Help Me Investigate the Olympics is a website to help those who want to investigate questions relating to the Olympic Games.<\/p>\n
The site is based on Help Me Investigate.com, a site which was\u00a0launched in July 2009<\/a>\u00a0with funding from Channel 4\u2032s 4iP fund and Screen West Midlands.<\/p>\n Investigations undertaken by users of Help Me Investigate include the\u00a0uncovering of a \u00a32.2 million overspend on Birmingham City Council\u2019s website<\/a>;\u00a0false claims by publishers of a free newspaper<\/a>; the\u00a0worst places for parking fines<\/a>; the\u00a0real average cost of weddings<\/a>;\u00a0legal issues surrounding recording council meetings<\/a>;\u00a0police claims of sabotage against Climate Camp protesters<\/a>;\u00a0how much higher education costs the taxpayer<\/a>;\u00a0who is responsible for an advertising screen<\/a>;\u00a0does scrapping speed cameras save money?<\/a>\u00a0Varying availability of hormonal contraceptive on the NHS<\/a>, and the\u00a0allocation of Olympic torchbearer places<\/a>.<\/p>\n Stories and information uncovered by the site have been used by news organisations including The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, The Daily Mail, Stoke Sentinel, Birmingham Post, Birmingham Mail, Bournemouth Echo, Caledonian Mercury, Der Tagesspiegel, the Health Service Journal, BBC Radio WM and BBC Radio 4.<\/p>\n The site was conceived by\u00a0Paul Bradshaw<\/a>, a visiting professor in online journalism at\u00a0City University London<\/a>\u00a0and course leader of the\u00a0MA in Online Journalism at Birmingham City University<\/a>.<\/p>\n In 2010 Help Me Investigate was shortlisted and\u00a0highly commended<\/a>\u00a0for Multimedia Publisher of the Year in the NUJ\u2019s Regional Media Awards, and\u00a0won \u2018Best Investigation\u2019 in the Talk About Local\/Guardian Local awards<\/a>.<\/p>\n In February 2011 the code for the original site\u00a0was released under an open source licence<\/a>.<\/p>\n There is also a\u00a0site blog<\/a>, which provides regular tips and updates.<\/p>\n If you want to get involved in any of the Help Me Investigate sites, please leave a comment or contact us privately on paul@helpmeinvestigate.com<\/p>\n Help Me Investigate the Olympics is managed by Jennifer Jones<\/a>, coordinator for #media2012<\/a>, the first citizen media network for the Olympic Games. She can be contacted on email@jennifermjones.net<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Help Me Investigate the Olympics is a website to help those who want to investigate questions relating to the Olympic Games. The site is based on Help Me Investigate.com, a site which was\u00a0launched in July 2009\u00a0with funding from Channel 4\u2032s … Continue reading