Investigative Reporting on the Beat

IRE and SPJ April 9-10, 2005

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 033 Carroll Hall

Host: School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

SPECIAL THANKS to the Chicago Tribune Foundation, the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation and the Sigma Delta Chi Foundation of the Society of Professional Journalists for helping underwrite these events.

Saturday:

This workshop is intended to help those journalists at small- to medium-sized news organizations -- and those in bureaus of larger organizations -- to learn the investigative skills that keep government and business accountable and to produce enterprising and informative stories. Critical among the skills is the ability to use federal and state FOI laws to open the doors to public information.

Sunday:

Computer-Assisted Reporting Training (two classes will be offered)

Introductory: Attend this hands-on workshop and learn how to use Excel, a powerful electronic spreadsheet, for deadline reporting. Also learn how to dig deeper using the Internet.

Intermediate: If you can comfortably move around, write formulas and import information into a spreadsheet, this is the session for you. This hands-on workshop will help reporters use Microsoft Access to delve into databases for more in-depth stories. The session will cover: querying a database, summing and sorting information and importing info into a database.

Schedule: www.ire.org/training/betterwatchdog/chapelhillSched.html