NICAR 2023 conference schedule The NICAR 2023 conference will run from Thursday, March 2, to Sunday, March 5 in Nashville, Tennessee. Register for the conference: https://www.ire.org/training/conferences/nicar-2023/nicar23-registration/ 183 sessions confirmed | Updated March 4 | All times are CT View this schedule in another format: HTML: https://schedules.ire.org/nicar-2023/index.html CSV: https://schedules.ire.org/nicar-2023/nicar-2023-schedule.csv JSON: https://schedules.ire.org/nicar-2023/nicar-2023-schedule.json PDF: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mAl2OorZyToH6ztzzoezFao1HlcLhNGrp656ug3sEA4/export?format=pdf Sessions starting any time Pitch your ideas to MuckRock! Session type: Special Description: Have a great investigative story idea that needs some outside help? Pitch your story to MuckRock! If selected, we'll work with you, to provide financial support, editing, data or FOIA help or some combination to get it published. Simply fill out this form -- https://airtable.com/shroAnlsE5MvWX0Bc -- with your name, email, newsroom affiliation or freelance and a short, 500-word-max description of your idea. We'll reach out to journalists in March 2023 to talk about your ideas and will arrange Zoom meetings and in-person meet-ups at NICAR23 in Nashville. Have a question? Email us at news@muckrock.com Speaker: Derek Kravitz, MuckRock ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 7:30 a.m. CT on Thursday, March 2 ------------------------------------------------------------ International meet and greet - invitation-only event Thursday, March 2, 7:30 – 8:15 a.m. CT (45 minutes) Session type: Special Description: An opportunity for international attendees to network. This is an invitation-only event. ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 8:15 a.m. CT on Thursday, March 2 ------------------------------------------------------------ Welcome first timers! How to make the most of NICAR23 Thursday, March 2, 8:15 – 8:45 a.m. CT (30 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Welcome to the conference! Hear from IRE staff about tips and tactics to navigate our conference like a pro. Also, you'll learn about key resources that IRE offers once you're back home. Speakers: Diana Fuentes, IRE & NICAR Lauren Grandestaff, IRE & NICAR Cody Winchester, IRE & NICAR ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 9 a.m. CT on Thursday, March 2 ------------------------------------------------------------ The Marshall Project offers office hours Thursday, March 2, 9 – 11:15 a.m. CT (135 minutes) Session type: Commons Description: The Marshall Project’s team may not always be hiring, but we’re excited to offer up a number of slots for resume/portfolio review, mock interviews, data reviews, etc. Sign up for a 25-minute conversation here: https://forms.gle/ikw3GadQ14QY1wCB8. **************************************** Tips and techniques for handling mass records requests to local agencies Thursday, March 2, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Demo Description: Managing a FOIA request or local public record act request can be very different experiences. Local agencies may be less experienced in handling records or knowledgeable about the law. However, new tools can make it easier to make and manage requests to many places. This panel will share tools for making requests, negotiating with record managers and organizing files. We'll get into the nitty gritty of topics like NextRequest, transferring big files and arguing about definitions. Track: Public records Speakers: Tom Meagher, The Marshall Project Lisa Pickoff-White, The California Reporting Project **************************************** Finding the story: Using DNS search for investigative journalism Thursday, March 2, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Every online interaction begins with a lookup in the Domain Name System (DNS), the backbone of the Internet. As a result, there are digital footprints left behind in the DNS. With the demise of Whois, investigative reporters are looking for new tools to uncover these footprints. Learn how to use DNSDB Scout, a tool to query DNSDB, a historical passive DNS database, to discover previously unknown online connections and gain new information to advance your ongoing and breaking news investigations. Basic knowledge of the Domain Name System (DNS) is helpful, but not required. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Speakers: Kelly Molloy, DomainTools Daniel Schwalbe, Domain Tools **************************************** Mapping and geographic data analysis with the simple features package in R Thursday, March 2, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: The sf (Simple Features) package in R represents vector geodata as data frames with the geometry held in a single list-column. As such, it allows you to process geodata in pipelines that consistent with the syntax of dplyr and other tidyverse packages. This session will provide an introduction to the Simple Features in R package, show how to draw maps from sf objects with ggplot2, and how to run spatial queries on geodata much as you would in PostGIS. This session is good for anyone who is comfortable working in R and the Tidyverse packages. Skill level: Advanced Speaker: Peter Aldhous, UC Berkeley Grad School **************************************** Google Sheets 1: Getting started with spreadsheets Thursday, March 2, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: In this introduction to spreadsheets, you'll begin analyzing data with Google Sheets, a simple but powerful tool. You'll learn how to enter data, navigate spreadsheets and conduct simple calculations like sum, average and median. This session is good for: Data beginners. You must bring your own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class, and you will need a free Google account to participate. Skill level: Beginner Speaker: Shirsho Dasgupta, Miami Herald/McClatchy DC Bureau **************************************** Journalism workflow hacks & tips Thursday, March 2, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Have you ever wondered how other reporters do their job? In this panel, we’ll do a show-and-tell of different tactics reporters use to streamline their days. No war stories, just the nitty gritty of every-day reporting: filing information requests, talking to sources and researching. We'll also go into special occasions, like election coverage at a national scale. Speakers: Geoff Hing, The Marshall Project Amir Khafagy, Documented Natalie Lung, Bloomberg News Cecilia Reyes, Insider Mike Stucka, Independent journalist **************************************** Teaching the teachers Thursday, March 2, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Some of the most highly regarded data journalism teachers will share their tips, tricks and other best practices for teaching hands-on classes at the conference, in your newsroom, other venues or even college classes. The group will discuss their secrets for things such as preparing for a session, what expectations to have about your students, how to handle difficult situations in the class, and what to think about when choosing data for the lesson. They will also offer advice for those of you who have never taught at the conference on how best to break into the teaching ranks. Track: Educators Speakers: Jasmine Han, Industry Dive Jennifer LaFleur, Center for Public Integrity Samantha Sunne, ProPublica/WVUE Ben Welsh, Reuters **************************************** Making sense of criminal justice data Thursday, March 2, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Reporters who cover criminal justice are bound to encounter lots of numbers: Incarceration rates, crime rates, racial disparities, clearance rates, use of force statistics and so on. Unfortunately, making sense of these figures can be a minefield of potential misinterpretations thanks to antiquated data collection programs, intentional manipulation by law enforcement agencies, and the politically charged nature of the topic. This panel will introduce reporters to common pitfalls, best practices for presenting information to readers, and tools for identifying unreliable statistics. This panel could be in-person and/or virtual. Track: On the beat Speakers: Ethan Corey, The Appeal Weihua Li, The Marshall Project Cheryl Phillips, Big Local News **************************************** Accessing public records in Tennessee Thursday, March 2, 9 – 11:15 a.m. CT (135 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Join attorneys from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press for a deep-dive into how to access public records in Tennessee that can inform your reporting. You’ll come away from this session with a better understanding of the state’s open records law, how to use the federal Freedom of Information Act to obtain state-specific information, strategies for navigating records denials, and practical tips you can apply when drafting your requests and engaging with records custodians. This session was planned in collabration with Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. IRE retains control of content, including the topic and speaker selection, for all conference sessions. Track: Public records Speakers: Adam Marshall, RCFP Paul McAdoo, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press **************************************** Let's make mapping better! Thursday, March 2, 9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (210 minutes) Session type: Pre-registration - Hands-on Description: More and more, newsrooms embrace mapping and spatial analysis as ways to highlight patterns and trends in data — and more and more, we might find ourselves frustrated in working with and visualizing geographic data. In this session, we'll discuss some ways that mapping falls short and ways we can improve it, and we'll get hands-on experience optimizing the mapping process in order to make it more collaborative, cohesive and repeatable. We will share our own tips, tricks and tools as well as encourage feedback from attendees so we can all take something new back to our own newsrooms! Preregistration is required and seating is limited. Laptops will be provided. ⚠️ This session requires pre-registration and an additional fee of $40 to reserve a seat: https://www.ire.org/product/nicar23-mapping-better/ -- please note that you must purchase a conference ticket before you can buy a ticket for this session: https://www.ire.org/training/conferences/nicar-2023/nicar23-registration/ Skill level: