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The ability to background a person is an essential tool for journalists regardless of beat, as shown by news of Lennay Kekua, the deceased girlfriend of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o who never existed but became one of the prominent storylines in sports this year.
The fact that Kekua was a complete fabrication is a seemingly rare case, but it’s far from the first time someone in a news article wasn’t who they appeared to be. For instance, in September the Chicago Tribune reported that a well-regarded school teacher had fallen on hard times and was living in a homeless shelter -- a tale that prompted his former students to begin raising funds online for the teacher. But later that month, after further digging, the Tribune revealed in a follow-up story that the teacher had inherited $247,000 in 2007 and gambled away nearly $180,000.
Stories like that of Manti Te’o, however, do more than serve as a cautionary tale for journalists about why to background their subjects -- they raise questions about how and when it needs to be done. Neither Te’o nor Kekau were public officials or powerful businesspeople. Neither had been accused of a crime. The story was simply of a football player and his girlfriend. Yet at some point the story grew into a phenomenon and captured the nation, and all the while more and more of it didn’t add up.
So when the alarm bells start sounding, what is the best way to reconcile the facts? Even more important, before reasons for skepticism emerge, what preventative steps can journalists take?
Deadspin reporters established the nonexistence of Lennay Kekua through Nexis, a search that can be replicated through simple tools available to all journalists -- public records.
Backgrounding is a tool IRE’s members have been honing since its inception. For starters, the resource center has dozens of tipsheets on the topic and he NICAR Net Tour has a wealth of links from staff trainers and journalists now at ProPublica, The Center for Public Integrity and The New York Times, among others. A site run by former IRE Board member Duff Wilson, reporter.org, has the feature “Who is John Doe?” that has many links and tips for putting together a person’s history.
Whether you’re putting together an exhaustive background search or need to run quick checks on deadline, there are plenty of paid and free resources available. Here’s a sample, though there are many more at the resources linked above:
People finding
Remember that many of them base their numbers on the same regional telephone books. Most now include e-mail address look ups. But many of the databases are out of date.
Public records gateways
Many of these sites have limited free access to data and are really portals to pay searches from their Web sites. But four sites - the National Association of Secretaries of State, NETRonline, Public Record Finder and especially Search Systems - offer lots of free public access to records. More at the NICAR Net Tour.
The Invisible Web
The Invisible Web is made up of tons of information invisible to most search engines. That's because most of the information is stored in databases that cannot be accessed by the software search engines used to compile their indexes. Fortunately, there are a few sites that can help you get at this information. Some of these pull from social media sites, which wouldn’t help verify a fake profile, but can help in backgrounding other ways:
The votes are in and finalists for the NICAR 2013 T-shirt contest have been chosen. Proposals 8, 37, 48, 51 and 53 advanced to the second round of voting. Click here to review the finalists and cast your ballot for the winner. The one with the most votes will become the NICAR 2013 T-shirt. Voting will close Friday, Jan. 11.
Finalists
For those of you interested in getting started with mapping, we have great news: Esri is offering a free license to ArcGIS Desktop, a $1,500 value, for Louisville Conference attendees who attend the following four conference sessions:
Please note: Seating is limited and will be first come, first served. Attendees must be at all of the above sessions to receive the software. We also highly encourage attendees to go to any other mapping-related sessions at the conference.
Feel free to contact me at jaimi@ire.org with any questions.
Last weekend I flew to Phoenix for the IRE boot camp in statistics hosted at Arizona State University. Three days and 52 cups of coffee later, I can spot statistical significance. I can run a linear regression on a dependent and independent variable, and I might even be able to tell you what an R-Square value actually means – not only to a statistician, but to a journalist.
Statistics is not one of those things you master in three days of training, but here are the three most valuable takeaways from the weekend: A sense of what can be done, an inkling of how it might be done, and a desire to do it.
Related Resources
Tipsheets: Avoid statistical pitfalls
Examples of statistics-driven reporting
Cheating our Children, by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cracking the Codes, by The Center for Public Integrity
Decoding Prime, by California Watch
Methadone and the Politics of Pain, by The Seattle Times
Murder Mysteries, by Scripps Howard News Service
Presidential Pardons, by ProPublica
That last one is the tough one. Journalists hate math, right? Why do this?
The glory factor, for one. Statistics can produce great investigative stories (see the examples at right). And, sure, Pulitzer Prizes. And, don’t forget, you will look very smart to your superiors.
Statistical analyses can provide hard evidence to back up (or discredit) a theory: “do young women get fewer speeding tickets?” “Are minorities less likely than whites to be approved for a home loan, given equal income?” A well-designed analysis isn’t easily brushed off by authorities.
More importantly, there’s the reality factor. Statistics are everywhere, inescapable. I’d wager that you’ve already come across a statistic-based story today (unless reading the IRE blog is the first thing you do in the morning).
Most of us can’t turn linear regression into a story; although after last weekend’s training I know I could (with help) attempt it. But statistics are relevant if you cover:
If I haven’t convinced you of anything yet, listen to this: Steve Doig, Knight Chair in Journalism at ASU, recently helped a student analyze provisional ballots in Arizona based on the minority percentage of the 724 precincts. Their findings aren’t surprising: the more minority voters, the more provisional ballots were given. When confronted with this statistical reality, what did the state officials say? In effect, “leave the statistical analysis to the government, OK?”
