{ "id": "2003-february-tv-pioneer-cox-rolls-with-changes", "slug": "2003-february-tv-pioneer-cox-rolls-with-changes", "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2003-february-tv-pioneer-cox-rolls-with-changes.html", "year": 2003, "month": "February", "monthNum": 2, "headline": "TV pioneer Cox rolls with changes", "kicker": "BROADCAST CAR", "author_name": "Jaimi Dowdell", "author_title": "", "affiliation": "IRE and NICAR", "summary": "Alan Cox, a pioneering computer-assisted reporting specialist at WCCO-Minneapolis, left the station after 25 years and is now freelancing, having helped transform how broadcast journalists use data and technology for investigative storytelling.", "keywords": [ "pioneer", "broadcast", "technology" ], "topics": [ "Investigative Methods", "Journalism & Newsroom", "Technology" ], "technologies": [ "Lotus 1-2-3" ], "full_text": "TV pioneer Cox rolls with changes\n\nBy Jaimi Dowdell, IRE and NICAR\n\nOne of the first times former WCCO-Minneapolis reporter Alan Cox attempted computer-assisted reporting, he used a spare computer loaded with Lotus 1-2-3 for DOS from the TV station's accounting department.\n\nThat was in 1990, even before he was officially the station's CAR specialist. Cox's experience of endless keypunching was one of the first in a long line of projects that created respect for the reporter's work and helped change the way broadcasters use CAR.\n\nAfter a 25-year career in television, Cox left WCCO at the end of June. Since then he has been freelancing out of his home in Minnesota and has done some work for the Star-Tribune and KMSP-Minneapolis.\n\n\"He showed a whole crop of TV reporters that the same computer-assisted reporting skills that print journalists were regularly using to break big stories could also be applied to TV news,\" said Mike Wendland, technology columnist at the Detroit Free Press.\n\nBrant Houston, executive director of IRE and NICAR, said \"Alan has been a true pioneer in computer-assisted reporting in broadcast.\"\n\n\"He not only has led the way with stories, but also helped organize and teach our boot camps focused on the particular skills needed by broadcast journalists.\"\n\nStorytelling with CAR\n\nAfter several years working as a general assignment reporter and then business reporter at WCCO, Cox received an opportunity to learn and use CAR when news director John Lansing approached Cox with a proposal in 1993. Lansing told Cox that he was thinking of creating a computer-assisted reporting position and wanted him to do the job.\n\n\"Alan and I had the discussion, and he made the point that if we do it, we need the proper training and we need to do it well,\" said Lansing, now senior vice president of Scripps Howard Broadcasting.\n\nHe crunched data and assisted with investigative projects and the day-to-day reporting in the newsroom.\n\nCox was pulled off the regular schedule so he could learn how the tools of his new trade full time. Although he had little previous computer experience and did not even own a computer, he was eager to learn.\n\n\"My wife remembers that basically for the first year and a half, I stopped reading for recreation and just read computer manuals,\" Cox said. \"I remember one day, all I accomplished was to learn to change the colors in Windows.\"\n\nOnce Cox put his skills to work, the station created a set for him called \"Computer Center 4\". From there, he crunched data and assisted with investigative projects and the day-to-day reporting in the newsroom.\n\nFreelancer Julie Kramer was senior producer for investigations at WCCO and worked with Cox on many stories. \"A lot of people claim to do computer-assisted reporting, but Alan was what I call an alpha-geek,\" Kramer said. \"He knew his stuff, but he wasn't just all computer; as a journalist he understood the importance of storytelling.\"\n\nThe stories Cox developed with Kramer and the WCCO investigative team were some of his favorites while at the station. Together, they tracked voter fraud in Minnesota by matching a database of criminal history records with a list of registered voters. After this story, Cox said Kramer had the idea to use the same felons data and cross it with a database of hunting licenses.\n\n\"We found more than 500 people who weren't supposed to have a gun that were licensed to use guns,\" Cox said.\n\nFreelance route\n\nCox also contributed behind the scenes. After attending a NICAR advanced Boot Camp in 1998, he set up an intranet so WCCO journalists could access information in driver registration, voter and criminal record databases for their daily reporting.\n\n\"It helped us find people that didn't want to be found,\" Kramer said. \"It cut the paper trail time down immensely and a lot of reporters who couldn't do it on their own were able to do it quickly.\"\n\nWhen Cox's contract came up for renewal last summer, he decided it was time to try something new. While he said he's not sure what that will end up being, he remains very interested in CAR and putting in the time to do it well. Those who worked with him at WCCO recognize his contributions to the station's success as well as broadcast reporting.\n\n\"If you want to have a serious investigative unit at a TV station you need a computer-assisted reporting element and we had that in Alan Cox,\" Kramer said. \"We were able to do a lot of stories that we couldn't otherwise.\"\n\nContact Jaimi Dowdell by e-mail at jaimi@nicar.org.", "provenance": { "extracted_by": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6", "extracted_at": "2026-07-05", "verified": true }, "similar": [ { "slug": "1993-junejuly-enthusiasm-for-computer-assisted-reporting-is-keen-although-broadcasters-are-leery-of-cost-vs-return", "score": 0.217 }, { "slug": "1996-march-computer-assisted-reporting-turns-on-more-tv-journalists", "score": 0.216 }, { "slug": "1996-september-picture-this", "score": 0.2 }, { "slug": "1996-february-bits-bytes-and-barks", "score": 0.153 }, { "slug": "1997-april-help-wanted", "score": 0.131 } ], "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2003-february-tv-pioneer-cox-rolls-with-changes.html", "json_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2003-february-tv-pioneer-cox-rolls-with-changes.json" }