Bellingcat has always prided itself on showing not telling our readers. Over the past year we have renewed efforts to make our evidence clear to readers using more visual aids and interactive graphics on our website and using other formats on YouTube and Instagram.
Bellingcat’s investigation into IDF unit 8219 demolition of buildings in Gaza was presented via an interactive story. It is easy to become desensitised to the scale of destruction in war; our interactive served two purposes- illustrating the impact of the demolitions and laying out our evidence.
Our series of reports on Russia’s grain smuggling involved a series of simple but effective interactive images of vessels that included overlays and a magnifying tool so that readers could see the ships up close.
This methodology – making more interactive images that show the reader what we’re seeing is enhancing our ongoing mission to investigate as well as educate about Bellingcat’s methods.
Additional examples of Bellingcat doing more to show the reader through interactive, innovative images and visuals can be seen in this story, on an oil spill off the coast of Trinidad and Tobago.
Bellingcat’s work with collaborators and increased use of interactives is also illustrated in the following stories. A warning for the judges that both contain disturbing content and graphic images.
In this piece on the killing of an unarmed young man in Nigeria, Bellingcat shared resources with our partner Reuters to illustrate the exact details of the incident. Using a visual overlay we are able to show convincingly that we had identified the exact location where he was killed.
In this piece on the killing of a Colombian journalist we worked with our partners Cerosetenta, to analyse more than 100 videos and images from the incident. We used the audio and visual evidence from the day to piece together what happened. We provide readers the opportunity to listen to the audio, use interactives and see visual evidence throughout the story.
Bellingcat is continuing to grow our audience on social media – not just to grow our audience but to translate often complex investigations into more accessible stories and reach new and different audiences. On Instagram we regularly post short videos and reels, summarising the key findings of an investigation in a way that will appeal to new audiences and show off the ‘highlights’ of an investigation. You can see some examples.
Our YouTube channel includes long and short form videos explaining new tools and insights.
Taken together, Bellingcat’s work continues to push boundaries while remaining true to our core mission of accessibility and transparency, bringing our readers, viewers and community along with us.
