IRE News
Behind the Story: New Jersey reporter finds inconsistencies in 2008 death investigation
Chris Baxter Chris Baxter and NJ Advance Media wrestled out a compelling and untold story, let the digital presentation take the lead and came away with a “smashing” investigative success. Using a system he developed to keep tabs on lawsuits involving state police, Baxter came upon the stifled story of Kenwin Garcia, a Newark man…
Read MoreFrom the IRE Archive: Gary Webb’s “Dark Alliance”
Interested in learning more about the story behind the new movie, “Kill the Messenger“? Listen to this panel from the 1997 IRE National Conference in Phoenix, Ariz. titled “Can Investigative Reporting Go Too Far?”. In the early 90’s investigative reporter Gary Webb of the San Jose Mercury News dug into the CIA’s involvement of cocaine…
Read MoreNew video series highlights reporting tips, techniques
This week we launched Story Shorts, a new series of web videos designed to help journalists share tips and techniques they’ve used on a variety of investigative stories. We’ve paired the minute-long videos with related resources (tipsheets, stories, webinars and audio) curated by IRE staff. We’ve even made a few of our tipsheets free for a…
Read MoreWashington Post, Marshall Project collaborate with DocumentCloud to make note embeds responsive
This post originally appeared on the DocumentCloud blog. On Aug. 3, The Marshall Project, a new nonprofit journalism organization focused on criminal justice issues, published an investigation in partnership with The Washington Post that revealed new evidence raising doubts about a high-profile Texas execution. Tom Meagher, data editor at The Marshall Project: Our reporter, Maurice…
Read MoreApply now for the 2015 IRE Knight Scholarship
2014 CAR Conference Knight Scholars and mentors pose for a group picture. Applications are now being accepted from college students at several historically black colleges and universities for the Knight Scholarship to attend IRE’s 2015 data journalism and annual investigative reporting conferences. Apply online by Sunday, Dec. 7. The 2015 conferences include our annual data journalism conference…
Read MoreBehind the Story: How Chicago Magazine exposed the truth about the city’s crime rates
Chicago Magazine | June 2014 A story that helped change the way Chicagoans digest crime stats started with suspicion. Immersed in a different crime-related piece, Chicago Magazine Features Editor David Bernstein and Contributing Writer Noah Isackson noticed something amiss with the statistics. When their trusted police sources voiced skepticism, the early trappings of an idea…
Read MoreIRE remembers CNN photojournalist Sarmad Qaseera
2012 IRE Awards video IRE is saddened to hear about the passing of Sarmad Qaseera, a photojournalist to whom we’d awarded an IRE Medal for his 2012 work in Benghazi. The 42-year-old was a longtime member of CNN’s Baghdad bureau. Qaseera was hired by CNN to cover the war in his home country of Iraq…
Read MoreNICAR Data Library to lower prices, offer free databases
The NICAR Database Library will be implementing some changes in the coming months: The first of these is a reduction in what we charge IRE members for most of our databases. Additionally, a handful of databases will be free to IRE members. While the amount of work we put into each database remains the same, we…
Read MoreBehind the Story: How Kent State tracked student athletes missing class
By Karl Idsvoog, Kent State University How do you get into college if you can only read at a grade-school level? Last January, CNN’s Sara Ganim answered that question in a powerful piece of reporting. In a few short sentences Sara personalized the reality of college athletics at the University of North Carolina as she told…
Read MoreMark your calendar for the IRE Chicago Meetup next month
The IRE Chicago Meetup crew is partnering with the Chicago Headline Club for its next happy hour. The Chicago Headline Club holds Burger Nights every month, and the next one is Sept. 12 at The Billy Goat (430 N. Michigan Ave). So, bring a colleague to introduce to the Investigative Reporters and Editors community and…
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