Investigative

One of our top First Amendment duties is to root out fraud, corruption and waste — among governments, companies, charities and powerful individuals. Learn how to add an investigative edge to all you do.

Getting sources and maintaining them is half the job. Learn how diversifying sources and why it’s important, how to approach the people you need to know on your beat and how to build mutually rewarding connections with sources.

 

IMPACT Tracker 201

Learn what you can do now to design your journalism for greater impact, whether you’re leading a newsroom, reporting, taking pictures or planning a launch strategy. Featuring a team led by Anjanette Delgado of Detroit Free Press.

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    • The Business of Covering Food and Restaurants

    Tips for searching and finding data in coverage of the food and restaurant industry.

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    • Focus on Your Writing: Writing With Data by Mike Reilley

    Writing with numbers isn’t easy. The best data-driven stories don’t read like data stories. They focus on the humans, those impacted by the data and the issues.

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    • Google Earth Studio

    Learn how to use Google Earth Studio, Google Earth Pro, Google Earth Timelapse and Earth Measure Tool with training by author and data journalism expert Mike Reilley.

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    • Microsoft Excel 05 – What if

    The more data you have, the more questions you will have about it, and the more answers it can provide. Excel has a variety of conditional formulas that let you evaluate subsets of your data to find the stories to tell: If…Then formulas; Conditional Functions; XLOOKUP; Array Functions.

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    • Foundations of data journalism – Scraping

    Data scraping web pages with Google sheets, scraping PDFs with Tabula and PDFtoExcel. Build graphics with Flourish Studio. We’ll also explore how to scrape data from a photograph using Excel.

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    • Microsoft Excel 04 — Pivot tables

    Pivot table are the simple solution for some, and a rare kind of magic to others. In this session, we’ll demystify pivot tables and show you how you can use them to simplify your analysis and give you more options than ever in how you extract your story.

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    • Business tools and investigating companies

    Learn how to scrape real-time and historical stock data from Google Finance into a Google Sheet and track it. It’s useful for anyone covering a specific industry or company.

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    • Microsoft Excel 03 — Top of the charts

    Numbers gives us the facts, but images tell us the story. In this session, we’ll show you how to create charts from your data, leverage Excel’s suggestions, modify them to […]

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    • Investigating Nonprofits

    Learn how to read a Form 990 and where/how to go about obtaining these documents to track how money flows through non-profit organizations. We’ll also look at other tools for researching charities and also government agencies that investigate them.

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    • Microsoft Excel 02 – Fill it out

    In this session, we’ll explore how Excel helps you add data in a flash. We’ll explore new data types that pull information from the internet and help you spot the important stuff at a glance: Conditional Formatting; Auto Fill; Flash Fill; Geography and Stock Data Types; Leveraging Tables for Expanding Data Sets  

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    • Excel 01 – Welcome to Excel

    In this session we’ll start at A1 and introduce you to the basics of Excel, how it’s structured, and how to get around in it. We’ll show you how you can start using formulas to take Excel beyond just a list of stuff.

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    • Data visualization: Datawrapper 301

    A deep dive on building choropleth and location maps. In 75 minutes we will build three maps, based on both US and global data. We will work on a more advanced chart and focus more on adding tooltips and footnotes in the charts.

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    • Google Trends 301

    How to download data from the Google Trends store and create Flourish graphics with it. Also: Tracking midterm election issues and candidates. How can you use Trends during an election?

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    • Google MyMaps 301

    Students will build layered maps. We will show them how to work multimedia into the map. We’ll use real data they can download. Bonus: We also will show how to use PhantomBuster to scrape data OUT of Google Maps.

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    • Data visualization: Flourish 201/301

    Easily turn your data into stunning charts, maps and interactive visuals for your stories. We will unlock the advanced features and settings in Flourish that will help you animate and bring your stories to life, while remaining true to our styles and branding.