Intermediate Speakers: Alexandra Kanik, Houston Chronicle / San Antonio Express-News Cam Rodriguez, Chalkbeat **************************************** Mastering Google Sheets: Web scraping, running scripts and other tricks Thursday, March 2, 9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (210 minutes) Session type: Pre-registration - Hands-on Description: Google Sheets is more than just free spreadsheet software to organize and store data. This hands-on session will start with pivot tables and conditional formatting, and through examples, we'll also learn how to scrape data in seconds without code, automate menial tasks with macros, write custom spreadsheet formulas as well as how to send emails, geocode addresses, translate text and more – all through the power of Google Sheets. Come with a laptop and leave with the knowledge of a Google Sheets power user. Preregistration is required and seating is limited. You must bring your own laptop (no tablets) to this training and have a Google account. Workshop prerequisites: You should be familiar with using spreadsheets and formulas. ⚠️ This session requires pre-registration and an additional fee of $40 to reserve a seat: https://www.ire.org/product/nicar23-google-sheets-morning -- please note that you must purchase a conference ticket before you can buy a ticket for this session: https://www.ire.org/training/conferences/nicar-2023/nicar23-registration/ Skill level: Beginner Speaker: Frank Bi, The Star Tribune **************************************** Introduction to web development Thursday, March 2, 9 a.m. – 5:45 p.m. CT (420 minutes) Session type: Pre-registration - Hands-on Description: This daylong crash course for beginners will give you the confidence you need to start building things for the web. You'll start from scratch and learn about HTML, CSS and JavaScript, then dive into some more advanced tools used by modern web developers around the world. Along the way, you'll learn about how and where to host your creations, the importance of accessibility-first development and other key topics. Preregistration is required and seating is limited. Laptops will be provided for the training. Workshop prerequisites: Some experience working with data in general. Knowledge of web development concepts is helpful but not required. ⚠️ This session requires pre-registration and an additional fee of $75 to reserve a seat: https://www.ire.org/product/nicar23-intro-web-dev/ -- please note that you must purchase a conference ticket before you can buy a ticket for this session: https://www.ire.org/training/conferences/nicar-2023/nicar23-registration/ Skill level: Intermediate Speakers: Carla Astudillo, The Texas Tribune Andrew Briz, POLITICO Naël Shiab, CBC ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 10:15 a.m. CT on Thursday, March 2 ------------------------------------------------------------ Excel: Basic stats Thursday, March 2, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: You don't need a special statistics program to run simple statistical analysis. In this session, you'll learn how to compute some basic statistics in Excel and figure out what they mean. This session is good for: People who already are comfortable with using functions in Excel. Skill level: Intermediate Speaker: Todd Wallack, WBUR **************************************** R: Making fancieR graphics Thursday, March 2, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Come check out some new packages created by members of the R community that may inspire you to try out some new exploratory data viz techniques with R. Creating small multiples for regions in a spatially meaningful way. Easy text annotations for exploratory charts. Animated data viz GIFs for social media. Fancy bivariate choropleth maps! Turn your headshot into a ridgeplot. Disclaimer: “fancier” doesn’t necessarily mean useful. This session is good for anyone who is comfortable working in R, and some experience with ggplot2 is helpful. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Skill level: Advanced Speaker: Andrew Ba Tran, Washington Post **************************************** Google Sheets 2: Formulas & sorting Thursday, March 2, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Much of Google Sheets' power comes in the form of formulas. In this class, you'll learn how to use them to analyze data with the eye of a journalist. Yes, math will be involved, but it's totally worth it! This class will show you how calculations like change, percent change, rates and ratios can beef up your reporting. This session is good for: Anyone who has taken Google Sheets 1 or has been introduced to spreadsheets. You must bring your own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class, and you will need a free Google account to participate. Skill level: Beginner Speaker: Tisha Thompson, ESPN **************************************** Fireside chat with Meredith Broussard Thursday, March 2, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Join Meredith Broussard and Aron Pilhofer, two longtime NICARians, discuss Broussard's forthcoming book "More than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech." Broussard, a data scientist and one of the few Black female researchers in artificial intelligence, masterfully synthesizes concepts from computer science and sociology. In her book, she explores a range of examples: from facial recognition technology trained only to recognize lighter skin tones, to mortgage-approval algorithms that encourage discriminatory lending, to the dangerous feedback loops that arise when medical diagnostic algorithms are trained on insufficiently diverse data. Even when such technologies are designed with good intentions, Broussard shows, fallible humans develop programs that can result in devastating consequences. **************************************** Encryption and journalism: From idea to publication Thursday, March 2, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Many factors come into play when considering the security of a story. The most notable is the security around conversations with sources. While this is important, this is not the only point in the process to consider the security of your interactions and information. In this training, we will overview the different types of encryption and how it comes into play when researching, writing, and communicating new stories. Attendees will walk away from this training understanding how to make informed decisions about the security of their tools and process from research to publication of a story. The Security Track is sponsored by The Paranoids. IRE retains control of content, including the topic and speaker selection, for all conference sessions. Track: Security Speaker: Kristen Larson, Yahoo **************************************** Come learn about the Data-Driven Reporting Project Thursday, March 2, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: The Data-Driven Reporting Project was founded to support newsrooms who might otherwise lack the tools, training or capacity to do more technically-focused investigative reporting. These are often smaller newsrooms with fewer resources. In June 2022 the DDRP announced 22 newsrooms will receive a financial award and additional support in trainings, mentorship, and access to technology to develop local data and document-based investigative projects. Come to this session to hear critical lessons learned from three published projects. Attendees will be able to understand the impact of these projects and learn how can others can get motivated to work on document/data-powered investigations. Track: Tools & tech Speakers: Karina Brown, Underscore News Pam Dempsey, Northwestern | Data-Driven Reporting Project Emilie Munson, Albany Times Union Inori Roy, The Local Stephannie Stokes, WABE, Atlanta's NPR affiliate **************************************** Covering disparities in higher education with data Thursday, March 2, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Track: Equity & inclusion Speakers: Sarah Butrymowicz, The Hechinger Report Andrea Fuller, The Wall Street Journal Meredith Kolodner, The Hechinger Report ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 11:30 a.m. CT on Thursday, March 2 ------------------------------------------------------------ Defining and measuring the success of your published work Thursday, March 2, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Commons Description: How can you know if your work is reaching its intended audience, having an impact, or helping your company make money? Let's talk about the different types of analytics that newsrooms are using to quantify their investigative work. Speaker: Julia Haslanger, The Philadelphia Inquirer **************************************** Under pressure: Real life in real time with breaking news Thursday, March 2, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Demo Description: It’s become one of the hottest sessions at every IRE Conference. How would you and your newsroom fare in digging out little-known facts and information under the pressure of a breaking news deadline? One of the best ways to get better is to practice. This is a real-life scenario where you can learn to break news without leaving your computer. The skills learned in this session can also be used for turning daily general assignment stories when there’s not breaking news. This session regularly fills up and the tipsheet that comes with it is in high demand. If you’re interested, get there early to get a seat. No data experience is necessary for this class. