Pat Stith of the Raleigh News & Observer wrote an excellent article on computer-assisted reporting for a Poynter seminar on watchdog journalism. Stith offers a number of good examples of how his paper uses CAR (including on daily stories, not just projects) and suggests ways other newspapers can improve their efforts.
Here's what he says about middle managers:
"You have to find a way to work around your middle managers. They may say they are CAR advocates, because that's what they know you want to hear. But they're not, most of them, and I'll tell you why. They are under a lot of pressure to fill the paper with good stories. Not great stories. Good stories. And when all is said and done, they're not willing to give up a couple or three good stories on the possibility, maybe even probability, of getting a great one. A middle manager who pushes his or her reporters to learn CAR is a rare bird."
Stith also says newspapers should create research departments to institutionalize CAR:
" ... at most newspapers, there's a reporter in the newsroom, often only one, who can make a computer sing. His or her desk is piled high with data and documentation. They're up to their elbows in work for other reporters. And when they leave you, when they resign, your CAR program goes with them. This could, and should, be avoided by institutionalizing your gains. At The N&O, responsibility for every aspect of the CAR program has been assigned to our News Research Department. News Research maintains our data and data documentation. It loads data, and does analysis for reporters who can't do their own work. It runs the CAR Fellowship Program, teaching reporters. And, increasingly, it has begun handling the fights over access to data. My newspaper could lose a bunch of us, and keep on rolling."
And he says newspapers should develop a formal process for tracking record requests:
"I recommend to you a policy we have at The News & Observer that I think every paper in the country ought to adopt. Here it is: When a reporter is denied a record that he or she thinks is public they must notify their supervisor. If the supervisor can't resolve the conflict satisfactorily, they must notify their supervisor. And so on up the ladder, until the problem lands on management mall. Good reporters like this policy because it brings management, which has far more muscle than we do, into the fray. Management ought to like it too, because you don't want reporters making policy at your newspapers. And, in effect, that's what they're doing when they allow the government to kick them around on a public record issue."
It's a must read.
