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When police kill civilians, the victims are often people of color. So, when Arizona Republic reporters Uriel Garcia and Bree Burkitt decided to investigate police shootings in their state, they knew their sources should be as diverse as their community. On this week’s episode, we’ll go behind the reporting to learn how they tallied police shootings, identified sources, and used data and documents to show the true scope of the problem.
You can find the podcast on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Google Play. If you have a story you think we should feature on the show, drop us a note at web@ire.org. We’d love to hear from you.
Looking for links to the stories and resources we discussed on this week's podcast? We've collected them for you.
Low Light Switch (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0
Between Stones (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0
Taoudella (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0
Deixa (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0
Myrian (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0
Night Watch (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0
Kelly Kenoyer reported this episode. IRE Editorial Director Sarah Hutchins edits the podcast. We are recorded in the studios of KBIA at the University of Missouri.
Applications are now open for Total Newsroom Training — IRE’s grant-funded, customized training program returning for its seventh year.
IRE’s experienced trainers will visit selected newsrooms for two days of intense, in-house investigative training – all at no cost. Spots in the program are limited and awarded on a competitive basis.
Total Newsroom Training is meant to help small and medium-size news organizations, and IRE customizes training based on the needs of the organization. These sessions can include web tools, background techniques and hands-on data training.
The program is designed to increase the ability of news organizations to provide watchdog and enterprise coverage for their communities and to produce work that can lead to change and improvements.
The newsroom must be committed to allowing a significant portion of its staff attend the full two days of training and tracking their progress after the training. The selected newsrooms will attend a webinar later in the year to showcase their work.
The deadline for applications is Oct. 20. The application form must be filled out by the editor, news director or equivalent.
“Financial challenges make it difficult for many smaller newsrooms to afford high-caliber training for their staff,” said IRE Executive Director Doug Haddix. “This program eliminates that barrier. We’re excited to equip more journalists around the country with the tools and tactics they need to produce better watchdog stories.”
IRE also awards fellowships for TNT alumni to attend one of IRE’s three data analysis boot camps each year. The fellowships cover much of the cost of attending IRE's week-long data training sessions in Columbia, Missouri. Application deadlines are listed below:
Our student sponsorship program is back for 2019! Last year, members sponsored more than 100 memberships and donated hundreds of dollars to our student fund.
For just $25, you shared the spirit of IRE – encouraging journalists to grow through training and mentorship.
We ask for your support again this year as we aim to introduce more students to IRE. Please consider sponsoring a $25 student membership on behalf of your alma mater, college media or for an intern at your news organization. You don’t have to know a student – we can help with that.
You can also make a donation to our student fund, which will send an ethnically or racially diverse student to an IRE training.
Visit our sponsorship site for more details and spread the word using hashtag #SponsorIRE.
College educators and students will receive investigative and data training through the new IRE on Campus program, which will include special opportunities for Historically Black Colleges and Universities and Hispanic-Serving Institutions.
Generous funding from Lumina Foundation in Indianapolis will help launch the campus initiative. It features two components:
“This initiative will bolster IRE’s efforts to equip journalism professors with hands-on data and investigative skills they can incorporate in the classroom,” IRE Executive Director Doug Haddix said.
“We’re also excited about working with new partners on HBCU and HSI campuses. IRE can help equip more students of color with skills and resources to produce high-quality watchdog stories,” Haddix said. “This initiative is part of IRE’s overall efforts to train and support more journalists of color across all news platforms.”
Jamie Merisotis, Lumina’s president and CEO, added, “We’re pleased to be able to support these training opportunities on campuses serving black and Latino students, who are more likely to face structural barriers while pursuing their educations. As part of our commitment to racial equity, we also appreciate IRE’s emphasis on increasing the numbers of academics of color and these soon-to-be journalists with investigative skills entering the field of communications.”
We’re looking for IRE’s next Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellow! This yearlong program is designed to support diversity in investigative journalism.
The 2020 fellowship is open to U.S journalists of color with at least three years of post-college work experience. Applicants currently working in a newsroom must receive the support of their employer; freelancers are also encouraged to apply.
Bracey Harris of The Clarion-Ledger in Jackson, Mississippi, was IRE’s first fellow. As part of her fellowship, Harris explored the effects of school integration on black families in Mississippi. The fellowship included training, mentorship and additional project support.
“From walking me through how to map out a long-term investigation and balance my education beat duties to recommending hands-on training to take advantage of during IRE events, my mentors have been a lifeline as I report on the most challenging project in my journalism career to date,” Harris said.
As part of the program, the fellow must propose and work on a well-developed project that benefits their community. A mentor network of IRE members will advise the fellow throughout the year or until the project is complete, whichever comes first.
The fellowship includes a suite of resources and training opportunities:
Fellowship applications are due Oct. 14. The recipient of the fellowship will be notified in November for a January 1 start date.
About the fellowship:
Generous donations from IRE members Mike Gruss, Meghan Hoyer, Megan Luther and Mike Tahani launched the Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellowship. Funding has grown through individual donors, conference donations and support from news organizations, including CNN and Gray Television. Support this program by making a donation.
