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James Risen delivered the keynote address at the 2015 IRE Conference in Philadelphia. Risen is an investigative reporter for the New York Times, based in Washington. He was the winner of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting and was a member of the New York Times reporting team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. He was also the winner of the 2006 Goldsmith Prize for investigative reporting. Risen recently prevailed in a lengthy legal battle against the Obama administration, which had been trying to crack down on government officials leaking national security information to reporters.
By Taylor Bembery
Isaiah Thompson of New England Center for Investigative Reporting, Maria Zamudio of The Commercial Appeal, and Hella Winston, an independent journalist, have experienced with the good, the bad and the ugly that comes with being a freelance journalist. At the IRE Conference in Philadelphia, the three discussed strategies for producing stories with impact and navigating the freelance world.
Zamudio, who has won a Peabody Award for some of her work, offered tips on how to find stories with impact.
Freelancers come a dime a dozen in the already competitive field of journalism, so storytelling plays a huge part in a writer’s piece receiving attention. Here are several ways to find a fresh approach to telling a story:
But going the freelance route isn’t easy. Hardships can include little or no income, un-credited or stolen work, and a lack of resources. Journalists have to monitor everyone who gets ahold of their story. This is where the entrepreneurial mindset kicks in. With freelancing, if you do not work for your story, your story will not work for you.
Here are a few more tips from the panelists:
Despite the many challenges, Zamudio closed the panel with some encouraging words.
“You need to become your own advocate for that story, because these are stories that you have a passion for, obviously, and you have to make sure they get to the right people,” Zamudio said. “You have data and you have resources that some of the activists don’t have, bloggers, attorneys don’t have. So if you get the story to the right people they will know what to do with it.”
Taylor Bembery is a 2015 IRE Conference Knight Scholar and a recent graduate of Jackson State University. She received her Bachelor of Science in Mass Communications with a concentration in Multimedia Journalism and a minor in English in December of 2014. Taylor is also the former Associate Editor of The Blue & White Flash.
At the IRE Conference in Philadelphia, 2015 Knight Scholar Amber Johnson talked with attendee Rachel Lenzi, a sports writer at The Blade in Toledo, Ohio. The following Q&A has been edited for clarity.
Q: What got you interested in journalism, and why sports?
A: It was the simple fact that I love to write and I love sports. I grew up not only in a household where we were encouraged to take part in organized sports, but a household where both parents were educators who set high standards: Get good grades, be responsible, set goals for yourself, and read everything: books, magazines, newspapers. We subscribed to The Washington Post, The Baltimore Sun and The Annapolis Evening Capital in our house, so every morning there was a competition between my father and I over who read the sports page first.
I grew up reading the work of Christine Brennan, Rachel Nichols and Tony Kornheiser at the Post, and Buster Olney and Mike Littwin at the Sun. Reading their work encouraged me to pursue sports writing.
It wasn't until years later, when I got into doing enterprise work, that I realized how much of a prism sports is for society.
Q: You attended Chatham University in Pittsburgh. How has your experience at a women's college influenced your work?
A: This is a really good question, and it goes back to what going to a women's college instilled in me. Being in an environment of all women not only helped me to find my voice and build confidence, but also to learn the values of respect, order, empathy, confronting without being combative and self-awareness, traits that are valuable in journalism and for working with people.
Plus, going to school in Pittsburgh, a sports-crazy city, and interning in magazines and newspapers helped me realize how competitive this field is. Escaping the bubble of a women's college was necessary in that respect.
Q: What is your goal?
A: To communicate societal issues through sports. Again, so much of society touches sports. Look at Baltimore during the Freddie Gray riots. An entire stadium was empty for safety reasons. Sexual assault cases that involve college athletes. Domestic violence and the NFL.
On the flip side of that, strides have been made in women's athletics because of Title IX. NHL player Andrew Ference is an advocate for environmentalism. John Urschel is an NFL player and mathematician.
Here's an example of society and how it intersects with sports: In September of 2010 I wrote a Sunday story for the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram about Muslim high school athletes who observe Ramadan. There is a substantial Muslim community in Portland, Maine, and some of their children played high school soccer or ran cross country, and they fasted during Ramadan, meaning that they could not eat or drink from sunrise to sunset over the course of a month. They also had to practice for 3-4 hours a day. The Sunday story explored what Ramadan is, how these athletes prepared themselves, the support they received from the public and private schools they attended and also got insight from Muslim community leaders about the practice of fasting and adhering to the Muslim faith.
