Beyond Computer Assisted Reporting
From a discussion at Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
January, 2003
First of all, I'd like to say how great it is to be in a country that understands the future. Canada at least has signed the Kyoto Global Warming treaty, the toxic waste treaty and Stockhold convention on persistent organic pollutants. And of course, Montreal is the home of theUN ozone protocols that have snatched survival from the jaws of global environmental disaster.
Secondly, let me ask few questions: Are there any computer nerds here? Or krelboins, as they say on TV. Cmon, you can decloak. OK Heres a nerd question: Please translate this from my ten year old son: -- I was tagged out of the realm because I had items that I didnt know were hacked.
How about this from one of our computer science faculty to me recently: The reason you need to learn PHP is that it is free, it embeds in HTML and you can handle multiple form elements without modifying the process program.
Are there any media scholars here? OK. Here's a scholarly issue for you: Would Harold Innis have seen the World Wide Web as a flexible medium or a durable medium? ( in the sense of persistence, enduring message) If it was both, how would it approach his criteria for balanced communications systems ?
And for you journalists, here's a question: If we publish databases for our readers to use, or use databases to let readers determine their information preferences, is it still CAR?
I ask these questions not because I know the answers but to raise issues about journalism education and where we need to be going.
It used to be that there were two communications traditions to bring together in J-school. We called them the green eyeshades and the chi squares. It seems to me that today the challenge is bringing together three cultures in order to anticipate and improve the new emerging media.
Computer assisted reporting is the tip of the new media iceberg, and my job today, as I see it, is to explain how the visible CAR connects to some of the broader issues and technical trends.
What Ill emphasize is that CAR is an improved means to a valuable public service end But also I want to note that its use has expanded. It is no longer just a reporting tool Thats because readers now use Web databases directly and indirectly.
Computer Assisted Reporting and Publishing allows improved means and ends for traditional and alternative news organizations
What we call Computer Assisted Reporting today was really the first technology to change journalism since the telephone. (Of course, there have been many changes in publishing but nothing that changed the newsroom routine).
ItÕs an important new development, and its both simple and huge. Simple because its just the computer. Huge because of what could happen. --
This reminds me of the old joke about the Zen master who goes over to the hot dog vendor and says Òmake me one with everything.Ó The hot dog vendor gives him a tofu dog with the works and the Zen master gives him a $20 bill. A few moments go by, and the Zen master says, ÒWhat about my change?Ò And the vendor says, ÒChange must come from within.Ó
Change
is coming, and some of us who have been watching this space for 20 years or
so are still hoping that most of it can come from within the public service
tradition of journalism.
In my recent book Web Design for the Mass Media I tried to lay out the new career options for people in media studies with a map that puts new computer technologies at the heart of the change and the three design systems in a triangle around it. I still regard it as tentative and subject to improvement, even though its been pretty widely distributed now.
Computer technology has created new patterns of information traffic -- The illustration here is an improvement of a matrix created by two Dutch scholars in 1987 and also by Sally MacMillan at U.Tenn. where the Source of Information and the Reception time and place are changing from top-down programs to Rich Content, Virtual Community and Virtual Markets. We can expect this to maximize over time -- from full scale neighborhood information systems (whereÕs my pizza? WhatÕs the crime rate? Why did the police get called to the Smith residence? ) into a reorganization along international lines, as ConcordiaÕs Mike Gasher suggested in a recent paper.
CAR originated in the investigative reporters and editors group (IRE) and itself became a major player as NICAR in 1989. NICAR gives a lot of professional training semiars. So Computer Assisted Reporting is not really a nerd thing, its an investigative reporting public service idea.
Most news reporting classes now have a CAR component. At the very elementary level, it is now possible for reporters to use databases to rank order information and make simple comparisons. My students use Excel spreadsheets to compare local government spending priorities and changes over time. This is an exercise that used to take weeks of very hard work.
Today any reporter can obtain all kinds of databases on medical malpractice, gun permits, traffic accidents -- and simply report on the data. For instance, the Hearst papers obtained obtained the concealed gun permit databases all over the country and found highest rate of permits were in rural not urban areas, where there might be a conceivable threat. This story shows the influence of the network of CAR training in the US, because it comes up in a lot of places in the past few years, with a variety of twists. In Billings, Montana, in Roanoke, Virginia and many others. More importantly, reporters in all these instances used that database as a starting point -- to get a broad overview of the trend -- then interviewed people for a more detailed explanation.
One of my favorite simple comparison stories is the CAR story on speeding tickets from the Raleigh News & Observer. Reporters crunched all the data, found out the likelihood of being pulled over at various speeds, the location and date of maximum ticketing, and which officer wrote the most tickets. Then they went with that officer, to that location, on that day, and wrote what they observed. It was fun and interesting. Recently Boston Globe did a major story using 750,000 traffic tickets / their angle was mostly racial profiling and drug searches.
