The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. Add to that more than 3,000 tipsheets from our national conferences on how to cover specific beats or do specific stories and you have a resource that no reporter or editor should be without. These stories and tipsheets are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Logged-in members can view the tipsheets free online:
Search results for "Florida" ...
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Conflict in Collaborations
Hall and Aaronson point out some problems that could arise when collaborating on a story. This is their Powerpoint presentation.
Tags: collaborations; conflicts
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Covering immigration
Whether you work in a rural area, a big city or a border town this tipsheet will provide you with story ideas, website to go to and much more.
Tags: immigration; border towns; visas; story ideas
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Getting intimate with government data to produce hard-hitting stories
Torres gives advice on how to dig into government data to leverage stories covering areas such as government budgets, contracts, payroll, campaign contributions, and elections.
Tags: government data; data; federal government; public records
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Looking into tax liens
Follow the money with the help of The Center for Public Integrity's, Schulte, and along the way get great sources and contacts. These tips include online tax sales in Baltimore and several big Florida counties.
Tags: taxes; tax liens; online tax sales
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Borrowers Betrayed: Covering Business as a Crime Scene
This tipsheet details how a computer-assisted reporting investigation into toxic home loans turned into a crime story when in-depth analysis showed 10,000 people with criminal histories had been licensed as mortgage professionals.
Tags: mortgage; subprime; toxic loans; Florida; criminal justice; shoe-leather reporting; fraud; real estate; brokerage; stolen identity
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Investigating Ethnic Communities
Kestin draws on a recent eleven-month investigation of the Seminole Tribe in Florida to offer advice to other reporters covering ethnic communities. Her tips include advice for cultivating sources and working around a lack a open records laws.
Tags: diversity; Native Americans; cross-cultural journalism
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Investigations in Multimedia
Reed uses this PowerPoint presentation to discuss how to harness your investigation and make it into an effective multimedia web story. He offers advice about collecting and displaying online video, as well as interactive graphics.
Tags: internet; multimedia; convergence; visual story-telling
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Backgrounding People
The author lists websites that are useful for backgrounding people. The sites span a wide range of information, from inmate registrations to airplane ownership records. Some of the suggested resources are fee-based and others are free of charge.
Tags: backgrounding; internet research; public records; people-finder; courts; Florida records
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Covering Fuel: How to use data to write local stories
This PowerPoint presentation describes how to find data about fuel and gas prices, as well as how to localize those stories. Torres uses a South Florida Sun-Sentinel story as an example how to to write and present this consumer oriented story.
Tags: fuel; gas; petroleum; mapping; Google Maps; consumer affairs
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Researching Consumer Stories
Okeson lists and describes some sources that are useful when investigative consumer stories. The list includes: Nexis, Better Business Bureau; regulatory agencies; and court records. Okeson also discusses the importance of finding good human sources and old-fashioned creativity.
Tags: sources; consumer affairs; internet research; story telling