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CAR Conference Blog
Security for journalists: How to keep your sources and your information safe
When you write to your colleagues, text your friends or speak to your sources, it may seem like the only people with access to the conversation are you and the other person. For most people, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Independent journalist Quinn Norton, Andy Boyle of NBC News and Jeff Larson of…
Read MoreHow to look inside the secret world of the juvenile justice system
By Tierra Smith Correctional facilities tend to document everything. But it can be difficult for journalists to get records from the juvenile justice system because cases and incidents involving minors tend to be confidential. Chad Day, a reporter for The Associated Press; Kim English of the Colorado Division of Criminal Justice; and Paula Lavigne, a…
Read MoreUsing hacked data to serve the public interest
By Tierra Smith Data journalists explained the problems they encountered using hacked data during a panel at the 2016 CAR Conference in Denver. Hacking is illegally accessing a computer system that you do not have permission to use. Not only can the hacker face criminal charges, but journalists could as well. In order to avoid…
Read MoreDetecting deception: How to tell if your source is lying to you
By D.B Narveson Unfortunately, Pinocchio’s nose doesn’t exist. There is no hard and fast rule to decipher whether someone is lying, and detecting deception depends on the context and your knowledge of the person speaking. But asking your source a lot of questions can help, according to Jeff Hancock, a professor at Stanford University. Hancock…
Read MoreHow to design charts for the human brain
By Jinghong Chen At this year’s CAR Conference, Peter Aldhous of BuzzFeed News and Alexandra Kanik, a freelance interactive developer, discussed how to design information graphics for the human brain. Before visualizing data, Aldhous said, “we should think about how our brains process [the charts].” In the mid-1980s, renowned statisticians William Cleveland and Robert McGrill…
Read MoreStrategies for getting the data and documents you need
By Quint Forgey In our seemingly endless quest to obtain government documents, it’s important to recognize and alleviate the often tense relationships between reporters and public information officers. During Friday’s panel discussion, “They’ve got it, you want it: Getting data and docs,” Rich Orman, senior deputy district attorney of Colorado’s 18th Judicial District, said bureaucrats…
Read MoreHumanizing data: Finding the people behind the numbers
By Maggie Angst As a data journalist, it’s easy to get immersed in a database and forget the groups and individuals who are affected by the data in the story. Data can be expansive and intriguing, but what matters most is explaining its real-world impact and relevance on specific people and communities, according to panelists…
Read MoreGetting to know Matt Goldberg of NBC4 Los Angeles
Matt Goldberg and Taylor Bishop Taylor A. Bishop talks with Matt Goldberg, managing editor at KNBC-TV in Los Angeles and vice president of the IRE Board of Directors. Bishop: What do you do as a managing editor in news? Goldberg: I do somewhere around six hours of news a day. In addition, I also oversee our…
Read MoreCollege professors share tips, ideas for teaching data journalism
By D.B. Narverson Veteran educators offered three key tips for teaching data journalism during a CAR Conference session Thursday: Teach so that each lesson builds into the next, and review often. Use topics of interest to students, whether it’s restaurant health inspections, the plight of journalists overseas or a stray dog. Create situations where students…
Read MoreMining past and future census data to predict diversity in race, income and aging
By Kouichi Shirayanagi The United States is becoming increasingly racially diverse, especially in the West, Southwest and Southeast. However, the Midwest and New England still remain heavily white. The Hispanic population is growing at the fastest rate. Stephanie Ewert, chief of the Foreign-Born Population Branch at the U.S. Census Bureau, said that especially among children,…
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