AI Training For Data-Driven Environmental Investigations

This event aims to foster collaboration, expand professional networks, and teach AI techniques specifically for environmental investigations.

Organised by Mediahuiset Tromso in cooperation with the Urban Journalism Network, a European network of investigative journalists, the workshop will showcase the latest innovations in data-driven journalism tools and demonstrate their practical application to environmental reporting. Participants will learn how to use the most recent technologies in their investigative work, regardless of their current technical expertise.

The workshop will take place in Vienna, Austria in late January 2025.

The program is tailored to accommodate different skill levels, featuring collaborative pairings of traditional investigative journalists with tech-oriented counterparts. It will begin with introductory overviews of state-of-the-art AI-driven tools used in environmental investigations.

This will be followed by a set of exercises and tools for entry-level participants, such as building custom Large Language Models, writing effective prompts, and hands-on accessible analytics. Another part of the workshop will be dedicated to building Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems and developing case-based methodologies for advanced and experienced data journalists.

 The workshop will be led by experienced data and investigative journalists Rune Ytreberg and Lars Adrian Giske from the award-winning Norwegian newspaper iTromsø, and Hendrik Lehmann, the Head of Tagesspiegel Innovation Lab.

Ideal candidates: Journalists focused on environmental investigations who want to master working with large datasets and documents.

Application: Submit a letter of interest describing your work and motivation to contact [at] urbanjournalism.org (contact[at]urbanjournalism[dot]org) by November 30, 2024.