Q: Describe yourself with one word and tell me why you chose that word.
A: Self-motivated. So much of this industry relies on self-motivation. Asking a question. Submitting a records request. Managing your time because you're multitasking, trying to balance a beat, an in-depth project and your personal responsibilities. Nobody else is going to do this for me.
Q: Do you have any advice for those who are interested in journalism but don't know where to start?
A: Read everything. The ideas you come across spur ideas of your own. Get real-world experience. Answer phones at your local paper on a Friday night during football season, and talk to the people in the newsroom when they're not on deadline. Join a professional organization as a student member - I am a member of and an advocate for the Association for Women in Sports Media. Reach out to reporters to ask questions about what they do.
Amber Johnson is a 2015 IRE Conference Knight Scholar and a rising sophomore at Spelman College studying political science. She is the business manager of the Maroon Tiger Student Media Group for the 2015-2016 school year. Her interests include investigative reporting with a focus on the juvenile justice system the school-to-prison pipeline.
Investigating student rights violations - From fraternities to the administration
By Christian Matozzo
Reporters Walt Bogdanich, Samantha Sunne, and Duane Pohlman offered tips on how to cover sexual assault on college campuses during a panel discussion at the annual IRE Conference in Philadelphia. Frank LoMonte from the Student Press Law Center moderated the panel.
Campus sexual assaults have received more coverage recently due to increased public interest and the “secret factor,” meaning universities hiding information from the public.
Bogdanich, of The New York Times, offered five tips on how to report on these cases:
Sunne, an independent journalist, explained that she had never been able to convince a victim to talk to her. This forced her to switch gears and report solely on how universities handle these types of cases. The first step, she said, is to ask universities: “How many reports did you get, and what did you do with them?”
Sunne offered an anecdote from her own reporting, which included taking a university to court over a public records request. The battle took nine months and culminated in the university reporting that only two cases of sexual assault resulted in punitive action by the school. During the same time period, dozens of sex offenses had been reported to counselors and police.
Pohlman, a broadcast journalist for NBC4 Columbus, brought examples of a story he covered on alleged sexual assault cases involving Ohio State University’s band. His main tip for reporters was to look into Title IX investigations for possible insights into sexual impropriety.
“Title IX is the lens everyone looks through,” Pohlman said. “It is everything.”
Federal funding is tied to Title IX, which makes it possible for reporters to follow the money, Pohlman said.
Bogdanich noted the amount of money colleges devote to programs like “Walk a Mile In Her Shoes,” which raises sexual assault awareness on college campuses. Reporters can follow the money with these programs, too.
“Who is making money advising these universities?” asked Bogdanich.
Christian Matozzo is a lifelong South Philadelphia resident and Temple University journalism student who currently writes for The Temple News.
Sexual assault investigations: Empathy, accuracy and transparency
By Andrea Gonzales
Sexual assault stories “need to be told and get told well,” said Elana Newman, research director of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma.
Campus sexual assault investigations have been in the spotlight recently – and not always in a good way. There have been powerful accounts, such as Nicole Noren’s episode of ESPN’s “Outside the Lines,” which told the well-documented story of rape victims at the University of Missouri. But then came Rolling Stone’s “A Rape on Campus,” which reported on an alleged sexual assault at the University of Virginia. The magazine later retracted the article.
One of the University of Missouri sexual assault survivors, Teresa Braeckel, participated in an IRE Conference panel and explained how Noren communicated openly with her about the records she needed, the people she had to talk to and every other step in the journalistic process. She said standards were set at the beginning, including an agreement to use her name. Braeckel said Noren was always clear and frank as she gathered information and documents.
A FERPA waiver is a great tool to see how a school reacted to a report of sexual assault, Noren said. A student can sign the waiver to give a reporter or news organization access to his or her records. Noren said it’s also important to get medical records to check the consistency of a victim’s story.
“Stories and memories do change,” said Newman. “That’s why records are so important.”
Sheila Coronel, dean of academic affairs at Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and one of the authors a report on Rolling Stone’s U. Va. investigation, said journalists’ empathy and storytelling could lead to holes in reporting. To mitigate a possible problem, she said, reporters should ask for any relevant documents and photographs. After an incident, people may text and email family or friends — so try to obtain those records. Police reports and 911 calls can be used in stories as well, Coronel said.
Everyone on the panel emphasized the importance of informing the victim of the journalistic process and why you might need those documents.
