When David Cuillier, an editor at a small daily in Washington state, decided to form a computer-assisted reporting network for journalists in his state two years ago, he was listening - in exasperation - to members of the governor's task force debate limiting access to records. 'I was the only reporter there,' says Cuillier, assistant city editor of the Tri-City Herald in Kennewick, Wash. 'The state had already closed records for gun permits a while ago.
I realized then that if more people were asking for data, the state wouldn't be so quick to close things down.' Shortly after the meeting, Cuillier called every one of the 23 newspapers in the state, speaking with reporters who were interested in obtaining and using computerized data in their publications. About 10 of the newspapers Cuillier contacted have become regular contributors to the CAR network, which Cuillier has named 'CARwash.' By mid-August, Cuillier plans to have a Web site with information about the network as well as a library of CAR stories done in Washington state.
'It's helped a couple of papers get rolling on using CAR in smaller stories and building up to using it in bigger projects,' he said. Smaller newspapers face high costs and limited resources when trying to incorporate computer-assisted reporting and often don't have the money or time to fight extended public information battles. As a result, several journalists from small newspapers - and even journalists from newspaper corporations like Knight Ridder - have formed networks to coordinate CAR training and data acquisition.
In Wisconsin, journalists from the Associated Press and the Wisconsin State Journal have joined forces with other state reporters and editors to acquire state data in electronic form, have a third party clean up the data and then distribute it to members of the informal CAR network in the state at significantly reduced prices. 'So far, this (consortium) hasn't had a regular meeting schedule,' said Andy Hall, an investigative reporter with the Wisconsin State Journal and a founding member of the state's CAR network.
'It's just been an erratic series of phone calls and faxes But we've made progress. We're in the process right now of acquiring a huge database from the state department of transportation listing traffic accidents in the past seven years Information like this could be used for anything from in-depth projects to quick hits.' That CAR methods could help enhance both spot and investigative coverage in part motivated executives at Knight Ridder news service to sponsor a CAR network for all their newspapers.
The newspaper chain currently sponsors KRICAR, the Knight Ridder, Inc. Computer Assisted Reporting Task Force. KRICAR's coordinator, the Philadelphia Inquirer's Neill Borowski, said the task force's goal is to nurture a 'big brother, big sister' program where bigger newspapers whose journalists are already trained in CAR techniques help journalists from smaller Knight-Ridder papers. 'We want to create a network where small newspapers don't feel intimidated by calling the bigger newspapers and asking questions about computer-assisted reporting and analysis,' said Borowski, who heads CAR work at the Inquirer.
'And so far, it seems to be working. About once a month, we get calls from smaller papers and journalists who want to know if we have any suggestions on subjects ranging from data analysis or to how to do certain queries.'