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Master of Lifelong Training in Investigative Journalism, New Narratives, Data, FactChecking and Transparency

 

INFORMATION, PRE-REGISTRATION AND REGISTRATION
Own Teachings
Telephone: 91 488 70 41
Academic direction :  Dr. Manuel Gertrudix  y  Dr Antonio Rubio
 confidential
   

Get more info      master's website

Basic Information

Introduction

Facing lies, journalism. Faced with the obscurantism of the institutions, transparency. Faced with opinion, research and data.

We are not talking about the future, we are talking about a present where as a society and as journalists we face new challenges: the fight against disinformation and the need for journalism that does not remain on the surface and that investigates and tells the reality to citizens with data.

The Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid and the digital newspaper El Confidencial organize this master's degree with the aim of training professionals for this new present; a present in which to bet on journalism as a public service for citizens. Data journalists, developers and product managers of the most innovative digital media in Spain and Latin America together with reporters and researchers with a long history teach this own title in which you will learn to find, investigate, verify and visualize the great journalistic stories. This master's degree is the union of the best investigative and data journalism in our country and innovation and technology at the service of telling our reality.

We have the collaboration of the media, communication companies and entities such as El Confidencial, Maldita.es, Prodigioso Volcán, Servimedia, Canarias Ahora, Capa España, El Faradio, Madridiario, Democrata.es, Diario Vivo, Confilegal, European Commission, University of Bordeaux and ESRI Spain.

In addition to numerous professionals and academics who work and research in matters related to Journalism and Communication who will give sessions in the Master.

Objectives

The main objective of the Master in Investigative Journalism, New Narratives, Data, Fact-checking and Transparency is to train Journalism and Communication professionals who can respond to the demand for the creation of new narratives based on innovation in formats and information products developed. through research techniques, data verification and transparency.

For this, it is aimed at national and international students, preferably from Latin America and Europe, who meet the following profiles:

  • Journalists with some professional development in the media who seek training and alternative and complementary tools.
  • Graduates in Journalism/Communication with a good record, but without enough internships.
  • Other graduates (engineer, IT, law, economics) with concerns about Journalism and Communication.

The specific objectives of the Master are:

  • Training on the new tools to work with databases to tell stories/reports with added value.
  • Provide critical and verification tools to the journalistic product, applying the scientific method.
  • Delve into the concept of investigative journalism and the methodologies used in the best newsrooms in the world
  • Know the tools and techniques for data visualization and trend analysis.
  • Training on the best techniques for requesting and using public information within the Spanish national sphere with all its autonomies, as well as at a European and international level

Programme

Module I: Journalistic Investigation (11 ECTS)

In this module we will prepare you to apply journalistic investigation techniques in different products and professional contexts. We will analyze case studies so that you learn to discriminate the characteristics and components of journalistic investigations. In addition, with practical cases we will develop informative pieces applying the methodology of the journalistic investigation and verification process.

Module II: Data journalism and transparency (11 ECTS)

In this module we will work in a special way on the techniques of access to public information: Law of Transparency and Open Government. The information and data that are in the hands of the institutions are a journalistic source that we cannot do without to develop in-depth informative work. You will learn to use the tools for access to public information and you will receive legal training to request and obtain the information and documentary resources that governments and official bodies have.

Module III: Fact-checking (9 ECTS)

How can disinformation be curbed without limiting freedom of expression? In this module you will learn to recognize the features, characteristics and effects of disinformation in the digital age and the current legislative framework to counteract it. We will work from a theoretical and practical point of view applying methodologies and digital tools for the verification of political discourse and disinformation in the public sphere. With this module you will learn the skills of fact-checking to carry out verifications with technical and methodological guarantees, applicable in communication and other disciplines.

Module IV: New journalistic narratives (11 ECTS)

We are clear that in order to reach an increasingly heterogeneous public, communication must master new languages ​​and ways of telling stories. In this module we will work on the characteristics of new journalistic technologies and narratives applicable in different formats, including podcasts and documentaries for television. We will explore the possibilities of journalistic innovation in the creation of new information products and services through technological and design tools. In addition, you will acquire skills in the tools necessary to work with databases, analyze the results and tell stories with added value that will differentiate you from other professionals.

Master's Thesis (12 ECTS)

The Master's Final Project (TFM) consists of carrying out a journalistic investigation applying the techniques and tools learned and developed in the academic program, and that will put into practice the professional skills acquired in the Master.