Braeckel said the story needs to be right because so many people tend to doubt rape victims in a “he said, she said” situation.
“It is so important to get these stories right,” said Bruce Shapiro of the Dart Center. “Because the damage if you don’t is major.”
Andrea Gonzales is a rising senior at the Missouri School of Journalism. She will graduate with a degree in broadcast journalism with an emphasis in reporting and anchoring. She has previously interned with Scripps Washington Bureau's investigative unit and Detroit's WXYZ-TV special projects unit.
By Andrea Gonzales
Heroic, self-sacrificing with no personal gain or benefit. These are the words Academy Award-winning documentarian Laura Poitras used to describe the actions of Edward Snowden.
Most people know Poitras from her recent film “Citizen Four,” which documented Snowden’s decision to leak classified NSA documents, revealing the agency’s mass surveillance program. Her other films include “My Country, My Country” and “The Oath.”
Poitras said she’s interested in human beings’ actions rather than their words. She originally thought making a documentary would involve a lot of people, but after giving it a try she found that wasn’t the case. She described herself as a solitary person and worker.
Poitras recalled being in New York on 9/11. A friend from Germany called her to make sure she was safe. That’s when Poitras went outside and discovered what had happened before the second plane hit.
She went to Iraq for 8 months to film “My Country, My Country,” which follows the first post-9/11 election. It was a dangerous time to be in the country, so Poitras worked alone and went without a translator. Because she didn’t know what people were saying as she was filming, she’d had to be filled in once she returned home.
Poitras said she went to Iraq skeptical. While there, however, she learned what Iraqis were willing to risk for the elections. She said the United States should be learning from them and tried to convey that message in her film.
“It’s a celebration of democracy, but in a failed context,” Poitras said of “My Country, My Country.”
Soon after her first documentary was released in 2006, she found out she was on the U.S. Watch List.
Her second film, “The Oath,” documented Osama Bin Laden’s former bodyguard-turned-taxi driver. She said she convinced Abu Jandal to let her film by first asking if she could put a camera in his cab and then, in small increments, asking for more access to his life.
Then came Edward Snowden. Poitras knew the NSA had enormous reach and that Snowden had put himself at risk contacting her. This led her to believe he was more than just a “paranoid person” and to follow her instincts in trusting him.
Poitras said if journalists don’t want their research broadcast, they should be using the web browser Tor. Journalists who are working with sensitive sources should be using encryption to communicate. An app called Signal encrypts phone calls and texts.
An audience member asked Poitras how she felt about the recent Patriot Act reform, which ended the NSA’s metadata phone collection program.
“Honestly, the debate wouldn’t have ever happened and this conversation wouldn’t exist without what [Snowden] did,” Poitras said.
Andrea Gonzales is a rising senior at the Missouri School of Journalism. She will graduate with a degree in broadcast journalism with an emphasis in reporting and anchoring. She has previously interned with Scripps Washington Bureau's investigative unit and Detroit's WXYZ-TV special projects unit.
At the IRE Conference in Philadelphia, 2015 Knight Scholar Amber Johnson talked with attendee Jo Ciavaglia, a crime reporter for the Bucks County Courier Times in Levittown, Pennsylvania. The following Q&A has been edited for clarity.
Q: What’s your favorite part of your job?
A: I’m a crime reporter! My favorite part of my job is when I get to do investigations and the daily grind of going to fires and bank robberies and fires and bank robberies…we have a lot of bank robberies.
Q: So how did you get involved in crime reporting?
A: I was forced into it. I was a health reporter for eight years and I loved to go see surgeries. Then our crime reporter left. About three years ago my manager said they weren’t going to replace the crime reporter, so I had to step up and do the job.
Q: So tell me how IRE has helped you with this transition.
A: Well, this is the second conference that I have attended. I attended my first one when I was probably your age and I’ll tell you that I’ve been feeling a little bit beat up and beat down, but I feel absolutely renewed after these past four days. I was actually surprised that they gave me the four days because I’m a police reporter, and I feel that I can use this information for a project I’m working on.
Q: Do you feel as if the information you’ve received here has given you some clarity on how to go about finishing up the project?
A: Yes! I’m working on a really big fraud story and I feel that I now have so many directions that I can go in to finish it up. Even though I’m exhausted because I’ve been taking the 6 a.m. train everyday to get here, I can honestly say that I’m excited to go to work tomorrow.
Q: Describe yourself with one word and tell me why you chose that word.
