Backgrounding Investigating Abuse Fact-Checking New tools to boost your research into Two data-driven stories shed light on A step-by-step guide to make your work people and companies abuse behind closed doors bulletproof The Investigative Reporters & Editors Journal FOURTH QUaRTeR 2018 COVERING GUNS CRIME • PUBLIC HEALTH • MASS SHOOTINGS KNOW FIRST. ACT FASTER. Newsrooms around the “If it’s a world use Dataminr to breaking find stories that matter story, nine times out of most and bring them to 10 we see it audiences first. on Dataminr before we see it anywhere else.” Learn more: dataminr.com/news 2 The IRE Journal IRE Journal FOURTH QUARTER 2018 2 Director’s Note Unity after a turbulent year 3 IRE News + Ask IRE Data diaries, fellowships and training news 4 Investigator’s Toolbox Backgrounding people and companies 6 Data Dive REPORTING ON GUNS Shedding light on abuse behind closed doors 8 Show Your Work The ultimate fact- Collected Public health items of checking workflow Guns and dementia 14 a teen deemed a 10 Florida's youngest shooting victims 18 potential Under occupation threat to A Q&A with Valentyna his school. Samar of Ukraine’s BETH Center for Investigative Mass shootings NAKAMURA/ THE Reporting OREGONIAN/ Preventing mass shooting contagion 22 OREGONLIVE 12 Stopping the next school shooter 24 Distributed data Newsrooms team up to The Basics purchase voter data A journalist’s guide to gun terminology 30 36 FOI Files New digital tools for Crime finding data to request Tracing stolen guns across America 33 37 Collected Wisdom Small newsrooms can produce big stories Fourth Quarter 2018 1 DIRECTOR’S NOTE MASTHEAD VOL. 41 | NO. 4 MANAGING EDITOR After a turbulent year, Sarah Hutchins ART DIRECTOR Larry Buchanan united we rise CONTRIBUTING LEGAL EDITOR Sam Terilli t’s been a turbulent year for the “enemies of the people.” EDITORIAL ASSOCIATES Alexis Allison, Nancy Coleman, Claire Mitzel The president keeps ramping up his rhetoric against journalists and his cynical marketing cam- paign against truth. State and local officials feel more IRE Iemboldened to attack the news media and withhold public IRE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR information. Most news companies keep cutting jobs. Doug Haddix Then came Annapolis. The horrific mass shooting in June BOARD OF DIRECTORS PRESIDENT killed five Capital Gazette Communications employees and Cheryl W. Thompson, Doug Haddix The George Washington University injured two others. After the initial shock, journalists began Executive VICE PRESIDENT wondering how they could help. An attack on one journalist, Director of IRE Lee Zurik, WVUE-TV after all, is an attack on all journalists. and NICAR In cooperation with the newspaper’s owner, The Baltimore TREASURER T. Christian Miller, ProPublica Sun Media Group, IRE put out a call for help. In less than 24 [email protected], SECRETARY hours, nearly 400 journalists answered. 573-882-1984 or Jill Riepenhoff, Raycom Media Reading the responses was humbling and inspirational: on Twitter • “I'm being laid off Aug. 12, and would love to be of ser- @DougHaddix EXECUTIVE MEMBER Nicole Vap, KUSA-TV vice for that week.” • “If you could use people to cover high school football EXECUTIVE MEMBER games once they start, or any nighttime sporting events, I Matt Goldberg, NBCUniversal would be honored to do that if that would in any way meet your needs.” OTHER BOARD MEMBERS • “I'm a special projects producer at a local television sta- Matt Apuzzo, The New York Times tion. I can conduct interviews, write, help find stories, Ziva Branstetter, The Washington Post whatever you need. I can also sit and answer the phone, Matt Dempsey, Houston Chronicle listen to scanner traffic, whatever you need.” Jennifer LaFleur, Investigative Reporting Workshop/American University • “I can come help organize filing cabinets if that’s what’s Steven Rich, The Washington Post necessary — I’m young and here to help.” Norberto Santana Jr., Voice of OC Journalists across America raised their hands to help. They Jodi Upton, Syracuse University came from newspapers, TV stations, major networks, maga- zines, nonprofit news centers and other news organizations. Professors stepped forward, as did college journalism stu- The IRE Journal (ISSN0164-7016) is published four times dents, freelancers, retirees and unemployed journalists. a year (Feb., May, Aug., Nov.) by Investigative Reporters “ We were joined by old colleagues and new friends, help- & Editors, Missouri School of Journalism, 141 Neff Annex, Columbia, MO 65211-0001. Periodicals postage ing out both in our temporary Annapolis newsroom and at paid at Columbia, MO and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to The IRE The Baltimore Sun as they loaned us staff members to get Journal, Missouri School of Journalism, 141 Neff Annex, through the summer,” said Capital Gazette Communications Columbia, MO 65211-0001. editor Rick Hutzell. “ We owe a debt