{ "id": "1997-september-number-assisted-features", "slug": "1997-september-number-assisted-features", "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1997-september-number-assisted-features.html", "year": 1997, "month": "September", "monthNum": 9, "headline": "Number-assisted features", "kicker": "CAR for all", "author_name": "Janet Roberts", "author_title": "", "affiliation": "Wilmington Morning Star", "summary": "Janet Roberts discusses how the Wilmington Morning Star utilizes computer-assisted reporting (CAR) to enhance feature stories with data analysis, such as the challenges African-American women face in finding love and comparisons of cities sharing Wilmington's name.", "keywords": [ "CAR", "features", "Wilmington" ], "topics": [ "Investigative Methods", "Journalism & Newsroom", "Technology" ], "technologies": [ "Excel", "Netscape", "SelectPhone CD", "Internet" ], "full_text": "Gone are the days when computer- assisted reporting was the playground of big-splash, hard-news project reporters. Today, any reporter worth his or her salt is in on the game, using computers just like they use the telephone, the notepad and the morgue. And includes the features depart- ment. At the Wilmington \"Morning Star,\" a 55,000 daily on the North Carolina coast, we have made it our goal to get all reporters - in all corners of the news- room using computers as a daily reporting tool. The effort is paying off. If you look at the newsroom PCs with Internet access, you won't just find City Hall reporters sitting in front of the screens. You'll see features and sports reporters, too. You'll find the same re- porters plugging numbers into Excel for quick crunching. They load Netscape search forms to query the newsroom's voter registration records, property tax records and other government databases. They pop in the SelectPhone CD to find sources for their stories. For readers, the result is stories that often have more depth, more varied sources and more reach than they would otherwise. Consider these examples: Coming to their Census Feature writer Deirdre McGruder set out to do a story about educated black women who have found successful ca- reers but can't find love. She had plenty of anecdotes from women frustrated because they can't find educated black men to date. From there, she sought figures to lend the story weight. Fortunately for her, the Census Bu- reau posted a report on its home page in July with 1996 estimates on the educa- tion and income levels of black Ameri- cans. She found there are about 50 per- cent more educated black women in this country than educated black men. The number of black female professionals in the workplace continues to rise as do their salaries. And a trip to the Bureau of Justice Statistics Web page gave her another eye-opening figure: In 1995, black men were seven times more likely to be in prison than their white counterparts. McGruder was able to weave the statistics throughout the story, resulting in a far more thoughtful piece than it would have been other- wise. This was her first experience with the Census Bureau's Internet site, and she recommends it to other feature reporters. \"The Census is your friend,\" she said. \"Visit often.\" Naming names Feature writer Lee Roberts did just that when asked to do a piece about the other Wilmingtons in the United States. He headed to the Census Bureau's home page and searched for the name Wilmington. That found him 12 other communities that share our name, plus a statistical profile of each. Roberts downloaded statistics on each com- munity and imported them into an Excel spread- sheet for comparison. The computer work paid off. Before he even picked up the phone to start calling people in the different Wilmingtons, Roberts knew the racial makeups of the towns, whether they are rural or urban, how many people commute to work, the median income, etc. That allowed him to frame his questions and focus his interviewing time on the anecdotes and descriptions that gave the story life. Relocating Feature writer Clifton Daniel was doing a piece on families who leave higher-paying jobs in other cities to move to Wilmington for its slower pace and beautiful beaches. The cost of living doesn't hurt, either, a point Daniel drove home with a visit to the Internet's Relocation Calculator. He was able to plug in the salaries people were earning in the towns they left and show they needed to earn substantially less to lead a similar lifestyle in Wilmington. What's in a name? Lee Roberts used the SelectPhone CD, a cross-reference directory for the entire United States, to do a story on just plain folks from our readership area who share famous names with celebrities and historical figures. The CD led him to Michael Jordan not the basketball superstar who hails from Wilmington, but the self-proclaimed \"short, white and poor\" one, a roofer who lives just up the road in a neighboring county. The short Jordan said kids often telephone thinking they've found the bas- ketball star. \"The younger kids who call, I feel sorry for them,\" Jordan said. \"They have high hopes, and then they get me.\" Roberts also found Joan \"Can we talk?\" Rivers living in Wrightsville Beach, John Kennedy living in rural Whiteville, Robert E. Lee living near a Civil War fort in Kure Beach and John Wayne, a huge fan of the movie great. Janet Roberts can be reached at (919) 343-2389, or send e-mail to starnews@wilmington.net", "provenance": { "extracted_by": "pre-v2", "extracted_at": "", "verified": true }, "similar": [ { "slug": "1997-september-fun-with-car", "score": 0.27 }, { "slug": "2006-may-june-car-its-a-starting-point", "score": 0.164 }, { "slug": "1996-march-computer-assisted-reporting-turns-on-more-tv-journalists", "score": 0.132 }, { "slug": "2004-september-october-tapping-into-mysqls-advanced-features", "score": 0.13 }, { "slug": "2002-march-april-money-in-and-from-the-bank", "score": 0.126 } ], "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1997-september-number-assisted-features.html", "json_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/1997-september-number-assisted-features.json" }