Now, if that doesn’t make you want to run for the nearest copy of “Statistics for Dummies”, I don’t know what will.
So you're thinking about coming to the CAR Conference, but you're wondering, "Is this for me?"
Whether you're a reporter, editor, producer, developer, edcuator, blogger, student, etc., chances are your life has become increasingly electronic. To stay competitive in the workplace and continue to produce compelling journalism you are required, at some level, to interact with data.
No matter your job title or skill level, this conference can help you out. Read below to see what we have to offer, and stay tuned: In the coming months we'll post suggestions from veteran IRE members on making the most of the conference.
For those just starting out, we offer a solid foundation: What is data journalism and how can you get started. Reporters will come away with hands-on skills and plenty of story ideas to take back to the newsroom. We even offer a mini-boot camp to jumpstart your skils and get you on the right track.
For attendees who know their way around SQL and can duke it out with the toughest of PDF files, we offer next steps and additional tools.Dive deeper into mapping and data visualization, or learn a programming language and make your first news app.
For those at the next levels, we'll offer advanced sessions in mapping, data visualization, data science, machine learning and more.
For everyone, we promise plenty of ideas and a taste of what's possible. At no other conference will you find such an eclectic group of folks with these similar passions: data and excellent journalism. We hope to see you there.
Still not convinced? Feel free to contact me with more questions: jaimi@ire.org
By Megan Luther
African journalists face different reporting barriers than their colleagues in the U.S., yet they share the desire to learn investigative techniques.
IRE traveled to Johannesburg, South Africa at the end of October to train reporters at the annual Power Reporting: The African Investigative Journalism Conference.
More than 200 journalists attended the three-day conference, which included typical sessions such as hands-on Excel training, but also addressed the risks that some journalists face.
The Dangers
Freedom of the press takes on a different meaning in Africa. Journalists have been murdered, exiled and imprisoned for publishing the truth.
Somalia remains the most dangerous country on the continent for journalists. To date, 17 journalists have been murdered this year -- the deadliest on record in Somalia. A Somalian radio journalist died on Oct. 28 from gunshot wounds, according to Afrik-News.
At supper, a Nigerian journalist casually talks about having both legs broken and serving time in jail for his reports
In some countries, defamation is criminal and even if reports are true, journalists face jail time.
Amazingly, conference attendees are eager to learn the latest techniques on how to dig deeper and produce even more impactful investigative stories.
Open Records
The majority of countries in Africa do not have open records laws. Ten of the 54 have access to information laws, but like Western countries the key is that governments abide by the laws.
Impactful Investigations
One of the presenters was Ghana journalist Anas Ameyaw Anas, who is known for his undercover work. Anas wore a mask during his conference presentation about his latest investigation into a doctor performing abortions and raping his patients.
Anas went undercover and placed a hidden camera in the exam room.
The three-month investigation captured the doctor raping more than 50 patients, usually in the middle of the abortion.
Anas’ TV news story included graphic video of a blue bucket full of blood, close-ups of the womens' vaginas during the abortions and footage of the doctor raping his patients. The doctor was subsequently arrested.
There is some great investigative work being done on the continent. From a free-trade cocoa investigation to an in-depth look into Somali pirates, the investigations have world-wide impact. With such talented journalists learning even more investigative techniques last month, it’s an area to watch.
In the wake of Sandy's destruction, countless efforts will be made to help victims. Already, ABC/Disney has designated a "Day of giving," the National Football League and it's players association has pledged $1 million to the Red Cross and iTunes is directly accepting donations.
Countless calls will be made for the public to donate to charities large and small. Reporters can investigate charities to analyze their past performance. They can also arm the public with knowledge by instructing them in ways they can check out who they are donating money to before it leaves their pockets.
These tipsheets will help you get started:
In "Investigating nonprofits," John Martin of The Tampa Bay Times offers advice for tracking down information on nonprofits.
Ron Campbell of The Orange County Register gives a line-by-line overview of what reporters can find hidden in a form 990 in "Digging in to nonprofits."
Check out the rest of our nonprofits tipsheets for more advice and story ideas, see all of our coverage for investigating the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
From the art of the interview to “Facebook creeping,” we learned many invaluable investigative tools at IRE’s Scranton Watchdog Workshop.
During the day-long event, various expert investigative journalists taught the tricks and techniques needed when hunting down a good story.
Tisha Thompson from WRC-Washington had many tips for crafting a strong interview during her one-hour presentation. Ms. Thompson drew from her experience in the field to outline how journalists should handle their various interviewees—detailing how a journalist should interact with victims, criminals and everyone in between. Ms. Thompson said when interviewing both “bad guys” and victims, she always makes sure to ask a question to get her interviewee fired up. I decided to try this technique myself, and like Ms. Thompson said, it always results in a passionate response that makes a great quote or sound byte. Ms. Thompson’s presentation taught me that it is possible to ask the tough questions while still being respectful to the interviewee.
