The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. Add to that more than 3,000 tipsheets from our national conferences on how to cover specific beats or do specific stories and you have a resource that no reporter or editor should be without. These stories and tipsheets are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Logged-in members can view the tipsheets free online:
Search results for "journalism and government" ...
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Inside baseball: What data journalism can learn from sports
This panel will identify areas for data journalism exploration by examining the current state-of-the-art baseball data analysis. Sports are the original form of data journalism -- box scores predate open government movements by about a century. And Joseph Adler's "Baseball Hacks" trained newbie Web CAR reporters how to scrape and analyze data sets using Perl and MySQL. Finally, sports analytics are a leading indicator for other kinds of analysis. Sensors, economic analysis, leverage are all de rigeur in baseball but still up-and-coming in data journalism. We'll take the concepts being used to analyze baseball, football, soccer and apply them to standard data journalism chores.
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Waste investigations for any community
Get tips on how to investigate government in terms of who gets audited, what data sets are available and see how that information can lead to local news stories.
Tags: Government; government agencies; fraud; investigation;
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Contacts, Strategies and resources for Border and Immigration Coverage
Olsen provides an extensive lists of resources for covering issues related to immigration - including US Government sites/data, Mexican nonprofit organizations, key journalism sites, think tanks, lawyers, and much more
Tags: immigration; human rights; boarder patrol; boarder states; crime statistics; legal issues; immigrants; immigration studies
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Government Waste Initiative
McIntosh addresses the collaborative efforts of the Journal-Constitution, WBS-TV and WBS Radio to cover "questionable government spending, inefficiency and waste." She outlines the documents and public records a reporter should mine when covering the topic of government waste. She also outlines some reporting routines that our beneficial when covering government.
Tags: government waste; public records; budgets; audits; bond issues; expense reports; expense records; lawsuits; salary records; RFPs; RFQs
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Following the Stimulus Money
Poston and Grabell give links to and information on several sites that can assist you in reporting on and tracking stimulus funds
Tags: Recovery act; stimulus; government spending; federal procurement data; transportation; infrastructure
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Quick-hit watchdog stories: Where to find them
Sforza describes the documents to ask for so journalists can "an eye on those holding the public trust and how they’re spending our money." Making a habit of gathering this material will provide a constant stream of stories at your fingertips.
Tags: public trust; watchdog journalism; local government; public records; records requests; FOIA;
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Starting in the Neighborhood
Hall describes how to build a network of sources, and dig into data and reports, and examine the performance of local government. He talks about proactive reporting through attending public meetings and meeting people.
Tags: sources; public meetings; data; FOIA; public records; beats; statistics; interviewing
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Telling the big story and making a difference: Focus on Government Pensions
Six steps to find a story about government pensions. This includes how to gather information even when the pensions are private and useful Web sites for expert help.
Tags: government; local; pension; retirement; benefits
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Public Information 101: How to obtain public records to hold government accountable
A short tipsheet on the Freedom of Information Act as it applies to federal agencies. Hall also includes details about the Illinois Freedom of Information Act and 10 survival tips for journalists.
Tags: FOIA; Illinois; watchdog; government; state government; federal government; agencies
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Investigating Public Health Agencies & Programs
The author discusses how to investigate public health agencies. She includes advice for reporting in crisis situations, as well as story ideas for enterprise pieces about the agencies. The tipsheet includes sources for covering notifiable diseases in your area, bioterrorism funds, lab safety, and lab animal welfare.
Tags: public health; local government; state government; CDC; MMWR; story ideas; beat reporting