Couldn’t make it to FOIA Fest 2022 or looking for a refresher? These recorded sessions will take you from the very beginning of the process to exploring specific issues faced by journalists and others using FOIA in their work.
FOIA Fest Keynote: Marina Walker Guevara
In this FOIA Fest keynote address, Marina Walker Guevara highlights trends of innovation and collaboration throughout Chicago and the broader journalism industry.
Reporters in this panel will discuss how they’ve used FOIA to understand and uncover problems at every stage of the criminal justice system — and how they’ve connected those records to see the whole picture.
Data demos walk you through the technical steps of working with data. We’ll use browser-based tools and provide sample data so you can follow along at home, at your own pace.
Whether you’re getting started or looking for a refresher, this session can equip you for your next Freedom of Information Act request.
How to use FOIA to uncover environmental injustice.
Learn how education issues are being reported on during the pandemic and how public records have contributed to impactful education journalism during these hard times.
Covering Health Care During a Pandemic
Delve into the bright spots and challenges of covering COVID-19, and how to cover the story whether or not you can use FOIA.
Resources and leads for investigating algorithms in society.
FOIA and Policy: A Deep Dive into FOIA Statutes
How to Turn your FOIAs into Great Audio Stories
The team behind the Somebody podcast breaks down how they turned 80+ FOIAs into a riveting award-winning podcast.
Engaging and Equipping Communities with Public Data
Learn about how some journalists and community members define what it means to engage and equip communities with public data.
Covering Housing and Segregation
Learn the history of Chicago’s housing segregation, the displacement of people of color from gentrifying communities and legal ways in which Black Chicagoans have been kept from neighborhoods.
Follow along while we learn how to load, sort, search and join data in SQLite in this introductory tutorial.
How to Win an Appeal to the PAC
This session will cover how to file an appeal with the Public Access Counselor and what binding opinions issued in 2021 mean for FOIA filers going forward.
A panel of investigative journalists share their best tips for creating a FOIA strategy for each project.
So you Want to Collaborate with Other Newsrooms? Here’s How to Get Started
Newsroom leaders share how collaborations help them reach a wider audience, have a greater impact and help more people.
Learn how investigative journalists work through their stories — how to get started, where to find sources, how to file and follow up on public records requests, and what happens after the byline.
Using FOIA to Strengthen your Data Story
Learn from editors about projects they’ve overseen that used FOIA to pull out the rich stories that lie within.
How visualizations can guide your reporting even if the public doesn’t see them, and how to decide the best options for visualizations that land in a story
FOIA Fest ’21 Boot Camp Showcase
Alumni of our inaugural Boot Camp who have come back to share what they’ve learned from participating in the program.
How Student Journalists are using FOIA
Hear from student news leaders on their experiences while applying the Freedom of Information Act, the stories they’ve used it for and tips they’ve learned along the way.
FOIA 201: More Data, More Problems
Dig into technical and collaborative approaches to acquiring, analyzing and reporting on massive data and document sets.
Investigating LGBTQ+ Issues with Public Records
A panel discussion focusing on how to investigate issues impacting LGBTQ+ people using documents, data and other investigative reporting tools.
De-mystifying the basics of FOIA and showing how the general public and organizers can use the law to acquire information to improve their everyday lives and fight for justice.
Learn more about how journalists can use FOIA to uncover injustices in immigration.
Learn how investigative journalists work through their stories — how to get started, where to find sources, how to file and follow up on public records requests, and what happens after the byline.
Hear from newsroom leaders and legal consultants on their experiences in handling the challenges that have surfaced from filing FOIAs on topics ranging from COVID-19 to civil unrest.
Learn how to root out and report on inequality in its many forms using FOIA, documents and data from some of Chicago’s best investigative reporters.
Data demos walk you through the technical steps of working with data. We’ll use browser-based tools and provide sample data so you can follow along at home, at your own pace.