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A big investigation of segregated schools gets big results
By Susannah Nesmith, CJR Editor’s Note: This article first ran on April 13, 2016 on the Columbia Journalism Review’s website. It’s been eight months since the Tampa Bay Times rolled out an investigation into five elementary schools in Florida’s Pinellas County that had become “Failure Factories”—almost exclusively black, with some of the worst test scores in the…
Read MoreIRE members win 2016 Pulitzer Prizes
Several members of Investigative Reporters and Editors were among journalists recognized in the 2016 Pulitzer Prizes: The Associated Press won the Public Service Pulitzer for “Seafood from Slaves,” a story that freed 2,000 slaves. The staff of the Los Angeles Times won the Pulitzer for Breaking News Reporting for its coverage of the San Bernardino…
Read MorePanama Papers showcase power of a global movement
By Brant Houston Editor’s Note: This story originally appeared on the website of the Global Investigative Journalism Network, www.gijn.org. The ongoing and spectacular investigation “Panama Papers” represents the culmination of a significant shift in the way journalism is now practiced. The project, by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and nearly 400 colleagues from 107 outlets, also represents…
Read MoreTracking crime in your community
FBI Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) is one of the best tools for tracking crime trends in communities nationwide; FBI UCR data for 2014 is now available from the NICAR data library. Law enforcement agencies around the country voluntarily submit reports to the FBI on what are known as “index” crimes: Murder, nonnegligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated…
Read MoreHow ‘the public is priced out of public records’ by Michigan universities
By Anna Clark, CJR Editor’s Note: This article first ran on April 5, 2016 on the Columbia Journalism Review’s website. In Michigan, transparency comes at a cost—and a seemingly arbitrary one at that. The Society of Professional Journalists chapter at Central Michigan University recently conducted a FOIA audit of the state’s 15 public universities. It asked for…
Read MorePanama Papers show the value of newsroom collaboration
By David Uberti, CJR Editor’s Note: This article first ran on April 5, 2016 on the Columbia Journalism Review’s website. In early 2015, an anonymous source began forwarding German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung encrypted files from a Panamanian law firm specializing in offshore companies. The trove of documents kept growing, and eventually numbered in the millions. Seeking help to break…
Read MoreBehind the prize: IRE Award winners take us behind the story in articles, podcasts
Want to know how those IRE Award-winning investigations came together? Throughout the year, journalists have taken us behind the story in podcasts and articles. We’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite pieces. Winners “Seafood from Slaves” by the Associated Press Listen to “The Story That Freed Hundreds of Slaves” on the IRE Radio…
Read MoreDeveloping Sources
By Bernice Yeung There are many lessons about journalism to be learned from “Spotlight,” the film that chronicles The Boston Globe’s investigation into the Boston Archdiocese’s systemic cover-up of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests. As the story behind the story, “Spotlight” highlights themes that are especially instructive to investigative reporters: That there’s the unspoken…
Read MoreFinding Errors in Texas Data
By Brian Collister “You were right, and we were wrong.” It was a stunning reversal by Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, who couldn’t deny what KXAN spent months documenting: His troopers wereinaccurately reporting the race of minority motorists, mostly Hispanic, as “white” and skewing crucial racial profiling data. For months,…
Read MoreMeetups: Los Angeles, Chicago journalists to gather this month
IRE-Chicago: Please join us at the Billy Goat Tavern on Wednesday, April 13, as we socialize and hear Darryl Holliday, Yana Kunichoff and Sam Steckler of City Bureau talk about their recent cover story for The Chicago Reader! The piece, which gained recognition from the Sidney Hillman Foundation, revealed that Chicago’s police union has long served as…
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