This work will be done as a team. The result will be a journalistic investigation presented through a digital report that may include audiovisual, multimedia and interactive material.

The report resulting from the TFM, which must have a professional level, will be published in one of the collaborating media of the Master.

The research will be accompanied by an academic report where the process developed will be documented and will be adjusted to the regulations and defense procedures of the TFM of the Rey Juan Carlos University.

Curricular practices (6 ECTS)

The practices will be carried out in the newsrooms of the media, production companies and national and international agencies that develop investigative journalism, data, documentation, transparency or new narratives. Media collaborating with this Master.

Compulsory paid internships corresponding to the 6 established credits will be offered, with a duration of 3 months, with the possibility of extension to 6 months within the same year of presentation of the TFM.

Recipients

Access requirements: Students must present a graduate or graduate degree and pass the entrance tests with a grade higher than 5: data test, writing test. In addition, an interview with the direction of the master and the CV will be valued with up to 1 extra point.

Selection criteria: In the event that the number of applications exceeds the number of places offered, a selection will be made based on the following criteria:

  • Assessment obtained in the access tests 70%
  • Previous experience in media accredited through the Curriculum Vitae 20%
  • Place reservation date 10%

Number of places offered: 18 (minimum 15)

Number of reserved places: 1. When the number of applications that meet the access requirements exceeds the number of places available, a place is reserved for vulnerable groups (disability, victims of terrorism and gender violence, article 50 of the regulation) with the same selection criteria. In the event that said quota is not covered, it will pass to the general quota.

The start of the course is conditioned to the minimum number of students enrolled

Academic Management and Faculty

ACADEMIC MANAGEMENT AND TEACHERS


ADDRESS:


Dr. Manuel Gértrudix Barrio [Academic Director]

Professor of Digital Communication at the Rey Juan Carlos University, coordinator of the Ciberimaginario research group and co-editor of the scientific journal Icono14. Specialist in communication and digital training, he has been PI of 8 national and international competitive research projects and has participated in more than 20. He has an extensive scientific production with more than 110 publications including research articles, book chapters and monographs related to innovation in digital communication, the development of new formats and the transfer of knowledge in these fields. Among them is his recent book Communicate science (2022).

He has been Vice Chancellor of Quality, Ethics and Good Governance of the URJC (2018 – 2021), Academic Director of the Center for Innovation in Digital Education of the URJC (2013-2017), Technical Advisor of New Technologies (2003-2007) and Head of Distance education service of the Ministry of Education.

Since 2017 he has been a collaborating professor of the Doctorate in Innovation, Communication and Educational Technologies of the ESAE of the Latin American Institute of Educational Culture (Mexico). He has carried out research stays in the USA at the University of Central Florida and in Scotland at the University of Stirling, and teaching in Argentina at the National University of Córdoba, in Colombia, at the Universidad del Norte, and in Brazil at the UDESC. .

“We have an extraordinary opportunity to continue exploring new digital journalistic formats, products and services and we want to promote training that connects innovation and research with teaching”.


Dr. Antonio Rubio Campaña (Director)

 Journalist, teacher, writer, editor and screenwriter.

President of the Association of Investigative Journalists (API), former vice president of FAPE and former deputy director of Investigation of the newspaper El Mundo. Former director of the master's degrees in Journalism at El Mundo/CEU and Investigative Journalism and Data at El Mundo/URJC and professor of the master's degree in Advanced Reporting at Ramón Llull/Blanquerna.

International Press Club Award, León Felipe, Lumbreras of the Protagonistas program by Luis del Olmo, Association of Information Professionals (APEI), Ondas Podcast Award and Gabo Audio Awards finalist for “GAL: El Triángulo” (2021)”.

His doctoral thesis deals with “The origin of Investigative Journalism in Spain”.

Author of: Quini from kidnapping to freedom (1981); The Interior case (1995); The origin of the GAL (1997), Lobo. A mole in the bowels of ETA (2003), Uncovered political and urban plots (2011), Luis de Oteyza and the job of investigating (2015) and Annual's disaster through the press (2022).

Former collections coordinator of the publishing house Libros.com

Co-founder and director of the television production company Background (1997). Scriptwriter and research director of the series "Chronicle of a generation: 1975-2000" on El Mundo TV.

