Last month the BBC’s Shared Data Unit held its annual Data and Investigative Journalism UK conference at the home of my MA in Data Journalism, Birmingham City University. Here are some of the highlights…

1. Look after yourself

The day kicked off with BBC Investigations Correspondent Rianna Croxford, speaking about her investigation into ex-Abercrombie & Fitch boss Mike Jeffries.

Investigating the story “was intense”, she said. The responsibility she owed to her sources also meant an enormous pressure to get it over the line. Over time she learned the importance of releasing that pressure sometimes.

“Having multiple stories on the go [with different timescales, rather than the one long term story] takes some pressure off”, she said.

But crucially: “Allow yourself time to decompress, and look after yourself.”

2. Consider these three things before sending an FOI request

Alex Homer chaired the panel marking the 20-year anniversary of the Freedom of Information Act, bringing together the former Information Commissioner Richard Thomas CBE, the vastly experienced FOIer and data journalist Claire Miller; BBC Senior Lawyer Jess Stirling, and director of the Campaign for Freedom of Information Maurice Frankel OBE.

Frankel cautioned journalists against sending an FOI request too quickly when a story breaks: “You are held to the request that you wrote,” he said, so a rushed request can cause problems later down the line.

He suggested three things to consider before pressing ‘Send’ on your request:

1. “Work out what you want”: a request that is too general might not have the information that you need, and a request that is too specific might miss extra detail you realise is vital. Find out what information is held, and how much of that you will need.
2. “Check whether it’s already publicly available”: not only will your FOI request be rejected, but you will have wasted weeks waiting when a basic search or call (see below) will have given you what you needed
3. “Identify any barriers that have prevented its release before”: multiple other exemptions to the FOI Act can mean your request being refused. A little research can significantly improve your chances of success: you can search WhatDoTheyKnow for similar requests to see which ones were unsuccessful and why (and what qualities successful requests had). You can also search ICO decision notices for decisions on refusals that might inform your own request.

3. An FOI might not be necessary

Among the workshops in the afternoon of the conference was a guide to using the Office of National Statistics (ONS) by their data journalist Anna Khoo.

She revealed that anyone approached by a journalist at the ONS is expected to email back within 30 minutes. The ONS is very open to helping people find the data they need, she said, often making FOIs unnecessary

4. Look at secret courts for stories

The second speaker of the day was The Standard’s Courts Correspondent Tristan Kirk, who shared his experiences of reporting on the secretive process which sees hundreds of thousands of sentencing decisions made behind closed doors.

As these decisions are not made in open court, it is harder for reporters to hold power to account and identify potential wrongful prosecution or miscarriages of justice.

Kirk recommended reading guidance on media access to courts and tribunals, and requesting to be added to the distribution list for court registers and court lists.

Receiving the lists of cases allows you to follow up with requests for details on the prosecution and defence representations in mitigation (Kirk regularly emails a long list of case numbers for details).

As well as Kirk’s award-winning reporting on the system, stories using this approach have explored “flawed truancy laws”, and found a large number of cases that were not in the public interest to prosecute, or that “would likely have resulted in a different outcome if the defendant had access to a lawyer in open court”.

5. Be ‘cautious but curious’ about AI

The afternoon kicked off with a panel on generative AI which managed to combine editorial experience (Newsquest’s head of AI Jody Doherty-Cove), technical nous (the FT data scientist Emma Mani), and ethical and legal experience (the BBC’s Responsible AI lead James Fletcher and media content lawyer Sarah McColl).

For those trying to enter the journalism industry, the advice was to have used generative AI — but also to have an awareness of the risks that the technology involves. “Be curious about generative AI, but be cautious too.”

6. Statisticians are “lovely”

In a workshop on monitoring small boat crossings, BBC Verify data journalist Rob England gave a tour of various immigration datasets, from ‘Small boat activity in the English Channel‘ to regional and local authority data on immigration and less-obvious sources such as statutory homelessness data (on those asked to leave asylum accommodation) — and how those datasets had been used as the basis for news stories about milestones, explainers, factchecks, and longform investigations.

One of the best tips, though, was about who to speak to: instead of press officers, Rob recommended speaking to statisticians — they are not only better informed about the data and more willing to spend time talking about it.

They can often also provide datasets that weren’t available online.

7. Get to know your browser’s Inspector — and image URLs

At the same time as Rob’s workshop, Bellingcat’s Galen Reich was delivering a session on using your browser’s Inspector feature to get access to images from Google Maps, and higher resolution images from Google Images and the web in general.

In Google Maps, you can access the inspector by right-clicking on an image and selecting the Inspect option. This should show you the URL for the image — but you can edit the URL to access the full size version of the image.

To do that, look for the part of the URL that relates to size, often at the end (e.g. =w408-h306-k-no). Then replace it with =s0 to get the full size version.

A similar technique can be used with images on social media and WordPress sites: remove URL sections like _400x400 to see if a full size version can be found.

8. Push back if you don’t get answers

Alex Homer‘s workshop focused on FOI and his experiences exposing a police unit criticised as “acting like an “authoritarian censor” rather than a public body.”

When he first approached the unit for comment, they provided a statement which failed to answer most of his questions.

“If a statement is not good enough,” he said, “you don’t have to use it.”

When organisations use statements to avoid answering the questions you have posed, it is valid to tell them that the statement is not usable in its present form.

When Alex did that, across a number of emails, they did eventually provide a more detailed response which addressed the findings of the investigation.

“You can push back the same as with any answer in an in-person interview.”

9. Don’t limit yourself

The last word goes to Rianna Croxford and her advice not to impose limits on yourself if you believe in a project.

The length of time she has worked in the industry has never determined the projects that she has taken on on, she said.

“Follow the projects that you believe in, and seek advice when you need to.”