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Track: Tools & tech Speaker: Stephen Stock, CBS News and Stations **************************************** Use our data! Thursday, March 2, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Demo Description: On this panel, you’ll hear from three organizations that are publishing datasets you can use for investigative work, quick scoops, and community reporting. Come hear about NINA/CLIP, The Data Liberation Project, and The Accountability Project from NICAR-ians central to these efforts. You’ll learn what datasets they’ve made available, how to use them, and how to get involved. Track: Collaboration Speakers: Aarushi Sahejpal, Investigative Reporting Workshop / American University School of Communication Faculty Jeremy Singer-Vine, The Data Liberation Project Mago Torres, OpenNews **************************************** Data and digital tools for your newsroom and classroom Thursday, March 2, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Demo Description: Mike Reilley, founder of JournalistsToolbox.org and co-author of "Data + Journalism" will guide you through the latest and greatest data and digital tools (most of them free!) that you can incorporate into your workflow right now! Come armed with a laptop and smartphone. Participants get a handout with links to tools, examples, tips, tricks and more. Track: Educators Speaker: Mike Reilly, University of Illinois Chicago | Journalist's Toolbox **************************************** A new data tool for identifying where people are losing their homes Thursday, March 2, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Millions of Americans are evicted each year, yet it's surprisingly difficult to know who is being evicted, where and why, because local data on evictions is either non-existent or difficult to analyze. By bringing together a repository of eviction data and a tool that allows you to analyze it, attendees of this session will be able to generate data-driven insights about housing insecurity in their communities. New America’s Future of Land and Housing Program, DataKind and Eviction Lab will showcase the Foreclosure and Eviction Analysis Tool (FEAT)--an open-source data tool to help people understand where housing loss is most acute (at the census tract level), when during the year housing loss rises and falls, and who is most impacted (based on 65+ demographic variables). We will demonstrate how to use the tool using data from Eviction Lab's Eviction Tracking System (ETS), which provides regularly-updated eviction filing data for 7 states and 31 cities. This class is good for: This class is good for Intermediate users. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Skill level: Advanced Track: Equity & inclusion Speakers: Caitlin Augustin, DataKind Juan Pablo Garnham, Eviction Lab Sabiha Zainulbhai, New America **************************************** Bringing data journalism to the sports section Thursday, March 2, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Sports is absolutely drowning in data and there is a large and hungry audience for sports content. Alongside that, there's a large and growing open-source sports analytics community that data journalists should be a part of. In this hands on class, speakers will take you through examples of ways to use traditonal data journalism tools like R and the Tidyverse to bring in up-to-the-moment sports data and do sophisticated analysis that you can immediately visualize to add context to seasons, leagues and sports. Skill level: Intermediate Track: On the beat Speakers: Matt Waite, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Derek Willis, University of Maryland **************************************** Google Sheets 3: Filtering & pivot tables Thursday, March 2, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: A look at the awesome power of pivot — and how to use it to analyze your dataset in minutes rather than hours. We'll work up to using a pivot table by first sorting and filtering a dataset, learning how to find story ideas along the way. This session is good for: Anyone familiar with formulas, sorting and filtering in a spreadsheet program. You must bring your own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class, and you will need a free Google account to participate. Skill level: Beginner Speaker: Matt Dempsey, Spotlight PA **************************************** Investigative reporting for everyone WITH DATA: A quick-start guide Thursday, March 2, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Want to hit consistent home runs? Here’s how to punch way above your job title or shore up your existing reporting practice with tighter organization and careful data analysis. We’ll talk instant-impact, intro-level tips for new reporters and advanced-level tools for seasoned pros (hello, Gantt charts). Track: Equity & inclusion Speakers: Alexandra Chaidez, NBC News Andrew Ford, The Arizona Republic José Martinez, The Connecticut Mirror Simone Weichselbaum, NBC News Investigations **************************************** It’s freezing! Investigating the climate crisis Thursday, March 2, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: The climate crisis is the most defining and crucial issue of the contemporary age. As such, it is also one of the biggest challenges for journalists all over the world. The aim of this workshop is to show best practices and some of the best recent investigative work in this area. Track: On the beat Speakers: Elfredah Kevin-Alerechi, Freelancer Andy Lehren, City University New York Niall Sargent, Noteworthy ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 2:15 p.m. CT on Thursday, March 2 ------------------------------------------------------------ Data for redistricting and election coverage Thursday, March 2, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Demo Description: The nonpartisan Redistricting Data Hub was founded to support civil rights and good government groups organizing around redistricting. But the data has been used more broadly, including for in-depth coverage and analysis of redistricting, as well as related work on elections and democracy. In this session, you'll see how news organizations are already using our data to cover important stories, and learn how you can use our free data and resources in your own work. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Track: On the beat Speaker: Kate Donovan, Redistricting Data Hub **************************************** QGIS 1: Mapmaking for beginners Thursday, March 2, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Learn to how to make your own maps using free, open-source software called QGIS. This class will teach you how to get started importing and displaying geographic data. Not all datasets need to be mapped, but some do! We'll go over how to find publicly available data, prepare it for mapping, and join together different datasets. This session is good for: Beginners looking to learn the basics of visualizing geographic data. Skill level: Intermediate Speakers: Christine Jeavens, BBC News Libby Rogers, BBC News **************************************** Litigating FOIA denials Thursday, March 2, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: FOIA backlogs and denials are common obstacles to reporting. Join this session to hear how panelists have litigated countless FOIA cases they'll discuss how to use litigation to break through the roadblocks. Track: Public records Speakers: Jason Leopold, Bloomberg News Matt Topic, Loevy & Loevy **************************************** Don’t play (stupid) troll games: OpSec for public events ... like NICAR Thursday, March 2, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: How do we stay engaged with our sources, readers, colleagues and the industry when so many bad faith groups are attempting to poison the well with false leads, subversive tactics, and outright trolling? We’ll discuss the types of actors in this space, how they operate, and how to keep your cool when someone is shoving a microphone in your face and peppering you with questions. The Security Track is sponsored by The Paranoids. IRE retains control of content, including the topic and speaker selection, for all conference sessions. Track: Security Speaker: Sara Rafsky, The New York Times **************************************** Editing the data-driven investigation Thursday, March 2, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Managing a data project presents challenges for any editor. No matter your comfort level with data, this panel will give you the foundation you need to help make sure your reporters aren’t running with scissors or spinning their wheels on data projects. Speakers: Dianna Hunt, ICT (formerly Indian Country Today) Jennifer LaFleur, Center for Public Integrity Andy Lehren, City University New York **************************************** How much does school spending matter for outcomes in education? Thursday, March 2, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: In 2019, government spending on K-12 public schools was the highest it’s been since 2008. But what kind of impact do those dollars have on education outcomes like reading and math proficiency? Thanks to new data mandated by the feds and collected by Edunomics, it's possible to find the answers. Learn more from top education reporters and analysts on how to translate this into stories for your community. Track: On the beat Speakers: Sara Chernikoff, USAFacts Matt Dempsey, Spotlight PA Ash Dhammani, Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University **************************************** Introduction to Python for data analysis Thursday, March 2, 2:15 – 5:45 p.m. CT (210 minutes) Session type: Pre-registration - Hands-on Description: Caitlin McGlade and Sahana Jayaraman will guide you through using Python to find stories in data. We will use Jupyter Notebooks to execute commands, a popular opensource tool commonly used to explore data tables and organize code. You’ll learn: - How to pull data from both a CSV saved locally on your computer and directly from a website - How to find “the most” or “the least” by sorting - How to isolate or exclude variables with filtering - How to compare variables with groupbys - How to merge datasets This session would be good for people who have crunched numbers in Excel, or understand the concept of filtering, sorting and pivot tables /groupbys through other programs, and want to start analyzing data with Python so their work is more easily reproducible. Also for those who have tried a little Python before and couldn’t get the hang of it but want to keep trying. ⚠️ This session requires pre-registration and an additional fee of $40 to reserve a seat: https://www.ire.org/product/nicar23-intro-python/ -- please note that you must purchase a conference ticket before you can buy a ticket for this session: https://www.ire.org/training/conferences/nicar-2023/nicar23-registration/ Skill level: Intermediate Speakers: Sahana Jayaraman, The Arizona Republic Caitlin McGlade, Arizona Republic **************************************** Mastering Google Sheets: Web scraping, running scripts and other tricks (repeat) Thursday, March 2, 2:15 – 5:45 p.m. CT (210 minutes) Session type: Pre-registration - Hands-on Description: Google Sheets is more than just free spreadsheet software to organize and store data. This hands-on session will start with pivot tables and conditional formatting, and through examples, we'll also learn how to scrape data in seconds without code, automate menial tasks with macros, write custom spreadsheet formulas as well as how to send emails, geocode addresses, translate text and more – all through the power of Google Sheets. Come with a laptop and leave with the knowledge of a Google Sheets power user. Preregistration is required and seating is limited. You must bring your own laptop (no tablets) to this training and have a Google account. Workshop prerequisites: You should be familiar with using spreadsheets and formulas. ⚠️ This session requires pre-registration and an additional fee of $40 to reserve a seat: https://www.ire.org/product/nicar23-google-sheets-afternoon -- please note that you must purchase a conference ticket before you can buy a ticket for this session: https://www.ire.org/training/conferences/nicar-2023/nicar23-registration/ Skill level: Beginner Speaker: Frank Bi, The Star Tribune **************************************** Introduction to R Thursday, March 2, 2:15 – 5:45 p.m. CT (210 minutes) Session type: Pre-registration - Hands-on Description: We'll introduce you to R, a free, powerful open-source programming language that will take your data reporting to the next level. By the end of this three-hour session, you will be able to read data from common file types into R, clean and explore it, create visualizations, and make your entire data workflow reproduceable. We'll also talk about how to find help when you're stuck. Preregistration is required and seating is limited. