Thursday, April 12, 2012

Monday is deadline to apply for free, expenses-paid Rural Computer-Assisted Reporting workshop

Monday is the deadline for journalists to apply for fellowships to attend a free, expenses-paid workshop on rural computer-assisted reporting at the University of Kentucky in Lexington May 18-20.

The R-CAR Investigative Mini-Boot Camp is a short version of the CAR boot camps done frequently by Investigative Reporters and Editors, which is providing the R-CAR training in cooperation with the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues and the Ethics and Excellence in Journalism Foundation.

Up to 12 R-CAR fellows will be selected for the Mini-Boot Camp on the basis of their applications, a letter explaining the stories they want to do with CAR skills, and clips showing that they are prepared to do such stories. Their lodging and meals for two days will be provided, and they will receive a limited travel subsidy.

The training will include an introduction to Excel spreadsheet software; finding data and documents online; using the web as an investigative tool; getting data and documents from government agencies; beating them in open-records battles; an introduction to Access software for building databases; and working with Access to develop and produce stories. Training will be conducted by IRE Training Director Jaimi Dowdell, another experienced IRE trainer and IRJCI Director Al Cross. (Read more) To download an application, click here.

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