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    • Protected: Scrape-a-palooza and Google Flourish

    There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

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    • Protected: Google Finance scraping and other tools for business beats

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    • Protected: Data-scraping websites, PDFs and Flourish

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    • Environment tools, Part III

    me new tools, such as the Environmental Justice Atlas that documents cases around the world of environmental infractions. We’ll also look at Protected Planet, which tracks conservation measures, and the Wildlife Dashboard.

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    • Empower your research with Lexis/Nexis

    How to conduct basic research for news stories.

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    • Tools for investigating non-profit organizations

    A look at tools for tracking non-profit finances, what their CEOs earn and much more. We also spend some time looking at Form 990s of charities and give you a chance to pull some on organizations in your area.

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    • Build your own reporting robot

    How to use the automation function of Github, a tool for programmers, to create a web scraping bot to automatically gather information and data from the web. Our example will be using it to automate a tedious beat check. No prior coding knowledge needed.

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    • Protected: Business reporters and editors: Tools for covering companies and industries

    There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

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    • Protected: Google Earth tools for your newsroom

    There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

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    • Data-scraping web pages, PDFs and Google Finance

    How to extract data from the web and PDFs and flow them into a spreadsheet. You’ll also learn how to scrape real-time and historical stock data into Google Sheets to track specific companies or industries. Code: data

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    • Identifying discrimination through data

    Jayme Fraser of the I-Team and Robbie Gutierrez of the DOT will show how to pick out patterns hiding in data sets.

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    • Master classes for business reporters and editors, Part II

    We will cover Charity Watch, SEC filings, Form 990s on Guidestar, etc. Google Dataset Search, Google Scholar, including ways to analyze case-law. We will learn to scrape Google Finance to isolate stock data and historical stock data. And will finish by learning how to scrape data from business sites and visualize it using Flourish. Code: business

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    • Master classes for business reporters and editors, Part I

    We cover Charity Watch, SEC filings, Form 990s on Guidestar, etc. Google Dataset Search, Google Scholar, including ways to analyze case-law. We will learn to scrape Google Finance to isolate stock data and historical stock data. And will finish by learning how to scrape data from business sites and visualize it using Flourish. Code: business

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    • Reporting with Pinpoint

    Learn how to probe through millions of documents, including audio, video, PDFs and more, to find patterns or that proverbial needle in a haystack. You’ll see case studies of how Gannett journalists have used this software to break big investigative stories.

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    • Using specialized search engines to find sources, data and fact-checks

    Execute deeper, more precise, more sophisticated web searches by harnessing specialized search engines. Diversity your stories, angles, sources and readers.

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    • Backgrounding a business

    How to search for proxies and tools for covering business, non-profits and the economy overall.

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    • Secure communications with sources and tipsters

    Tips and traps: Tools such as Signal app, Freedome and VPNs to keep you, your data and your sources safe.

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    • CSV Match and other fuzzy-matching tools

    Finds matches between two files rather than within one.

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    • Analyzing batches of PDFs

    Learn tools and techniques for working with data buried in PDF files.

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    • Basic databases in Google Flourish and other tools

    A few easy tools to help you show your work: Google Flourish, Airtable and Tableizer.

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    • Advanced fact-checking for reporters

    Fact-checking images, video and verifying facts.

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    • Google Collaboratory

    Google Colab runs notebooks on a virtual machine that can execute your code, connect to data in the Google cloud, and share with a collaborators.

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    • The best data on education

    What education data sets out there, and what stories can they help us tell?

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    • What do you mean, it’s “statistically significant?”

    Advanced math for journalists.

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    • The best data about inequality

    What are the best datasets out there and what stories can they tell?

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    • Investigative/data skills series: Data visualization using Infogram

    Data visualization for everyone using InfoGram, an easy but powerful tool available to journalists across Gannett.

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    • Basic Databases in Google Flourish and other tools

    A few easy tools to help you show your work: Google Flourish, Airtable and Tableizer.

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    • Investigative/data skills series: Data visualization using DataWrapper

    In part I of our two-part series, “Data visualization for everyone,” we explore DataWrapper — an easy but powerful tool available to journalists across Gannett.