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop for the training and have R and RStudio installed. Workshop prerequisites: This session will be most helpful if you’re comfortable working with data and you’re ready to take your skills to the next level. ⚠️ This session requires pre-registration and an additional fee of $40 to reserve a seat: https://www.ire.org/product/nicar23-intro-to-r/ -- please note that you must purchase a conference ticket before you can buy a ticket for this session: https://www.ire.org/training/conferences/nicar-2023/nicar23-registration/ Skill level: Intermediate Speakers: Stephanie Lamm, The Atlanta Journal Constitution Charles Minshew, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution **************************************** First Observable Notebook: Prototyping with polish Thursday, March 2, 2:15 – 5:45 p.m. CT (210 minutes) Session type: Pre-registration - Hands-on Description: This three-hour, hands-on course will show you how journalists are putting Observable’s powerful potential to work. Using nothing but your web browser, you will sketch, refine, and publish interactive graphics and data analysis notebooks like those created by The Marshall Project and Los Angeles Times. Along the way, you’ll see how Observable’s groundbreaking approach to coding can help you be more creative, ambitious, efficient, and collaborative. You will learn how to rapidly explore a dataset and share insights and data visualizations with JavaScript, Observable Plot and an interactive Observable notebook. Preregistration is required and seating is limited. You must bring your own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class, and you'll need a free Observable account: observablehq.com. Workshop prerequisites: Beginner to intermediate experience with Javascript, with basic knowledge of other web technologies like HTML, CSS, and SVGs. As long as you have a web browser, a working attitude, and willingness to ask for help, you’ll be golden! ⚠️ This session requires pre-registration and an additional fee of $40 to reserve a seat: https://www.ire.org/product/nicar23-first-observable/ -- please note that you must purchase a conference ticket before you can buy a ticket for this session: https://www.ire.org/training/conferences/nicar-2023/nicar23-registration/ Skill level: Intermediate Speakers: David Eads, The Marshall Project Alex Garcia, Independent Journalist Weihua Li, The Marshall Project Ilica Mahajan, The Marshall Project ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 3:30 p.m. CT on Thursday, March 2 ------------------------------------------------------------ Tools for teaching R Thursday, March 2, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Demo Description: If you're a professor or someone teaching a class in using R for journalism, there's two tools that make getting materials to students super easy: Quarto and LearnR. Quarto is a publishing system where you can write your own textbook and publish it (or, you know, fork ours and make it your own!). LearnR let's you create interactive code tutorials so students can learn in an interactive environment with live feedback. The great news: After some simple setup they're pretty easy to use, and with GitHub, you can host them for free. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Track: Educators Speakers: Matt Waite, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Derek Willis, University of Maryland **************************************** Using DocumentCloud & DocumentCloud AddOns Thursday, March 2, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Demo Description: In five minutes, you can create an automated, 24/7 digital watchdog that alerts you if a government agency ever posts documents mentioning keywords you care about. With a little more time, you can create workflows that turn those documents into cleaned-up datasets piped right into your inbox or even self-updating visualizations that highlight key trends. Earlier this year, DocumentCloud launched Add-Ons, our new extension system that gives users access to a wide range of machine learning, data extractions, and automation, all within the familiar DocumentCloud interface. Learn how to tap into these new capabilities with a wide range of practical examples and useful tricks that everyone can take back to their beat, with no programming skills required. Track: Tools & tech Speaker: Sanjin Ibrahimovic, MuckRock **************************************** QGIS 2: Analyzing geographic data Thursday, March 2, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Build on your existing knowledge of QGIS and learn how to explore, manipulate and analyze geographic datasets to gain new insights. This session is good for: Those who attended the QGIS I workshop or already know the basics of visualizing geographic data in QGIS. Skill level: Intermediate Speakers: Christine Jeavens, BBC News Libby Rogers, BBC News **************************************** Networking: LGBTQ+ journalists Thursday, March 2, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Networking Description: Mix and mingle, meet friends old and new, and build your professional community in this fun and informal networking session. This session is for anyone who identifies as part of the LGBTQIA+ community or as an ally. Track: Networking Speakers: Josh Hinkle, KXAN/St. Edward's University Adam Rhodes, IRE & NICAR **************************************** Common digital attacks targeting journalists Thursday, March 2, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: From the Pegasus spyware targeting individual journalists to ransomware attacks taking down publishing plants, many different kinds of tools and tactics are leveraged in attacks against news media. Preparing for such attacks can feel overwhelming and result in unsustainable or ineffective security practices. The purpose of this talk is to talk through common tactics used to target journalists, threat modeling exercises to understand what you should actually care about preparing for, and practical, sustainable security measures journalists can take to protect themselves. The Security Track is sponsored by The Paranoids. IRE retains control of content, including the topic and speaker selection, for all conference sessions. Track: Security Speaker: Neena Kapur, The New York Times **************************************** When data assumes a male population Thursday, March 2, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: It’s hard to make a good decision without good data. Yet there are so many instances where decisions are made without regard to how those choices will affect half the population, from body armor that gives military women stress fractures because it is designed for a male body, to medicines approved even though they have only been tested on men (regardless of whether the drug treats a disease that mostly affects women.) Additionally, there are many ways surveys are designed and collected that often exclude women. For example, the Census and other surveys make assumptions about a person's daily commute. Women's commutes are often a lot more complicated because they don't have a to-work and from-work structure - women are statistically more likely to be the one who drops junior off at school and takes grandma to the doctor. This panel will highlight articles that have shone a light on gendered data gaps. It will also provide tips on how to find gender and sex-aggregated numbers, practical advice on what to do with it, as well as potential strategies for determining gender/sex bias in the data, and determining who is missing.We’ll spend time looking at the way women are excluded in data, and ways to sniff that out. How can we better report with data to account for these data collection errors? What are strategies we can use as journalists to account for women missing in data? Track: Equity & inclusion Speakers: Erin Mansfield, USA Today Jasmine Mithani, The 19th* Janelle O'Dea, The Center for Public Integrity Lucia Walinchus, Eye on Ohio, the Ohio Center for Journalism **************************************** Successful project management for collaboration Thursday, March 2, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Collaboration is required to do ambitious work, but what does it really take to work well with others? What are the ideal ground rules for successful partnerships in and outside of your organization? Hear from leaders in nonprofit and international news organizations who have made partnerships work for them on projects big and small. Track: Collaboration Speakers: Darla Cameron, The Texas Tribune Emilia Díaz-Struck, The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) Ryann Jones, ProPublica Mago Torres, OpenNews ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 4:45 p.m. CT on Thursday, March 2 ------------------------------------------------------------ Supercharge your coding workflow with Chat-GPT and GitHub Copilot Thursday, March 2, 4:45 – 5:45 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Commons Description: Learn how to use the new batch of AI tools like GitHub