A: One word? I’m Italian! But “tenacious,” because over my 27 years as a journalist I’ve been told that I’m a bulldog. When I get ahold of something I don’t let go, and I think that’s a nice way to say bulldog.
Amber Johnson is a 2015 IRE Conference Knight Scholar and a rising sophomore at Spelman College studying political science. She is the business manager of the Maroon Tiger Student Media Group for the 2015-2016 school year. Her interests include investigative reporting with a focus on the juvenile justice system the school-to-prison pipeline.
A record number of journalists turned out at the annual IRE Conference in Philadelphia this year, so we thought it would be fun to get to know some of our 1,800 attendees. We asked a few of our 2015 IRE Conference Knight Scholars to talk to attendees and share portions of their conversations on this blog.
Kristin Hussey, independent journalist
Q: What do you do for a living?
A: I live and work in Connecticut. I’m a freelance reporter and I cover Connecticut stories.
Q: How did you become interested in journalism?
A: I think I read a book when I was in fifth or sixth grade and it just sounded like a great adventure.
Q: What kind of stories do you like to cover?
A: I like to cover quirky, unusual stories. I wrote a story recently about some lawmakers in Connecticut who were trying to push the idea that some guy in Connecticut beat the Wright brothers to be the first in flight.
Q: What’s your favorite story that you’ve worked on to date and why?
A: It is my career goal to have a story that I can look back on and say, that was awesome, I totally rocked it. I haven’t gotten there yet.
Q: In your opinion, what’s the best aspect of journalism?
A: Getting to meet people that I wouldn’t run into in my normal life. Hearing their stories and learning more about the way the world works.
Q: What qualities make a good journalist?
A: Curiosity. Good listening skills.
Q: Which panel have you liked the most?
A: The mentoring breakfast was awesome. I was paired up with someone and I had specific questions about a specific project and he gave me great guidance. It was just nice to sit and talk with someone one-on-one for a while.
– Brelaun Douglas
Ron Nixon, Washington correspondent for The New York Times
Q: How long have you been a member of IRE?
A: Since 1993.
Q: What’s your favorite part of IRE and the conference?
A: No matter how long you’ve been in the business, you always learn something.
Q: What do you do for The New York Times?
A: I cover federal regulatory agencies.
Q: What’s something you like about that beat?
A: It’s never boring, and the federal government is so big you’re never going to run out of stuff. It encompasses so much. I get to do foreign reporting; I was in Nigeria reporting some stuff.
Q: Where did you go to school?
A: Alabama State
Q: What do you like about journalism?
A: Journalism is never boring. You are always meeting people. You get to do stuff that you thought you would probably never do. You get to interview people, meet people that you’d thought you’d never meet. It’s never dull. That’s the good thing about it. You never know what the day is going to be like.
– Travis Nixon
Kameel Stanley, staff writer at the Tampa Bay Times
Q: How long have you been a member of IRE?
A: Only two years.
Q: What do you like about IRE?
A: I think it’s a great resource for journalists, young ones like myself. I hear so many good tips and the networking is awesome. It just reenergizes you and it’s just great.
Q: What’s your advice for student journalists?
A: Go do some journalism.
Q: In today’s changing world of journalism, what is a core value that a student journalist needs to learn?
A: I think we get caught up with technology. So I think they need to focus on learning the basics, on reporting and writing. Also they need to work on their craft.
Q: What’s your favorite part of being a journalist?
A: Telling stories and holding people accountable.
Q: Why did you become a journalist?
A: I can get paid to write and be nosey.
– Travis Nixon
Brelaun Douglas is a senior at Howard University pursuing a Bachelor’s of Arts in Journalism. Her reporting has appeared in DC Spotlight News, The Trice Edney Newswire, and various other publications across the country.
Travis M. Nixon is a senior at Savannah State University majoring in Journalism and Mass Communications. He has served as a reporter for three years and will serve as the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper.
By Taylor Bembery
According to the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics, a journalist is required to seek and report the truth. At the Investigative Reporters and Editors Conference in Philadelphia, journalists discussed methods for making stories airtight. The panel was moderated by Shawn McIntosh of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and included panelists, Alleen Brown of The Intercept and David Donald of American University.
Here are some techniques journalists can use to improve their accuracy:
Facts and data can combine to make a great story. Donald offered 10 tips for navigating data as part of your investigation.
