I’m so bad. I didn’t blog about the Computer-Assisted Research and Reporting (CARR) workshop I attended to last week. I’m getting so lazy with my blogging.
The workshop lasted only two days, but it was very useful. Mark Tapscott, blogger and journalist, teaches CARR every year. The idea is to help journalists analyze data to find a good story or the real story behind the numbers. We went to various government web sites that posted Excel spreadsheets for download to figure out how they came up with the figures. Sometimes the agency doing the analyses or the journalist doing the story get the numbers wrong, and CARR training gives you the skills (and motivation) to run the numbers yourself. Excel has great functions and features, and you can sort the numbers in different ways and find a new and more interesting angle to a story.
For example, Mark pointed me to this post written by a former journalist. He ran the numbers on a feel-good story about “dramatic” increases in standardized test scores of black and Hispanic students in Wake Country, North Carlolina, and poured a bucket of cold water all over the hype. Not only were the gains miniscule, but the county hyping the “good news” has a crucial stake in the game. In other words, they were highly motivated to fudge or obscure the real numbers.
I met several folks at CARR, including Stacy Harp, a blogger who goes by the name El Oso (He’s blogging anonymously), Carrie Sheffield, sister of Ratherbiased’s Matt Sheffield, Rebecca Halik, and others. Matt and his brother developed NewsBusters.org for the Media Research Center.
Most of the attendees were wanna-be journalists and much, much younger than me. Well, except for Stacy, Mark, and Bob Cox, both of whom I met at BlogNashville, which Bob organized. Bob is also the head honcho at Media Bloggers Association. If I’m not careful, someone might get the impression that I wanna-be a journalist. 
As an aside, tonight I’m attending a DC-area blogger meet-up. I’ll finally get to meet David “Jolly Blogger” Wayne in person, as well as Charmaine Yoest, William Meisheid, and others, all Christians.
Addendum: More computer-assisted reporting in action.
Unrelated Update: I’ve been researching podcasting for some clients. There’s a whole online world out there I don’t know much about. I’m thinking of doing a podcast of my own, a weekly LBC Newsrant or Faith Chat or something.
Blogger Frank J. is podcasting, as well as many other bloggers, I’m sure. Would you want to listen to me talk about something every week? What should I talk about? I’d have to have guests, too.
