March 2011 Program: Investigative Reporting
Journalistic Legwork and Brainwork for Every Writer
Uncovering the secrets to investigative reporting doesn’t require a magnifying glass and a clay pipe; one obvious yet often neglected resource was noted by all three of the experts who spoke at CWIP’s March 16 panel: people. In interviews, research, or fieldwork, the Who is just as important as the What—maybe more.
English teacher turned author Daniel P. Smith offered twelve tips on successful interviewing, revealing skills he learned from Studs Terkel and Tim Russert and honed with his book project On the Job: Behind the Stars of the Chicago Police Department. Smith observed that people like to fill dead space. He stressed finding the right conversational balance and knowing when to “let ‘em sing,” comparing interviewing to a dance. He suggested using connections over cold calling to access interview subjects, emphasizing how knowledge of their culture can open doors and citing how his project benefited from his heritage as an Irish-Catholic Chicago native with roots in a police family. That Smith himself is funny and personable probably didn’t hurt either.
With people as both her clients and subjects, professional ancestry researcher Grace DuMelle eloquently said, “genealogy is another name for biography.” As the author of Finding Your Chicago Ancestors: A Beginner's Guide to Family History Research in the City and Cook County, DuMelle spoke with authority on using resources from Ancestry.com to Lexis-Nexis. Drawing on a case study from her many years as president of Heartland Historical Research Service, she offered the helpful, counterintuitive advice that it is easier to research roots by working backwards starting from the end of an ancestor’s life and moving toward the beginning.
Suzanne McBride takes a practical approach to fieldwork. As associate chair of journalism at Columbia College Chicago and co-publisher of ChicagoTalks.org, she has a lot of experience asking what public documents will give reporters the information they want. She cited local sources of and uses for property documents and court records including traffic, civil, criminal, federal, and probate court proceedings. She even explained how to access 500 million court documents over the Internet using the PACER electronic access system. Most importantly, McBride reminded writers not to forget to talk to the court clerks and document administrators who can be just as valuable an information source as the documents themselves.
However, the greatest example demonstrating the importance of people came from McBride’s discussion of what information is available not only to the public but also about the public. Referring to the Wall Street Journal’s What They Know series, she raised the timely and controversial issue of digital privacy vs. corporate interests. With databases like Accurint even providing social security numbers, subscribing finance and insurance companies seem to have an all-access pass to personal information. Meanwhile, others are limited to data available only by request via the Freedom of Information Act, an application process that can be lengthy and tedious despite recent updates to the act aimed at improving response time and creating an advocate for citizens, the Public Access Counselor in the Illinois Attorney General’s office.
By focusing on people, this panel greatly benefited writers and reminded us that although some of the tips seem like basic sensibility, common sense isn’t always common practice. Regarding police officers, Daniel Smith said that “even the most boring ones are interesting,” a lesson writers could apply to all people when approaching the next project.