Taylor Bembery is a 2015 IRE Conference Knight Scholar and a recent graduate of Jackson State University in Detroit, Michigan. She received her Bachelor of Science in Mass Communications with a concentration in Multimedia Journalism and a minor in English in December of 2014.
IRE attendees learn how to effectively use data in their stories from a panel of award-winning journalists
Photo by LaCrai Mitchell
By LaCrai Mitchell
“Just make sure if you fail, you did what you wanted to do.”
At face value, this David Letterman quote is completely unrelated to telling a good data story. However, during this year’s Investigative Reporters and Editors conference, Pulitzer Prize-winning Newsday investigative reporter Bill Dedman related the Letterman quote to writing memorable data stories with a personal touch.
“Make your stories sound like you,” Dedman said during the panel. “Use your voice.”
Dedman, along with award-winning journalists T. Christian Miller of ProPublica and Dylan Purcell of The Philadelphia Inquirer, hosted the session outlining how to use numbers and digital data to tell compelling stories.
During the panel, which was moderated by Jennifer LaFleur of the Center for Investigative Reporting, Miller encouraged journalists to include only a few numbers in data stories. Hundreds of numbers may be used during the data analysis of the story, but not all of them should be included in the piece.
“Don’t show off the fact that you know how to use an Excel spreadsheet,” Miller said. “There should be one or two or three numbers in a story.”
Purcell added that it’s imperative to “personalize the numbers.” In a story filled with statistics, charts and graphs, “adding a face,” or using a person to illustrate the numbers can help to move the story along.
Throughout the discussion, Purcell also highlighted the importance of being a good listener. Sometimes people can provide new data that may not be on spreadsheets.
No matter where the data comes from, Miller said it’s important to be transparent with readers. Investigative reporters have a duty to describe the data sources used in a story while explaining how the information was analyzed.
The audience was filled with investigative journalists, students and recent graduates. Among those in attendance was Asaf Shalev, a recent graduate of the Columbia Journalism School.
Shalev said that, after the panel, he better understood the power of data in investigative stories.
“Data can be the backdrop for a story that’s just about people and about the same kind of things that have always been interesting in journalism,” Shalev said.
“My big takeaway is that data can be a lot more interesting than I maybe thought,” Shalev said.
LaCrai Mitchell is a 2015 IRE Conference Knight Scholar and a senior broadcast journalism student at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, FL. Mitchell, an aspiring long-form producer, is an Academy of Television Arts & Sciences’ student Emmy award-winning producer. In addition to working with student media at FAMU, Mitchell has interned with CNN International Newsource in Atlanta, GA and will return to CBS News in New York City for a second time this summer.
By Cynthia Ferraz
Hailed by moderator Ellen Weiss of Scripps Washington Bureau as “champions of partnerships,” John Kelly of USA Today; Marina Walker Guevara of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ); and Richard Pienciak of The Associated Press offered tips and presented an overview of managing partnerships within a multi-newsroom project at the 2015 IRE Conference.
Walker Guevara is deputy director of ICIJ’s network of 200 international reporters who electronically collaborate and assist each other with data that could be “incredibly complex and risky” to tackle alone. She said these partnerships are based on the idea of “radical sharing,” meaning that journalists can offer their expertise and join resources through shared documents and data to produce a story with global impact. She considers these relationships to be a “true collaboration of equals, whether it is a partnership with the biggest newspaper in the world or a small investigative outfit.”
“It can be as challenging, or more challenging, than building external partnerships,” Walker Guevara said.
When using this radical sharing method, the AP’s national investigative editor Richard Pienciak said it is important to remember every journalist participating in a collaborative project is going to have a different skill set and resources.
“Its important to assume that you are addressing the weakest link involved in the project, not the strongest,” Pienciak said. “Everything has to be written and explained in such simple terms, and you have to be available to help people if they need you.”
John Kelly of USA Today is involved in collaborative, data-driven investigative journalism projects that include newspapers and TV stations across the country. He said the benefits of participating in a network investigation, such as being able to contact people behind the data and access deeper records and documents, are worth the challenges that come with it.
“You can create a better story by asking someone from a tiny newspaper halfway across the country for help,” Kelly said. “Get past your ego. Create a better story.”
According to the panel, participating in radical sharing and network investigations not only strengthens the final product and provides outside expertise, but also allows for a slew of other benefits, some of which Walker Guevara listed:
Cindy is a writer, observer and aspiring journalist from northeast Pennsylvania studying Journalism at Temple University. She’s made Philly her new hometown, mainly because there’s a lot less snow.
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