Doug Haddix and Jaimi Dowdell joined IRE as training directors in the fall of 2008. Read their bios on the staff page.
E-mail Doug at .
E-mail Jaimi at .

Training Calendar


Webinar: Online tips and strategies for journalists
  • Feb. 18, 2010 11 a.m. (CST) — ,

  • Watchdog Workshop
  • February 20-21, 2010 — Austin, TX

  • Customized Newsroom Training
  • Feb. 27, March 2 and March 4, 2010 — Columbus, Ohio

  • 2010 Computer-Assisted Reporting Conference
  • March 11-14, 2010 — Phoenix, Ariz.

  • WebCamp: Online tips and strategies for journalists
  • March 22, 2010 — Carbondale, Ill. at Southern Illinois University - Carbondale

  • Watchdog Workshop
  • March 27-28, 2010 — Oklahoma City, Okla.

  • See all upcoming events

    IRE's journalism training blog offers news about upcoming workshops or conferences, follow-up materials for training attendees, plus IRE tips for news coverage and reporting resources.
    More tools for finding IRE training-related resources:

    Student blogs review workshop

    02/4/10

    By Mark Horvit

    IRE Executive Director

    IRE brought the Watchdog Workshop series to the University of Alabama at Birmingham in late January. A great mix of journalists from throughout the region gathered to discuss … well, rather than tell you about it, we’ll let some of the students who traveled to Birmingham for the workshops fill you in. Here are links to five blog posts about the day, written by students from the journalism school at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Tip sheets created for some of these sessions can be downloaded by IRE members at the Resource Center.

    Investigative Reporting 3.0, or Web stalking

    Interviewing Is an Art

    Be a Better Watchdog — Watch Your Time

    Cryptic Open Records Law

    Breaking Down Walls

    Using Facebook, Twitter in Haiti

    02/1/10 Tags:

    By Doug Haddix

    IRE Training Director

    Manny Garcia of The Miami Herald explains how his newsroom is using Twitter and Facebook to cover the earthquake in Haiti and its aftermath. The social media tools have helped with logistics as well as story tips from people in Haiti. Garcia’s advice applies to using social media tools for any big breaking news story. The influx of useful tips and information through social media led The Herald to designate a staffer to manage them for ongoing Haiti coverage and coordination.

    Garcia spoke at an IRE Ethnic Media Watchdog Workshop at Tulane University in New Orleans in January. The workshop was hosted by Tulane’s Communication Department.

    Stimulus webinar available for download

    01/27/10 Tags: ,

    Earlier this month, Sarah Cohen of Duke University and Jennifer LaFleur of ProPublica helped uncover some of the mysteries of stimulus reporting in a one-hour IRE webinar. A recording of this session is now available for purchase and download here.

    During the webinar, Cohen and LaFleur explain stimulus basics and how to follow the dollars from Congress to your town. They also share useful tools to make it all easier. This session can help you make sense of stimulus data, find out what is available and be better prepared for potential data pitfalls.

    The cost of the recording is $5 for IRE members and $10 for nonmembers. (Please note that Adobe Media Player must be installed to watch the downloaded video. Get the player for free by following the link on the webinar download page.) Please contact webinar@ire.org should you have any questions.

    Please read below for more information about the speakers:

    SARAH COHEN joined the faculty of  Duke University’s DeWitt Wallace Center for Media and Democracy as a Knight chair in July. Previously, she worked as a database editor for the Washington Post for more than a decade. At the Post, she shared in most major journalism awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, the IRE gold medal and the Goldsmith Prize for investigative reporting. She has also worked as IRE training director and as a reporter in Florida, most recently for the St. Petersburg Times.

    JENNIFER LaFLEUR is director of computer-assisted reporting for ProPublica, a public-interest investigative newsroom in New York. She formerly was the CAR editor for The Dallas Morning News, where she worked on the News’ investigative team. She has held similar positions at the San Jose (Calif.) Mercury News and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. She was IRE training director back in the olden days and co-authored an IRE Beat Book on mapping.