Upcoming Workshops
| Panel on police misinformation | Online | September 2020 |
| Hacks/Hackers Media Party | Online | September 2020 |
| IRE 2020 | Online | September 2020 |
| Raleigh News and Observer | Online | November 2020 |
Online Tutorials
Scraping without Programming
"Scraping" is a catch-all word for grabbing information off a web page and into your spreadsheet - whether the website wants you to or not.
This tutorial is also available in Chinese and as a video on NICAR-LEARN.
How to Learn Excel
Excel, or spreadsheets in general, offers an easy and popular platform for data analysis.
This guide was published as part of an education series by US News.
How to Learn SQL
If you work with data but find programs like Excel too limiting, learning SQL may be the next step on your data journey.
This guide was published as part of an education series by US News.
How to Use a Spreadsheet
You've probably heard that you should use data for reporting, and here is where to start! We'll do some basic data analysis using Google Sheets.
This tutorial was originally presented at the Boston University Data + Narrative seminar.
Backgrounding: Why? How?
When should you background a source? How do you do it effectively, and how deep do you go? This walkthrough offers some guidance.
This webinar was created for the University of Missouri Investigative Reporting class in 2020.
Make Your Own Google Map
Did you know you can make your own Google Map - in 5 to 10 minutes? This tutorial shows you how, plus advanced options like customization and data organization.
This guide was created for the Boston University Data + Narrative workshop.
Research tiers for freelance investigations
A guide to maximize success and minimize risk for freelancers. Use this system of tiers to decide whether to pursue an investigation.
This article is also available as a presentation from NICAR.
Unlocking Data from Documents
It's a pain: you get a document, and often it's got words or data in it that you can't get out! This tutorial introduces you to several powerful tools for scraping, OCRing and text cleaning thousands or even millions of documents.
Best tools and apps for reporters (2018)
Reporters are asked to do more now than they were before the digital age, but luckily, there is an almost limitless supply of tools with which to do them. Some of our favorite tools for transcribing audio, scraping PDFs and everything in between.
This talk is also available as slides from IRE.
Threat Modeling against Fake News
Misinformation is a growing force in the digital-first world of journalism, and a source of some panic from reporters and audiences alike. This talk from 2017 outlines a few paths forward, including making attempts to understand the motivation behind fake news-spreaders.
This talk is also available as a video from BalCCon.
What to look for in deep fake videos
"Deep fakes" are videos that have been edited to show someone's head on the wrong person's body - mouth, words and all. This holds deep potential for misinformation in a few different ways, and unfortunately, defensive technology is far from catching up. Here is what reporters can do in the meantime.
How to start doing data journalism
Most, if not all, newsrooms have realized that they want data in their reporting. But how do you go about it when your staff is already overworked? This strategy study examines case studies, both successful and unsuccessful.
This paper has been recommended by the Harvard Shorenstein Center and the Knight Digital Media Center.
Covering crimes on campus
University campuses provide a unique hunting ground for investigative stories. This tipsheet explains some of the most common and accessible sources for breaking in to these closed communities, including CLERY reports, Title IX complaints, FERPA exceptions and FBI UCR statistics.
Warning: this tipsheet was published in 2014 and may be out of date.