Narrative + investigative: tips from IRE 2012, Part 1
At last month’s Investigative Reporters & Editors conference, in Boston, hundreds of reporters attended dozens of sessions on everything from analyzing unstructured data to working with the coolest web tools and building a digital newsroom. The conference, which started in the 1970s, after a Phoenix reporter died in a car bomb while covering the mob, is usually considered an investigative-only playground, but narrative writers can learn a lot from these journalists’ techniques and resources.
When might a narrative writer need investigative skills? A few possible scenarios:
• When developing a character’s timeline and activities beyond the basic backgrounding
• When navigating precarious relationships with sources
• When organizing large and potentially complicated amounts of material
• When gathering data and documents that might provide storytelling context – geopolitical, financial, etc.
We asked This Land correspondent Kiera Feldman to cover the conference with an eye for material that might be particularly useful in narrative. She netted a range of ideas, tips and resources. Today, in Part 1, she covers areas including documents and data, online research and source relationships. Check back tomorrow for Part 2, “Writing the Investigative Story,” with best practices from Ken Armstrong of the Seattle Times and Steve Fainaru of ESPN.
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