In keeping with the idea that journalists must learn technology and not rely on tech people without journalism training, I’d like to highlight a good resource to teach students computer-assisted reporting skills. Who knows, it could spark a student’s interest in becoming a programmer like these journalists that Texas State University Professor Cindy Royal wrote about in a paper she presented at the International Symposium in Online Journalism.
Now, I wouldn’t expect most high school students to teach themselves programming, although it’d be a good idea to make friends with the computer science teacher and make a pitch to those students to find any who might be interested in journalism, too.
The most I’m hoping for is to teach students a foundation in computer-assisted reporting, which is exactly what it sounds like, basically using computers for reporting, but more commonly described as the practice of analyzing data to find stories and facts to back up old-fashioned, shoe-leather reporting.
Where to start?
The National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR) has hundreds (maybe thousands) of tipsheets available to members (which also gets you access to all of the tipsheets and resources available to members of Investigative Reporters and Editors). Both groups also offer trainings and cool sessions at annual conferences.
I spent a year or so as a data analyst in the NICAR database library while a grad student at the University of Missouri. While it’s safe to say I’ll never be a programmer like the folks Royal studied, the skills I learned there helped me immensely as a reporter and created a healthy love and appreciation for data and open records.
I’m putting together a unit on computer-assisted reporting, and I’ll post the resources and links for it this summer.
In the meantime, check out Royal’s slideshow from her presentation above, and her blog post on puzzling comments she received back on the paper from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. The Nieman Journalism Lab also did a write-up on her study. High school would be a great time to introduce students to the possibilities of marrying journalism with programming and would practically guarantee them jobs and internships. Can’t argue with that.
