Online Newsgathering: Research
and Reporting for
Journalism
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| Why use computer-assisted reporting methods? |
The simple answer that using those methods can help you generate strong original stories which often would not, or could not, be researched in any other way, or within a particular time. Some basic CAR-researched articles have been included here as examples of how different computer-assisted reporting methods can help you. They were selected because they demonstrate the results that can be obtained by using a variety of techniques ranging from relatively simple online research through to complex "number crunching". They also reflect the fact that although journalists in many nations do not have the same media freedoms as their United States' counterparts, it is still possible, practical and sometimes just plain good fun producing worthwhile stories by working with whatever information is actually available. The tricks are to learn to understand what to look for, where to find good information, and how to weave it into a story. Story 1: After attending the scene of a fatal ultralight aircraft crash and reporting on the accident, the writer became curious about the safety record of ultralights. A search of official web sites relating to air safety in Australia revealed there were no published statistics that could be used to directly compare accident rates of ultralights with accident rates of "normal" light aircraft. In response to inquiries with the Bureau of Transport Economics I was sent hard copies of raw statistics listing the dates of fatal ultralight accidents. The information did not mean much by itself, so from there it was a matter of going to the web and gathering freely available data which could be used to develop a meaningful statistical comparison. The biggest problem was that the statistics were scattered. The task was to find them, bring them together and then do the mathematics. That was some years ago now but it has been relatively simple keeping the story up-to-date by conducting annual searches of media archives to gather statistics about the number of accidents in the preceding year - something that has revealed an escalating toll in lives and injuries. Ultralight death toll spinning out of control By STEPHEN LAMBLE AUSTRALIAN ultralight aircraft pilots are killing themselves and their passengers at an alarming rate. Research indicates that Australian ultralight fliers are about six times more likely to die for every hour flown than if they flew in general aviation aircraft. At least 65 ultralight pilots and passengers died as a result of air crashes between March 2001 and May 2009. Many others were seriously injured. Some were left severely mentally and physically disabled. There is no single Australian Government register containing data about the death toll per flying hour in ultralights. But an in-depth analysis of official crash statistics and news reports gathered from different sources shows that in the years from 1992 to 2007 an average of 7.25 ultralight pilots or passengers were killed for every 100,000 hours flown. That figure is in stark contrast with the general aviation death rate in 2007 of 0.73 deaths per 100,000 flying hours. Further, while Australian Transport Safety Bureau statistics indicate that agricultural flying is the most dangerous form of general aviation flying in Australia, it is still nearly three times less likely to result in a death per number of hours flown than ultralight flying. The comparison is even worse for ultralights when it is considered that the fragile aircraft are only permitted to fly in good weather, during daylight hours and for recreational purposes. In addition, the total number of ultralights in use in Australia is roughly one-third the number of general aviation aircraft, they are typically airborne for shorter periods, fly over much shorter distances, and carry fewer passengers. Australian Transport Safety Bureau records show that a total of 78 people died in ultralight accidents between 1985 and 1999 - an average death toll of nearly six a year. At least 72 more died in ultralight crashes between January 2000 and April 2009 - a total of 150 deaths from 1985 to April 2009 - with the average number of deaths per year increasing to more than eight a year in the six years and nine months to September 2006, increasing to 10 in the year to September 2007, and 11 between September 2007 and September 2008. As well as those killed, many others have been maimed. For example, 70 were seriously injured in 324 ultralight crashes reported to the Australian Transport Safety Bureau by the Australian Ultralight Federation from 1985 to 2001. In addition to those killed in 2003, at least five sustained major injuries. In 2006-2007 