Research

New U.S. Census training tool includes work of 17 top specialists

By Reynolds Staff on Aug 11, 2011

Presentations by 17 top journalists, data experts and census specialists have been gathered into a training archive called: “Going Deep with Census Demographic and Economic Data.” In partnership with the McCormick Foundation, the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University offers the free online training for any journalists reporting on [...]

Personal Finance: Glossary of terms, concepts

Personal finance covers the gamut from credit cards and investments to student loans and insurance. It’s important that you have a good understanding of the basic terms and concepts so you can cut through the jargon. Here are the ones you should know: ADJUSTED GROSS INCOME: AGI is a measure of income used to determine [...]

Covering personal finance: Finding true local angles, interests

One of the best things about covering personal finance is that EVERYONE can relate to the subject and will always have their ideas and opinions. Your job is to separate the really good, legitimate ones from the wacko ones. National stories abound about personal finance, but your job is to write about topics that your [...]

Personal Finance: A few of the challenges

Personal finance reporting covers such a broad range of subjects that the challenges are many and varied. Here’s a list of them, as well as the most common errors: MAKING THE SAME TOPICS INTERESTING AND RELEVANT — We will always be writing about saving, investing, credit cards, income, budgeting, student loans and other things that [...]

Personal Finance: Resources, books, guides, organizations

One of the best ways to learn a beat is to read materials by journalists who are the best at covering the topic. Below are books that every reporter new to the personal finance beat should read. Read them not only for knowledge of the content, but for the way the authors boil down complex, [...]

Covering personal finance: An introduction

Covering personal finance is part journalism and part counseling. No event has brought this home more to me than the economic hurricane we’ve experienced. The biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression was a rude awakening for consumers. Many lost jobs, found themselves underwater in their mortgages, deep in credit card debt and with few, [...]

Creators of ProPublica’s ‘Dollars for Docs’ showcase newsroom geek-tech

A list of data-scraping resources was among the tools most requested by our free training attendees. They also often ask for access to a business-terms glossary. With billions of dollars pumping through the pharmaceutical industry each year and doctors making unknown profits, one question for investigative journalists has remained: How do we follow the money [...]

Share your thoughts on mentoring in business journalism

Got a minute? Take our mentoring survey. Maybe you had a mentor early in your career who taught you the skills needed to tackle an in-depth project. Or maybe you’re the one at your media outlet dubbed the go-to person for understanding how to dig deeper into records or craft a perfect story pitch. If [...]

Pew Research is so much more than Obama’s religion

There’s been a lot of news this week about what Americans know or don’t know about President Obama’s religion. Where’s all this come from? Pew Research: Growing Number of Americans Say Obama is a Muslim Pew is a great resource. When you have a few minutes, check out their archives: 2010 Publications. Many of their [...]