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Getting to know Paula Lavigne of ESPN

Paula Lavigne | Photo by Maliik Obee Maliik Obee, a Morgan State University student and 2016 CAR Conference Knight Scholar, talks to Paula Lavigne of ESPN. Maliik Obee: How did you get interested in investigative journalism? Paula Lavigne: I’ve been interested in it ever since college. I was on the student paper at my university.…

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Getting to know Kimbriell Kelly of The Washington Post

Meleah Holmes, a student at Norfolk State University and a 2016 CAR Conference Knight Scholar, talks to Kimbriell Kelly, a investigative reporter at The Washington Post. Holmes: In your own words, what is an investigative journalist? Kelly: A reporter who produces in-depth work using thorough research, analysis and reporting methods to convey what they have…

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Getting to know Lee Zurik of WVUE in New Orleans

Lee Zurik | Photo by Jocelyn Stargell-Zachery Jocelyn Stargell-Zachery talks with Lee Zurik, evening anchor and chief investigative reporter at WVUE-TV in New Orleans. Stargell-Zachery: What sparked your interest in the field of journalism? Zurik: I was kind of a freak, and I wanted to be in journalism since I was like 10 years old.…

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Use basic Excel tricks to explore health care data

By Jennifer Lu Judging by the “oohs” and “ahhs” of appreciation from the audience, ProPublica reporters Ryann Grochowski Jones and Charles Ornstein reminded us why the humble Excel spreadsheet is still an excellent resource for data journalists. In this hands-on session, they covered how to use Excel for health care reporting. To cover health care…

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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…

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How 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…

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Using 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…

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Detecting 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…

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How 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…

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