Investigative Story

Instructions

You are to write an original piece of investigative data journalism, in approximately 1500 words. Your piece must include 1 or 2 original data graphics (no more or no fewer).

Your story will focus on western Massachusetts. That means you should either:

  • identify a data set that is local to western Mass or some location in western Mass (like Northampton) or
  • filter a larger (national/state) data set down to the region of interest.

We will begin this project by generating data-driven ideas. Each of you will submit 1-2 ideas to Slack. After brainstorming their newsworthiness in class, each of you will rank the story ideas based on how much you would like to do them. From your rankings, we will assign you to a story idea in reporting teams of 2-3 people.

Reporting will then begin! Your deliverables will include:

  • A Team Responsibilities Charter. This document, which you will update throughout the project, will define the responsibilities of each team member. It will also serve as a record of your planned and conducted interviews, an annotated bibliography of references, other reporting & research steps, and information about your data.
  • A data visualization.
  • A first draft: This should be a complete version of your story written in journalistic style, as defined below.
  • A final article: This final piece will respond to peer and faculty revision suggestions. It may include more supporting material, such as additional interviews or researched information.

You should also collect multimedia elements throughout your reporting: photos and audio at a minimum, but also possibly video if you spot a good opportunity. You will use these for your Assignment 3: Closeread scrollytelling effort.

Journalistic style

Use standard journalistic style as previously. Handout on Journalistic Style

  • Lead: an introductory hook – something catchy and current.
  • Nutgraph: the meat of the story – provides the main point or theme (1-3 sentences).
  • Mechanistic Development: sequence of facts, quotes, and analysis that tells the story.
  • Inclusion of quotes by experts, eye witnesses or other sources. Effective quotes employ key details, characterization, entertaining and clear analogies. You must include at least three “voices” or quotes from different people.
  • Counterargument: usually occurs about two-thirds of the way through the piece.
  • Conclusion: the broader meaning and implications. Sometimes a story will end on an evocative quote.

Deadlines

  • Sun, 2/22: Post 1-2 story ideas on Slack
  • Fri, 2/27: Idea rankings due
  • Sun, 3/15: Team charter first pass due
  • Sun, 3/29: Data visualization due
  • Tue, 4/12: Draft submission due
  • Thu, 4/14: Peer review in class
  • Sun, 4/19: Final submission due