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'''Computer-assisted reporting''' describes the use of [[computer]]s to gather and analyze the data necessary to write [[news]] stories.

The spread of computers, [[software]] and the [[Internet]] changed how [[reporters]] work. Reporters routinely collect information in [[database]]s, analyze public records with [[spreadsheet]]s and [[statistical package|statistical programs]], study political and [[demographic]] change with [[geographic information system]] mapping, conduct interviews by [[e-mail]], and [[research]] background for articles on the [[World Wide Web|Web]].

Collectively this has become known as computer-assisted reporting, or CAR. It is closely tied to "precision" or [[analytic journalism]], which refer specifically to the use of techniques of the [[social sciences]] and other disciplines by journalists.

== History and development ==

One researcher argues the "age of computer-assisted reporting" began in 1952, when [[CBS]] television used a [[UNIVAC I]] computer to analyze returns from the U.S. presidential [[election]].<ref name="COX">Melisma Cox , [http://com.miami.edu/car/cox00.pdf The development of computer-assisted reporting] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110928144238/http://com.miami.edu/car/cox00.pdf |date=2011-09-28 }}, paper presented to the Newspaper Division, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Southeast Colloquium, March 17–18, 2000, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.</ref> One of the earliest examples came in 1967, after [[riots]] in Detroit, when [[Philip Meyer]] of the ''[[Detroit Free Press]]'' used a [[mainframe computer]] to show that people who had attended college were equally likely to have rioted as were high school dropouts.<ref>{{cite magazine
| last = Bowen
| first = Ezra
| title = New Paths to Buried Treasure; Computers are revolutionizing investigative journalism
| url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,961680-1,00.html
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070930193236/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,961680-1,00.html
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = September 30, 2007
| magazine = [[Time (magazine)|Time]]
| date = July 7, 1986
}}</ref>

Since the 1950s, computer-assisted developed to the point that databases became central to the journalist's work by the 1980s. In his book, Precision Journalism, the first edition of which was written in 1969, [[Philip Meyer]] argues that a journalist must make use of databases and surveys, both computer-assisted. In the 2002 edition, he goes even further and states that "a journalist has to be a database manager".<ref>Philip Meyer, [https://books.google.com/books?id=uUzT0M_lPbYC ''Precision Journalism''], p.1, Rowman & Littlefield , 2002.</ref>

In 2001, computers had reached a critical mass in American newsrooms in terms of general computer use, online research, non-specialist content searching, and daily frequency of online use,<ref>Bruce Garrison, 2001. [http://jou.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/2/2/221 Diffusion of online information technologies in newspaper newsrooms], ''Journalism'', volume 2, pp. 221-239.</ref> showing that CAR has become ubiquitous in the United States.

==Tools and techniques==

The techniques expanded from polling and surveying to a new opportunity for journalists: using the computer to analyze huge volumes of government records. The first example of this type may have been Clarence Jones of ''[[The Miami Herald]]'', who in 1969 worked with a computer to find patterns in the criminal justice system. Other notable early practitioners included [[David Burnham]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'', who in 1972 used a computer to expose discrepancies in crime rates reported by the police; [[Elliot Jaspin]] of ''[[The Providence Journal]]'', who in 1986 matched databases to expose school bus drivers with bad driving histories and criminal records; and [[Bill Dedman]] of ''[[The Atlanta Journal-Constitution]]'', who received the [[Pulitzer Prize]] for his 1988 investigation, ''The Color of Money'', which dealt with [[Mortgage discrimination|mortgage lending discrimination]] and [[redlining]] in middle-income black neighborhoods.<ref name="COX" />

== Professional organizations ==

In the last 15 years, journalism organizations such as the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting (NICAR, a program of [[Investigative Reporters and Editors]]) and the Danish International Center for Analytical Reporting (DICAR), have been created solely to promote the use of CAR in newsgathering. Many other organizations, such as the [[Society of Professional Journalists]], the [[Canadian Association of Journalists]] and the [[University of King's College]] in Halifax, [[Nova Scotia]], offer CAR training or workshops. Journalists have also created [[mailing list]]s to share ideas about CAR, including NICAR-L, CARR-L and JAGIS-L.

== See also ==
* [[Automated journalism]]
* [[Data-driven journalism]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

{{Journalism footer}}

[[Category:Journalism]]

Computer-assisted reporting - Revision history

imported>Alenoach: Undid revision 1317676388 by NamicGreen (talk): undue weight to a recent primary source, COI

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