The Craft of Research

Points of emphasis for critical thinking:

1. Experts should be one of your first thoughts as a source of information on any subject.  They can lend authority, accuracy, balance and credibility to your stories.  They may also refer you to other sources.
2. One good way to find experts is to do a Nexis or Factiva search on your subject and see who has spoken on the topic in the past.
3. Another way is to seek out local or national organizations related to the topic.  One of my favorite tools is the Encyclopedia of Associations, an “old-fashioned” print resource available in our Research Center.  Online, you can use the school’s Associations Unlimited account or the universally accessible Gateway to Associations.
4. Government experts can also be useful.  Any New York City reporter should have the latest copy of the Green Book.
5. Many colleges and universities provide access to faculty and staff experts via their web sites, including CUNY and other local schools.   There are also web sites specifically devoted to connecting journalists with experts, such as ProfNet and the Yearbook of Experts.

For this lesson, we’ll be referring to the blog’s “Nexis/Factiva tips” page and the documents I sent you via e-mail, but I do want to make one important point here…

With the exception of the most late-breaking stories when time is too tight, every story you write should be accompanied by (preferably preceded by) Nexis and/or Factiva searches on the story topic.  You can’t write a story properly without previous background.  A Google search is fine, but it is NOT a substitute for Nexis and Factiva, which have much deeper archives of RELIABLE source material.  The scarce embracement and command of Nexis and Factiva among Craft I students was most disappointing.  We’ll change that in Craft II.

Assignment due for class on 2/17 (and be prepared to discuss!): Using Nexis and/or Factiva (and nothing else), find at least five news stories in your Community District since school started in September, and write a brief “roundup” type report.  Don’t worry about a catchy lead, doing interviews or any of the other things you typically do when writing for publication.  This is a SEARCH exercise.  At the end of the report, I want Nexis/Factiva article citations and a listing of your search strategies (terminology).

Points of emphasis for critical thinking:

1. With many courts at the federal, state and local levels, there is no “one stop shopping” for court research.  In most cases, you’ll need to know the jurisdiction before you can find anything.
2. In many jurisdictions, particularly at the local levels, case information isn’t online at all.  For those cases, you have no choice but to visit the courthouse or contact the court clerk to get info (unless you can get it from participating lawyers).
3. Of the courts that do have case information online, there’s no uniformity.  Some post full case documents.  Others provide only basic docket information.  And many times, you’ll have to use a fee-based service to get the info.
4. For federal cases, PACER is the best place to go.  Although fee-based, it’s relatively inexpensive.  It has both docket information and (most) case documents.  (Note: The Supreme Court has its own no-cost site separate from the PACER system.  Historical SCOTUS info can be found here, here, here and here.)   FindLaw is another good site to search Supreme and Circuit Court decisions.  The Federal Judiciary also publishes the very useful Journalist’s Guide to the Federal Courts and Understanding the Federal Courts.
5. LexisNexis has case information for the most jurisdictions–federal, state and local–but it requires a more costly account, not available through our CUNY subscription.
6. Beyond PACER and LexisNexis, you can and should check individual court sites, such as the New York State Unified Court System’s eCourts or Appellate Courts pages, to find out what is and isn’t available online there.  (Note: Cornell’s Legal Information Institute has archived New York Court of Appeals decisions.)
7. For higher-profile cases, you can sometimes find court documents posted at sites such as FindLaw, Jurist, MoreLaw, CNN Crime News or The Smoking Gun.
8. You’ll probably need to talk to them for your story anyway, so if all else fails, lawyers might provide case information.  My favorite sites to find lawyer contacts are LegalDockets and Martindale.com.

Points of emphasis for critical thinking:

1. There’s more to search engines than just plugging in words.  The best searchers use the advanced features.  There are many places to find Google tips.
2. No mainstream search engines, even Google, search anywhere close to the entire web.  They don’t include every page, nor the entirety of many longer documents.  That’s why you need to familiarize yourself with many of the sources I’ve reviewed this semester.  You can’t rely on Google exclusively.
3. Web sites are not all created equal.  Evaluate, and trust primary sources FIRST.  Sometimes you’ll want to check who owns a web site.
4. Web pages don’t die easily.  Old pages can be treasure troves.
5. The first breakout web search tool was a subject guide.  They are still around and still useful.
6. In addition to the “general” search tools, there are great “specialty” engines too.  Two of the best known are Google News and YouTube.

Rather than a handout, this lesson centers around the school’s Presidential Election wiki.

• 2008 Presidential Election Front Page

Our specific focus is on resources in four of the listed categories:

1. Aggregator tools (for candidate backgrounds, voting records, issue positions and fact checking)
2. Government links (for local board of elections information)
3. Campaign finance
4. Polling data

• Lesson handout

Handout highlights:

1. Crime statistics at the local, state and national levels
2. Inmate statistics and lookup/locator tools (plus parole and probation stats)
3. Most wanted criminals
4. Sex offender registries
5. Criminal court information
6. District Attorneys and lawyers
7. Death penalty information

• Lesson handout

Points of emphasis for critical thinking:

1. NYC.gov is going to be a (if not the) primary research source for your Community District.
2. Like almost all government web sites, the bulk of “the good stuff” is buried deep within NYC.gov.  Never think the home page of a government web site is going to be intuitive.  You need to dig.
3. Do you necessarily trust every piece of information released by the government?

• Lesson handout

Points of emphasis for critical thinking:

1. People—whether witnesses to an incident or experts on a subject—should be one of your first thoughts as a source of information on ANYTHING.
2. Why do you need to talk to experts?  Authority, accuracy, balance and CREDIBILITY.
3. That said, never trust any person—no matter who it is—as your sole source of information, even about him or her self…and sometimes ESPECIALLY about him or her self (e.g. people lying about their age).  Always verify!
4. Backgrounding people is crucial.  For example, you never want to write a friendly story about someone, only to be burned by not doing proper backgrounding.
5. Last but not least: there’s some information generated about people that won’t be available.  As an example, consider Presidential candidates.  What information about them is released only at their discretion?