Apply by Aug. 12 for 5-day Poynter-IRE workshop on investigating local government at little expense

Al Tompkins

The title of this year's Poynter Institute and Investigative Reporters and Editors Workshop, scheduled for Sept. 16-20 in St. Petersburg, Fla., is "Investigating Local Government on a Shoestring Budget." It will be "an intensive, practical hands-on workshop to teach journalists how to investigate and report on their local governments ... especially focused toward newsrooms that do not have big budgets or staffs to produce exhaustive projects," the Poynter Institute says.

Participants will get hands-on training in how to use spreadsheets and databases, how to use open-government laws and hidden documents, 10 tools to tell the story beyond newspaper pages or the TV screen, and ethical decision-making. The workshop will also focus on examining stories of significance with the help of the journalists who did them, closely examining the records, the methods, and the results that the best investigations produce, and creating solid story ideas.

Mark Horvit

Workshop faculty include: Al Tompkins, senior faculty broadcast and online at Poynter; Mark Horvit, executive director of IRE; Jaimi Dowdell, training director for IRE; John Maines, computer-assisted reporting editor at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel; Kris Hundley, investigative reporter at the Tampa Bay Times; and Nancy Amons, investigative reporter at WSMV in Nashville. More faculty members are expected to be added.

Cost of the workshop is $300, very low for five days of programming thanks to a grant from the Buck Foundation. The deadline to apply is Aug. 12. For more information or to apply click here.