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The 2025 Freelance Fellowship Recipients

Veteran broadcast journalists share tips on story structure

By Alena Rehberger | June 16, 2015

By Brittany Collins Structuring an investigative news story is important. Not only does it help prevent confusion for viewers, but it also allows the reporter to get creative when putting together various elements of the story. Solly Granatstein from The Weather Channel, Brendan Keefe from WXIA-Atlanta, Chris Vanderveen from KUSA/9News Denver, and Matt Goldberg from…

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Beyond words: Storytelling at the intersection of cool & creative

By Alena Rehberger | June 15, 2015

The Seattle Times built an interactive graphic on the Oso landslide By Albert Hong  “For me, doing this panel is a real treat because it means, for once, I get to hang out with the cool kids,” Ken Armstrong, staff writer at The Marshall Project, said as he kicked off an IRE Conference session on…

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Pipelines, dams and pollution: How to investigation the environment in your community

By Alena Rehberger | June 15, 2015

By Lenore T. Adkins Some of the most important stories about the environment lurk beyond the city limits, but reporters often overlook those narratives because they aren’t in urban settings, said a group of panelists who investigate the environment.  “Agriculture is vastly under-covered,” said Joseph Davis, editor of the WatchDog newsletter for the Society of…

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IRE Radio Podcast | A Conversation with Seymour Hersh

By Alena Rehberger | June 12, 2015

Seymour Hersh is an investigative reporter with a storied career dating back to his reporting on the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War. Recently, his reporting on the killing of Osama bin Laden, a narrative that runs counter to the one widely circulated, has garnered a wide range of reactions. Hersh addressed all of…

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Inequality is not magical, and other takeaways from top journalists reporting on race issues

By Alena Rehberger | June 12, 2015

By Moriah Balingit In the past year, incidents of police brutality and fatal police shootings have served as a flashpoint for discussions on race in this country. And rightfully, much of the discourse has been centered around those events: the details, the characters, the protests and investigations in their aftermath. But how do journalists move…

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Special inspector general offers tips for finding fraud in government programs

By Alena Rehberger | June 12, 2015

By Rachel Premack Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko talked government programs and accountability with approximately 100 journalists at the annual IRE Conference in Philadelphia. This inspector general’s job duties are not unlike that of an investigative journalist. Sopko leads an independent governmental department aimed at ensuring Afghan reconstruction programs are effective and…

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Buying influence: How to track lobbyists

By Alena Rehberger | June 11, 2015

By Liz Essley Whyte When New York Times reporter Eric Lipton got a tip that powerful political associations were asking lobbyists for $125,000 contributions in exchange for phone calls with states’ attorneys general, he knew he had to find out more. So he got on a plane to California to attend a conference, uninvited. He…

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Analytics for reporters: Ignorance is not bliss

By Alena Rehberger | June 11, 2015

By Meldon Jones A few months ago, “SEO” was like a dirty word to Education Week reporter Benjamin Herold. His reporting philosophy – “Build it and they will come” – placed the onus on readers to find and engage with content on his blog. Herold routinely ignored emails lauding anything related to the importance of…

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The new muckrakers: The expanding world of investigative journalism

By Alena Rehberger | June 10, 2015

Shani Hilton of BuzzFeed and Betsy Reed of The Intercept at the 2015 IRE Conference.Credit: Roger Barone | Talk Radio News Service  By Miranda A. Strong The abuses of power and labor that followed the industrial boom of the 1900s inspired journalists to investigate corruption and expose its consequences to the masses. The work of…

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Tools and techniques for using geolocation in your next investigation

By Alena Rehberger | June 10, 2015

By Katie Le Dain If you go to your iPhone and head to the privacy settings, you’ll find a switch that asks you whether you want your location services “on” or “off.” At Friday morning’s geolocation session at the annual IRE Conference, panelists talked about how cell phones can track when this button is turned…

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