Be a Better Business Watchdog – CAR for Business Journalists: Milwaukee, Nov. 9

Polish your skills in computer-assisted reporting (CAR) and learn how to hold local businesses accountable with this free, daylong workshop co-presented by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism and Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE).

Even if you’ve never touched an Excel spreadsheet before, you will leave this hands-on workshop with the skills you need to begin analyzing the wealth of information available in public databases about businesses. Remember: the 2010 Pulitzer for Public Service was won by a reporter for The Bristol (Va.) Herald Courier who used CAR skills he learned from IRE to investigate the mismanagement of natural gas royalties.

Jaimi Dowdell, IRE training director, speaks at 2010 CAR Conference in Phoenix, Ariz.

Data is one of four developments transforming the business and financial press, according to Forbes Managing Editor Carl Lavin in a July 1 interview with IR Alert. “There will be an exponential increase in data available—to analyze businesses, to compare them to model future activity and so on. The people with the tools and personnel that can mine business data for intelligence will be adding tremendous value,” he says. (The other three developments are social media, the semantic Web and mobile Web.)

In this Nov. 9. workshop in Milwaukee, you will learn how to find and download online databases, use Excel spreadsheets to analyze that information and translate that analysis into business stories. The Reynolds Center and IRE are co-presenting the identical workshop in Atlanta on Oct. 11. (You do not have to be a member of IRE to attend either one.)

The Reynolds Center, which has trained more than 10,000 journalists in business journalism since 2003, is partnering with IRE, which has been training journalists in investigative techniques since 1975, to offer this mini-boot camp in computer-assisted reporting for business journalists. Our host is The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

YOUR INSTRUCTORS

Jaimi Dowdell joined IRE as a training director in October 2008. Before that she was computer-assisted reporting editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for more than three years. Her duties included obtaining and analyzing data for daily and long-term stories; training staff on CAR and investigative techniques; and maintaining the newspaper’s online data center. In addition to her work at the Post-Dispatch, she taught a CAR course for Washington University in St. Louis.

Previously she worked at IRE and NICAR in the Database Library and Resource Center while completing her master’s degree at the University of Missouri.

Ben Poston talks about one of his stories at IRE

Raquel Rutledge is an investigative reporter on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s watchdog team. Her series, “Cashing in on Kids,” won the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting. It also won the George Polk Award, Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting and the Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism. Rutledge previously worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette, where she covered education, the military and city hall.

Ben Poston has been a database reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel since 2007 and contributed to “Cashing in on Kids.” He was a 2009 Livingston Award finalist for coverage of the federal economic stimulus. He was a member of the Journal Sentinel team who won a 2010 IRE Award for breaking news investigation for coverage of the gap in the Wisconsin DNA databank.

Previously, he was a data analyst at NICAR. | VIDEO and presentation: Michael Grabell and Ben Poston on Covering the Sluggish Recovery. [Presentation starts on Slide 4.]

“Be a Better Business Watchdog — CAR for Business Journalists” Workshop Agenda

8:30-9 a.m.: Continental breakfast and registration

9-9:10 a.m.: Introduction and welcome, Linda Austin, executive director, Reynolds Center

9:10-12:40 p.m.: How to use Excel spreadsheet software, Jaimi Dowdell, training director, IRE

12:40-1:30 p.m.: How CAR figured in the Pulitzer-winning “Cashing in on Kids” series, Ben Poston and Raquel Rutledge, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Box lunch provided.

1:30-3:30 p.m.: Where and how to access great databases with examples of business stories done from them, Dowdell

Here’s a video by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on how Rutledge got the “Cashing in on Kids” story:

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Please do not register unless you are sincere about participating. Because this workshop offers hands-on training on individual computers, space is extremely limited, with spots allotted on a first-come, first-served basis. Signing up and not participating deprives someone else of the opportunity.

Those who successfully complete three regional workshops or online seminars presented by the Reynolds Center are eligible to receive a “Circle of Achievement” certificate.

This free seminar is sponsored by the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism. If you have any questions about the workshop or the center, please e-mail Executive Director Linda Austin or call 602-496-9187.

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