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About the project

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This site is the digital home for the "Make FOIA Work: Using Freedom of Information Act Requests to Engage Students and Communities in Local Investigative Reporting" project.

In Fall 2018 journalism and civic media students at Emerson College in Boston, MA, participated in a journalism education project that used Freedom of Information Act requests (FOIAs) to engage journalists and local communities in sourcing information, identifying problems, and creating relevant and accessible stories.

Make FOIA Work is about re-imaging journalism through design, participation and collaboration. Faculty, staff and students at Emerson College and the Engagement Lab staff worked alongside the Boston Institute of Nonprofit Journalism (BINJ) and MuckRock, two independent and alternative news and information platforms and publishers.

This site shares the fruits of this partnership in the form of data-driven journalism stories developed out of successful FOIA requests. The stories expose corruption around the sales of guns in Massachusetts, the use of illicit or discontinued weapons, political connections, and more.

In addition to stories, the team has produced a participatory design process book that details how to conduct participatory and creative community engagement research. This book is a field guide for journalists, practitioners and community members that details our decision process and provides tips, techniques, and steps for undertaking your own participatory design projects.

The site also features the syllabi of the two participating design studios: participatory methods and data visualization. The courses worked in parallel to build engagement based approaches to community participation in the reporting, and through the use of FOIA requests.

Who was involved

Emerson College logo

Engagement Lab @ Emerson College logo

Muckrock logo

Boston Institute for Non-Profit Journalism logo

Paul Mihailidis
Associate Professor, Journalism, Emerson College


Adam Gamwell
Design Anthropologist and Affiliated Faculty, Engagement Lab, CMAP/Media Design, Journalism, Emerson College


Catherine D’Ignazio
Assistant Professor, Journalism, Emerson College


Michael Morisy
Co-Founder & Chief Executive, MuckRock


Chris Farone
Editorial Director, Boston Institute of Nonprofit Journalism (BINJ)


Catherine Buckler
Project Coordinator, Engagement Lab


Courtney Lord
Lead Designer, Engagement Lab


Johnny Richardson
Lead Developer, Engagement Lab


Vasiliki Rapti
Affiliated Faculty; CMAP ’19 candidate, Project Assistant


Manon Banta
CMAP ’19 candidate, Project Assistant

Herman E. Servatious
CMAP ’19 candidate,Project Assistant


Support for this project was made possible by the Online News Association’s Challenge Fund for Innovation in Journalism Education. This project is administered by the Online News Association with support from Excellence and Ethics in Journalism Foundation, the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, Knight Foundation, the Democracy Fund, Rita Allen Foundation and the Scripps Howard Foundation.
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Re-designing information gathering and news reporting mechanisms around the FOIA process
Re-designing information gathering and news reporting mechanisms around the FOIA process
Make FOIA Work is about re-imagining journalism through design, participation and collaboration. Faculty, staff and students at Emerson College and the Engagement Lab staff worked alongside the Boston Institute of Nonprofit Journalism (BINJ) and MuckRock, two independent and alternative news and information platforms and publishers, to produce a data-driven and engagement-based investigative reporting series that exposes corruption around the sales of guns in Massachusetts. Through design studios in participatory methods and data visualization, project participants created a participatory guide book for journalists, practitioners and community members on how to undertake participatory design projects with a focus on FOIA requests, community participation, and collaboration. The project also highlights the course syllabi in participatory design methods and data visualization.

Our Stories

Fire Sale, pt 1

Even for weapons dealers who have flouted state laws, there is major money to be made by selling munitions to police in Massachusetts.

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Even for weapons dealers who have flouted state laws, there is major money to be made by selling munitions to police in Massachusetts.

Fire Sale, pt 2

Digging deeper into the abyss of reckless unchecked state spending on guns and ammo. Photo by Brynne Quinlan

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Digging deeper into the abyss of reckless unchecked state spending on guns and ammo. Photo by Brynne Quinlan

Case Open (A Fire Sale Follow Up)

Connecticut high court ruling opens up Mass gun seller to Newtown lawsuit.

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Connecticut high court ruling opens up Mass gun seller to Newtown lawsuit.

Arc of the Moral Universe

Mass State Police and local law enforcement have spent millions amassing an arsenal of Tasers, but there’s minimal accountability for those doing the purchasing, or for those doing the tasing.