His journalistic revelations have become “news in criminis”: GAL, Reserved Funds, Luis Roldán escape, CESID wiretaps and papers, Nécora operation, Sokoa operation, ETA revolutionary tax, Zabalza case, investigations on 11-M, Jesús Gil and corruption in Marbella, CESID, CNI, Reserved Funds, Ellacuría case.

“In journalism, continuous training is essential. Train to inform. Time and new tools bring us closer to the truth”.


FACULTY:


Nacho Cardero, director of El Confidencial.

Director of El Confidencial since 2011. Before that, he was Editor-in-Chief at El Confidencial, Head of Economy at 'La Clave' magazine and Head of the Real Estate section at El Mundo. He collaborates on the radio program Más de Uno, with Carlos Alsina on Onda Cero, and on Espejo Público, with Susana Griso on Antena 3.

He has published "Los Señores del Ladrillo", published by Bubok Publishing in 2011, and is co-author, together with Carlos Ribagorda, of "Los Ppijos", published in La Esfera de los Libros, in 2004.

He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2017 for El Confidencial's participation in the investigation of 'The Panama Papers', led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ). The Government of Spain awarded him the medal of merit for civil protection in 2020 for his professionalism and orientation to public service as director of El Confidencial.


Clara Jimenez Cruz.

Journalist and CEO of Maldita.es.

Journalist, CEO and Deputy Editorial Director of Maldita.es. She worked for nine years at laSexta, first in news services and later in different programs on the network. She was also part of the El Objective team until 2018, when she co-founded, along with Julio Montes, Maldita.es. She currently collaborates with Onda Cero, RNE, Onda Madrid, Telemadrid and TVE. She is the only Spanish member of the High-Level Group of Experts on Disinformation designated by the European Commission and is also the European member of the Advisory Council of the International Fact Checking Network. In 2015 she received, together with Julio Montes, the José Manuel Porquet Journalism Award. She was elected Ashoka Fellow Entrepreneur 2019 and APM Award for Young Journalist of the Year 2019.

“For me, journalism is data and verified facts; then you have to dress it with the necessary narrative.


 Lydia Cacho.

Investigative Journalist.

Mexican writer, investigative journalist and activist, nationalized Spanish, threatened with death in her country of origin and therefore exiled in Madrid. She is a benchmark for the defense of freedom of expression and human and women's rights. Her investigations and complaints led to the first sentence for child sex trafficking and child pornography in Mexico and Latin America.

His works and works have been taken to the cinema, the theater, documentaries and podcasts. 

She is the author of Memories of an infamy, 19 wounds, Not with my daughter, Slaves of power, The Demons of Eden, Letters of love and rebellion, Memoirs of a reporter, #EllosHablan, In search of Kayla, Cyberspies to the rescue and others.

And the awards received are many: Quintana Roo State Journalism Award, "Francisco Ojeda" Award for Journalistic Value, "Don Sergio Méndez Arceo" National Award for the Defense of Human Rights, "Ginetta Sagan" Award from Amnesty International, to Courage in Journalism from the IWMF, Human Rights Watch, Unesco Guillermo Can World Press Freedom Award and Olof Palme Award, among many others.

"Despite what we've lost along the way, journalism lives on."


 Jose Maria Olmo

Head of Investigation at El Confidencial

Graduate in Journalism from the University of Navarra and Graduate in Political Science and Master in Politics and Democracy from UNED.

He directs the Investigation section of El Confidencial. She has participated in the international investigations of the Panama Papers and the Falciani List. He uncovered the case of Little Nicholas; the espionage of Isabel Díaz Ayuso; the businesses of Piqué and Rubiales, and the banking movements of Juan Carlos I in Switzerland, among other scandals. In 2014 she received the Journalist of the Year Award from the Madrid Press Association (APM). Together with David Fernández, he has published in 2023 'King Corp, the untold empire of Juan Carlos Primero', in Libros del KO


martha law

 Head of Data at El Confidencial

Graduated in journalism and audiovisual communication, she specialized in data journalism in 2013. She has worked for El Mundo for six years and since October 2020 she has led the data team of El Confidencial.

As a teacher, she has taught data journalism as an associate professor at the Carlos III University in 2020 and 2021 and in master's degrees related to journalistic specialization.


Tomas Ocana

General Manager of CAPA Spain

Graduated in Law and Journalism, Tomás Ocaña is a journalist, director and executive producer who has a recognized prestige as an investigative journalist and director of documentary formats.

