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A N Y A S C H I F F R I N & E R I K A R O D R I G U E S
COVERING OIL:
BIG DATA, BIG
TOOLS, AND JOURNALISM
STATISTICS
In EITI
• 29 nations in 2011
• 10 reporting extractive revenues >25% of
government budget
• 6 of them >50%
Globally
• 30 countries reporting natural resource rent >20% of
national economy
• 6 of them >50% of GDP
STATISTICS
• Estimated global market capitalization of publicly
traded gas, oil, and mining co.
• 6.1 trillion Euros
• Extractives co. trading in three primary American
exchanges
• 3.7 trillion Euros
• Lack of resources
• Developing experienced beat reporters
• Sending reporters out
• Lack of access to far-flung places
• Transparency is still lacking
• Poorly-funded news sources
REASONS FOR WEAKNESS IN THE
COVERAGE OF EXTRACTIVES
REASONS FOR WEAKNESS IN THE
COVERAGE OF EXTRACTIVES
Multiple sources as a tenet of good
journalism:
National US newspapers:
90% 3+ sources
48% 4+ sources
African newspapers:
21.45% 3+ sources
Nearly 50% only one source
• Wealthy oil, gas, and mining companies
• Outspending media outlets
• Pressure on journalists
• Costly and drawn-out lawsuits
• Infinito Gold vs. Costa Rican Professors
• Widespread support as a source of revenue
• Corruption
REASONS FOR WEAKNESS IN THE COVERAGE OF EXTRACTIVES
EXAMPLES OF WATCHDOG REPORTING
ON THE EXTRACTIVES
• Maka Angola, founded in 2008
• African Centre for Media Excellence (ACME)
• Legal pressures on journalists
• Rafael Marques de Morais
• Ugandan media houses (closed May 2013)
• July 2013 New Yorker article, Patrick Radden Keefe
EXAMPLES OF WATCHDOG REPORTING
ON THE EXTRACTIVES
• Impact on policy
• Mozambique: protests new legislation
• Mozambique’s EITI application
• Uganda (June 2013): government disclosure
• Marques incarceration in 1999 Angola’s Press Law
changes
OPENING UP THE DEBATE
• Grey area between no impact and immediate
impact
• Vietnam in 2007
• Reasons bloggers/journalists are effective
• Amplification effect
• Draw attention and reframe the debate
• Fluidity between platforms
• Obtaining complete data sets
ASYMMETRIES OF INFORMATION
AND OF POWER
• Teaming up with other voices and unblocking
information
• = journalists not working in isolation
• Mexico debating opening up its hydrocarbon
sector to foreign companies
• Dodd-Frank wall Street Reform and Consumer
Protection Act passed in the US in 2010
• Cascading effect of good reporting
• Ory Okollah from Omidyar Network
• Peter Rosenblum from Bard Law
ASYMMETRIES OF INFORMATION
AND OF POWER
• Public campaigns
• Private campaigns
• Benjamin Saldana Rocca, founder of La Sanccion in
Iquitos
• E.D. Morel, founder
of The West African Mail
ASYMMETRIES OF INFORMATION
AND OF POWER
• Government surveillance
• 2010 coordinated attacks on Maka Angola
• Joshua Ross on Democratic technology
• So while more of us are capable of holding an open, peer-
to-peer discussion, we are doing so with the consent and
under the watchful (or subpoena-able) eye of just a handful
of corporations or governments. And when citizen calls-to-
action conflict with government calls for quiet, the
government holds more of the cards.
http://radar.oreilly.com/2011/02/egypt-technology.html
IDEAS FOR FUTURE STORIES
• Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform
• Section 1504
• Conflict diamons & Section 1502
• Non-required transparency of environmental damage
• Follow-up stories: what the extractive sector
companies are spending in the countries where
they work
• Are bilateral investment treaties undermining
national sovereignty?
• Unfairness of international arbitration
• Mexico and the opening up of Pemex to foreign
investment
IDEAS FOR FUTURE STORIES
• Chris Taggart campaign from Open Corporates
• Anniversary celebrations of joining EITI
• Forward-looking pieces
• Azerbaijan drawing down reserves, costly building projects
• Perennial story ideas
• Economic consequences in remote, underdeveloped areas
• Resettlement of populations living near sites of extraction
• Effects on social fabric