Another type of CAR story involves a more complex comparison of databases -- say, matching felony convictions with weapons permits or hunting licenses (Billings Gazette) or teachers or bus drivers (St. Louis Post Dispatch; Roanoke Times). These kinds of stories have generated headlines and garnered press association kudos, but they are difficult to do because of the danger of libelling private people. The trick is not only to get unique identifiers in both data groups, but also to double check on them. Reporters can easily make mistakes with data we dont understand. For example, suppose we rank order hospital mortality rates. Are the ones with high rates to be avoided? Possibly these are the ones with trauma units, or the ones that take higher risk patients when others wont. Or sometimes they take charity cases and may be underfunded. There may be many reasons for statistical data to trend one way or another. So again, the statistics are just the starting point.
On a more complex level, it is possible for news organizations to do the kinds of projects that consumer and environmental groups used to spend years on. For example, in 1998 the Orange County Register examined a database of over one million applications for home loans in California and checked rejection rates for Whites, Hispanics and Blacks. Results are what you might expect, but it was possible through the databases to make direct comparisons of families who were approved and those who were not. Intranets & exchanges Advanced CAR in the Newsroom
As a result of the success of the CAR approach, most large news organizations are now engaged in enormous data storage and retrieval projects, both on their own and through NICAR and the state press associations. Big newspapers in state capitols now buy virtually every database, every year, being produced by state agencies. They can now make easy comparisons between years -- in terms of salaries, number of employees, expenditures, types of work. They monitor government in ways nobody dreamed of 20 years ago. But the newsroom cant just have one CAR team with access to all these databases -- in fact, the databases have to be available to the whole newsroom. So, in many newsrooms (eg Richmond VA, Raleigh NC, Austin TX) an internal web site allows reporters to access these databases so the reporters can ask basic questions and get data without the help of CAR specialists. Publishing these databases on an intranet is easy. From there its not such a large step to publishing on the Web for everyone, as well see in a moment. First, though, before we go outside the newsroom and the wire services, lets think about what this technology means for international development and news exchanges.
Regional news and cultural exchange processes
Another kind of intranet with tremendous possibilities is the regional news exchange. This is particularly important for developing nations, which have been awash in cultural products from the US and Europe for many years and are very concerned about losing their cultural identities. When the US opposed the NWICO in the 1980s, US representatives said it was not wise to restrict the international flow of communications. Instead, the essential alternative was to start programs Òwhich will aid developing countries to improve their communications facilities.Ó -- Leonard H. Marks, USAID, 1986
Did it happen? In 1990, I worked for US AID on the Central American media development program -- Over and over again I heard that radio is the most important source of information for the majority of people and that the most important infrastructure issue involved interconnection. CentAm nations had the ÒSercanoÓ microwave network in the 70s, but it was very expensive. I thought the best thing the US could do was finance its revitilization through a broadcast union, but my recommendations were never followed. Meanwhile, over in the Caribbean, CANA was connecting through analog means, very expensive / $250 K year. Then, in 1996, began switching to digital, MP3 exchanges. Now they have an infrastructure in place that cost only a fraction of the years analog fees, and the whole system can be operated virtually for free. Media development efforts have been much more serious in Canada and Europe than the US. Dr. Enn Raudsepp here has been to Kosovo, Cambodia and Trinidad in recent years. Lots of development in Fracophone Afirca // JADE -- great examples.
Computer Assisted Publishing
In some cases, the databases themselves are being used as the centerpiece of the story. For example in the Atlanta Journal a few years ago the salaries of high school football coaches were posted on a web database. They were much higher than teacher salaries, and it generated a storm of controversy when the information from every school district in the state was made available to the public. Turned out in some cases the coaches were making five times more than the most senior teachers. Another example is the Halifax NS HeraldÕs census data story, at the top of the CAJÕs CAR group list of examples. Each countyÕs census statistics are available individually. (Note -- CAJÕs CAR site has been neglected. 1999 is last workshop noted).
Yet another example -- the NPRI database. WeÕre seeing fewer downloadable databases and more and more database compilations published by government. Need to be wary of this because search parameters can be fixed in ways that hide certain kinds of data. The Boston Globe traffic ticket story involved visual depictions of complex data that could have been improved. So we need a sense of graphic design in CAR / CAP.
But to the broader point: What about Web publishing?
The
cartoon "Our Papers Voice" is at least honest, but not just a little
troubling. Why should the papers voice be so dominant? Dont we want diversity
of opinion? This cartoon depicts a system where diversity is crowded and uncomfortable.
That is not a very democratic vision. ConcordiaÕs Matt Friedman wrote about
some of this in in his book Fuzzy Logic. He says the down side of the information
revolution is corporate control and the concentration of information-the trend
towards the commodification of information rather than having it as an open
public resource. Here we see the opposite side of the coin. Where Freidman sees
increasing information control through the internet, here this cartoonist seems
to fear the increased anarchy and loss of control.