He obtained his first recognition as a director when he was only 29 years old, thanks to the documentary PRESSionados, recognized in Los Angeles with the Gracei Award. Ocaña has since been honored with three Emmy Awards, a Peabody, an Ortega y Gasset and the Association of Investigative Journalists of the United States, among others. He was also part of the team of journalists who worked on The Panama Papers, the most ambitious investigation of the last decade that was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

In recent years, Ocaña has directed or co-directed programs such as 'Crónicas Subterráneas', 'ActivistaZ', 'El Clan Blasco', 'El Método', 'En la jaula de oro' or 'Lucía en la telaraña', which was selected for its premiere at the Malaga Festival 2021.

Former general director of Capa Spain and is currently the non-fiction manager of Netflix.

"Investigative journalists must lead the new boom in documentary formats on platforms, only in this way will rigor be guaranteed when telling the most relevant facts"


Jose Antonio Zarzalejos

President of the Editorial Board of El Confidencial and columnist.

Graduated in Law from the University of Deusto, lawyer from the Provincial Council of Vizcaya and Journalist. He began in the profession as a columnist in "El Correo Español-El Pueblo Vasco" of which he was deputy editor and director (1990-1998). In 1998 and until 1999 he was editorial director of Grupo Correo and in September of that year, director of ABC until September 2004, when he became the company's general secretary, returning to the management of ABC from December 2005 to February 2008. XNUMX. After leaving the newspaper, he served as General Director of Spain for the multinational communication and public affairs consultancy Llorente& Cuenca SL

He is currently an analyst for El Confidencial, president of its Editorial Board and an essayist. He has been awarded the Prize of the Federation of Press Associations of Spain (FAPE), the Godó for journalism, the Luca de Tena, the Mariano de Cavia, the Rodríguez Santamaría awarded by the Madrid Press Association and the Francisco Cerecedo, among others. In 2004 he was decorated by the French Government with the Order of the Legion of Honor.

He has published five books: "Basque Country, Chronicles of a Political Analyst" (1989); "Against the Basque secession" (2005), "La Destitution. History of an impossible journalism” (2010), “The smile of Julia Roberts. Zapatero and his time ”(2011) and“ Tomorrow will be late ”(2015). On February 10, 2021, he published “Felipe VI. A king in adversity”, the first in-depth account of the first six years of the reign of the current monarch and the description of the crisis of the Spanish monarchy. He has been the editorial director of the documentary series "El desafío: ETA" (2020) broadcast in eight episodes on Amazon Prime Video. In June 2014, he exclusively announced the abdication of King Juan Carlos I.

"In El Confidencial he is the author of a podcast line with personalities from civilian life under the generic title 'Punto blind'"


Maria Santos-Sainz.

Journalist, writer and teacher.

Doctor in Information Sciences and Full Professor of Journalism at the Institut de Journalisme Bordeaux Aquitaine of Bordeaux Montaigne University, whose director she assumed from 2006 to 2012. She was president of CEJER from 2010 to 2015, Chercheurs en Journalisme des Ecoles Reconnues (Researchers in Recognized Schools Journalism).

Before dedicating herself to teaching, she was an editor in the Culture section and in the supplements Culturas and Libros de Diario 16, as well as editor-in-chief of the magazine Españoles en el mundo. She has collaborated in various publications in France and Spain, such as Cambio 16, Figaro Magazine or Sud Ouest.


Angel Villarino

Deputy Director at El Confidencial

Ángel Villarino has been deputy director of El Confidencial since 2020. He joined the newsroom in the spring of 2015 as coordinator of the International section. Subsequently, Villarino went through the positions of editor-in-chief of Fin de Semana, editor-in-chief of Reportajes and assistant to the director. Before joining El Confidencial, he worked as a foreign correspondent and special envoy for 12 years for two large media groups, based in Rome, Bangkok, Beijing and Washington.


Nacho Calle.

Investigative and Data Journalist.

Head of investigation of newspaper Público. He was deputy director of Maldita.es until the beginning of 2022. As an investigative journalist and data coordinator at laSexta, where he was until October 2018, he participated in the publication of the Falciani list in Spain and has been part of the team that carried out the international investigations of the Panama Papers, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2017, Bahamas Leaks and Paradise Papers. For the investigation of the Panama Papers he obtained in Spain the Madrid Press Association Award for Best Journalist of the Year 2017. He is a founding member and secretary of the Association of Investigative Journalists (API).

"The verification with facts and data following a robust methodology allow us to do the best journalism to tell stories."