of gratitude bigger than U.S. subscriptions are $70 for individuals, $85 for libraries and $125 for institutions/businesses. International we’ll ever be able to repay. All I can say is thank you to every- subscriptions are $90 for individuals and $150 for all others. Contact: 573-882-2042. Email: [email protected]. one who helped out, and all those who offered. It meant more than you’ll ever know to everyone here.” © 2018 Investigative Reporters & Editors, Inc. I always marvel at how hard journalists work. They perse- vere amid shouts and insults and threats to themselves and their newsrooms. As the year comes to a close, I thank you for your hard Contact IRE work, dedication and passion — all in service of delivering [email protected] truth to the people. w 573-882-2042 2 The IRE Journal ASK IRE IRE NEWS Q: What is a data Members’ donations lead to diary, and why should I new fellowship for journalists of color use one? A new yearlong fellowship seeks to increase the range of backgrounds, experiences and interests within the field of investigative journalism, where di- verse perspectives are critically important. A: Get in the habit The IRE Journalist of Color Investigative Reporting Fellowship is made possible thanks to generous do- nations from IRE members Mike Gruss, Meghan Hoy- of writing a data diary er, Megan Luther and Mike Tahani. “ We’re grateful to several IRE members who are on every project, passionate about making a tangible difference in the professional development of journalists of color,” even smaller ones. IRE Executive Director Doug Haddix said. “Their in- vestment will enable a talented journalist to receive a A data diary is a document that details where full slate of IRE and NICAR training. At the end of the and when you got the data you’re working with, year, the fellow will be better positioned to produce the steps you took to clean or reformat it, and spe- even better journalism with high impact.” cific analysis steps, including your Excel process, The first fellow will begin in January 2019. code snippets or SQL queries. Also use it to write Learn more at bit.ly/reportingfellowship. down any interesting results, questions or story ideas that come up during your analysis, so you can remember them later. 10 newsrooms receive free You can see an example of a data diary at bit. Total Newsroom Training ly/IREdatadiary, thanks to member Christian Mc- Donald of the Austin American-Statesman. Ten newsrooms have been chosen to receive custom If you’re a programmer, tools such as coding watchdog training through IRE’s Total Newsroom Training notebooks make this easier, but you can also use program. a text file or Google Doc — whatever you are com- TNT provides two days of intensive, in-house training for fortable with in your workflow. small and medium-sized newsrooms dedicated to watch- A data diary is useful for several reasons: dog journalism. This is the sixth year IRE has offered the free Organization: Data projects often have many program, which is supported through a grant. moving parts, and your diary will help you stay on The following newsrooms were chosen from more than 40 track. It will also mark your place. If you set aside applications: Boise Public Radio (Boise, Idaho); The Dai- a project for a few days, or even just for lunch, ly Item (Sunbury, Pennsylvania); WREG News Channel 3 you’ll remember where you were and what you’ve (Memphis, Tennessee); Mississippi Today (Ridgeland, Mis- done. sissippi); KKTV 11 News (Colorado Springs, Colorado); The Replication: Before you publish, you’ll want News Journal / delawareonline.com (Wilmington, Dela- to show your work to someone else. The diary will ware); KTLM Telemundo 40 (McAllen, Texas); KXAN (Aus- be their guide to making sure your methodology, tin, Texas); NPR Utah/KUER (Salt Lake City, Utah); The queries and steps were all sound. Fayetteville Observer (Fayetteville, North Carolina). Transparency: You do not want your data Learn more at bit.ly/tnt-2018. analysis to be a black box for your audience. The diary can help you write, in plain terms, an expla- CORRECTION nation of where you got the data, the assumptions you made, analysis steps and important caveats. The Second Quarter 2018 article “The Art and Science of Uncertainty” mischaracterized comments by Mark Denise Malan, Schleifstein of The Times-Picayune. A corrected version Senior Training Director has been uploaded to the IRE website. Fourth Quarter 2018 3 INVESTIGATOR’S TOOLBOX By Claire Mitzel, IRE & NICAR Does your reporting toolkit need an update? We’ve rounded up a dozen resources for researching people and companies. Backgrounding This grassroots website is like Wikipedia meets LinkedIn. Add, view or edit PEOPLE Free LittleSis profiles of public figures and see whom people are connected to through littlesis.org relationships and organizations. View their biography, positions held and +1 from campaign contributions made or received.