injuries included burns, lacerations when an pilot was sliced by a propeller, and multiple bone fractures. Other injuries over the years have ranged from shattered bones to catastrophic burns, amputated limbs, spinal fractures, and brain damage. Beside the personal and family tragedies associated with each death and life-changing injury, the Australian Bureau of Transport and Regional Economics estimated in a report it released in 2006 that every aircraft fatality in Australia in 2003/04 cost the community $A2.17 million. The report said the bureau arrived at the figure: "based on the human capital methodology, which puts the major value of a life as the productive output of an individual over their working life. To this has been added an estimate of the value of work in the household and volunteer work, and a value for quality of life." Extrapolating from those outdated estimates, deaths in ultralight accidents from 1985 until April 2009 cost the Australian community a minimum of $A325.5 million - a tiny figure compared with the cost in personal and family tragedies. Story 2: The following article about crime rates resulted from a "number crunching" exercise by journalism students at the University of the Sunshine Coast. The object was to find credible publicly available Australian data online which could be entered into a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and then processed to see what newsworthy information could be extracted from it. The statistics which were found and downloaded – "recorded offences per 100,000 population, by offence type 1993/94 to 2003/04 " – while quite detailed, were in raw form. As a starting point, and working within Excel, it was relatively simple to produce figures showing if reports of particular crimes had increased or decreased. The results were then sorted to find which offences were most common at the start of the decade and which were most common at the end. The picture that emerged from an analysis of the statistics could be used as a stand-alone news story, as it is here, or "fleshed out" by seeking comment from authorities, victim groups and criminologists. Violence, sex and drug crimes at 10-year high The number of serious assaults reported to police in the Australian state of Queensland doubled in the decade to 2004. So, too, did reports of breaches of domestic violence orders. In the same 10-year period, reports of rapes and attempted rapes increased by 56 per cent, while there was a 33 per cent increase in reports of all sexual offences. A 10-year snapshot of crime trends emerged from a study of official crime statistics published by Queensland Treasury’s Office of Economic and Statistical Research. The results were drawn from recorded reports to Queensland police of offences from 1994 to 2004 and from information supplied by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The raw data was adjusted to take account of population increases. It compared offence types per 100,000 people over the decade. The figures were analysed by University of the Sunshine Coast journalism students using advanced computer-assisted reporting techniques. The study also revealed that reports of theft and unlawful entry doubled over the 10 years, as did reports of handling stolen goods. Reported weapons offences also doubled. The incidence of reported prostitution related offences increased 64 per cent, fraud was up 40 per cent, livestock related crime 87 per cent, and drug offences 30 per cent - from 810 reports per 100,000 people in 1994 to 1147 offences per 100,000 in 2004. Reported traffic offences were up 26 per cent across the decade, and 25 per cent in the five years to 2004. On the other hand reports of unlawful use of motor vehicles fell 38 per cent, something which probably reflects improvements in vehicle security over the decade. Reports of extortion were down 45 per cent; gaming offences 44 per cent; kidnapping abduction and depravation of liberty dropped 30 per cent; homicides were down 17 per cent; and robbery 13 per cent. The most commonly reported crimes overall in 2004 were properly offences - with a rate of 6826 per 100,000 people. The least common was extortion, with a rate of 2 per 100,000. Discrepancies in the ways different Australian states collect and collate their crime statistics, difficulties accessing those figures and differences in the way particular crimes are defined from state to state made it impossible to directly compare Queensland’s 10-year crime statistics with those from other states. Story 3: It is highly unlikely that an eventual sequel to this story could have been written without CAR. The example shows how using CAR part-time during quiet "down-time" periods over several months helped solve a mystery for a reader which not even police had been able to solve.
