The Centre for Investigative Journalism

How to select computer-assisted reporting classes

Computer-assisted reporting remains one of the biggest advances in the past 20 years for doing better investigative reporting. This year’s Summer School will again offer hands-on sessions to help you develop and improve your CAR skills and learn to use CAR on more of your own stories. Below is what you need to know to make sure you choose classes that fit your needs and skill level.

Hands-on: Each hands-on session is open to 20 participants on a first- come, first-served basis. Therefore, it’s best to sign up in advance for the sessions you want. In these courses, you’ll use data from the UK, while you learn spreadsheets, database managers and other software for your analysis. By the end of the Summer School, you can return to your news organisation with story ideas and computer-assisted reporting skills that you can apply immediately.

Demos: Many of the newest, more advanced computer-assisted reporting skills are allowing us to find stories we might otherwise miss.
See how statistics, mapping, open-source software, social network analysis and Web 2.0 tools can expand your CAR skills. While the sessions in a demo will not be hands on, you’ll still learn how these tools are expanding the reach of investigative reporting.

The CAR classes are offered at two levels, beginner and advanced, marked “B” and “A,” respectively. Here are the skills instructors will assume participants have to benefit from sessions at the two levels.

Beginner (B): No computer-assisted reporting skills are needed to begin these courses. You should be comfortable with Windows, using a mouse, etc. The Excel and Access courses are sequenced, however, so participants should not take Excel 2 without completing Excel 1, nor Access 2 without completing Access 1.

Advanced (A): You should have familiarity with using spreadsheets and database managers and analysing databases of government documents and records to hunt for story ideas. Also, instructors will assume you have effective and efficient online search skills. Completing the beginner courses during the Summer School will prepare you for any of the advanced classes.

The Courses

Internet searching: Google and beyond (B), hands on Google is a powerful search tool, but most people only use a fraction of what is possible. You will be introduced to a number of Google’s more advanced features. You will see where the features are used and how to combine them — that's important when we want to find what we are looking for rapidly and efficiently.

Web detective (B), hands on The internet grows old. Websites and web services turn up and disappear quickly, and the challenge today is often to find something (or the remains of something) that disappeared a long time ago. Another challenge is to use the findings as input in our continued hunt until we have enough to see a full picture.

This track may not be as sexy as The Da Vinci Code, but you'll get a chance to get in contact with your inner Robert Langdon.

Data mining (B), hands on The web is flooding with data, but before we can calculate or analyse anathing we need to transfer the data to our computer. Here, you will be introduces to different ways of doing that. We will extract data from web pages and pdf files. We’ll work with Microsoft Excel to do this, and we’ll see demos of the use of advanced web scraping.

Social network analysis (A), demo When journalists look at groups, we often notice how they differ from the rest of the society in terms of sex, age, income level, etc. The course introduces the use of methods that enable us to examine the social structure inside a group — and the social structure between the group and the society. Suddenly it is possible for a reporter to describe who has the most powerful connections in a community or how business boards are connected through interlocking directorships.

Excel 1 (B), hands on Data are nearly everywhere these days – from government computers to websites. This course introduces data analysis using a spreadsheet such as Microsoft Excel. Spreadsheets will help reporters find investigative story tips in those data.
Participants will learn basic calculations, rates, ratios and other analytic tools that generate story ideas.

Excel 2 (B), hands on The second spreadsheet course covers built-in analytical tools, such as sorting, filtering, chart creation and others, that help reporters find great story tips in databases — even on deadline.

Using stats for stories (A), demo
Reporters using sophisticated statistical analysis of public data have broken many big stories. You will be introduced to statistical analysis for finding story tips from patterns in public data. It will demonstrate, using SPSS software, the power behind cross-tabulations and regression analysis, while introducing the concept of statistical significance.

Excel 3 (A), hands on Statistical analysis that produces good story tips does not have to be done with statistical software. Reporters comfortable with spreadsheets will find that many stats can be done using Excel. This session takes participants through cross-tabulations and regression analysis using a spreadsheet, and shows how reporters find stories with these techniques.

Mapping for stories (A), demo Mapping as a reporting tool is exploding on new websites. This session will introduce you to geographical information systems that produce statistical maps and other visualizations. You’ll see a demonstration of mapping software such as ESRI ArcView.

Examples show how GIS can maps data to find story ideas in demographics, crime and other topics.

Access 1: understanding databases (B), hands-on Spreadsheets are a great way to get started with CAR. But what happens when that dataset gets a little too big, or your analysis too complex? That’s when it’s time to move to a database manager like Microsoft Access. This class will introduce the basics of working with databases, including basic queries, filtering and sorting.

Access 2: needle in the haystack; summarizing (B), hands-on The second Access course continues by introducing more complex analytical tools and techniques. The session will cover grouping, counting, summing and other aggregate functions.

Web 2.0 (A), demo The web is a powerful tool for communication, organisation and collaboration. You will cover some of the newest tools, including wikis, RSS, web frameworks and other web-based technologies. The session will show how they can be used to make your newsroom smarter.

Access 3: Joins and deeper analysis (A), hands-on Basic analytical techniques only go so far when you have multiple datasets to work with. The third class in the database series introduces joins — the real power of relational databases. In this session, you will learn how to take multiple tables of data and stitch them together to find hidden gems that make a great story.