On the Road
Sharpen your interviewing skills
By Doug Haddix, IRE training director Studies have shown that the actual words account for only about 7 percent of communication between two people, according to Amy Herdy of the University of Colorado. Body language makes up 55 percent of communication, with tone accounting for the other 38 percent, she told journalists during a recent…
Read MoreFall webinar lineup
By Jaimi Dowdell, IRE training director Tap in to practical training from your home or office with IRE’s online sessions. This fall we’re rolling out a series of webinars led by experienced journalists and IRE trainers. Topics include Broadcast investigations, Twitter for journalists, Doing great work with limited resources and Corral and analyze text with…
Read MoreMake chronologies easier with TimeFlow
By Jaimi Dowdell, IRE training director If you’ve ever been involved in an investigative story or in-depth project, you understand how important chronology can be. I’ve often sketched timelines on notebooks, napkins or white boards. For trickier tasks or more data, I’ve turned to Excel, but I’ve never been completely satisfied with how it works.…
Read MoreManage your time for investigative stories
By Doug Haddix, IRE training director Time management can be a reporter’s biggest challenge when it comes to watchdog stories. During a recent Better Watchdog Workshop in Denver, two seasoned investigative journalists shared tips and tricks they’ve learned to make time for the big story. Advice and tips came from Raquel Rutledge of the Milwaukee…
Read MoreGannett bolsters watchdog work
By Doug Haddix, IRE training director Attorney Herschel Fink brandished a copy of a $400,000 check from the city of Detroit – payable to the Detroit Free Press for legal fees in a public records battle involving former Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick. While large, the payment didn’t cover the newspaper’s full costs in its aggressive investigation,…
Read MoreFollow the money: Gulf oil spill
By Jaimi Dowdell, IRE training director While oil is gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, the government is pouring resources into the cleanup effort. Track how much is being spent, which agencies are awarding it, and where it’s going with data from the Federal Procurement Data System. The FPDS’s Gulf Oil Spill Report, updated regularly,…
Read MoreTraining opportunity for online demographic data
IRE members have access to a Web-based data exploration application to quickly and easily analyze demographic data while on deadline. ESRI is offering an online seminar on using this tool for economic development Thursday, June 17, 2-3 p.m. EDT. Register for “How Greater New Orleans is Stimulating the Economy with Geospatial Apps” here . ESRI…
Read MoreTeaching the trainer
By Doug Haddix, IRE training director Every trainer will tell you that one of the joys of the job is learning from people you’re training. During recent custom training for The Associated Press in San Francisco, the group was talking about ways to avoid high copying fees for paper documents. After I suggested using a…
Read MoreLightning Talks, Vegas Style — It’s not just for nerds!
By Aron Pilhofer, The New York Times Our first go-around with lightning talks was so successful at NICAR that we’re bringing them to Vegas. The app is up, so go to it: http://ire.aronpilhofer.com What are lightning talks? For those unfamiliar, lightning talks are 5-minute presentations suggested by you, chosen by you, delivered by you. The…
Read MoreBehind the Selden Ring Award
T. Christian Miller of ProPublica discusses “Disposable Army,” his series about contractors in Iraq. The stories won the 2010 Selden Ring Award for investigative reporting. Miller explains how the data analysis — coupled with 200 interviews — gave him the goods to break new ground in coverage of civilian contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.…
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