 Alicia Alamillos

Head of the International section at El Confidencial.

Journalist specialized in International. 

He joined El Confidencial in 2019, a few months before the coronavirus crisis broke out. Since then, she has coordinated various editorial projects and participated in some of the most important coverage of the newspaper, such as the Russian invasion of Ukraine, where she has gone as a special envoy to the hottest areas of the conflict. 

He began his career in international journalism as a correspondent for Sub-Saharan Africa at Agencia EFE from Nairobi (Kenya), since he covered events such as the wave of attacks by the Somali terrorist group Al Shabab. She later became a correspondent for ABC from Cairo, covering Egypt and the war against Daesh in Libya, and a freelance contributor to various media outlets and magazines. Before joining El Confidencial, she was a Schuman Fellow for the European Parliament


Joaquin Meseguer

 Transparency Group Coordinator at FEMP.

Graduate in Law and Diploma of Advanced Studies in Constitutional Law. An official of the Superior Corps of the Castilla y León Administration, he has held various positions in that autonomous Administration and its Advisory Council.

He went on to provide services at the Autonomous University of Madrid in 2005, first as Vice Manager of Human Resources and Organization and, later, as General Vice Secretary.

Corresponding Academician of the Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation since 2014.

In the area of ​​transparency, he is a member of the Working Group on transparency initiatives of the Commission for Modernization, Citizen Participation and Quality of the FEMP, in charge of preparing in 2014 the Standard Ordinance on Transparency, access to information information and reuse, and the update of the Good Governance Code in February 2015.

Author of two monographs and different chapters in collective works on transparency and collaborator of El Confidencial.

"Regarding legal certainty, it is very important to know what we are obliged to do and what standards we must comply with."


Ruth Ugalde

Economy Correspondent at El Confidencial

Graduated in journalism from the University of Navarra, PDD from IESE and a master's degree in Marketing and Online Communication from IMF Business School, she has been dedicated to covering economic information for more than 20 years. He started at Expansión in 2001, just when the Internet bubble burst, he founded the newspaper El Economista, where he experienced the rise and fall of the real estate market, and participated in the launch of lainformación.com, where he led the economics section during the crisis that ravaged the country. For a decade she has been part of El Confidencial, where she has participated in investigations such as 'The Panama Papers', led by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ), work that was recognized with the Pulitzer Prize in 2017.

Finalist of the prize for journalistic excellence 'Citi Journalistic Excellence Award' and winner of the Debate Prize for the best book-report for the work 'El Pocero de Seseña', she is the mother of three children.

"A former boss told me that the great challenge for economic information journalists was to make what is important interesting. And we continue in that"


 Giles Tremlett

Journalist at The Guardian.

He is a historian, writer and journalist. He is the author of five works of history and nonfiction that have been translated into half a dozen languages. He won the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography in 2018. He has held various roles for The Guardian, including as chief Iberia correspondent and as a writer for Long Reads. He previously wrote for The Economist. He was a visiting professor at the London School of Economics for five years starting in 2016.

He graduated in Human Sciences from Oxford University in 1984 and has also studied at the Universities of Barcelona and Lisbon.

He was a correspondent for The Guardian for Spain, Portugal and the Maghreb for a dozen years. He was also the Madrid correspondent for The Economist for a decade until 2016.

In 2012 he was elected Correspondent of the Year by the Madrid International Press Club.

He has been a visiting professor of journalism or contemporary Spanish history and has participated in seminars at numerous universities, including Oxford, MIT and Stanford.


Alfonso Armada.

Journalist and writer.

Director of the digital magazine fronterad.com. International reporter, former president of the Spanish section of Reporters Without Borders. He has published a few books. The latest: Celta is not to blame (KO books), On secondary roads (Malpaso, with photographs by Corina Arranz), Africa inside (5W, with Xavier Aldekoa) and How much does a human head weigh. Diary of a virus crowned by fear (Broken Glass).

“Journalism for me, apart from my way of being in the world, is an attempt to tell reality based on a physical principle (pay attention) and a moral one (put yourself in the place of the other).”


 Victoria Anderica.

Expert in open government, transparency and citizen participation.

His experience with open government began in 2010 when he started working at Access Info Europe, an organization that works to defend the right of access to information in Europe.

There he worked coordinating projects that sought to test and expand the scope of transparency in different countries of the world. In addition, she worked on the creation and development of the Right to Information Global Rating, the only ranking that evaluates all the transparency laws in the world.