Copilot and ChatGPT to supercharge your coding abilities! From eerily-smart autocomplete to explaining code you copied from StackOverflow, these tools provide an always-available buddy that's smart, infinitely patient, and (every now and again) terribly, terribly mistaken. Whether you're tackling programming for the first time or are a seasoned pro, we'll look at ways to successfully wield these tools that are taking the world by storm. (...and how to clean up when they go astray) Speaker: Jonathan Soma, Columbia University **************************************** How to investigate pay inequities at your workplace Thursday, March 2, 4:45 – 5:45 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Commons Description: Andrew Ba Tran and Steven Rich of the Washington Post will discuss how they investigated pay disparities at their newspaper, Sarah Blaskey of the Miami Herald will share some of the difficulties in using pay data for individual newsrooms, and Andrew Pantazi of The Tributary will discuss how a team of unionized journalists across Gannett gathered pay data from newsrooms across the country to hold their own company to account for its gender and racial pay inequities. Join this discussion to learn how to gather, clean and present the data, along with reported stories of how pay inequity holds back our newsrooms. Speakers: Sarah Blaskey, Miami Herald Andrew Pantazi, The Tributary Steven Rich, The Washington Post Andrew Ba Tran, Washington Post **************************************** The Serverless.js framework for Amazon Web Services Thursday, March 2, 4:45 – 5:45 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Demo Description: Serverless.js makes it easy to deploy applications such as web scrapers and data APIs to Amazon Web Services without the need of a server. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Track: Tools & tech Speaker: John Perry, The Atlanta Journal Constitution **************************************** De-mystifying cryptocurrency data: How to find stories on ransoms, insider trading and fraud Thursday, March 2, 4:45 – 5:45 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Demo Description: Cryptocurrencies and the technology powering them are no longer something journalists can dismiss as a passing fad. Even if you don't think Bitcoin is going to replace the dollar, you should get familiar with how to report on crypto. It has created massive fortunes, allowed criminal gangs to extort local and national businesses in new ways and enabled the transfer of money outside of government supervision. The world of crypto often feels opaque and jargony, but Bitcoin, Ethereum and NFTs all work off of public databases, called blockchains–an area ripe for DIY FOIAs, if only journalists knew how. Three experienced data journalists will share stories, story ideas, and concrete tips for chasing those stories for mainstream journalists to test their hypotheses and extract publishable facts from the blockchain. Their stories have run the gamut from investigating a widespread life-altering financial fraud dependent on a quirk of the Ethereum network, tracking ransomware, examining potential sanctions violations and possible insider trading. Track: On the beat Speakers: Rob Barry, The Wall Street Journal Stacy Elliott, Decrypt Jeremy Merrill, The Washington Post **************************************** Working with PDFs using off-the-shelf tools Thursday, March 2, 4:45 – 5:45 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Join this class to learn how to “liberate” trapped data locked inside of PDF’s. This class will cover basic approaches for getting text out of PDF documents using powerful and freely available tools. Participants will be introduced to basic concepts and walked through tackling common challenges encountered with tricky PDF documents. This session is good for: People who are unfamiliar with PDF-to-text tools or would like to learn how these tools can be used for extracting difficult text from images embedded in a PDF document. Prerequisites: Attendees should have access to a CometDocs account, which you can access through your IRE membership, the free software Tabula and access to Google Drive. Skill level: Beginner Speaker: Maggie Mulvihill, Boston University **************************************** Dataviz accessibility matters — here's what you can do to improve it Thursday, March 2, 4:45 – 5:45 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: News organizations have long struggled with publishing online for all audiences, whether that's captionless videos, cluttered websites, or inaccessible graphics. We will touch on the technical and cultural pitfalls newsrooms and the people in them face when publishing graphics and interactives online, and dive into what we all can do to improve the accessibility of our data visualizations. Track: Equity & inclusion Speakers: Frank Elavsky, Carnegie Mellon University Patrick Garvin, Independent journalist Jasmine Mithani, The 19th* Joe Murphy, NBC News Thomas Wilburn, Civic News ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 5:45 p.m. CT on Thursday, March 2 ------------------------------------------------------------ First-timers reception Thursday, March 2, 5:45 – 6:15 p.m. CT (30 minutes) Session type: Special Description: Come and mingle with folks who are excited to attend their first NICAR conference. This is a great time to build your network, make lifelong conference buddies and hear about which sessions people are most excited about. ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 6 p.m. CT on Thursday, March 2 ------------------------------------------------------------ Welcome reception Thursday, March 2, 6 – 7:15 p.m. CT (75 minutes) Session type: Special Description: Join us for our welcome reception on Thursday at 6 p.m., co-sponsored by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Reconnect with longtime friends and welcome new attendees! Each attendee will receive one drink ticket for beer, wine, soda or bottled water. Light snacks also will be served. ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 7:30 a.m. CT on Friday, March 3 ------------------------------------------------------------ Mentor program breakfast - invitation-only event Friday, March 3, 7:30 – 8:45 a.m. CT (75 minutes) Session type: Special Description: If you signed up for the conference mentor program, come meet your match at this invitation-only breakfast, sponsored by the Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, University of Missouri. ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 9 a.m. CT on Friday, March 3 ------------------------------------------------------------ Finding the story: Nursing homes data Friday, March 3, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Nursing homes rightfully earned a lot of attention during the pandemic, but now, three years later, there's even more to investigate. Come to this session to learn about the data that's out there just waiting for us, and for inspiration for your own investigations into nursing homes and their operators in your communities. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Skill level: Beginner Track: On the beat Speaker: David Barer, KXAN News **************************************** Making redistricting data your friend: Finding out what information is out there and how you can use it Friday, March 3, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: While redistricting happens every ten years, the redistricting data is readily available annually and can prove essential in reporting. From demographical information on race, sex, and age to more detailed looks at median household income and languages spoken at home– redistricting data can give provide context to your reporting and create new stories for you to explore. In this session, we’ll explore what data is accessible and how it can be used to bolster your reporting. Come with story ideas you want to explore! This session is good for: Beginners who want to know what data is available and how you can use it. Skill level: Beginner Speaker: Kate Huangpu, Spotlight PA **************************************** Google Sheets 4: Advanced pivot tables Friday, March 3, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: You've done a few pivot tables and are getting curious about what more you could do with them. What happens if you aggregate by more than one column? What are those "column" and "filter" boxes for? Come unlock the full potential of pivot tables in this intermediate spreadsheet class. This session is good for: People familiar with spreadsheets and aggregating data with pivot tables, or anyone who has taken Sheets 1-3. You must bring your own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class, and you will need a free Google account to participate. Skill level: Beginner Speaker: Helena Bengtsson, Gota Media **************************************** Data of divides Friday, March 3, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Doing data-driven inequality stories often means using statistical tools. