Posts Tagged ‘tips’
Using documents to cover religious organizations
Covering religious organizations can be difficult, because it can be tough to get public documents. Kansas City Star reporter Judy Thomas, spoke at an IRE training session for McClatchy journalists and offers the following tips: Get to know your subjects inside out. Subscribe to newsletters, magazines and other publications of the organizations you cover. Get…
Read MoreTips on covering immigrants
By Doug HaddixIRE Training Director Full immersion in local immigrant communities produces the most compelling stories, according to Kirk Semple, an immigration reporter for The New York Times. “It helps to be curious. It helps to be voracious,” Semple told participants at an IRE Better Watchdog Workshop this week in Orlando. The full-day workshop was…
Read MoreDon’t be a stenographer and other tips from a Pulitzer Prize winner
By Mark Horvit, IRE Executive Director Nigel Jaquiss has a strong but simple message for those who cover local government: “Do not be a stenographer.” Jaquiss, a Pultizer Prize and IRE Award winning reporter for the Willamette Week in Portland, offered a series of recommendations to help those who cover local government do more than…
Read MoreDig into local leaders
By Doug Haddix, IRE training director Reporters should make one to three calls a day to sources whom they don’t need for a deadline story. That’s the most effective way to develop sources who’ll come through for you later with ideas and help, according to Ryan Gabrielson of California Watch. Gabrielson spoke during an IRE…
Read MoreQuick fix to tame PDFs
By Jaimi Dowdell, IRE training director A couple of weeks ago, I was teaching at a computer-assisted reporting boot camp in San Diego. The class had been through spreadsheets and databases, and I was finally demonstrating how to deal with pdf’s. After showing some online options, I walked the class through my old stand-by: XPDF. If…
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 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 MoreTips for covering immigrants
By Doug Haddix, IRE Training Director When she gets e-mails and calls about controversial stories, Claudia Núñez of La Opinion in Los Angeles says some readers ask if she is working against Latinos, even though she herself is a Latina. Her curt reply: “No, I’m not. I’m a journalist.”[/caption] Often, immigrants expect ethnic media journalists to…
Read MoreCAR2010: Don’t stop the learning
By Jaimi Dowdell, IRE Training Director IRE Resource Center staff have been busy adding tipsheets from the CAR conference. Handouts include information on forensic accounting, Web scraping, data on deadline, Twitter and more. In addition to this, many of the wonderful presenters and attendees have been sharing their tips, data and tutorials on the NICAR…
Read More