In 2015 he went on to direct the transparency project of the City of Madrid, where he developed one of the most ambitious transparency ordinances in Spain that included the regulation of lobbying and the regulatory footprint.

At an academic level, he is currently writing his doctoral thesis at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, ​​which is entitled: “The impact of transparency laws on the work of civil society. The Spanish case”.

“Public information is a fundamental raw material for the exercise of journalism and it is our right to know it.”


 Gervasio Sanchez.

Photojournalist.

His works are published in Heraldo de Aragón, he collaborates with Cadena Ser and the BBC, and since 2001 he has directed the Albarracín Photography and Journalism Seminar. He is the author of more than a dozen photographic books and received awards from the Press Associations of Aragon, Almería and Córdoba, the Cirilo Rodríguez, Human Rights, Ortega y Gasset, King of Spain on two occasions, Julio Anguita Parrado, Bartolome Ros, Jaime Brunet, Gernika for Peace and Reconciliation, José Maria Portell, José Antonio Labordeta and in 2009 he was awarded the National Photography Prize.

He has been a UNESCO special envoy for peace since 1998. In 2004 the government of Aragon awarded him the Medal of Professional Merit, in 2011 the government of Spain awarded him the Grand Cross of the Civil Order of Social Solidarity and in 2019 he received the Gold Medal of the Spanish Red Cross.

“Journalism is passion, commitment, rigor, it must be the light that illuminates the darkest places that surround us and it must be exercised as far away as possible from political, economic and factual halls if you don't want to be swallowed up by them sooner rather than later. ”


 Dr. Ramon Salaverria.

Professor.

Professor of Journalism at the Faculty of Communication of the University of Navarra (Pamplona, ​​Spain). He is principal investigator of the Iberifier project, an observatory financed by the European Commission for the study of digital media and disinformation in Spain and Portugal. He collaborates as an advisor to the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) and has been president of the Journalism Studies Section of ECREA. Author of more than 250 academic publications, his research focuses on digital journalism and disinformation. His most recent book is 'Journalism, Data and Technology in Latin America' (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2021).

“Journalism is not only about telling the truth, but also about pursuing lies.”


 Beatriz Parera

Responsible for Courts and to the Director El Confidencial

Journalist specialized in court information with 15 years of experience in the area. She deals with the coverage of information from the Supreme Court, the Constitutional Court or the National Court. Summaries, instructions, judicial policy, legislation... He began in the specialty covering the trial for the 2017-M attacks in 11 and, since then, he has dealt with procedures such as the Gürtel, Lezo and Púnica plots or the derivative in the trial courts.


Esther paniagua

Journalist and writer.

Independent senior journalist and author specializing in science and technology, with a special interest in analyzing the social impact of innovation. She publishes in 'El País', 'El Español' (D + I), 'Xataka' and 'Muy Interesante', among many other national and international media. She was the first editor-in-chief of the magazine 'MIT Technology Review' in Spanish.
Esther has received numerous awards in science, technology and innovation journalism. Her most recent book is 'Error 404. Are you ready for a world without internet?' (Discussion, 2021). She is also the author of the reports 'Artificial Intelligence', 'Big Data, the power of data' and 'Disruptive Business Models' (published by the Bankinter Innovation Foundation).


Gerard Reyes

Research Director of Univision.

He began his specialty as an investigative journalist in 1978. And for more than thirty years, he has dedicated himself to investigating corruption schemes in Latin America and their ramifications in the United States. Reyes was a member of the revolutionary El Tiempo investigative unit in Bogotá, one of the first teams of its kind in Latin America. He worked for Cambio 16, The Miami Herald and El Nuevo Herald. He published the first investigative journalism manual in Spanish. He is co-founder of “Research Journalists and Editors”, an organization through which he has promoted transnational collaboration among his colleagues. In 2011, he signed for the Univision chain in the United States and created the investigative team.

He won a 1999 Pulitzer Prize for the series Dirty Votes, The Race for Miami Mayor, which exposed irregularities in the city's 1998 election race. He is also a two-time recipient with the Emmy award (2012 and 2015) and in 2015 with the Ortega y Gasset.

"Because of the minefield that investigative journalism moves, you should not lose your serenity."


 Itziar Reyero

National Head of El Confidencial

Journalist specialized in political information. I have been a correspondent for ABC in the Basque Country in the decisive years of the end of ETA and political change. Back in Madrid, I covered Mariano Rajoy's Popular Party until after the motion of no confidence. I have always liked being in the back room, directing the production processes of the newspaper (a collective work that is a daily miracle). For that reason I decided to make the leap to El Confidencial, in February 2021. 

