Journalists are increasingly using the tools of science journalism and scientific inquiry to carry out investigative reporting, and even to shine a spotlight on questionable scientific findings.

Data mining and satellite imagery are often featured in this promising new field of investigative science reporting, which has shown particular promise in uncovering health and environmental stories during this era of the COVID-19 pandemic and of burgeoning impacts from climate change. But Deborah Blum, the director of the Knight Science Journalism Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), notes that journalists can use these tools and their skills of “pattern recognition” to draw ground-breaking conclusions on many topics.

“You have many journalists who do data mining — digging into databases and effectively mining information – which is becoming a standard part of good investigative reporting,” Blum says. “The internet actually offers a lot of tools to vet science. When investigating a particular [chemical] compound, for instance, I use PubMed and Google Scholar to vet the science behind every question, and the credibility of sources.”