The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Blog
In a pair of reports, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporters Mark Johnson and Meg Kissinger examined the overblown medical claims and misleading marketing strategies of China-based Beike Biotechnology, one of many overseas operations marketing experimental stem cell treatments to desperate American families. The two interviewed dozens of the top doctors and scientists in their respective fields…
Read MoreBy 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…
Read MoreWrestlers and real estate: Student investigation leads to probe of sales involving coaches, athletes
By Chris Ison University of Minnesota Even to seasoned reporters, long-term investigative projects look like mountains. The long climb will bring breaking news stories and beat duties that distract them, impatient editors who divert them, and months of digging that might turn up little to justify the time and expense. Combined, an exciting idea can…
Read MoreA joint investigation by the Chicago Tribune and journalism students at Columbia College Chicago casts doubts on a 2004 Chicago police shooting in which the officers were cleared just 10 hours after seriously wounding a man and a 13-year-old girl. Students dissected the crime scene and discovered that one of the shooters couldn’t have possibly…
Read MoreWith tight newsroom budgets, open-source software comes at the right price: free. This year’s Computer-Assisted Reporting conference March 11-14 in Phoenix offers several new hands-on classes: CrimeStat. Analyze crime incident locations with a free spatial statistics program. Flex free visualization software. Build Web applications with open-source software that works like Flash. Free mapping software. Can’t…
Read MoreAn investigation by Scripps Howard News Service sports editor John Lindsay found the National Football League has ramped up its campaign contributions and lobbying efforts, mainly trying to affect legislation on broadcasting rights and trying to preempt any move by Congress to intervene in a potential player lockout in 2011. The $3.148 million in lobbying…
Read MoreThree major investigative reports that used social science research methods as key parts of their probes were named today as winners of the 2009 Philip Meyer Journalism Award. USA Today took first place with “The Smokestack Effect: Toxic Air and America’s Schools.” Reporters Blake Morrison and Brad Heath spearheaded a project that examined the levels…
Read MoreBy 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…
Read MoreIn a video interview with IRE, Manny Garcia of The Miami Herald explains how Twitter and Facebook are helping his newspaper’s ongoing coverage of the earthquake in Haiti. His advice applies to using social media tools on any breaking news story. Garcia shared his tips and advice during an IRE Ethnic Media Watchdog Workshop in January in…
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