Contact:
Chris Vachon, chris@ire.org or 317-371-6780.
Thanks to the generosity of the Park Foundation and the Ottaway Fund, IRE is fortunate to have funding available to provide scholarships to its 2019 CAR Boot Camps in Seattle and College Park.
IRE awarded 8 scholarships to the September CAR Boot Camp in Seattle. They went to: Mai Hoang from the Yakima Herald-Republic; Adiel Kaplan from NBC News; David Wagner from KPCC; Ethan Coston from the University of California, San Diego; Lex Talamo from the Yakima Herald-Republic; Greta Kaul from MinnPost; Kaitlin Lange from The Indianapolis Star and Joseph Thompson from The Daily Herald.
In addition, IRE awarded 5 scholarships to the October CAR Boot Camp in College Park, Maryland: Chang Sup Park from University at Albany, SUNY; Heather Mongilio from The Frederick News-Post; Sarah Hofius Hall from The Times-Tribune; Steve Volk, an independent journalist; and Steve Mocarsky from The Citizens' Voice.
If you are interested in attending the Seattle or College Park boot camps, seats are still available. Get more information and register here.
Want to be notified about upcoming fellowships and scholarship opportunities? Get on our special email list!
Planning is underway for the 2020 Computer-Assisted Reporting Conference, and we need your help.
Use this form to share ideas, suggestions and other comments to help us plan the best possible conference. No suggestion is too big or too small. The form will be open through Sept. 15.
We’re also starting an email list so you can keep up with all the news about NICAR20, including speakers, sessions, travel information, fellowship deadlines and more. Sign up here to receive those emails.
We’re expecting a big crowd for NICAR20, which will be March 5-8 in New Orleans. Your input helps ensure that we consider a broad spectrum of speakers and topics.
Here are a few ways you can use the ideas form:
Have several ideas? Great! Fill out the form as many times as you’d like. And help us spread the word by sharing this form with friends and colleagues. (Here’s a sharable bitlink: bit.ly/NICAR20ideas.)
Keep in mind that IRE retains editorial control over the content of its conferences. If we use your idea, our team will take care of reaching out to speakers and finalizing details. Here are some other tips to help you make the best pitch and understand our process.
Please direct questions to conference@ire.org.
Ten local newsrooms in the U.S. and Canada have been selected to receive free data training from IRE through the Data In Local Newsrooms Training Program, which is powered by the Google News Initiative.
The new program offers small and midsize newsrooms two days of customized in-person data training, follow-up consultation, credits toward IRE data services and more.
Nearly 60 newsrooms applied in the program’s first year. The 2019-20 recipients are:
On this week’s episode, we’re sharing audio from the 2019 CAR Conference. Reporters from Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting, Newsy, KUT Austin and ProPublica explained how they got data on “cleared” cases from more than 100 police departments across the country. The data showed police weren’t solving as many rape cases as they claimed.
You can find the podcast on Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Google Play. If you have a story you think we should feature on the show, drop us a note at web@ire.org. We’d love to hear from you.
Looking for links to the stories and resources we discussed on this podcast? We've collected them for you.
Daymaze (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0
Vernouillet (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0
Basketliner (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0
Stucco Grey (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0
This is Our Home (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0
Dolly and Pad (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0
Sylvestor (Blue Dot Sessions) / CC BY-NC 4.0
Kelly Kenoyer and Abby Ivory-Ganja co-produced this episode. IRE Editorial Director Sarah Hutchins edits the podcast. We are recorded in the studios of KBIA at the University of Missouri.
Thanks to the generosity of many, IRE is fortunate to have funding available to provide fellowships to its training events. This month, IRE awarded nine fellowships for financial assistance to the August 2019 CAR Boot Camp.
Regina Garcia Cano from The Associated Press (Las Vegas, Nevada), April Brown from Northern Arizona University (Flagstaff, Arizona) and Yesenia Robles from Chalkbeat received Ottaway Fellowships.
Established by David Ottaway and the Ottaway Family Fund, the fellowship is aimed at increasing the diversity of IRE's membership.
Eric Scicchitano from The Daily Item (Sunbury, Pennsylvania), Christine Vendel from PennLive, Erica Hensley from Mississippi Today and Tony Balandran from Victoria Advocate (Victoria, Texas) received the Total Newsroom Training Fellowship.
Total Newsroom Training (TNT) Fellowships are open to those who have completed two days of TNT training between 2013 and 2019.
Jackie Callaway from WFTS-TV (Tampa, Florida) and Caitlin Sinett from KY3 and KSPR (Springfield, Missouri) received Knight TV Data Fellowships.
Funded by the Knight Foundation, the Knight TV Data Fellowships were created to build a network of local television journalists committed to producing watchdog journalism. The funding to IRE includes not only fellowships for IRE training, but also support for IRE TV Watchdog Workshops and creation of a new digital TV Watchdog Network.
Learn more about IRE fellowships and scholarships.
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