Investigating Local Government: Taking It Back Home

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Investigating Local GovernmentTaking It Back
Home

• David Donald
• IRE and NICAR

Natalya Shulyakovskaya The Orange County
Register
Western Knight Center, April 23, 2005
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Summary

• Basic tools
• Types of stories
• Story ideas
• Getting started
• Managing and juggling
• Cultivating editors
• Keep growing

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Basic Tools

• Online - The Web, commercial databases.
• Documents and data in-house.
• Books from the profession.
• The Spreadsheet.
• The Database Manager.

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Kinds of stories

• The incremental investigation.
• Working with data, start small.
• Do features first, get comfortable with handling
  data.
• Breaking news whats the next day story pitch
  to editors and peers.
• Keep key documents and databases on hand to be
  ready.

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Story ideas

• Budget trends.
• Infrastructure.
• Critical bids.
• Audits.
• Inspections.
• Business and pet registrations.
• Add two or three of your own ideas and keep it
  running a tickler file.

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Getting started

• Always think and then communicate (at the
  appropriate time) minimum story.
• Keep promises to editors.
• Dont over promise.
• Look to add context for other stories to build
  editor enthusiasm.
• Comparisons and trends are almost always stories.
• Think incremental at first.

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Managing and juggling

• Organize your mind.
• Break work into small, undaunting tasks.
• Keep a running log, maybe in Excel, of your
  tasks.
• Dont promise results too fast be realistic and
  then maybe pad it.
• Reliability is key.

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Cultivating editors

• Again, always think minimum story for your
  editor.
• Think positively there is no bad editor, only
  misused editors.
• Know your editor and manage up by anticipating
  responses and needs.
• If you have to use the buzz words, use them.
• Believe in coaching and journalism as a
  cooperative endeavor.

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Interlude

• Stay sane.
• Keep perspective.
• Develop a hobby.
• This is not a sprint.

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Keep growing

• Cross pollinate.
• Read widely.
• Taking classes professional workshops to local
  universities.
• Study yourself identify your weaknesses and
  deal with them.
• Join a support group writers group,
  professional organizations, listservs, and

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It can begin here
http//www.ire.org
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Promise yourself now

• Make two copies of the following
• List three small tasks to accomplish on Monday.
• List an objective for the first week back.
• Write one goal from the seminar.
• Keep one, give me one.