In his presentation on records searches, IRE’s Mark Horvit taught us that much of the information an investigative journalist needs is out there on the internet—we just need to know where to look for it. Mr. Horvit had many tips for searching public records to locate a source’s contact information. Mr. Horvit’s presentation revealed that an “unlisted number” is not too hard to find, and that simple government forms—even dog license forms—can be invaluable tools to find the phone number or address of a source. Mr. Horvit also spoke of the value of flight records, store rewards program applications and Google’s sometimes hidden advanced search feature.
It was fascinating to learn about the many resources we have to track down sources. In addition to public records searches, social media can be a valuable resource when trying to locate and background sources. During his social media presentation, Doug Haddix of The Kiplinger Program introduced the audience to many obscure websites that can be used to both locate individuals on social media and search through their posts. With these tools, an investigative journalist can background someone in seconds using information posted on sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
I know my interviewing and investigative skills will improve with the new tips and tricks I learned at the Scranton Watchdog Workshop. The techniques I learned from IRE are things that cannot be found in a textbook—these are tricks that only seasoned investigative reporters would know. IRE’s Watchdog Workshop certainly gives attending journalists a leg up on the competition.
The journalists who attend the Computer-Assisted Reporting Conference do many things for their newsrooms: They analyze data, build websites, write stories, scrape and acquire records.
To honor this work, the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting will sell a T-shirt celebrating the data geek in us all, and you'll help design it. Proceeds from the shirt will help raise funds for future NICAR training events.
For CAR 2012, you regaled us with your designs, SQL and puns. It was an epic competition, but two T-shirts rule them all. We're opening the competition once again - what will you think of next?
We’ll accept T-shirt ideas through the month of November. Designs will be posted online as we get them. Members will be able to vote on the new T-shirt in early December. In addition to bragging rights, the creator of the winning T gets a free shirt and $50 in the IRE Store. The winning design will be on sale at the 2013 CAR Conference in Louisville, future training events and the IRE store.
All ideas are welcome, from a simple yet classic design with NICAR on it to bad SQL puns (SELECT * FROM tshirts WHERE tshirts.thisone = “Awesome”). There are only a few guidelines:
Have just the germ of an idea? Send in the text to us. Have a full-fledged graphical display to share? We’ll take JPGs, GIFs, PDFs or any other format you can come up with. So think up something great and send your suggestions to Jaimi Dowdell at Jaimi@ire.org or Tony Schick at Tony@ire.org.
NICAR, a program of IRE and the Missouri School of Journalism, was founded in 1989 and has trained thousands of journalists in the practical skills of finding, prying loose and analyzing electronic information.
For more than a year, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has been investigating prescription drugs and the dangerous side effects of using opioids ot treat chronic pain. The latest installment of the series tracks the lives of chronic pain sufferers who praised the drug in a 1998 promotional video.
Gabler (who is also an IRE Board member) and Fauber shared some details on the reporting with IRE via email:
Where did the idea for the reporting come from?
"The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel began doing stories on the opioid epidemic as part of its ongoing Side Effects series in early 2011. So far, there have been four pieces. All of the stories involve conflicts of interest and focus on how pharmaceutical industry money has influenced the practice of medicine. A couple of the story ideas came from tips and a couple came from information that was discovered in the course of reporting."
What was the most interesting part of the reporting process?
"It was fascinating to track down the seven patients in this story and dig into what really happened to them. It was also important to explain how one video and the claims made in it related to the larger issue of the opioid epidemic in the U.S."
In order to get them to agree to interviews, we stressed the importance of informing the public about this issue. Eventually, we agreed to use only first names of three of the people."
We also used police reports and autopsy reports to find out more about the people who died. Tons of information is held in these reports, such as specific medication people were taking, the cause of their death, medical histories and family members’ contact information. It can sometimes be difficult to determine which medical examiners’ office, police department or sheriff’s department handled a case but you just have to keep calling around until you figure it out.
We also used reports from the Government Accountability Office, articles published in medical journals, and historical drug sales data provided by IMS Health." [a global provider of information, services and technology to the health care industry]
What tools did you use to organize your documents and data?
"Nothing fancy – mostly just Google documents. It was helpful to have a central location for interviews because two people worked on the project."
How did you locate your sources?
"We used various people-finding software or Web sites. Some people were easy to find – through Whitepages or a basic search. Others were more difficult and had to be tracked down through public records and more sophisticated software like Nexis or TLO, which link to possible family members. Finally, in some cases, family members’ contact information was listed in police reports."
After this experience, what advice can you offer fellow investigative reporters?
"This story is a good example of combining strong human interest elements with solid medical reporting. In addition to telling what happened to people in the video, we also paid a lot of attention to some of the myths and unsubstantiated claims that have been made about the safety and effectiveness of opioids as a treatment for long-term chronic pain.
For this story as well as our other opioid stories, the reporting pointed out financial relationships between drug companies and doctors, pain organizations and medical schools. In particular, we wanted to show how those relationships have affected the practice of medicine, sometimes to the detriment of patients."
What do you hope will change as a result of your reporting?
"The goal, as always, is to simply further inform people about this issue and help explain the dangers of these drugs."
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