Digital intelligence in the context of journalism refers to the ability of journalists and news organisations to effectively navigate and leverage digital technologies and platforms to gather, analyse, produce, and distribute news content. It involves utilising various digital tools, techniques, and strategies to enhance the overall journalistic process and adapt to the changing media landscape.
Key aspects of digital intelligence :
- Journalists can use digital intelligence to conduct in-depth research using online databases, search engines, and social media platforms. They can gather information, verify sources, and uncover data-driven insights to support their reporting.
- Digital intelligence enables journalists to analyse large sets of data and draw meaningful conclusions. They can use data visualisation tools, statistical analysis software, and programming languages to identify trends, patterns, and connections in complex datasets.
- Digital intelligence allows journalists to understand their audiences better and engage by monitoring social media conversations, analyse audience behaviour, and tailor their content to meet the needs and interests of their readers or viewers.
- Journalists can employ digital intelligence to optimise their content distribution across various digital platforms. They can utilise search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques, social media marketing, and email newsletters to reach a wider audience and increase the impact of their reporting.
- Digital intelligence tools and techniques can aid journalists in fact-checking and verifying information. They can use online fact-checking resources, reverse image search, and digital forensics to ensure the accuracy and credibility of their reporting.
- Digital intelligence brings about ethical challenges in journalism, such as handling user-generated content, ensuring privacy and security, and navigating issues related to algorithmic bias and filter bubbles.
Open-source intelligence (OSINT) tools :
Open-source intelligence (OSINT) tools can aid in gathering information, verifying sources, analysing data, and conducting investigations. Below list are some popular open-source intelligence tools used in digital journalism:
- Maltego https://www.maltego.com/ is a powerful OSINT tool that allows journalists to gather and visualise data of (people, organisations ) from various online sources .
- Datawrapper https://www.datawrapper.de/ is a tool for creating interactive and visually appealing charts, maps, and graphs. Journalists can use it to visualise and present data in an engaging and accessible manner.
- WebPlot Digitiser https://automeris.io/WebPlotDigitizer/ helps in extracting data from graphs and plots displayed on websites. Journalists can use it to convert visual information into numerical data for further analysis.
- Tabula https://tabula.technology/ is a tool specifically designed to extract data from PDF files. It can be useful when working with reports, financial statements, or other data-intensive documents.
- Apache Tika https://tika.apache.org/ is a content analysis toolkit that extracts text and metadata from various file formats, including PDFs, Word documents, and images.
- Investigative Dashboard http://tools.ijnet.org/investigative-dashboard.html is a platform that provides access to various investigative tools and databases.
- Gephi https://gephi.org/ is an open-source network visualisation and analysis tool. Journalists can use it to explore and visualise complex networks of relationships.
- Pimeye https://pimeyes.com/en is where we can search for images and find matches to your search image where it is used
- Way back Machine https://archive.org/web/ is an online archive that allows users to access archived versions of websites.
- Invid https://www.invid-project.eu/ its a video verification tool that can help journalists to verify the authenticity of videos posted on social media.
- Pic 2 Map https://www.pic2map.com to view Exif data of an uploaded image online.
- Hunter https://hunter.io/ Finds emails of individuals across platforms.
- Sensity https://platform.sensity.ai/deepfake-detection used to verify authenticity of Videos and Photos of Deep fakes.
- SMS Header Check https://smsheader.trai.gov.in/ Verify the source of the SMS received.
- Email Header Analyser https://mxtoolbox.com/EmailHeaders.aspx Analyse Email Headers for malicious artefacts .
- Company Master Data to Get complete Company Master Data to get complete Company Master Data http://www.mca.gov.in/mcafoportal/viewCompanyMasterData.do
Securing Online Presence :
Achieving perfect online security is nearly impossible, but by implementing these measures, journalists can significantly reduce the risk of security breaches and protect their sensitive information and sources.
- Creating passwords that are complex and unique, incorporating special characters, numbers, and capital letters.
- Enabling 2FA adds an extra layer of security by requiring a second verification step.
- Using messaging apps that employ end-to-end encryption, such as WhatsApp or Signal, ensures that your conversations are protected.
- Using private browsing applications like Tor, DuckDuckGo, or utilising the incognito mode in your browser.
- Employing a VPN service encrypts your internet connection and protects your online activities, especially when connected to public Wi-Fi networks
- Keeping your operating system, web browsers, and applications up to date with the latest security patches helps protect against known vulnerabilities and exploits.
- Utilizing encrypted cloud storage services like Dropbox or Google Drive ensures that your files are protected both in transit and at rest.
- Use a secure operating system that can be run on a live on a live USB especially when you are on Public Wi-Fi. i.e., https://tails.boum.org/ .