Extraordinary Journalism Prize at the San Pablo-CEU University.


Jacopo Ottaviani

Chief Data Officer at Code for Africa.

Senior IT strategist and strategist working as Chief Data Officer (CDO) at Code for Africa. As an ICFJ Knight Fellow during the 2016-2019 period, Jacopo built teams and designed programs with support from the World Bank, Google News Initiative, GIZ and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The mixture of his technical skills, as an expert in computing and data journalism, has resulted in a series of projects published, among others, by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, Der Spiegel, El País and Internazionale. He has worked on multiple projects funded by the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and the European Journalism Center. He is also a member of the preparatory committee for the European Press Prize and works as a trainer at BBC Media Action.

“Data visualization and maps are key tools to strengthen public debate and inform decision makers to improve policy on international issues.”


Belen Carreno

 Journalist.

Correspondent for Reuters in Spain covering Government and Economy. She has specialized in economic journalism for almost 20 years, working among other newspapers at Expansión, Público and eldiario.es. He has been an analyst on radio and television and uncovered the plot of 'The black cards'.

"The numbers tell a story and what the numbers hide is the story we want to tell."


Jorge Zuluaga

 Deputy Director at El Confidencial

Deputy Director at El Confidencial and president of the Association of Economic Information Journalists (APIE). He participated in the launch of El Economista, within the Stock Market and Investment team. Between 2007 and 2016 he worked at Expansión, being responsible for investment fund information and covering the banking sector during the 2012 rescue. He was in charge of court information in the newspaper following the Bankia case and publishing exclusives such as the 'cards black' from Caja Madrid. He was also head of Economy at Vozpópuli until his arrival at El Confidencial in 2018. He specializes in information from the financial sector and economic courts.


Daniel Lizarraga

 Investigative Journalist

Reporter since 1993. Former deputy director of Animal Político (Mexico) and former editorial director of El Faro (El Salvador). Coordinator of special investigations in MVS News and Aristegui News. Co-author of the report La Casa Blanca de Peña Nieto, an investigation that won the National Journalism Award, the García Márquez Award from the FNPI, and the Latin American Award for Investigative Journalism (COLPIN) in 2015.

Author of two books: "Blue Corruption, waste in presidential transitions" and "The White House of Enrique Peña Nieto." Reporter on the Panama-Papers case, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation. The International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) awarded the Aristegui Noticias investigative team for their work in Mexico. Coordinator and co-author of the investigations that won first and second place at the German Journalism Prize in 2017. Former Head of Information at MCCI. Professor at CIDE and FNPI.

"Journalism is the passion to discover something and report it in the best possible way."


John Soto Ivars

 columnist and writer

He writes opinion and analysis articles in El Confidencial and other media, participates with a section on censored books in Cuarto Milenio (Cuatro) and in Julia Otero's gathering (Onda Cero), as well as on Radio 3. He was a member of the committee advisor to the Fundéu and has given courses and talks throughout Spain with freedom of expression, taboo and censorship as the axis. He has also been a creative writing teacher.

He has participated in YouTube channels such as The Wild Project, El sentido de la birra or UTBH.

His latest published books are Nobody is going to laugh: the incredible story of a trial of irony (2022) Knut Hamsun: the author and the chimeras (2023) The house of the hanged man: how the taboo suffocates western democracy (2021) and The networks burn: post-censorship and the new virtual world (2017), or the novel Crimes of the future (2018)


Mercedes del Hoyo

 Vice Chancellor of Campus Community, Culture and Sport of the URJC.

Professor of Journalism at the Rey Juan Carlos University. Degree in Philosophy and Letters from the University of Deusto (1982) and degree in Information Sciences from the University of the Basque Country (1990), where she obtained her doctorate in 1996. She teaches undergraduate and master's degrees related to treatment, writing and journalistic genres. After a brief period as a journalist in the newspaper El Correo, she taught at the University of the Basque Country and at the Carlos III University of Madrid. In recent years, his research work has focused on the changes that the Internet and, hand in hand, digital newsrooms and social networks have brought to the press, together with the informative treatment that is carried out in it and the journalistic elements that determine your credibility.

"Journalism should only have two servitudes: readers and the truth."