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The couple had certificates showing the bars were purchased in 1993 and 1994 from the Perth Bullion Exchange, Sydney – a "subsidiary" of Elsass Finance Company – and supposedly held in safe keeping by that business at its premises in Martin Place, Sydney. However, when the Hargreaves went to collect their bullion in mid-1998 the business had vanished and its telephone numbers were disconnected. After a conversation with Mrs Hargreave, the writer (who was "The Fixer" at the time) contacted the Perth Mint in Western Australia. But no one at the mint could throw much light on the subject. All they could report was that the Perth Bullion Exchange, Sydney was not related in any way to the mint and that it had been a cash customer in the past. An Internet check of White and Yellow Pages directories for telephone numbers for the Perth Bullion Exchange, Sydney was unsuccessful. A search of the Queensland Newspapers’ (then) online library archive (QNIS) for any mention of the business was also fruitless. However an online search of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission site, at http://www.asc.gov.au/ , for "Perth Bullion Exchange, Sydney" and "Elsass Finance Company" revealed that both were de-registered business names still listed on the New South Wales Department of Fair Trading database. But a telephone call to the New South Wales Office for Fair Trading did not help as there was no longer any record of the people behind either business name. An Internet search showed the Australian Securities and Investments Commission did not have a record either. Then a faint lead emerged. While searching for Elsass Finance Company, it was noticed that there were two other companies with the name Elsass in their title. Returning to the Telstra White Pages web site, a listing was discovered for a person of that name in a Sydney suburb. A call to the number was answered by a woman. She was vague but said that a member of her family who had since died once owned Elsass Finance Company, however he had sold it about 18 years ago to a Mr Walter Henry Scutts. But another search of the Telstra’s White Pages Internet directory in every part of Australia for a Scutts with the relevant initials drew a blank, as did searches of the New South Wales and Queensland electoral rolls. Approaching a dead end, the writer returned to the web and the Australian Yellow Pages directory to search for other Sydney bullion dealers, preferably close to the Martin Place precinct where the Perth Bullion Exchange, Sydney had operated. Several of those dealers were telephoned. One finally recalled Mr Scutts. He said the business had disappeared in what he thought was mid to late 1996. Having checked the electoral roles for every state and territory in Australia and having investigated about as far as possible without actually going to Sydney in person (which the editor would not have countenanced for such a "small" story) the writer advised the Hargreaves to contact police fraud squads in Brisbane and Sydney and to talk to the Offices of Fair Trading in each State. As a last resort, it was suggested that "floating" a Fixer story might be worthwhile because, if Mr and Mrs Hargreave were looking for their bullion, there was a chance others might have been too and an article might spark reader feedback. The article, above right, which contained an appeal for information, was published on 7 February but it did not draw a single lead. To make matters worse, Mrs Hargreave telephoned the writer in mid-March to say that detectives she had spoken to in Sydney and Brisbane and investigators from the Offices of Fair Trading in each state had all drawn blanks. She said police had told her there was no point making any further inquiries. But the writer was intrigued. I could not see how a bullion dealer could just vanish with someone else’s treasure, so I promised to have one last try. That effort led to the use of just about every search engine on the Internet in another unsuccessful bid to find Mr Scutts. It also involved revisiting the Australian White Pages on the Internet and a string of fruitless telephone calls to people who shared the name. At another dead end, but reasoning there must be some record somewhere of the Mr Scutts, especially if he had encountered financial difficulties, the obvious step, and one which should have been tried earlier, was to see if he had been declared bankrupt. Incredibly, as it turned out, a traditional bankruptcy search did not reveal anything. However, there was still a possibility that the particular Mr Scutts might have been involved in civil litigation. On 25 March the writer returned to the web and checked the archives at the Australasian Legal Information Institute, at http://www.austlii.edu.au/ , searching for "Scutts". Bingo! A mystery was solved and the small story, below left, resulted.
