Reynolds Center, IRE offer CAR training for business journalists
The Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism has teamed up with Investigative Reporters and Editors to train business journalists in computer-assisted reporting (CAR). The free, daylong workshops called, “Be a Better Business Watchdog — CAR for Business Journalists,” will be in Atlanta on Oct. 11 and Milwaukee on Nov. 9.
To sign up, click here.
“When the Reynolds Center surveyed 473 business journalists in the spring, one of the top three topics that they requested training in was computer-assisted reporting,” said Linda Austin, executive director of the center. “We’re thrilled to partner with IRE, the nation’s foremost CAR trainer for professional journalists, to enable business journalists to become better business watchdogs.”
Even if they’ve never touched an Excel spreadsheet before, business journalists will leave this hands-on workshop with the skills they need to begin analyzing the wealth of information available in public databases about businesses. 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.
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 these workshops, participants will learn how to find and download online databases, use Excel spreadsheets to analyze that information and translate that analysis into business stories.
The instructor will be Jaimi Dowdell, who joined IRE as a training director in 2008. Before that, she was computer-assisted reporting editor at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch for more than three years.
The workshops will be hosted by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in their respective cities.
Here’s the agenda for the workshops:
“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
9:10-12:40 p.m.: How to use Excel spreadsheet software
12:40-1:30 p.m.: Box lunch provided
1:30-3:30 p.m.: Where and how to access great databases with examples of business stories done from them
Because this free 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 workshops or online seminars presented by the Reynolds Center are eligible to receive a “Circle of Achievement” certificate.
If you have any questions about the workshop or the center, please e-mail Executive Director Linda Austin or call 602-496-9187.