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Basic familiarity with R is a plus, Download and install R and the free open-source version of R Studio for your operating system. We'll be focusing on some basic statistical tools in R. Please make sure you have installed the following packages: install.packages(""tidyverse"") #Working with data install.packages(""knitr"") #make code files install.packages(""psych"") #stats install.packages(""tidycensus"") #it will change your life install.packages(""lme4"") #for logistic regression install.packages(""boot"") #for logistic regression install.packages(""ggeffects"") #for logistic regression install.packages(""DescTools"") #for logistic regression install.packages(""varhandle"") #for creating dummy variables Track: Equity & inclusion Speaker: Jennifer LaFleur, Center for Public Integrity **************************************** Finding needles in haystacks with fuzzy matching Friday, March 3, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Fuzzy matching is a process for linking up names that are similar but not quite the same. It has become an increasingly important part of data-driven investigations as a way to identify connections between public figures, key people and companies that are relevant to a story. This class will cover how fuzzy matching typically fits into the investigative process, with some story examples. Max Harlow, who developed the CSV Match command line tool, will show you how to run some of the different types of fuzzy matching on some real datasets, including the pros and cons of each. This session is good for: People who feel comfortable using the command line. Skill level: Intermediate Speaker: Max Harlow, Financial Times **************************************** Mining social media, without depending on the sites' owners goodwill Friday, March 3, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Social media is as important as ever to politics, from the local level to the international, but researchers fear that owners of social media sites have become more hostile to the press and will make it harder for us to access the tools we use to track politicians' activities and monitor disinformation. Junkipedia is a project run by the non-profit Algorithmic Transparency Institute which helps journalists and civil society groups gather, track, search and monitor social media sites. Junkipedia exists to gather data for journalists, even if platform tools go away. In a sense, you can replace the social media scrapers you don't have time to maintain with Junkipedia's. Learn how you can (for free!) monitor politicians and online influencers relevant to your region or beat and gather data from previously opaque data sources like right-wing alt-tech social media sites and podcast transcripts. Track: Tools & tech Speakers: Andrea Fuller, The Wall Street Journal Cam Hickey, National Conference on Citizenship Jeremy Merrill, The Washington Post **************************************** Keeping Secrets: Secure source communications Friday, March 3, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Keeping your conversations with a source protected can oftentimes be overwhelming, especially with a lot of security lingo tossed in. In other cases, the advice isn’t practical because it doesn’t meet your source where they’re at. In this talk, we’ll discuss things to consider when it comes to securing your communications, what you can set up ahead of time and the benefits of different approaches. The Security Track is sponsored by The Paranoids. IRE retains control of content, including the topic and speaker selection, for all conference sessions. Track: Security Speaker: Sarah Kate Thomas, The New York Times **************************************** Uncovering underground money networks Friday, March 3, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: In this panel, we'll explore techniques and tools to uncover complex money networks and relationships between people, companies, governments, and financial institutions. We'll use two real-world examples: a recent investigation by the Wall Street Journal that used bulk data collection and analysis in combination with AI tools to uncover a Russia-linked underground money network that intersected with the United States, and a sprawling effort by OCCRP to track down and catalog the vast wealth held outside Russia by sanctioned oligarchs and key figures close to Russian President Vladimir Putin. We will delve into the process of data collection, management, and analysis, including the use of open-source tools, methods for collaboration, and interfaces for visualizing and analyzing the data. We’ll show how we tried (and sometimes failed) to prove ownership of yachts, luxury properties, and even racehorses across complex holding structures, how readers helped identify seaside vacation homes of Putin's associates, and which open-source data sources were the most useful. We will also discuss the use of advanced techniques such as social network analysis, cyber forensic methods like tracing historical WHOIS records and IP addresses, and the role of AI and machine learning in helping extract meaning from vast troves of information. This panel will be particularly useful for those interested in replicating similar analysis on leaked documents and bulk corporate records, and for understanding the broader landscape of underground money networks. Track: International Speakers: Rob Barry, The Wall Street Journal Cindy Galli, ABC News Jan Strozyk, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project **************************************** Beyond the fire perimeter — data for wildfire investigations Friday, March 3, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Wildfire prevention and response are massive endeavors stretching across local, state and federal agencies — they're complex, high stakes, big budget, and rarely covered in deep dives. They also generate lots of data, but knowing where to look and what you're looking at can be challenging as a reporter. This session will cover how metrics are tracked, how to approach wildfire data with an investigative mindset, and some of the panelists' favorite databases. Track: On the beat Speakers: Adiel Kaplan, NBC News Veronica Penney, Colorado Public Radio Emily Zentner, California Newsroom **************************************** First Python Notebook Friday, March 3, 9 a.m. – 5:45 p.m. CT (420 minutes) Session type: Pre-registration - Hands-on Description: In this session, experienced journalists will guide you through a six-hour, hands-on investigation of money in politics. You will learn: * just enough Python to execute an analysis with pandas, one of the most popular open-source tools for working with data tables * how to record, remix and republish your work using Jupyter, a browser-based tool emerging as the standard for reproducible research * how to explore your data using the Altair data visualization library, a Python package that offers a simple, structured grammar for generating graphics. Along the way you’ll conduct your own investigation of California campaign donors using the Big Local News open-source database archive. Preregistration is required and seating is limited. Laptops will be provided. Prerequisites: If you've tried Python once or twice, have a good attitude and know how to take a few code crashes in stride, you are qualified. ⚠️ This session requires pre-registration and an additional fee of $75 to reserve a seat: https://www.ire.org/product/nicar23-first-python-notebook/ -- please note that you must purchase a conference ticket before you can buy a ticket for this session: https://www.ire.org/training/conferences/nicar-2023/nicar23-registration/ Skill level: Intermediate Speakers: Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee, Los Angeles Times Andrea Suozzo, ProPublica Ben Welsh, Reuters **************************************** Master Class: Managing investigators… or how to lead journalists born to challenge authority Friday, March 3, 9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (210 minutes) Session type: Pre-registration - Master Class Description: Being a news manager is already tough, but what if you supervise investigative journalists? They come with an extra layer of challenges, because their very job (and likely their personality) makes them hyper-alert to authority figures. This course is designed to give you some tools and tactics to lead individuals and entire teams of investigators in a more effective way. Learn from four investigative managers from different media at different stages of their leadership careers. How did they launch into their roles, and what experience have they gained along the way? This course is for current investigative managers and anyone aspiring to step into such a position in the future. Topics will include: managing compassionately, hiring challenges, transitioning to management, forging partnerships, building relationships, handling resource cuts, organization/structure, tough decisions/conversations, in-house training/growth, delivering feedback, creating inclusive opportunities, and juggling responsibilities/projects/work. Preregistration is required and seating is limited. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Skill level: Beginner Speakers: Jodie Fleischer, Cox Media Group Josh Hinkle, KXAN/St. Edward's University Mc Nelly Torres, Center for Public Integrity ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 10:15 a.m. CT on Friday, March 3 ------------------------------------------------------------ How to retain the NICAR spirit year-round Friday, March 3, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Commons Description: NICAR is one of the best ways to learn new tools and get motivated. But what about the other 362 days of the year? This session will give you tips, tricks and tools for staying connected to the data journalism community and keeping your skills sharp year-round. We’ll also talk about problem-solving strategies for the “lonely coders” out there. Speaker: Janelle O'Dea, The Center for Public Integrity **************************************** Reporting with Google Trends Friday, March 3, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Demo Description: What is Google Trends data and how do you make sense of it? Learn how to use Trends data to understand what people are interested through searches. Discover new ways to leverage the tool for your writing and find story inspiration. Track: Tools & tech Speaker: Jenny Lee, Google **************************************** How to propose an accessibility team or role in your newsroom: What they do and why they are needed Friday, March 3, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Demo Description: A day in the life of an accessibility specialist may not be what you expect. And it can differ between companies. I'll go over some of the models out there and demo a bit of what I do as the first-ever Accessibility Engineer at The Washington Post. I'll outline how I pitched my job at The Post after starting an informal accessibility working group at the company. I'll also share insights on how you can advocate for similar roles in newsrooms of any size (they don't have to be engineering roles). The goal is for you to learn: - a variety of accessibility considerations, especially those less discussed in media today - what an accessibility specialist actually does (my job at The Post is just one model) - strategies on making a business case for accessibility roles in newsrooms Not all newsrooms have the same resources. This session will take that into account. Accessibility can and should be the job of someone (or an entire team!) in your newsroom. Track: Equity & inclusion Speaker: Holden Foreman, The Washington Post **************************************** Data analysis in JavaScript Friday, March 3, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Learn how to crunch your data with JavaScript. Journalist Nael Shiab will teach you how to use the Simple-Data-Analysis library (github.com/nshiab/simple-data-analysis) to retrieve, clean, analyze and visualize data. You must bring your own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Prior to the class, you should sign up for an Observable account: observablehq.com. This session is good for: People with some coding experience (JavaScript, R, Python, etc.). Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Skill level: Intermediate Speaker: Naël Shiab, CBC **************************************** Python: Working with PDFs using pdfplumber Friday, March 3, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Wonderful tools such as Tabula have made it easier to extract tabular data from PDFs. But what if your pile of PDFs is more complex than that? Maybe there are a few bits of info that you need to grab outside the tables, or maybe the information isn't tabular at all? In this session, we'll use pdfplumber, an open-source Python library, to demonstrate some techniques. We'll also demystify some aspects of the PDF file format, which will come in handy no matter what tools you use. This session would be good for: People with some prior experience using Python. Skill level: Advanced Speaker: Jeremy Singer-Vine, The Data Liberation Project **************************************** Finding the story: The American Community Survey Friday, March 3, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey can help you tell all kinds of important stories about your community. In this session, you will learn how to find and analyze this data in Google Sheets, and you'll leave with some ideas about how to incorporate these survey results into your coverage. This session is good for anyone, no data experience necessary. You must bring your own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class, and you will need a free Google account to participate. Skill level: Beginner Speaker: Tim Henderson, Stateline **************************************** Using OpenRefine to powerwash your data Friday, March 3, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Learn how to use OpenRefine, a powerful tool for quickly cleaning up dirty data. You'll learn about faceting, simple clustering, applying common data transformations and more. This session is good for people with basic experience working with data. Skill level: Beginner Speaker: Susie Neilson, The San Francisco Chronicle **************************************** Finding the story: Providing context to the equity and inclusion debate using education data Friday, March 3, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Over the past two years, public education has been flooded by a national debate on "controversial" topics such as lessons and books about race and racism, accurate history lessons that highlight marginalized voices and most recently, LGBTQ people, gender and sexual identity. There's various different ways to keep track of these challenges to public education, whether they're happening at the state level or within districts. This is a session that'll demonstrate how to stay on top of covering this culture war within K-12 education. This session is good for people with basic experience working with data. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Skill level: Beginner Track: Equity & inclusion Speaker: Eesha Pendharkar, Education Week **************************************** Quick turn data stories: Using the quick turn to your advantage Friday, March 3, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: How to do quicker data stories that don’t suck or drain you of your will to do journalism. Participants will learn how to take a new dataset and break down their ideas into short-term, mid-term, and long-term projects. Speakers: Alexandra Kanik, Houston Chronicle / San Antonio Express-News Ryan Serpico, San Antonio Express-News **************************************** Large-scale scraping projects Friday, March 3, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: It's easier and cheaper than ever to do large-scale scraping projects with a small team. In this session, speakers will discuss code, cloud computing infrastructure, and lessons learned while we worked on our scraping projects. Track: Tools & tech Speakers: Jeff Kao, ProPublica Ilica Mahajan, The Marshall Project Leon Yin, The Markup ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 11:30 a.m. CT on Friday, March 3 ------------------------------------------------------------ Let's talk Data Memos! Friday, March 3, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Demo Description: It's an important and often underappreciated step in every data project. Let's talk about how we've tackled it in the past and share tips on how to make it both comprehensive AND understandable to reporters. Possible topics to discuss: Organization and formatting tips, how to best update data over time, any alternatives to Google Docs, etc. Bring examples if you have any to share and discuss what you've learned from the process. Track: Tools & tech Speaker: Carla Astudillo, The Texas Tribune **************************************** How to produce Long COVID coverage informed by data, public records and patient experiences Friday, March 3, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: This session will discuss tools, strategies, and story ideas for using public records and data to report on Long COVID. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Speaker: Betsy Ladyzhets, MuckRock & independent journalist **************************************** Analyze large datasets in Google Sheets via Google Cloud Friday, March 3, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Connect large data sets to Google Sheets, which has UI patterns, querying tools and other affordances that more newsroom collaborators are comfortable with. This session is good for: people comfortable with csv, cloud services, spreadsheets and some SQL familiarity. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Speakers: Jasmine Cui, NBC News Tiff Fehr, The New York Times **************************************** Finding the story: Inflation data Friday, March 3, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: This class for beginners will use basic concepts and data on inflation to show how data journalism lets us find and tell stories. Simple spreadsheet exercises will show how to calculate inflation rates for various periods, areas, people and types of goods and services. We'll use the results to find and sharpen potential stories. This session is good for anyone. You must bring your own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class, and you will need a free Google account to participate. Speaker: Paul Overberg, The Wall Street Journal **************************************** Command line for reporters on a Mac Friday, March 3, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Too often in data journalism we forget about the basics. And it doesn't get as basic as the command line. Even knowing a little will make your job easier. We will run through some simple commands, dive into working with spreadsheets and show you some handy tools he frequently uses at work. This session is good for: People who feel intimidated by the command line on their computer, but want to explore the power of command line tools. Skill level: Intermediate Speaker: AJ Vicens, CyberScoop **************************************** Finding the story: Parole boards Friday, March 3, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Criminal justice data can be really messy! But isn't it tempting to ask questions from it? We will work with parole data to answer a straightforward question: How do Nebraska Parole Board members vote or miss votes? Flatwater Free Press reporter Yanqi Xu will show you how to reshape datasets to make them ready for analysis, and how to use data as a guide to identify impacted “real people.” This session would be good for people with basic experience with R. Skill level: Intermediate Track: On the beat Speaker: Yanqi Xu, The Flatwater Free Press **************************************** Reporting Tools: Security research for reporters Friday, March 3, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Examples of stories made possible by radio spycraft and cybersecurity auditing tools. Flight tracking, finding iBeacon ad tracking, decompiling smartphone apps / analyzing network traffic from smartphone apps (to find things like healthcare/abortion apps sending info to Facebook or data brokers). The Security Track is sponsored by The Paranoids. IRE retains control of content, including the topic and speaker selection, for all conference sessions. Track: Security Speaker: Mike Tigas, ProPublica **************************************** 30 places to find data to cover issues in your community Friday, March 3, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: A lightning-paced survey of datasets that can help reporters no matter what area of the country you cover. Come ready to take quick notes — we’ll have a timer going to make sure we hit as many datasets as possible! Some will be more well known, some you’ll never have heard of, and we’ll show examples of what you can do with them. Track: Public records Speakers: Willoughby Mariano, Atlanta Journal-Constitution Sean McMinn, POLITICO Kevin Uhrmacher, The Washington Post **************************************** Data Dive: The 2022 Philip Meyer winners Friday, March 3, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: A data deep dive into the 2022 Philip Meyer Award winners. Hear from reporters on how they gathered, cleaned, analyzed and visualized the data behind some of the year's biggest stories. Track: Behind the story Speakers: Michael Biesecker, Associated Press Sarah Cohen, Arizona State University Emily Corwin, Independent Journalist Ilica Mahajan, The Marshall Project ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 12:45 p.m. CT on Friday, March 3 ------------------------------------------------------------ Media lawyers Q&A Friday, March 3, 12:45 – 1:45 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Special Description: Does your investigation contain complex legal questions? Unsure of how to proceed? Bring your lunch and your questions for a personal discussion with some prominent media law experts. We'll provide drinks and dessert. Speakers: Maggie Mulvihill, Boston University Matt Topic, Loevy & Loevy Katie Townsend, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 2:15 p.m. CT on Friday, March 3 ------------------------------------------------------------ DEI in data reporting Friday, March 3, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Commons Description: With data collection, algorithms and artificial intelligence affecting larger parts of our lives, journalists should become more comfortable with using data for reporting. But how can we do this while keeping diversity and inclusion in mind, and not leaving some groups behind, or emphasizing a status quo that disadvantages historically excluded communities? This session will offer a compilation of existing resources as well as a callout for more: What resources do you know of? What have your experiences been? Come share, and help build a guide to DEI practices in data reporting that we can all use! Speakers: Jayme Fraser, USA TODAY / Gannett Samantha Sunne, ProPublica/WVUE **************************************** Introduction to DataWrapper Friday, March 3, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Datawrapper is an increasingly popular online tool for visualizing data. This class will introduce you to the process of creating some basic charts and maps. This session is good for beginners looking for a data visualization solution that doesn't require learning to code. