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**This article appeared in the Winter 2012 IRE Journal** By Martha Mendoza, The Associated Press My freedom of information lesson at The Associated Press Mexico City bureau was not going well. Everyone kept inexplicably cracking up. MISTAKE #1. It ends up that “FOIA” sounds remarkably close to a vulgar f-word in Spanish. Also, because Mexico actually…
Read MoreIt’s officially summer and people are spending a lot of time in the water. If you’re looking for a good story, one place to look is the boating accidents dataset in the NICAR data library. It’s been recently updated to include 2014 and is free for IRE members. Kept by the U.S. Coast Guard, the Recreational…
Read MoreWhen Tampa Bay Times reporters Alexandra Zayas and Kameel Stanley got their hands on state and local data about bike tickets, they found some sobering statistics. Tampa police were stopping bicyclists at an alarming rate. And eight out of 10 of the bicyclists ticketed were black. It’s a great story, and even if your coverage…
Read MoreJames 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…
Read MoreBy 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…
Read MoreInvestigating 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…
Read MoreRachel Lenzi 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…
Read MoreA 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…
Read MoreJo Ciavaglia 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…
Read MoreBy 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…
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