There is another vision of news that has not YET connected with most CAR efforts. Its the personalization and democratization of news. I like to call it Computer Assisted Publishing, but from the readers point of view it would be more like creating personalized information environments and contributing to the conversation. The early variations on this CAP idea have included MyYahoo and MyCNN, MyNetscape and Crayon. One of the early ideas around this was MIT's Fishwrap -- WhatÕs important about Fishwrap is that it involved readers not only in selecting their own news but voting on a news agenda. What was most important? One or two stories that others with thier own interests would enjoy or need to know about .
In Walter Lippman's view, the press was going through four historical stages: 1) Control by monarchy 2) Control by political parties 3) Commercial (or penny) press and 4) Organized intelligence. Lippmann had a scientific, positivistic vision of this, and its probably not what weÕd want today. But its an interesting notion, rising above commercialism to the point where information itself is organized into an intelligent network. As Thoreau said:
ÒOur inventions are wont to be pretty toys which distract our attention from serious things. They are but an improved means to an unimproved end ... ÒWe are in great haste to construct a magnetic telegraph from Maine to Texas; but Maine and Texas, it may be, have nothing important to communicate.Ó
Will Computer Assisted Publishing help us organize information intelligently? Can we 1) rationalize information needs of individuals 2) promote ÒMany to manyÓ information sharing and 3) improve South -South news & cultural exchange Are these pretty toys distracting us from serious things, or can they also help us understand serious things? There is nothing wrong with pretty toys, necessarily, so long as we are not forever distracted.
So whatÕs beyond CAR? CAR is a news media response to a broad trend; it is an improved means to a valuable public service end Its use has expanded. It is no longer just a reporting tool; Readers now use and appreciate Web databases So Computer Assisted Publishing is an improved means and an improved end Web + databases enables new publishing concepts More flexible personal access to information (and potentially less waste). Trends that could be identified include:
¥ Durable information sources that keep improving
¥ More community service possibilities
¥ More international and in-depth news from areas of interest
¥ Better links from news to information to education
¥ Possibilities for democratic responsiveness in information system (e.g., elected ombudsmen, neighborhood editors, reader councils, etc.)
This is kind of blue sky, and it reminds me of the story in which the traveller asks the farmer -- where does this road go? And the farmer answers: It doesnt go anywhere, they just keep it here to drive cars on. The big cliche about the web and internet used to be that it was an information highway.
And the question is: Where do we want it to go? As I said at the beginning, change is coming, and Im still hoping that most of it can come from within the public service tradition of journalism. So do a lot of people. HereÕs one way to look at it: ÒWhether we read 3D papers in VRML browsers with wraparound stereophonic holographic monitors while we control delivery with electronic body-suits, I don't know. But we'll still be reading online 'papers,' even if they have sound and video seamlessly woven in." (The Fourth Medium by Flora J. Garcia , quoting Geoffrey Baker, editor of the Southern Maine Daily Beacon.) Of course, this is what is called the rhetoric of the technological subline.
But where is the rhetoric of democracy? Why the focus on the pretty toys? How about this: Whether we still have editors who control content in the old way, or some kind of Òdemocratic newspaperÓ or collaborative network where journalists work for elected neighborhood editors, I dont know. But weÕll still be reporting about public interest issues, even if we are also letting readers set their own agendas, create some of their own content and satisfy their own information needs. To paraphrase F. Scott Fitzgerald, It doesnt matter how wired we are -- , it matters how we are wired ..
There is a lot of room for experminentation here. I worry that the Ònewsrooms of the futureÓ being developed in American universities center on the idea of convergence -- that is, a reporter doing all the production work along with all the writing.
This is a publishers dream -- it will help cut costs in an era where 25 to 50 percent ROI just isnt enough any more -- and it might also also force reporters to work faster and focus on more visually appealing events. I think a simple approach to convergence is risky. I agree that reporters should be conversant with the technology because the channel does indeed have an effect on the message.
But they should not be required to devote inordinate amounts of time to feeding various channels in the name of newsroom efficiency. In the US, we even hear requests for an end to cross ownership rules so that news organizations can be more competitive. So its vitally important to remember that CAR came from the tradition of investigative reporting, which is the Pulitzer tradition of public service and concern for honest government and a square deal for everybody. We need to keep the public interest at the heart of CAR and CAP. So, to finish up.
A computer programmer, a journalist and a chi square are driving down the highway. They switch on the radio and there is an emergency warning: An anouncer is shouting: "This is an Emergency: A car is driving on highway 81 against the traffic." The journalist appreciates the timely warning. The programmer wonders why they had to drive anyway. The chi square looks out ahead and, after counting, says:Only one car moving against the traffic? Heck, there are hundreds of them moving against the traffic.
Thank you. ...