Posts by Alena Rehberger

By Anna Boiko-Weyrauch Policy fellows from the American Association for the Advancement of Science took the audience on a tour of techniques they use in their work and presented some tips on how to interact better with experts in various scientific fields during the Saturday session, “A quick trip through data in the sciences.” Carolyn Lauzon presented a…

By Tim Sandoval Reporters who’ve used Microsoft Excel for a story know that analysis doesn’t begin until the data has been cleaned. Spreadsheets provided by governments or other entities are often not formatted the way reporters would like. Some agencies format the data in confusing ways, or do problematic things like spell words incorrectly in…

By Irina Ivanova Census tips for every beat from IRE/NICAR on Vimeo. We all know the census contains data, but getting just the data you want out of it can be tricky. Paul Overberg and Ronald Campbell know this. Campbell used to call American Fact Finder “the tool of the devil” (though today only about…

By Karim Lahlou Journalists Julie Tate, The Washington Post, Rick Yarborough, NBC Washington, shared tips on how to locate sources using a combination of online and offline resources. Whether you’re looking for a source’s location, criminal history, or election contributions, the following list they’ve compiled is more than enough to get started. Get the link…

By Tyler Fisher Many NICAR sessions feature journalists telling other journalists how they can improve their lives and work. On Thursday, Ben Balter from GitHub made a pitch to journalists from the outside: Become familiar with git and GitHub and you’ll be able to make better products on the web. Balter said his goal was…

By Rebecca Lai Since the dawn of Wikileaks, the public has come to expect original documents. Often, however, government agencies refuse to cooperate and prevent reporters from getting their hands on original records. Even though the Freedom of Information Act and other statutes provide journalists with tools to negotiate, these laws still have flaws and…

By Irina Ivanova Why Medical Data Matters from IRE/NICAR on Vimeo.   Veteran investigative journalists Peter Eisler, Dan Keating and Charles Ornstein blitzed through a slew of national databases in “Wading through the sea of data on hospitals, doctors, medicine and more” Friday morning. After the session, Eisler and Ornstein talked about their journey to covering…