Computer-assisted reporting: an essential skill, an outdated term

I've long objected to the term computer-assisted reporting. We've let it become a specialized skill that a few geeks master and the rest of us don't need to worry about.

I was pleased this weekend to catch part of a session Bill Dedman presented at the New England Press Association's winter convention in Boston. Bill was talking not about a specialized skill for the geeky few but about literacy for the whole newsroom. This is the right way to look at computer skills. You wouldn't make excuses for your inability to use a notebook or a telephone. It's past time to stop excusing journalists who refuse to master this basic reporting tool.

Early in my career, when newspapers were converting to computers as a writing tool, people adopted them with varying levels of skill and enthusiasm. Still, we adopted them. You had to be a first-class prima donna (and an old one at that) to be able to cling to your typewriter very long. Some people resisted full adaptation of computer-assisted writing. Sure, they used the computer in the newsroom, but they avoided learning how to use the early, cumbersome portable computers. They would try dictating from the road or rushing back to the newsroom to write. It seems ridiculous in retrospect. Young journalists reading this may think I'm exaggerating. But it happened. A lot.

Well, it's as ridiculous to think of computer-assisted reporting as a specialized skill as it would be to think of computer-assisted writing that way. We're well into the 21st Century. It's not enough to be able to do a simple Google search or click around the obvious web sites on your beat. If you aren't using your computer regularly to access and analyze information, you need to learn how to do that. Now.

What I liked about Bill's presentation at NEPA was that he wasn't touting the benefits of computer-assisted research in big projects, although his track record in that field is long and distinguished. When someone asked about his groundbreaking computer research for "The Color of Money," the project that won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, Bill told a brief story about that, but quickly turned the discussion back to daily reporting.

Every beat reporter needs to familiarize herself with the data available on her beat. Learn who stores the data, what the data show and how you access and analyze the data. You can attend a NICAR course. Or you can attend a simple Excel course at your local community college. Or you can use the tutorial that comes with Excel (it's not that hard; that's how I did my first story using Excel nearly 12 years ago). Or you can ask a friend who's farther along the data analysis path. Or visit Bill's Power Reporting web site and use the tip sheets he provides there to help you learn simple Excel skills.

The need for data analysis and advanced searching skills in government reporting should be obvious. Government agencies store gold mines of data that reporters need to be able to find, analyze and understand. But, as Bill pointed out, non-profit organizations operate on nearly every beat, so you need to be able to access Guidestar and analyze the financial reports required from non-profits. And business reporters need to access data from regulatory agencies as well as to understand and analyze annual reports and other business documents. And every child who follows sports understands how important statistical analysis is in that field.

Bill's most recent career move, as an investigative reporter at MSNBC.com, underscores the need to continue learning new tools and new reporting techniques. He recently did his first video. If a Pulitzer winner who's recognized as a leader in investigative reporting can learn to use new tools, what's holding you back?

My other complaint about the term "computer-assisted reporting" is that it lets editors off the hook. Editors who are illiterate at data analysis are unable to hold reporters accountable for their analysis (or failure to anayze), unable to coach reporters in professional development and unable to catch simple mistakes. Would we think of letting an editor who doesn't know how to write supervise reporters?

That's what I like about Bill's approach to advocating and teaching computer literacy. (Take the newsroom literacy test if you haven't already.) The very term underscores that you are deficient and even incompetent if you aren't literate. And you are.