Quality guarantee

BOCM Link

Composition of the commission

Presidency (academic direction): Manuel Gertrudix Bario

Secretary (teacher representative): Sergio Alvarez Garcia

Student representative: Damaris Rachel Overlooking Augustine.

It will be selected once registration is completed and the course begins.

PTGAS Representative: Beatriz Martin Barrio

Head of Continuing Education Service.

Representative of employer companies and society: Marta Ley Barnuevo The Confidential

Results report

Once the follow-up of the Master of Lifelong Training has been carried out, the most relevant quantitative information on the results obtained in the follow-up of said Degree is shown.

General information collection plan

Within the quality assurance system of the Rey Juan Carlos University, the following surveys are planned:

- Student profile

- Teacher evaluation

- Degree of satisfaction:

  • Of the students
  • of the graduates
  • From the Faculty
  • Administration and Services Staff

- Labor insertion

- External internships:

  • Satisfaction of interns
  • External tutor satisfaction
  • Employer satisfaction

Survey results:

Improvement actions

The Quality Assurance System of the Rey Juan Carlos University establishes that the degree's Quality Assurance Commission will annually analyze the information derived from the degree's indicators and prepare a report that will include improvement plans if the results so indicate.

Duration and development

MASTER OF CONTINUOUS TRAINING IN INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM, NEW NARRATIVES, DATA, FACTCHECKING AND TRANSPARENCY

Modality: Onsite

No. of credits: 60

Contact hours: 600

Place of delivery: Manuel Becerra URJC Headquarters

Opening hours: 17:00 p.m. to 21:00 p.m. Monday to Thursday

Start date: 21th October 2024

Finish date:   30th September 2025

Reservation of place and enrollment

Pre-registration period: March 14, 2024 until September 30, 2024

Enrollment deadline: September 23, 2024 until October 4, 2024

Title price: 7.900 €

Possibility of scholarship (if applicable): yes

Pre-registration: €500. This amount is included in the total cost of the course and will be refunded if your academic application is not accepted. If, once the student's application is accepted, he/she does not formalize the registration, the amount deposited as pre-registration will not be returned.

The beginning of the course is conditioned to the minimum number of students enrolled.

No. of places offered: 18 (minimum 15)

Number of reserved places: 1. When the number of applications that meet the access requirements exceeds the number of places available, a place is reserved for vulnerable groups (disability, victims of terrorism and gender violence, article 50 of the regulation) with the same selection criteria. In the event that said quota is not covered, it will pass to the general quota.

Documentation to attach, forms and place of delivery

the applicants they will present all the scanned documentation, in the formats allowed through the telematic self-registration application at the time of applying for admission to own degrees. They must compulsorily attach to their request the declaration of the person responsible for the veracity of the data provided in digital format.

At any time, both the Program Management and the Own Teaching Service may request the applicants to submit said certified/collated documentation through the General Registry, located on the Móstoles Campus, or in any of the registries assistants located in the different campuses of the Rey Juan Carlos University, or by sending it through Certified Mail to: Rey Juan Carlos University. General Registry. Avda. Tulipán s/n. 28933. Mostoles. Madrid

The student is responsible for the veracity and correctness of the data provided, exonerating the Rey Juan Carlos University from any responsibility and guaranteeing and being responsible for its accuracy, validity and authenticity.

Required documentation:

Students with a degree obtained from a Spanish university or a Higher Education Institution belonging to another Member State of the European Higher Education Area that authorizes access to own postgraduate degrees must present the following documentation:

  • National Identity Document or equivalent
  • University degree of the studies that give access to the requested postgraduate degree.
  • Curriculum vitae
  • Responsible declaration of veracity of the data provided in digital format
  • Any other document that the Director of the Own Title specifically requires for its acceptance

Students with a foreign degree must present the following documentation:

  • Passport or Residence Card
  • Foreign Higher Education Degree (Graduate, Graduate, Architect, Engineer Doctor...) that give access to own postgraduate degree studies.
  • Certificate certifying that the studies carried out give access to an Official Postgraduate Degree in your country of origin, issued by the University of origin
  • Curriculum vitae
  • Declaration of the person responsible for the veracity of the data provided in digital format
  • Any other document that the Director of the Own Title specifically requires for its acceptance

Applicants with studies completed in foreign University Centers may be requested at any time a certificate of verification of these studies and centers, issued by an authorized Institution.

All documentation provided must be legalized in accordance with Spanish law and translated by an official translator.