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Mass State Police and local law enforcement have spent millions amassing an arsenal of Tasers, but there’s minimal accountability for those doing the purchasing, or for those doing the tasing.

Shocker: Datos Reveladores Sobre El Uso De Pistolas Paralizantes Por Policías De Ma [Spanish]

Policías de MA han gastado millones en la acumulación de un arsenal de "tasers", pero existe una responsabilidad mínima para quienes realizan las compras o los que disparan.

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Policías de MA han gastado millones en la acumulación de un arsenal de "tasers", pero existe una responsabilidad mínima para quienes realizan las compras o los que disparan.

A close look at police use of Tasers in Massachusetts

Massachusetts State Police and local law enforcement have spent millions amassing an arsenal of Tasers, but there’s minimal accountability for those doing the purchasing or for those doing the tasing.

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Massachusetts State Police and local law enforcement have spent millions amassing an arsenal of Tasers, but there’s minimal accountability for those doing the purchasing or for those doing the tasing.

Engagement Lab Wins Research Grant, Collaborates w/ Local Journalists to Make FOIA Requests More Accessible

The Engagement Lab at Emerson College is pleased to announce it is one of 10 winners of the Online News Association (ONA) Challenge Fund for Innovation in Journalism Education Grant. The Lab was awarded this grant for one of its recent journalism projects, titled Putting FOIA to Work: Using Freedom of Information Act Requests to Engage Communities in Locally Relevant Reporting.

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view the data

The Engagement Lab at Emerson College is pleased to announce it is one of 10 winners of the Online News Association (ONA) Challenge Fund for Innovation in Journalism Education Grant. The Lab was awarded this grant for one of its recent journalism projects, titled Putting FOIA to Work: Using Freedom of Information Act Requests to Engage Communities in Locally Relevant Reporting.

Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Guns in Mass (But Were Afraid to Ask)

In Massachusetts, anyone from legislative insiders to casual 5 o’clock news watchers knows that the Bay State is hardly the proud beacon of progressive priorities that it is often cast as on Fox News. From environmental woes to large corporate handouts, there are countless strikes upon the blue-state image.

read this article
view the data

In Massachusetts, anyone from legislative insiders to casual 5 o’clock news watchers knows that the Bay State is hardly the proud beacon of progressive priorities that it is often cast as on Fox News. From environmental woes to large corporate handouts, there are countless strikes upon the blue-state image.

Our Guide

Make FOIA Work: Participatory Design Field Guide

Can journalists employ Freedom of Information Act requests to meaningfully engage communities in dialogue about issues that matter to them? How might FOIA, data, and information connect journalists and local communities in the processes of informational gathering and news reporting, while fostering a sense of civic ownership and inclusion? This guide provides the techniques, methods and reflections that came out of the Make FOIA Work project and the Participatory Methods class in the Media Design program at the Engagement Lab and Emerson College. This guide is designed for journalists, educators, students, and communities to use and follow for creating more collaborative, participatory and inclusive projects.

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Our Syllabi

Civic Media Methods: Participatory Design, Fall 2018

This course introduces concepts, methods, and practices of participatory design. Class is premised upon learning and practicing participatory design methods that draw from a range of disciplines including anthropology, design, sociology, and civic media. Participatory design is an interdisciplinary field of research and intervention that moves traditional design practices to be more inclusive, participatory and democratic by including in the research and design process stakeholders who will be affected by design. Best practices and methods follow a human-centered design mindset that takes into account diversity and designing for the widest possible spectrum of stakeholders. Second, participatory design methods do not assume to know the problem or full scope of an issue ahead of time but rather gradually unfold and define problems to solve in a collaborative manner. Fall 2018 course taught by Adam Gamwell.

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Data Visualization, Fall 2018

This course introduces concepts, methods and practices of data visualization and data storytelling for journalism and civic media graduate students. Data journalism is an emerging field of practice that ranges from the dazzling interactive graphics of the New York Times to the consistent, watchful reporting of sites like Homicide Watch. In this course, students learn to adopt a "data-mindset" and reflect on how telling stories with data can help advance (and occasionally obscure) public understanding. Students will learn how to find and create data sets for their stories, how to analyze data (including some basic scripting and coding) and how to present data in a variety of ways. We will also discuss privacy, verification, ethics and some of the other thorny issues that arise with data reporting. Some experience in HTML and coding is helpful but not required. Fall 2018 class taught by Catherine D'Ignazio

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