Patrick Lester Kollman
PhD fellow at Oslo Metropolitan University -
Patrick Kollman is a PhD Research Fellow at Oslo Metropolitan University (OsloMet) in the Department of Journalism and Media Studies, where he is also an assistant professor. He holds a bachelor's degree in linguistics from the University of Oregon and a master's degree in journalism from the University of California, Berkeley. Kollman worked for over a decade as a journalist and filmmaker before beginning at OsloMet. His current research sits at the intersection of investigative journalism, geospatial technology, and environmental justice, examining how digital tools are reshaping the evidentiary landscape for human and other-than-human communities on the frontlines of climate change and land rights conflicts.
Tell us about your project!
This project examines how journalists are integrating satellite imagery, remote sensing technologies, and geospatial AI into investigative practice — and what this means for journalism as a form of truth-telling in a digital society. As new tools reshape what counts as evidence and who/what qualifies as a witness, the research engages fundamental questions about knowledge production: whose ways of knowing are legible to algorithmic systems, and what is at stake when code and digital cultures become arbiters of facts? The project asks how these emerging methodologies can be developed in ways that centre social justice and take seriously traditional ecological knowledge alongside quantitative data — situating these questions within journalism studies and the sociology of technology to understand how spatial and visual investigation is transforming the evidentiary ambitions and ethical responsibilities of investigative journalism.
“This project examines how journalists are integrating satellite imagery, remote sensing technologies, and geospatial AI into investigative practice — and what this means for journalism as a form of truth-telling in a digital society”
— Patrick Lester Kollman on his PhD project “Geospatial AI in Investigative Journalism”