The University of Memphis’s Journalism and Strategic Media department is proud to offer an MA program in Open-Source Investigative Reporting, or OSIR. The curriculum is designed for undergraduates interested in advanced study, practicing professionals looking to deepen their knowledge and sharpen their skills, and workers changing careers.
OSIR utilizes publicly available information, such as social media posts, live video feeds, and databases and government records as a tool to supplement investigative journalism. With the rise of digital technology and the global spread of social media, OSIR enables journalists to uncover the truth, even when reporting on events from across the world. This is particularly important as global conflicts, civil wars, and situations involving government unrest are often physically inaccessible to journalists.
Dr. Robby Byrd, who oversees the program, is excited about what it will have to offer to journalists who want to learn how to use this new technology.
“It’s kind of a new field in investigative journalism that uses uses open source data points, so things like satellite imagery, closed circuit television, or online databases. Then journalists use that information to put together investigative pieces. So, for example, when Russia started to invade Ukraine, Russia kept denying the fact that they were mobilizing their military toward the Ukrainian border. But journalists were using satellite imagery and closed circuit television from Ukraine and from Russia to show basically, yeah, we see all these tanks and military kind of working their way to the border. So the Russian government is saying one thing, but we see this thing happening, right?”
The University of Memphis is one of only three universities in the country that will be offering an OSIR program; the other two are the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. Marc Perrusquia, the director of the Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis, says this provides a unique opportunity for journalists and for the University of Memphis itself.
“There are only a handful of programs nationally that have a focused OSIR emphasis. It makes us a destination…(it will) raise the profile of not just the University of Memphis and the Department of Journalism and Strategic Media, but our organization, the Institute for Public Service Reporting, because we intend to do investigative stories related to this. So I think it really makes us a bigger player on the national scene.”
With its emphasis on innovation and truth-seeking, the OSIR program at the University of Memphis provides journalists with the tools to navigate today’s rapidly evolving media landscape.