{
  "id": "1994-september-paper-marks-decade-of-car",
  "slug": "1994-september-paper-marks-decade-of-car",
  "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1994-september-paper-marks-decade-of-car.html",
  "year": 1994,
  "month": "September",
  "monthNum": 9,
  "headline": "Paper marks decade of CAR",
  "kicker": "The CAR lot: Charlotte, North Carolina",
  "author_name": "Ted Mellnick",
  "author_title": "",
  "affiliation": "The Charlotte Observer",
  "summary": "The Charlotte Observer pioneered computer-assisted journalism in 1984 by using mainframe computers to analyze political contributions, and has since expanded this capability to investigate disparities in property taxes, lending, and employment through sophisticated data analysis on newsroom PCs.",
  "keywords": [
    "data",
    "journalism",
    "analysis"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Investigative Methods",
    "Data & Databases",
    "Technology"
  ],
  "technologies": [
    "mainframe",
    "DOS",
    "Windows",
    "OS/2",
    "HP9000",
    "Unix",
    "9-track tape",
    "CD-ROM",
    "Quattro Pro",
    "FoxPro",
    "dBase",
    "Word",
    "XyWrite",
    "Atlas GIS",
    "SAS",
    "SPSS",
    "CalComp DesignMate",
    "ArcInfo"
  ],
  "full_text": "The Charlotte Observer was an early pioneer in computer-assisted journalism. Back in 1984, the newspaper used an IBM mainframe to catalog political contributions to 267 candidates for the North Carolina legislature.\n\nHere's a look at our hardware & software\n\nPCs: Four 486 IBM compatibles, 8mb RAM, color monitors, +300mb hard drives, three CD readers. PC operating systems: DOS, Windows and OS/2. Mini/mainframe: Newsroom has access to an HP9000 with Unix operating system and 9-track tape drive. Printers: Lasers, dots and access to a CalComp DesignMate. Spreadsheet: Quattro Pro for Windows. Database: FoxPro, dBase IV. Text & word processing: Word for Windows, Xywrite. Mapping & GIS: Atlas GIS/DOS 21, Atlas GIS Windows 2.0. Statistical analysis: SAS, SPSSPC/DOS, SPSS/Windows.\n\nThe stories showed the raw power of special interest money ($2 of every $3 contributed), and the links between gifts and lawmakers' votes on issues like recycling, pollution control and business fees.\n\nThat project, which has continued and expanded for a decade, also shows how the newsroom's use of computers has gotten bigger, more sophisticated and more self-sufficient.\n\nBack in '84, a computer programmer developed the mainframe applications, and a market research analyst handled printed reports, queries and analysis. Now, the project has moved from a mainframe to a newsroom PC.\n\nInstead of a couple thousand, there are tens of thousands of contributors on file. And one newsroom staffer has handled programming, application development and report design.\n\nBesides state and federal campaign finance, computer-related stories have reported: Inequities in property taxes, disparities in mortgage lending, and differences in OSHA inspection rates and workers compensation injury rates.\n\nWe've used Census data to look at growth trends, poverty patterns and racial disparity in education and income.\n\nMy two favorite census stories were based on the Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) file. The analysis was done in the statistical package SAS, running in UNIX on an HP9000.\n\nOne story involved a comparison of earnings of men, childless women and mothers in the Carolinas. It showed that women make less, even when compared with men of the same age, education, or, in most cases, the same job.\n\nThe other was a study of commuters. It revealed that inbound commuters play a much larger than expected role Charlotte's workforce, constituting 40 percent of the city's full-time workers. The published census estimate, which included part-time workers, was 30 percent. The story also showed the income benefits various kinds of workers derive from their longer drive time into the city.\n\nThe computer base map of street blocks was derived from data compiled by local government and university staffers in the GIS package ARC/INFO. The newspaper did the address matching in Atlas GIS/DOS. The resulting reports and maps plotted on a CalComp 8-pen plotter gave our reporters their first definitive view of the city's high crime areas, their first rankings of neighborhood violent crime rates and their first detailed maps of the exact locations of violent crimes. This material has been the starting point for a year-long series of neighborhood profiles. The computer side of the crime project also has included plotting more than 12,000 home break-ins and estimating neighborhood break-in rates, plotting the home addresses of thousands of victims and profiling suspects and victims.\n\n\"Criminals in the Classroom,\" a series published in March, began with The Observer matching a file of 50,000 teachers against a file of 300,000 prison inmates. The state doesn't require background checks for public school teachers. Matching revealed that people convicted of rape, incest, child molesting and assault still teaching.\n\nOur current projection on neighborhood crime involves plotting, by address, 18,000 violent crimes reported to Charlotte police in 1992-93.\n\nNow that our newsroom has developed a few basic computer-assisted reporting skills, the goal is to spread those skills among the staff. There are now four PCs on the newsroom floor - up from one a year ago - loaded with database, spreadsheet and communications programs. Last May, eight newsroom staffers went through three days of in-house training on FoxPro. More training is planned.",
  "provenance": {
    "extracted_by": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
    "extracted_at": "2026-07-05",
    "verified": true
  },
  "similar": [
    {
      "slug": "1997-october-analyzing-property-tax",
      "score": 0.22
    },
    {
      "slug": "2005-septemberoctober-home-mortgage-resources",
      "score": 0.185
    },
    {
      "slug": "1991-september-mainframe-versus-pcs-its-a-matter-of-time-cost",
      "score": 0.163
    },
    {
      "slug": "2003-julyaugust-taxes-finding-the-biggest-deadbeats",
      "score": 0.158
    },
    {
      "slug": "1995-july-uplink-update",
      "score": 0.149
    }
  ],
  "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1994-september-paper-marks-decade-of-car.html",
  "json_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1994-september-paper-marks-decade-of-car.json"
}