Investigation follows questions where public information is missing, scattered, difficult to interpret, or inconsistent with lived conditions. These areas describe the systems we want to examine; the companion page describes how evidence can be gathered and checked.
Read methods and toolsMedia and public information
#We want to understand which local issues receive sustained coverage, which communities disappear from view, and how ownership or editorial choices shape public attention.
- Coverage mapping
- Track the topics, places, and communities represented in newspapers and digital outlets, then compare attention over time.
- Broadcast analysis
- Record how television news divides time between reporting, advertising, commentary, and other programming.
- Coverage gaps
- Identify places and public-interest issues that receive little, irregular, or no local reporting.
- Ownership and influence
- Document ownership structures and examine how they may relate to editorial priorities and omissions.
Public digital systems and rights
#Public websites, apps, platforms, and automated systems affect access to services and rights, but their operation is often difficult to inspect.
- Digital public services
- Examine availability, accessibility, link rot, security practices, data collection, and the gap between claimed and actual behavior.
- Apps and platforms
- Inspect permissions, network communication, data collection, and whether commonly used services behave as their policies describe.
- Automated decisions
- Study how recommendation, moderation, and decision systems affect local communities and access to information.
- Surveillance and policy
- Track facial recognition, CCTV, biometric systems, internet shutdowns, and the laws or policies that authorize them.
- Spending and procurement
- Connect budgets, tenders, contracts, vendors, claimed outcomes, implementation gaps, and failures.
Neighborhood governance and public services
#Municipal decisions shape daily life through budgets, construction, water, waste, roads, and lighting. This work makes those decisions and their effects easier to inspect.
- Budgets and contracts
- Track allocations, expenditure, tenders, contractors, project status, and recurring patterns in public spending.
- Service delivery
- Compare records and commitments with observed conditions across water, waste, roads, lighting, and other services.
- Decisions and commitments
- Follow official decision-making, public promises, delivery timelines, and gaps between policy and practice.
- Development impacts
- Document construction compliance, displacement, and the effects of infrastructure projects on community systems.
Environmental accountability
#The emphasis here is accountability: documenting harmful conditions, identifying responsible parties, and following regulatory responses. Ecological documentation has a different job and preserves knowledge about local living systems.
- Violations and responsibility
- Track pollution sources, waste-management failures, responsible parties, complaints, and regulatory action.
- Land and water change
- Compare records and imagery to document water-body encroachment, green-space loss, and changes in land use.
- Local measurements
- Use sensors, field logs, maps, and repeated observations to record air, water, heat, noise, and other local conditions.
- Flood and waste patterns
- Map seasonal flooding and waste streams so recurring conditions can be compared with public plans and responses.