Syllabus Computer-Assisted Reporting JOU 3950, Section 001 Eastern Illinois University Spring 2002 Instructor: Bill Dedman E-mail: Bill@PowerReporting.com Summary This course is designed to increase your awareness of the use of public records in reporting, your facility with gathering records, your ability to build a database to analyze those records, and to explain the limitations of the records and your analysis. Schedule Our class meets only four times, Jan. 25-26 and Feb. 15-16 in 2436 Buzzard Hall. Friday, Jan. 25, 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 26, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday, Feb. 15, 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 16, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Grading The class grade is determined by: 10 percent, class participation. You are expected to attend every class, arrive on time, and be prepared and involved. Just as in journalism. 45 percent, assignments 1 through 6, due before class on Feb. 15. 45 percent, assignments 7 and 8, due by the end of Tuesday, Mar. 5 Late assignments will not be accepted. If you're having trouble with an assignment, speak up early. Note that Assignment 7 may require you to start now to collect those 990 forms. Put out those requests now, even though the assignment isn't due until the second batch. Assignments Cite your sources. Show your work. Think out loud. Tell what you know, and explain what you don't know. The process is as important as the answer. These are not multiple-choice assignments. You will be graded on how much you put your heart and head into the work, and the clarity of your explanation. Submit all assingnments to me in an e-mail, not as an attachment. Title your e-mail: J3950 Assignment. The only attachments I should receive will be Excel spreadsheets. Assignment One: Reading A. Read the full text of Phil Meyer's "The New Precision Journalism," available free on the Web at http://www.unc.edu/~pmeyer/book/ (Note that the Word version there is much easier to read; download it by using the Word icon in each chapter. Print it out if you like.) B. Browse quickly through the online portions of Nora Paul's "Computer-Assisted Research: A Guide to Tapping Online Information," available free on the Web at http://poynter.org/research/newcar/index.html Estimated time: Eight hours. Assignment Two: Evaluate Web sites for journalists Browse the Top 100 at PowerReporting.com and each of the beat areas. Get familiar with them. Now, pick one beat section of PowerReporting.com, and pick two Web sites in that beat that emphasize public records. Describe and evaluate the usefulness of each of the sites for journalists. The key measures: source, accuracy, currency, history, ease of searching, ease of navigation. The key questions: How authoritative is it? How accurate is it? What is the motive for providing the information? How current is it? How far back does it go? \ How easy is it to use? How useful is the site search? How would I attribute this? (If you have other criteria, add them.) These evaluations can be brief, but they must include all of the elements. Estimated time: One hour. Assignment Three: A short essay In his final chapter, "The Politics of Precision Journalism," Meyer raises privacy concerns, among others, especially in light of the use of computers to match records from databases that are public, but which previously were not connected to each other (e.g., drunken drivers and airline pilots). One word that is nowhere in Meyer's book: Internet. Write 300 words on the ways, if any, that the Internet changes this equation. Use a specific example of a database available on the Internet and how it might affect the questions raised by Meyer. (For an example, see the editorial column "Finding Out How the Neighbors are Faring," by Verlyn Klinkenborg, in The New York Times, Thursday, Jan. 24, 2002, about ewg.org's Farm Subsidy Database. But come up with your own specific example for your essay.) Estimated time: Two hours. Assignment Four: Web searching Read the Web searching tutorial at http://PowerReporting.com/altavista.html. Estimated time: One hour. Assignment Five: Web research A. Complete the treasure hunt at http://PowerReporting.com/treasure.html B. It's an open-book test, with hints and answers. C. Spend no more than 10 minutes on each question. (Well, No. 10 may take 20 minutes.) D. After you spend 10 minutes on a question, take five more minutes to write down what you did, what worked, what didn't work, what you wish you'd done differently, where you got stumped. E. Yes, Question 5 is a wild goose chase. F. Send me your answers, and with each answer your log of what went well, or didn't. Estimated time: Three hours. Assignment Six: Field experiment A. Review Meyer's Chapter 7, "Field Experiments." B. For inspiration, read the 411 story at http://PowerReporting.com/handouts/411.htm. C. Design and conduct a field experiment that is fun and interesting. Pick something that you can do in a single day. Put the results in a spreadsheet. Write a 500 word story on the pattern, and add a brief memo describing what you did, the limits of what you found, and what art you would use to illustrate the story. If you want to put all this together in a Word document or Web page, all the better, but that's not required. Estimated time: Eight hours. (That's the end of the first batch of assignments, an estimated 23 hours spread over three weeks. All work is due before the beginning of class on Friday, Feb. 15.) Assignment Seven: Analyzing public records you gather A. Choose three nonprofit organizations that are similar (three hospitals, three Girl Scouts councils, three private schools), and obtain their IRS 990 forms for at least the three latest years. This cannot be done solely on the Web; you'll have to ask the nonprofits for their latest 990 forms. Guidestar may not have the latest ones.) B. Create a spreadsheet for comparison of the finances of the nonprofits. Make calculations to compare them with each other, and change over time. C. Interview an official of at least one of the nonprofits about the finances. You may ask, for example, about the current year, for which a return may not have been filed yet. D. Write 1,000 words. This is a deadline story, not a long-term project. The story is not an encyclopedia entry; it should actually have a point; something happened to these nonprofits in the past three years; describe what happened and why. I understand it may be limited in scope, but the 990 gives you a lot to chew on. Explain in at least one paragraph the limits of what's available, what you know, what is unknown. E. In a note outside of the story, explain any difficulties or questions you had. F. Attach a copy of your spreadsheet to the e-mail with your story. Estimated time: 8 hours. Assignment Eight: Analyzing public records you download A. Import into Excel a copy of the Maryland records on drug searches at http://www.powerreporting.com/files/. B. Pretend that you're a reporter on deadline, and these records have just been released by the Maryland State Police for the past nine months. C. Read the AP stories at http://www.powerreporting.com/handouts/drugs.doc D. Explore the public records in Excel, answering these questions and any others that occur to you. Sort. Filter. Use the pivot table. What is the racial pattern of drug searches? How does the pattern by drug police differ from other police? What do we know about the causes of searches, and how they vary by race? What do we know about other factors? E. Read a Department of Justice publication, "A Resource Guide on Racial Profiling Data Collection Systems." F. Remember, we're suspending belief. The DOJ publication can be used as background on what has happened around the country, but you're writing an article on the Maryland records as if they were just released today. G. Now go back to the public records. What patterns do you find? What questions can you raise? H. Make a list of questions you would ask in an interview with the head of the Maryland state police. I. Oops, time's up. Although you haven't done that interview yet, and you still have unanswered questions, you are on deadline. Write 1,500 words. (That's the same length as the current AP article and sidebar combined.) Use facts and quotes from the AP story and sidebar, as well as anything else you find in the spreadsheet and in your own research. In other words, you and the AP author are teaming up, though he doesn't know it. (Sort of like the surviving Beatles issuing more John Lennon songs. If Mariah Carey did it, it would be plaigarism.) J. Write a nerd box, of at most three paragraphs, explaining what you did with the public records, and what the limitations are of the information. K. Write a short personal note offering any commentary you have on these records and your article, what else you'd do if you had more than a day to work on this story. Estimated time: 8 hours. (That's the end of the second batch of assignments, an estimated 16 hours spread over a bit more than two weeks. All work is due by the end of Tuesday, March 5.) Academic Integrity Your work must be your own. Do not pass the work of another off as your own. Do not make anything up. Journalists who cheat are fired. Students who cheat fail. Help If you're stuck, don't stay stuck for long. E-mail Bill Dedman for help. -30-