Time to add to my occasional series on Web heroes and heroines, people who work tirelessly to help the rest of us understand the Internet better. Joining Gary Price, Tara Calishain and Wendy Boswell this week is Neil Reisner, a journalism professor at Florida International University, veteran reporter and long-time Internet trainer.
Unlike the previous three heroes, I have known Reisner for years and have learned a lot in person from him. He once wrote to me: “I’ve come to the conclusion that the Web is the best thing that’s ever happened to good journalists… and the worst thing that ever happened to lazy ones.” Instead of just complaining about it, he’s built a site that can help the good and the lazy
- COURSES: Under the FIU tab on the site you will find links to materials he uses in his courses, including:
Database & Public Records Reporting/Journalism 3121, which covers the basics of public records and computer-assisted reporting. The class focuses on the three legs of the CAR stool: spreadsheets, database managers and adroit use of the Internet, as well as public information laws and use of public records by journalists. - FINDING PEOPLE: Be sure to visit his handy Finding (Almost) Anybody page.
- PUBLIC RECORDS: Another useful section is his page on backgrounding people and businesses using public records. Look at all the neat things he covers:
Know the Records: How to find public records, how to know what’s available. Some guides and tips.Know Where to Get the Records: A collection of good public records/data links, with the caveat that it’s never safe to assume that what you [want] is online — it might just as well be on paper.
Know How to Negotiate for Records: Once you’re found your records — and found you can’t download them — how do you pry them loose? Charm often does the trick, but sometimes you have to play hardball.
Know How to Search for Records: Sometimes it seems like everything that’s anything is online. That is, until you try to search for it. Too often we spend a lot of time looking only to find that what we seek is not there. Or, the mirror image, we find so much that it’s impossible to sift the wheat from the chaff. Here are some online searching tips.Know What to Do with Records When You Get Them: Once you have the records, you need to import them into a program so you can work with them. Here’s how to get started.
After we saw each other at last weekend’s alumni event at our alma mater, Columbia, I asked him to send me a note about other parts of his site. Here’s what he wrote, in part:
You might also want to point out the Records Retention Schedule trick [PDF], a way to get an inventory of the records an agency keeps. I learned this trick — please attribute — from Joe Adams of [The Florida] Times-Union, a public records wizard in Florida who edited the Florida Public Records Handbook. He’s got his own site [here]. This is one of the coolest things I’ve ever learned. Were I covering a beat, the first public records request I’d make would be for the agency’s Records Retention Schedule. It’s a map of everything the agency keeps, including things we’d never think about. The example here [in PDF] is from Florida, but every state has to have one. If a local agency looks at you funny when you make the request, try the official archivist in your state.
Not only is Reisner good about sharing credit with those who have inspired him, he really believes in inspiring others by sharing the handouts and presentations from his training sessions. You can see online PowerPoints of them here.
I talk a lot about search engines and similar sources in my workshops (See “Things You Didn’t Know Google Does”), but he emphasizes other methods. Reisner explains his methodology:
You’ll see that I take a slightly different approach than you do, encouraging journalists to avoid Google and focus on finding the sites that are most useful for their beats and providing them with some portals to get there. I developed these presentations mostly for IRE and present them at IRE’s Better Watchdog Workshops, among other places. I doff my hat to Alan Schlein and Jodi Upton of USA Today, some of whose material I incorporate.
I hope you will get a chance to check out Reisner’s Place — you will surely learn something new. It turns out he’s also generous with his e-mail and said I could share it here: nr@nreisner.com.
YOUR TURN: Send me suggestions for sites you find useful by e-mailing poynter@sree.net.
Sree’s Links
Sree’s “Blogging for Journalists”
workshop: Wednesday, May 10, 2006, at Columbia University in New York
City — a one-night workshop on starting a blog — or improving one you
already have. Lots of tips and ideas.
