1What is online journalism? - Ayo Menulis FISIP UAJY

Online research and reporting 69
finding people – not just named individuals, but also tapping
into debate, current thinking, trends and fashions (this is a
more fluid grouping);
checking information – using online reference resources;
and
analysing information – in particular, data.
These categories are not watertight. Some of the techniques used
to find people, such as mailing lists, will also give you information.
Similarly, looking on web pages for information will often lead to
people. However, as reflections of the core journalistic activities,
they will suffice, as long as we see them for what they are, namely
entry points for the uninitiated, not definitive groupings. Once you
get to know your way around, the finer differences will become
apparent.
This chapter focuses on how to find information and people.
More refined computer assisted reporting (CAR) techniques,
such as data capture and analysis, form another important but
specialized area, not well served by ‘a brief introduction’. The use
of spreadsheets by reporters to analyse information such as
government statistics has become established in the United
States. Reporters have been able to utilize existing data sets or
compile their own and produce results that even the most
innumerate journalist would immediately see had strong news
value. As a result, trends, gaps, mistakes and cover-ups have been
revealed. They have been there all the time, sitting in the data. It’s
just needed a journalist to ask the right questions, run the right
sequence of numbers.
However, many journalists outside the United States are prone
to CARsickness. For example, as yet, there is little evidence of the
more advanced CAR techniques being used in the UK, partly
because of the difficulty journalists feel they face getting the raw
data. It’s easy to exaggerate the divide between the US and the
rest of the world in relation to CAR. Nora Paul has been one of the
leading advocates of the benefits of CAR. She has spoken of the
‘mythology of the United States being so advanced in everything
computer related’. She has seen a gradual growth among US
journalists in the regular use of spreadsheets to analyse city