Edirin Oputu
Columbia Journalism Review
Contact Edirin
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
| Past: |
|
Past articles by Edirin:
Google Glass vs. Google Hoax
Can you tell which of these stories about the gadget are true and which are false? → Read More
The Portland Press Herald’s longform look at ethnic inequality in Maine
Since late June, <i>The Portland Press Herald</i> has been running daily installments of “Unsettled,” a 29-piece series that chronicles the local Passamaquoddy tribe’s fight for equal rights in the face of institutionalized racism. It’s a startling story of injustice and defiance, and a masterclass in serialization—each chapter ends with a hook that has readers coming back for more. “Unsettled” has…… → Read More
Infographic: Soccer goes mainstream in the US
For four solid weeks in the middle of summer, a growing legion of US soccer fans cling to radios, laptops, and television screens as the 20th World Cup takes place in Brazil. What was once a niche sport is becoming mainstream—over 24 million Americans watched the last final in 2010—and media coverage has expanded to match in kind. … → Read More
A tense reunion
On May 28, Columbia University photographer Eileen Barroso captured a historic, if uncomfortable New York Times moment at the Pulitzer Prize luncheon: the last portrait of former Executive Editor Jill Abramson and Publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. in public together for what will likely be a long time. The luncheon was just two weeks after Abramson, the first woman to… → Read More
News organizations are the new journalism schools
Politico and Condé Nast are entering the j-school business. Last week, Politico announced the creation of a 10-day Journalism Institute for college students, while Condé Nast is in talks to set up academic programs involving its magazines, including <i>Wired</i> and <i>Gourmet</i>. As journalism schools increasingly try to connect classrooms with newsrooms to ensure students will have the right skills… → Read More
Reporting from Sudan’s hidden frontline
There is a war being fought in Sudan, and it’s happening almost out of sight. In 2011, South Sudan became the world’s newest country as part of a peace deal to end decades of civil war. But just north of the border, in the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan, the Nuba felt left behind. A group of black African ethnic… → Read More
The Atlantic goes all out for its new cover story
On Wednesday night, <i>The Atlantic</i> posted the cover story for its June 2014 print issue: Ta-Nehisi Coates’ “The Case for Reparations.” A vast, multimedia, multi-chapter story in the vein of Nikole Hannah-Jones’ recent investigation into the resegregation of America’s schools, “The Case for Reparations” examines the country’s legacy of slavery and discrimination and its continuing effect on African… → Read More
‘News on Demand’ caters to reader attention spans
Readers are busier than ever and their time is at a premium. Which is why journalist Marie-Catherine Beuth is developing News on Demand, a mobile news service that tailors information to users’ attention spans. The app will present the day’s five main news stories as articles of varying length, curated from numerous news sources, said Beuth. Users will then be… → Read More
Nigerian journalists are struggling to cover #BringBackOurGirls
On Monday, Boko Haram, the terrorist group that abducted more than 200 girls from a school in northeastern Nigeria last month, released a video ostensibly showing the captives. It was the first time the media and the world at large had seen them since their kidnapping. <i>Punch</i>, Nigeria’s most-read newspaper, posted the video alongside a scant hundred words drawn from… → Read More
Majority of top editors quit Le Monde
Seven of the 11 senior editors at <i>Le Monde</i>, one of France’s newspapers of record, resigned en masse on Tuesday over a conflict with management, according to reports. A center-left daily founded in 1944, <i>Le Monde</i> was one of the leading papers in the coverage of Edward Snowden’s revelations. “A lack of confidence in and communication with editorial management prevents… → Read More
Immersive Experience
May 5 marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Elizabeth Jane Cochran, better known as undercover journalist Nellie Bly. The most celebrated of the “girl stunt reporters,” who went undercover to bring readers close to stories, Bly caused a sensation when, in 1887, she feigned insanity to have herself committed to the Blackwell’s Island Insane Asylum, documenting the… → Read More
Q&A with Conrad Quilty-Harper, Ampp3d data journalist
Conrad Quilty-Harper, 26, is a wunderkind of the British data journalism scene, lauded by <i>The Guardian</i> on its “30 under 30” digital media list for “playing a key role in progressing British data journalism.” He works his wonders at Ampp3d, the new data journalism site run by Trinity Mirror, publisher of Britain’s third most-read newspaper, <i>The Daily Mirror</i>. Designed and… → Read More
A laurel to ProPublica
Sixty years after the US Supreme Court ruled that “separate but equal” had no place in America’s schools, a mammoth ProPublica investigation has revealed that segregation is creeping back into the nation’s education system. Journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones spent more than a year reporting “Segregation Now,” which focuses on the successful integration of the Tuscaloosa, AL, city school district, and… → Read More
The New Yorker’s plagiarism blunder
Elizabeth Kolbert’s Comment “Rough Forecasts,” published in the April 14 issue of <i>The New Yorker</i>, contains this quote from the late chemist F. Sherwood Rowland: “What’s the use of having developed a science well enough to make predictions if, in the end, all we’re willing to do is stand around and wait for them to come true?” Science journalists and… → Read More
Crossing over
Hybrid documentary series <i>Borderland</i> recreates the treacherous journey that actual undocumented immigrants have attempted from Mexico to the US → Read More
The secret whistleblowers, revisited
In March 1971, eight burglars broke into a Federal Bureau of Investigation office in Media, PA, and stole hundreds of documents. They sorted through the files—which revealed a massive, illegal campaign by the FBI to crush political dissent—and sent some of them to the press. The documents were sent anonymously and, despite a lengthy FBI investigation, the burglars were never… → Read More
WNYC is beefing up its data journalism
WNYC’s data team has tracked a lot over the years: cicadas, flood zones, and even wireless internet access on the subway. Now the station’s newest project, a community data experiment called “Clock Your Sleep,” aims to help New Yorkers monitor their sleeping habits. Launched last Tuesday, the sleep study is part of WNYC’s ongoing data journalism expansion. Spurred on by… → Read More
ONA prepares a DIY ethics code
The Online News Association is working on “Build Your Own Ethics Code,” a toolkit to help news outlets, bloggers, and journalists decide on ethical guidelines that match their own ideas about reporting and journalism. The project, which includes the collaboration of ONA’s news ethics committee with roughly two dozen journalists and academics, will give reporters a chance to look at… → Read More
One in three Americans view online news videos
More American adults are watching news videos online than ever before. According to the 2014 State of the News Media report, released on Wednesday, nearly half of people under 50 watch online news videos, and one in ten adults have posted their own videos of news events to social networking sites. This year’s report is the eleventh annual survey released… → Read More
Age has less impact on news consumption
Contrary to general wisdom that media consumption differs by age—older people read print newspapers; teenagers watch online videos—a study released on Monday shows that the type and urgency of a news story, rather than audience demographics, determine where Americans go for their news. And people across generations use a variety of different platforms to receive news. According to the “Personal… → Read More