us. We definitely had miscommunication and misunderstanding about what we were measuring, why and how! We learned from tried and tested social science techniques not only in terms of statistical approaches but also in terms of documentation, processing and transparency are key for both internal and external credibility. Without a track record of clear documentation, we would not have been granted access to the data by Eurostat in the first place. A variety of data perspectives is extremely important when conducting such experimental analysis. Without the insights and contributions of the data team of ElPais News and Financial Times, our findings would be less robust, ambitious and reliable. The findings are absolutely not “self-explanatory.” This relates to the first point. The more that data and traditional reporters define and shape the main investigative questions together, the less painful the process or reconciling the output of the analysis and the information that reporters need to understand the results and inform their reporting. Please check out our Github repo and methodology doc: https://lnkd.in/g9kgVwYD https://lnkd.in/guabW6qZ Next up, the lessons we learned about storytelling around data in Part 2, published in June.

Part 2 of the Lighthouse Reports investigation in collaboration with El Pais, Unbias The News and Financial Times ran last week, leading with people, not numbers. A deep dive into the failure of Spain’s degree recognition program exposes why migrant doctors are blocked from working in their specialised fields despite Spain’s looming doctor shortage. https://lnkd.in/gVvmM8Ft A character-driven explainer in Sweden describes a sweeping failure to integrate migrants with advanced degrees into the professional workforce. https://lnkd.in/ga6vtKeT If Part 1 utilized startling visualizations and huge numbers to convey the sheer scale and scope of brain waste across Europe in the Financial Times explainer and the El Pais expose, Round 2 stories intentionally tell quieter, more nuanced stories. For Part 2, I’m sharing some reflections on centering the stories of impacted communities. This was the starting point for our approach. “We are not doing nearly enough narratives — we are seeing data used as an end in itself, rather than a jumping-off point for strong journalism,” said Sarah Cohen. “I’m a judge [for data journalism awards,] and I can tell you we throw out 90% of the submissions because they are great data exercises, but not great journalism. We get to do both — but if we forget to do the part that we’re good at as journalists, then what’s the point?” https://lnkd.in/g3taHxPQ The first thing we learned was we needed data-savvy journalists who are great storytellers for a data story to become strong journalism. With Beatriz Ramalho da Silva from the Lighthouse Team and Justin Yarga, a data journalist from Burkina Faso living in Sweden reporting for Unbias The News, we had a lead reporters passionate about both finding the nuances in the data and the characters who are most representative of the trends surfaced by the data. Trust was essential for the characters featured in the story to share their experiences.  Reporters went through the data findings with everyone in the story to help them both understand that they would not be exploited for a sensationalist headline and they are emblematic of the multiple barriers locking migrants out of good jobs. Our team believed that if the reader feels emotionally invested in the characters, they will make it through the complexities of the story. Exhaustive storyboarding ensured a smooth narrative flow as we transitioned from the stories of victims of brain waste, to the data findings they represent, to the experts who explained the structural barriers behind the lived experiences and data. The storyboarding also served as a strategy to get buy-in from busy editors skeptical of their audience's appetite for a long-form piece on the migrant experience. 

Out now: most people have heard of "brain drain." But what happens to educated migrants when they move to Europe? It turns out, many are unemployed, underemployed, or working in fields unrelated to their expertise, according to a new wide-reaching data investigation instigated by our friends at Lighthouse Reports. This is a sad state of affairs for countries facing aged populations and worker shortages in critical fields like education and healthcare. But its also a pathetic waste of the time, energy and talent of newcomers who could contribute so much to making Europe a better place. For Unbias The News, journalist Justin Yarga spoke to many people struggling to have their education and experience recognized in Sweden, which turns out to have the 2nd worst employment gap between educated migrants and natives in all of Europe. Read the first in our limited series on brain waste, and make sure to check out the other articles in the series by El Pais and Financial Times.

Back in 2020, when Lighthouse Reports was finding its feet with some big ideas (on collaborative journalism) and a small team (<5 people), the Nationale Postcode Loterij (DPL) committed to a multi-year grant in support of our plans. At the time we were making headway with tracing arms deals that flouted regulations, fuelling conflicts; and finding ways to viscerally evidence human rights abuses at borders.  That early core support -- funding that's not tied to an individual project -- was essential to the experiments and expansion that followed. We developed a team with rare skills who can drive public interest journalism, from deep work on surveillance technology and AI to illuminating our broken food systems. Today, we can reflect on partnerships with 150+ outlets and investigations that have involved more than a thousand journalists, many of whom doing work they cherish. The DPL has just reinvested in Lighthouse, recognising our commitment to having an impact on the issues we cover, while innovating on the challenges journalism faces: from reporting in absolutely the hardest places to delivering our findings to affected communities living outside the information-rich bubble.  We remain committed to the idea that a (slightly less) small team can have an outsized impact with a radically collaborative approach to journalism. And we're hugely grateful to the DPL team who recognise and flexibly support our editorial independence and ambition. https://lnkd.in/ewnZiHTA

Deadline looming for applications to join us as a Deputy Managing Editor

2024 is the year of #elections – with the European elections this weekend we answer the question👇 How can investigative journalists get potentially vote-shifting findings in the media at a time where people are paying the most attention to politics? In this episode, we talk to Director Klaas van Dijken and Food Systems lead reporter Thin Lei Win about their most recent investigations into 2 big issues on the EU election agenda – EU border policy and the farmers protests. We dig into the findings of each investigation and the strategic thinking that goes into making them resonate with voters. It’s a relevant listen to any journalists hoping to engage the public around election time.

NEW: Uganda’s biometric identity system is key for banking and voting, but it also sits at the heart of a sweeping surveillance apparatus that targets human rights activists, journalists and political opponents. This is the first in a series of stories in partnership with the brilliant team at Lighthouse Reports. https://lnkd.in/ecv6J8Rz

Some of the world’s poorest countries have been investing heavily in digital ID systems which it is claimed will deliver democratic and development dividends. Africa has been at the forefront of this push supported by the World Bank, UN agencies and the international community. Some of Africa’s most fragile states have been encouraged to spend billions of dollars on biometric systems from national IDs to voting systems. While Africa has become a lucrative market for multinational tech vendors, the promised benefits of trustworthy election results and a revolutionising of the way that states deliver vital services is far harder to discern. At the 2024 ID4Africa trade fair in South Africa, the promises kept coming: economic growth, empowering individuals, reducing government spending, enabling trust and being a key tool in solving humanitarian crises. The conference sponsors include a who’s who of companies that have benefited from contracts meant to confer legitimacy on electoral processes and unlock the potential of Africa’s demographic advantage over other ageing continents. A legal identity is among the UN’s sustainable development goals, where it is defined as a fundamental human right. The drive to meet this goal has seen near-bankrupt states prioritise the capture and storage of biometric data from iris scans and fingerprints to facial images. We set out to investigate what has become of the blockbuster deals struck in sub-Saharan Africa. What has actually been delivered? Who has benefited? How have they been financed? And how have people on the ground in those countries been affected?

For over 20 years, I worked on migration and asylum, trying to push back against the EU and European states' increasingly violent tactics - and burgeoning budgets - to keep people fleeing wars, torture and a complete lack of opportunities out of Europe. Daniel Howden, Klaas van Dijken and the incredible team at Lighthouse Reports continue to shed light on what "less migrants" means in practice and on how European taxpayers' money is being used for these abject purposes. In the process, they have pioneered a new form of thorough, truly collaborative, inter-disciplinary journalism which works with and through traditional media. Follow their stories, repost them, get them to the people we elect and the legal systems that can hold them accountable.