{
  "id": "2006-july-august-a-bumpy-ride",
  "slug": "2006-july-august-a-bumpy-ride",
  "url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2006-july-august-a-bumpy-ride.html",
  "year": 2006,
  "month": "July-August",
  "monthNum": 7,
  "headline": "A bumpy ride",
  "kicker": "LATIN AMERICAN CAR",
  "author_name": "Alejandra Fernández Morera",
  "author_title": "",
  "affiliation": "Missouri School of Journalism",
  "summary": "Investigative journalists in Latin America are increasingly adopting computer-assisted reporting (CAR) to expose corruption, although challenges like limited technology and varying open-records laws persist.",
  "keywords": [
    "Latin America",
    "CAR",
    "investigative reporting"
  ],
  "topics": [
    "Investigative Methods",
    "Business & Economy",
    "Journalism & Newsroom"
  ],
  "technologies": [
    "Excel"
  ],
  "full_text": "Cars travel on highways, but in Latin America, CAR travels on unpaved roads. While computer-assisted reporting has gained popularity in Mexico and Brazil, it is still terra incognita in Central America, and few can point out more than one journalist who excels in the genre's many techniques in South American countries such as Chile, Venezuela and Peru.\n\n\"Few practice and master [CAR],\" said Pedro Armendares, executive director of the Mexican Investigative Reporting Center, or CPI, a partner organization of Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc., based at the Missouri School of Journalism. \"There are countries where it isn't practiced at all.\"\n\nIn the countries where CAR is practiced, the success has been clear. In one case, a Mexican reporter discovered that taxpayers' money was used to pay for $400 towels for the president's residence. The reporter used data from a government asked me 'How do you practice CAR without Excel or a computer?' Well,",
  "provenance": {
    "extracted_by": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-6",
    "extracted_at": "2026-07-05",
    "verified": true
  },
  "similar": [
    {
      "slug": "1997-october-car-in-latin-america",
      "score": 0.367
    },
    {
      "slug": "1999-may-mexico-and-beyond",
      "score": 0.357
    },
    {
      "slug": "2000-march-around-the-globe",
      "score": 0.173
    },
    {
      "slug": "2000-januaryfebruary-the-future-of-car",
      "score": 0.167
    },
    {
      "slug": "1993-junejuly-enthusiasm-for-computer-assisted-reporting-is-keen-although-broadcasters-are-leery-of-cost-vs-return",
      "score": 0.163
    }
  ],
  "html_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2006-july-august-a-bumpy-ride.html",
  "json_url": "https://dwillis.github.io/uplink/article/2006-july-august-a-bumpy-ride.json"
}