When SPj Rio Grande awards funds for our members to travel to a conference or workshop, we ask them to write up a brief summary of how the experience helped them as a working journalist in New Mexico. Here are some of their stories.
Getting to go to the CAR 2019 conference was a great opportunity. The Computer Assisted Reporting Conference focused on reporting and stories journalists can do through data and research they can do with the help of databases and computer programs. Data journalism is a growing field, my title used to be data journalist, and this conference focused on data journalism. I use online databases for a lot of my research in business reporting and I was able to take advantage of the teachings at this conference to further my expertise in finding the right databases and combing through them to find relevant information.
One of the hardest things most reporters run into is figuring out how to turn data and figures into stories that people want to read. I was able to take classes and listen to panels about writing stories that people care about and that they will understand. I took this information back to my newsroom and taught the rest of the reporters and editors some of the tips I learned and some of the ways to use the tips in our specific coverage, as business reporting can sometimes be bogged down in trends and numbers and data.
I am also an editor who manages projects and people and was able to take advantage of classes that focused on management skills and learning how to tackle problems and balance work. These were very important things to learn in my career now as I am progressing up the ladder.
I’m very glad for this opportunity and thankful for the chance to take this trip and learn more to progress my writing and reporting and to bring that knowledge to others as well.
— Juliana Vadnais
Assistant Managing Editor, Albuquerque Business First
The Poynter / Pew Census training blew my mind with the amount of data that the project creates—and the number of potential stories that could and should come out of it. I learned so much during presentations from leaders at the Census Bureau, experts who work with that data year-round at Pew and journalists who’ve covered it as many as four times. One of the most useful things I picked up was how to dig in to the ROAR mapping tool that shows data on a block-by-block level. But on a higher level, the conference was reinvigorating and inspiring. Often stories about the routine things the government does can get dull after a while, especially if you’ve covered them before. But being around these experts got me all enthusiastic about finding creative ways to make the process engaging and relevant for people here in New Mexico. I came home with a four-page list of story ideas for my series at KNME. I have lots of tools to share, but here are just a few: A list of resources and a Google Drive folder with all of the presentation materials.
— Gwyneth Doland
New Mexico PBS correspondent and UNM Term Faculty
The IRE conference in Houston was a highly valuable experience for me. I had been to several IRE conferences before, but this time I came with several in-process stories in hand and with several collaborative projects in mind, and I feel well-prepared to execute those stories thanks to the tools shared with me at the conference. It was also great to meet fellow journalists, both in New Mexico and across the country. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have attended, and I’m looking forward to applying the skills I learned in the coming year.
— Ed Williams
Searchlight New Mexico
Thank you for the opportunity to attend IRE. For several months I have been trying to learn about the state of the art in data journalism, but the cumulative effect of an hour here and there was mostly frustration. After attending a few days of workshops and talks at IRE, focusing largely on data journalism and how to conduct an investigation, I feel capable of fruitfully directing my efforts. I couldn’t have done it without your support, both financially and in the concentrated form of time away from the newsroom and my regular duties there.
— Sheila Miller
Sports editor, The Taos News
Attending the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference was an incredibly enriching experience. I met journalists from around the world, and I learned valuable reporting, researching, sourcing, writing, and editing skills from them.
I learned some concrete skills that will help improve my reporting on criminal justice in New Mexico. For example, I learned about the myriad of records that prisons, jails, and police departments maintain, and I learned tips for building sources inside prisons, jails, and law enforcement agencies. This practical information will help me better report on the criminal justice system in New Mexico. I spoke with other journalists and editors about investigations they have done about abuse of power in their cities and states, which will help me plan and organize my investigations in the future.
I also learned much through informal conversations with reporters and editors at the conference. People talked about the personal challenges of being a reporter in a changing industry, which was helpful to me as I think about my future as a journalist.
— Ike Swetlitz
Searchlight New Mexico
In June, SPJ’s generous grant enabled me to attend the IRE conference for the first time. The conference in Houston was an invaluable opportunity to connect with journalists from around the country and especially to hear how more experienced reporters have gone about impactful investigative projects in their communities. I came away with helpful tips and data sources from sessions on covering educational inequities, sex crimes, and the environment, among other topics.
IRE was also a good chance to take the temperature of my industry when it comes to issues of diversity and inclusion; the conference itself offered reasons for both optimism and critical appraisal. For example, an “off-the-record” session provided a necessary safe space for women to share experiences of harassment, discrimination, and pay discrepancy in journalism. However, especially in a post-#metoo era, I wished IRE would do more to mainstream conversations like those and to hold its members and their companies/news organizations accountable. And while IRE appears to be making a good effort to support journalists of color with fellowships, I couldn’t help but notice the overwhelming whiteness of many panels and sessions in Houston. Overall, I really valued the opportunity to see how this influential national journalism organization is operating — including attending its membership meeting — and to discuss with other smart, critical journalists how IRE could do better.
— Hannah Colton
KUNM