IRE

When Tisha Thompson of WTTG in Washington, D.C., gets a call from a tipster who’s afraid to leave a name or phone number, she has a surefire way of staying in touch.

Tisha Thompson of WTTG-Washington, D.C.

Thompson suggests that the source set up an e-mail account with an alias on AOL, Google or another national provider. To help protect potential whistleblowers, she reminds them not to communicate with her from a work computer or telephone.  Once the source e-mails her from the new account, she has a way of communicating, rather than waiting for the phone to ring.

Thompson’s advice came during a recent Better Watchdog Workshop in New Haven, Conn., that drew 60 journalists, professors and students.

Other speakers included Neil Reisner, a Florida International University professor who shared tactics for making better use of the Web; Maurice Tamman, a news editor at The Wall Street Journal who explained how to use spreadsheets and databases in investigative stories; and Tracie Brown, an attorney for the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission who gave advice on getting public records more quickly.

“I was shocked at how quickly the day went by,” said Jamie DeLoma, a news editor at WNBC.com in New York. “It was really packed full of a very diverse and eclectic group of topics, ideas and insights.”

The workshop provided inspiration for Adam Wittenberg, city editor of The Record-Journal in Meriden, Conn. “It always just gives me hope that these kinds of stories are possible. It gets me out of the daily grind and out of the nitty-gritty and a chance to step back and say, ‘Yeah, I can implement some of that with my staff.’”

Luther Turmelle, north bureau chief for the New Haven Register, said the workshop recharged his batteries. “It also reminds veteran journalists – and I’ve been a reporter for 20 years – you can find out some new things you don’t necessarily know, and you’re reminded of some things that you may have forgotten. It’s really valuable, and given the price and the fact that it’s all done in one day, you can’t beat it.”

– Doug Haddix, IRE training director

Little more than a week after enduring days of spreadsheet and database training, recent graduates of IRE’s Boot Camp in Minneapolis have produced quick-hit stories with their new computer-assisted reporting skills.

· An analysis by Jason Hoppin of The Pioneer Press found new voter registrations in Minnesota have pushed that state’s registrations to an all-time high. “Half of the new registrations come from three counties that voted heavily for John Kerry in 2004, potentially giving Democratic hopeful Barack Obama a boost in a critical battleground state as the 2008 presidential election enters the homestretch.”

· New building permits are easier to get in Duluth, Minn., but revenue for such permits has decreased since the city made changes in February. Brandon Stahl of the Duluth News Tribune used CAR to enhance this daily story.

· Gregg Hennigan of The Gazette, (Cedar Rapids, Iowa), analyzed data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help get a handle on how much money — more than $349 million — is going into Iowa’s disaster recovery. That sum is only a portion of what’s being spent in the state, Hennigan reports, and “23 of the 30 most expensive projects approved so far are in Cedar Rapids.”

Just days out of Boot Camp the attendees used data to punch up their everyday reporting. All three are excellent examples of how CAR can be used for daily and quick-hit stories. The 5-day boot camp was sponsored by the University of Minnesota and The Pioneer Press.

– Jaimi Dowdell, IRE Training Director

NICAR’s copy of the Housing Mortgage Disclosure Act dataset for 2007 has been updated. This dataset, maintained by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, provides information about property loans in the United States, including, for each loan application:

• the race, ethnicity and gender of the applicant
• how much money was requested in the loan
• the annual income of the applicant
• if the loan was considered “subprime” — defined in this dataset by being three points higher than the prime rate — how much higher its interest rate was
• The U.S. Census tract for the property location — highly useful for mapping

Reporters have used HMDA data for years to report housing trends with authority; in the current economic climate, that effort has become all the more important. Did lending institutions in your state grant fewer subprime loans than last year? By how much? This dataset can help answer those questions. Please contact the Database Library with any questions.

IRE is partnering on two upcoming training sessions next month that focus on two key areas of beat coverage: business and health.

We’ll be in New York City on Sept. 20-21 co-hosting an Investigative Reporting on Business and Finance Conference. A stellar line-up of journalists will cover a wide range of topics from the foreclosure crisis to uncovering tax scandals and corporate wrongdoing. We’ll also offer a series of hands-on computer-assisted reporting sessions covering spreadsheets and databases. Among the panelists are reporters from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism, Carolina Business News Initiative, The Seattle Times, The Record of Bergen County, N.J., OffshoreAlert, Footnoted.org and The Journal News. The seminar is co-hosted by the Centre for Investigative Reporting and The Lorana Sullivan Foundation and will be held at Columbia University. To learn more or register, visit www.ire.org/training/cij/.

The “Investigating Health Care” workshop at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication will focus on “developing an investigative state of mind, reporting on quality of health care at local hospitals, researching health lobbyists’ campaign contributions, cultivating sources within the industry, toxic environments and health care justice.” (More about the program on the Annenberg School’s Web site) IRE and NICAR will present hands-on computer-assisted reporting training sessions using state and federal healthcare data and discuss how mapping can help track inequities in health care access. Click here to register for “Investigating Health Care.”

The training is presented by the USC Annenberg School for Communication’s California Endowment Health Journalism Fellowships in partnership with IRE and the Knight Chair for Investigative and Enterprise Reporting at the University of Illinois.

Tipsheet and audio CDs from the 2008 IRE Annual Conference in Miami (June 5-8) are now available from the IRE Resource Center. Orders can be placed online or by contacting the Resource Center (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org).

• 2008 IRE Tipsheet Collection - $15, plus $5 shipping
• 2008 IRE Conference Audio (mp3 format) - $20, plus $5 shipping
  

If you attended the conference in Miami, you may request one copy of the audio CD for just $5 (shipping). Attendees can also download individual audio files of conference panels.

If you would like to place an order for these materials from outside the U.S., please contact the Resource Center via phone or email. The charge for international shipping is $12.

If you pre-ordered this material at the conference, your order will ship on Monday, June 30.

After more than four stellar years as our training director, David Donald is leaving IRE to oversee database operations for the Center for Public Integrity in Washington D.C.

It’s impossible to overstate what David has brought to our organization, and to the industry. David is a tremendous teacher who has spread the gospel of computer-assisted reporting and investigative reporting to thousands of journalists in the U.S. and throughout the world. On a personal note, my first few months in the job were made immeasurably smoother thanks to David’s knowledge and guidance.

That means that IRE is looking for its next training director. The position provides a great opportunity to work with journalists throughout the U.S. and abroad both in a classroom setting and one-on-one.

The director oversees all of IRE and NICAR’s world-renowned teaching and training operations, develops new and cutting-edge curriculum and programs, and reports directly to the IRE executive director. The ability to teach both investigative and CAR techniques is essential. A love of travel (both domestically and internationally) is a plus.

Anyone interested in learning more about the opening should contact me at either mark@ire.org or 573-882-1984.

MarkHorvit, IRE Executive Director