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    • Google Public Data Explorer

    The Google Public Data Explorer is linked to reliable datasets that can help you build charts in minutes.

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    • Data scraping with Google Sheets and Tabula

    In this training video and hands-on exercises, you’ll learn how to scrape data tables out of web pages.

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    • Scraping online databases with Google Sheets

    An accessible way for anyone to quickly capture data that would otherwise require hundreds of hours at the keyboard to query.

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    • How to pry public records from a reluctant agency

    Government databases are public records, yet most agencies treat records requests for data as something exotic and fraught with challenges. Anticipate the objections and defeat them for the win.

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    • Hands-on with fast.ai

    Automatically sort text or images with machine-learning. Got too much text to read, or too many images to dig through? Make the computer do it, by teaching by example.

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    • Unlocking the power of Excel pivot tables

    Slice and dice data to to organize your reporting, find patterns and reveal better stories.

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    • Data visualization introduction

    Visualizations can help make a complex story simpler. Play with simple data visualization tools, learn how to automatically import data into a map, and explore the elegant templates of Flourish.

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    • Introduction to using data in your reporting

    An overview of the key data analysis tools and techniques used to produce investigative stories, with examples of stories that were made possible with these tools.

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    • Backgrounding like a boss: Reporting on people and companies with free tools

    Even great reporters can get tricked by fake names or sketchy backgrounds. We’ll walk through some websites and strategies you can use to create a routine and spot potential red flags before you get burned.

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    • Advanced Search: Power tools for search, research and analysis

    See what users in your area are searching and discover story ideas on Google Trends. Explore Backlight, an AI tool for parsing massive amounts of documents.

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    • Verification tools

    Bad information is dangerous, especially in uncertain times. Learn how to verify images and video, investigate social media posts, and identify misinformation with open-source intelligence tools.

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    • Building a public records mindset

    A discussion on developing a documents state of mind — the key to doing solid watchdog work on a beat.

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    • Small newsrooms, big ambitions

    Just because your newsroom is small doesn’t mean your goals need to be.

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    • 9 Tips for Covering Election Misinformation

    Here are concrete, simple steps journalists can take to fight misinformation, avoid confusion and add context.

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    • Google News Lab training

    Daniel Petty, a certified Google News Lab trainer with the Denver Post, discusses reverse image search, advanced search, maps and Google Fusion tables.

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    • Advanced backgrounding of people and companies

    From Investigative Reporters and Editors, here’s how to build a deep well of background to inform your reporting and writing.

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    • Creating data visualizations

    In this quick clip, Maggie Farley discusses how to build visualizations that will engage and build trust with your audience. She demonstrates different tools to build quick data visualizations and animations.

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    • Reporting on farm bankruptcies in your own backyard

    Using a database created by Sky Chadde, the Gannett Agriculture Data Fellow at the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting, you’ll be able to localize the impact of these bankruptcies and identify trends in your community.

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    • Google: Geo and mapping

    Maggie Farley, a former Los Angeles Times foreign correspondent who now works with Google News Initiative, covers Geo and Mapping.

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    • Google: Verification

    In this webinar, Maggie Farley, a former Los Angeles Times foreign correspondent, discusses verification.

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    • FOUNDATIONS: Sources are the key

    This session will cover diversifying sources and why it’s important, how to approach the people you need to know on your beat, and how to build mutually rewarding connections with sources.

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    • What is Storyful and how can you use it?

    A discussion of Storyful and how to put it to use in your newsroom.

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    • Investigating the internet

    This workshop uses case studies of BuzzFeed News investigations into misinformation and ad fraud, as well as tips and tutorials, to equip journalists with the basic skills they need to incorporate this data into their work.

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    • Advanced search techniques

    This primer on Google search includes tips for effective image searches.

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    • Advanced verification tools

    Watchdog training on advanced verification tools, focused on protest examples (exclusive to Gannett journalists through our relationship with Google News Lab).

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    • Investigative Reporting: From Numbers to Narrative

    Part one in a two-part webinar series will introduce useful sources of data for a variety of beats.

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