Stabile Seminar

The empirical spine of investigative reporting

Syllabus    Weekly schedule   Handouts / Resources

Before clases

Reading

Note: We're putting off having you read the second story, since it proved a little harder to get than we'd expected.

Watch the narrated slide show on finding and negotiating for electronic public records and review the materials in the Resources section below.

Due Sunday at 5pm: Using strategies you learned in the video and the handouts, explore a state, city or federal agency website of your choosing and write a public records request for a database you might want. It might be a database that is suggested by statistical reports, a dataset that is only partly released on the Web, or one that is kept because of regulation or law. Be sure to review that actual public records law of the jurisdiction you choose before you write your letter. Post lots of questions on Piazza. This will be hard.

In class

Resources

You may have already seen some of these resources in your regular investigative reporting work. Skim them again and focus this time on how to request records in their native, digital form as a database or data dump.

Don't miss this

Be sure to read the interview with David Fallis from the January AJR "The Story Behind the Post's Investigation on Guns" regarding his negotiation for records.

Strategies for finding and negotiating for records
Examples and legal resources
Selecting a topic for your story memo (repeat from last week)