MapLight and The Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute have joined the Investigative News Network (INN), increasing the consortium’s reach into data analysis of politics and into social justice reporting.
MapLight is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization – based in San Francisco - that reveals money's influence on politics through data analysis. It has already worked with INN members on several journalism projects.
The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute "is dedicated to improving the scope and overall quality of investigative reporting in the independent press and beyond." Based in New York City, it supports important and often award-winning investigative stories with the potential for social impact, particularly on issues that may be overlooked by mainstream media.
"We are delighted to welcome these two great organizations into the INN community," said Kevin Davis, CEO & Executive Director of INN, which now has more than 60 nonprofit news organizations in North America. "MapLight’s work in uncovering the influence of money in politics has created a rich and valuable resource, and The Investigative Fund’s 16-year history of dedication to investigative reporting is a great addition.”
MapLight offers free, customized money-in-politics research to journalists, and will continue to work with other INN member organizations to help in collecting and analyzing money and politics data. It focuses on analyzing the links between legislators’ votes and donations to their campaigns. MapLight is kicking off its participation in INN with a collaboration that will create voter-friendly guides covering state and local ballot measures in the 2012 election.
"MapLight is thrilled to bring its money-in-politics research, journalism, and tools to be part of the INN community," said MapLight President and Co-Founder Daniel Newman.
MapLight joins current INN members The Center for Responsive Politics and the National Institute for Money in State Politics to help other INN members in being watchdogs of the political process.
The Investigative Fund is supported primarily by philanthropy and publishes the articles it produces on its website, and also provides them for free to news organizations to maximize the impact of the work.
Investigative Fund stories have sparked resignations of public officials, triggered government investigations and led to federal legislation. The organization's stories have been honored with the Polk award, the National Magazine Award, the Sidney Hillman Award, awards from Investigative Reporters & Editors, and more.
INN was founded in 2009 and is headquartered in Los Angeles. It was created to help the increasing number of nonprofit newsrooms pool resources, promote editorial collaborations and get wider distribution of their work. INN is composed of organizations that produce nonpartisan investigative and public service journalism of regional, national and international scope. INN members produce original, multi-media longform and ongoing stories and analyses of public data to better inform the communities they serve.
For more information on MapLight: http://maplight.org
For more information on The Investigative Fund: http://theinvestigativefund.org