The IRE office will be closed from December 25th to January 5th.
Posts Tagged ‘CAR Tools’
Behind the Story: Firefighters disabling the city’s budget
Photo credit:Elie Gardner/Post-Dispatch Social media can be an individual’s nightmare and a reporter’s goldmine. In “Disability pensions allow some firefighters to collect while working elsewhere,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s reporters used an array of investigative tools to publicize a mismanaged disability pension system that is eating away the city’s funds. But even when firefighters are capable…
Read MoreSelden Ring Award winner to speak at Spokane workshop
Photo credit: USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism Congratulations to Michael J. Berens and Ken Armstrong of The Seattle Times, for receiving the 2012 Selden Ring Award for Investigative Reporting, for their series “Methadone and the Politics of Pain.” Berens will be speaking at IRE’s Watchdog Workshop this weekend in Spokane, Wash. Berens and…
Read MoreGetting around PIOs with Web Inspector
By Mayra Cruz @MayraC27 One way to get around bureaucratic hassles is to get the to the data directly by scraping it off the Web. The fight for public records can sometimes be avoided by taking the data directly from websites, Dan Nguyen of ProPublica said. On Saturday, Nguyen led a hands-on class of “Web…
Read MoreGetting data from public agencies
By Sarah Morris@smorris198888 In The Art of Requesting and Negotiating Data, David Hunn of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and Jennifer LaFleur of ProPublica talked through some strategies for getting data. LaFleur began by saying that data can come from inspections, licenses, things that are enforced or purchased. If there was a form, then there would…
Read MoreThe story behind failing government monopolies
By Jon McClure @JonRMcClure Paul Overberg of USA Today and Brad Guilmino of HNTB Corporation discussed the potential stories coming from the decline of two long-monopolized government services: road maintenance and mail delivery. Though they may seem like monolithic enterprises, in actuality there are lots of competing stakeholders. In many cases, these systems represent microcosms of dysfunction…
Read MoreMoving a story beyond the data dump
By Hilary Niles @nilesmedia Some of the pithier annectdotes from this year’s conference surely belong to Tony DeBarros, Ron Nixon and Ben Welsh, for their presentations during “Making sure you tell a story.” Their three presentations, in rapid succession, covered ground from story craft to news strategy to robotics, and still managed to present a…
Read MoreHow journalists can target tablets
By Kyle Deas @KyleDeas News organizations looking to enter the mobile space are confronted with a bewildering array of formats, devices, and operating systems. In a late-day session on Thursday, Daniel Lathrop and Will Sullivan talked through some of the options and the reasons why newsrooms could take one approach or another. Lathrop is the…
Read MoreMining social networks
By Jessica Pupovac @jessicapupovac One of the best things about social media for journalists, Doug Haddix said, is that most people don’t understand what’s private and what isn’t. “Too bad for them. But good for us.” Haddix said during his presentation on social media sleuthing. Haddix, who is the Director of the Kiplinger Program in Public Affairs Journalism at Ohio State…
Read MoreShare, interact with data easier with a PANDA in your newsroom
Developers will demo a beta version of the newsroom appliance at the 2012 CAR Conference. Tucked away on reporters’ computers are dozens of details that could benefit news coverage, if only other journalists knew where to look. Newsrooms are swimming in data. Journalistic organizations big and small continue to collect data from local, state and federal governments, and…
Read MorePostmark deadline for IRE Awards is Friday, Jan 13
Don’t forget to submit your best investigative reporting to the 2011 IRE Awards contest. The postmark deadline is January 13th, 2012. 2011 marked the 33rd year for the IRE Awards, which honor the best in investigative reporting in all types of media. This year, to better reflect the evolving nature of the industry, and the…
Read More