Court records subsequently downloaded from the web revealed that Mr Scutts had been declared bankrupt on 20 November 1996 owing nearly $1.4 million after trading successfully for the previous 18 years as the Perth Bullion Exchange, Sydney. The online court transcripts showed that when trustees took possession of Mr Scutts’ assets they found giftware, jewelry, fixtures and fittings, but no bullion. His total assets were listed as close to $751,000, most of which was available for distribution to creditors. From there it was relatively easy to contact solicitors involved in the case and thence the trustee. The information was passed to Mrs Hargreave. She later telephoned to say the trustee had accepted her right to be listed as a creditor and she and her husband would hopefully receive nearly 50 cents in the dollar, or close to $6,500 from their $13,000 investment. Tourism Queensland missed the boat(.com) By STEPHEN LAMBLE Tourism Queensland and some key regional tourist authorities in Australia's premier tourism state faced an identity crisis after their names were plucked from under their noses and registered as web site addresses by a private company. The same travel company also registered the place names of many of Queensland's most popular tourist destinations and names associated with the Sydney Olympic Games. An online investigation has revealed that Brisbane based company Travel Online Pty Ltd had been quietly registering the addresses (URLs) since 1995. At the time of writing, it owned a string of URLs including tourismqueensland.com , sunshinecoast.com , portdouglas.com , herveybay.com and several Sydney Olympics- related sites. The US oriented dot.com name extensions and the absence of dot.au Australian identifiers combined to lead local and international tourism-oriented web surfers who entered terms such as "tourismqueensland'', "sunshinecoast'', or "great-barrier-reef'' into their web browsers, to Travel Online and its holiday advertisements. Travel Online chief executive Graeme Archer said he started registering the dot.com names with US Internet registration authorities in 1995 because he guessed (correctly as it turned out) that web browsers and their built-in search engines, which were developed in the US, would later be governed by dot.com name extensions. The move also allowed Mr Archer to sidestep Australian Internet registration rules which forbid the registration of place names as URLs in that country. He has since registered 230 separate dot.com names. "Dot com rules,'' he said. "You are not allowed to register dot.com.au with Australian place names - it is illegal if they are actually on the geographical government register.'' Mr Archer said his foresight in registering the names was reflected in the fact that the international travel business he founded in Port Douglas in far north Queensland in 1994 had moved into a an up-market new office in the inner Brisbane suburb of Milton in 1999. "We have gone from one person on payroll to 37 today,'' he said. "We are very fast, we are very well funded, we have had enormous growth. We are the most computer literate travel business in Australia and probably one of the best in the world. We have won the Queensland IT&T tourism award two years in a row and we now sponsor it.'' He said he registered <sydney2000games.com> (which is no longer an active site) long before SOCOG thought of the idea and well before names associated with the Olympics were protected by legislation. "We had it before they even thought about it,'' Mr Archer said. "We were online back in 1995 and we could see even then that domain names were going to be super-critical. In those early days it was absolutely the wild-wild-west and the land grab was on. "We are not cyber squatters. We don't register names to sell them. We have never sold a domain name. They are registered purely to expand our business. It was very prudent and it was very calculated by us. "The world has changed forever. I think a lot of people feel threatened by the (internet and web) technology because they really haven't taken it onboard and really don't understand where it's going. A Tourism Queensland spokeswoman said Mr Archer had been "very entrepreneurial'' in registering so many significant names. "When we went looking for those sites some time back, we would have liked to have had them,'' she admitted. "He did that while most people were still realising what the Internet was.'' A Tourism Sunshine Coast spokesman said he was unaware that Mr Archer's company owned sunshinecoast.com until told about it during research for this article. If these articles have sparked your interest in CAR but you are unsure where to start, you could begin by: (1) Going to the national and global links pages that are relevant for you in the drop-down menu on this site and using them as a base to discover the astonishing amount of high quality information available online. (2) Reading books on the subject, including Online Newsgathering: Research and Reporting for Journalism, 2007, Quinn S and Lamble S, Focal Press, Burlington. (3) Enrolling in a quality journalism program that teaches computer-assisted reporting.
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This
story evolved after Brisbane residents Henry and Lola Hargreave wrote to
The Sunday Mail’s consumer affairs section "The Fixer" on 18
January 1999 seeking help to find 20 bars of silver bullion which had
purchased for $12,900.
As it turned out,
there had been a Federal Court hearing on 25 February 1999 and another on
11 March involving none other than Walter Henry Scutts, his bullion
business and bankruptcy.