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Skill level: Beginner Speaker: Jeff Hargarten, The Star Tribune **************************************** Command-line data analysis with VisiData Friday, March 3, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: VisiData is a fast, powerful, keyboard-driven tool for quickly exploring datasets. It's often the first piece of software I use to examine new data. In this hands-on session, you'll learn VisiData's essentials commands — including how to sort, filter, summarize and aggregate. This session is good for: People who have a basic familiarity with your computer's command line interface. No programming knowledge necessary, but some knowledge of Python is a plus. Skill level: Intermediate Speaker: Jeremy Singer-Vine, The Data Liberation Project **************************************** Google Sheets: Using string functions to manipulate data Friday, March 3, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Maybe you converted a PDF or imported a table into a spreadsheet -- or maybe an agency gave you a poorly formatted file. You can use string functions to reformat your data and get your spreadsheets working for you. This session is good for: Anyone comfortable with using formulas and functions in Google Sheets. You must bring your own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class, and you will need a free Google account to participate. Skill level: Beginner Speaker: Madi Alexander, POLITICO **************************************** Regular expressions for the rest of us Friday, March 3, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Regular expressions are a powerful tool when working with data. They're supported by a variety of text editors, databases and programming languages, but they can be intimidating. Get familiar with the basics of regular expressions and how they can help with your next batch of dirty data. This session is good for: People who have ever done more than two search/replace actions to clean a data set, or had to split a ZIP code from an address or otherwise want to conquer their fears of regex. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Skill level: Intermediate Speaker: Justin Myers, The Associated Press **************************************** A conversation with U.S. Census Bureau director, Robert L. Santos Friday, March 3, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Join U.S. Census Bureau director, Robert Santos, and longtime census reporter, Paul Overberg, in conversation. This session is sponsored by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. IRE retains control of content, including the topic and speaker selection, for all conference sessions. Speakers: Paul Overberg, The Wall Street Journal Robert L. Santos, U.S. Census Bureau **************************************** Source tracking: Making it part of your newsroom practice Friday, March 3, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Source diversity tracking should be a piece of every newsroom’s diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging strategies. This hands-on workshop will introduce DEIB newsroom strategy principles via a playbook or practices and strategies to bring meaningful source tracking to your newsroom and an intro to free source tracking tool built by RJI and Chalkbeat. Track: Equity & inclusion Speakers: Emma Carew Grovum, The Marshall Project Will Lager, Reynolds Journalism Institute **************************************** QAnon in Europe: Tracing a viral conspiracy through social media through collaborative journalism Friday, March 3, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Bellingcat and Lighthouse Reports created a database of over 30 million QAnon-affiliated social media posts to understand how QAnon followers exploit social media infrastructure to spread misinformation internally and across borders. Find out how we built it and how journalists can trace conspiracy theories through the database themselves. Track: International Speakers: Justin-Casimir Braun, Lighthouse Reports Eva Constantaras, Lighthouse Reports Tristan Lee, Bellingcat **************************************** Data on the business and economics beat Friday, March 3, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: No matter what beat you cover, business and finance are increasingly becoming key areas to understand and mine. Get story ideas, learn where to find data, and get advice on how to track down information on essential topics, from banking and finance to worker's issues and consumer protection. Track: On the beat Speakers: Matt Drange, Business Insider Karen K. Ho, ARTnews Megan Squire, Southern Poverty Law Center **************************************** Upping your Excel game Friday, March 3, 2:15 – 4:30 p.m. CT (135 minutes) Session type: Pre-registration - Hands-on Description: If you've found yourself struggling in a spreadsheet, thinking that whatever you were trying to achieve seemed harder than it should've been, then this is the class for you. We’ll learn about various tools and functions in Excel that come in handy when you need to re-structure or otherwise get your data ready for analysis. We'll cover string functions, logical functions, date functions, reshaping data, merging data using lookup functions and perhaps a few other nifty tricks if time allows. We’ll do some “drills” introducing you to these concepts, then put your new skills to work in a sort of “scrimmage,” fixing up some real-life data. You’ll also walk out with practice data and a 30-page tipsheet that covers, in detail, everything from the class, plus more that we won’t have time for. Preregistration is required and seating is limited. Laptops will be provided for the training. Workshop prerequisites: You should have prior experience using Excel or Google Sheets, and be comfortable with introductory-level spreadsheet skills, such as sorting, filtering, SUM and AVERAGE functions, calculations such as percentage change or percent of total, and how to use pivot tables. ⚠️ This session requires pre-registration and an additional fee of $25 to reserve a seat: https://www.ire.org/product/nicar23-upping-excel/ -- please note that you must purchase a conference ticket before you can buy a ticket for this session: https://www.ire.org/training/conferences/nicar-2023/nicar23-registration/ Skill level: Intermediate Speakers: Liz Lucas, IRE & NICAR Adam Rhodes, IRE & NICAR Cody Winchester, IRE & NICAR **************************************** First GitHub Scraper Friday, March 3, 2:15 – 5:45 p.m. CT (210 minutes) Session type: Pre-registration - Hands-on Description: Iris Lee and Aadit Tambe will guide you through a three-hour, hands-on introduction to free, automated web scraping with GitHub’s powerful Actions framework. You will learn how to: * Create a GitHub repository to store your code online * Write just enough Python to scrape a simple data file * Configure GitHub Actions to schedule the scrape * Log the results to the repository and make it publicly accessible * Send a Slack notification when new data is logged Preregistration is required and seating is limited. You must bring your own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class, and prior to the class you should sign up for a free GitHub account prior to the class. If you have a good attitude and know how to take a few code crashes in stride, you are qualified. We want you. ⚠️ This session requires pre-registration and an additional fee of $40 to reserve a seat: https://www.ire.org/product/nicar23-github-scraper/ -- please note that you must purchase a conference ticket before you can buy a ticket for this session: https://www.ire.org/training/conferences/nicar-2023/nicar23-registration/ Skill level: Intermediate Speakers: Iris Lee, The Los Angeles Times Aadit Tambe, The Washington Post ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 3:30 p.m. CT on Friday, March 3 ------------------------------------------------------------ Extracting data from PDFs Friday, March 3, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Learn how to use tools for extracting text from documents. The seminar will discuss the fundamentals of knowing the best tool for the job, a walk-through using free applications, and an introduction to cracking tough cases using Optical Character Recognition (OCR). Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Speaker: Scott Pham, independent journalist **************************************** Creating and serving vector map tiles using open source tools Friday, March 3, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Maps are a core component of digital journalism, but what are the options for newsrooms on a budget? In this session, we’ll cover how to use open source tools to generate vector map tiles, apply a custom style, and serve them to readers without breaking the bank. By the end of this session, you’ll have the tools to: - Commission a cloud computer to download and process map tiles - Create a custom style to display the data exactly the way you want - Publish the final result on an online service that can power your interactive maps This session is good for: Those who are comfortable with JavaScript and the command line. Skill level: Advanced Speaker: Evan Wagstaff, Hearst Newspapers **************************************** Hands-On with Neo4j: Introduction to graph databases, graph algorithms, and graph data visualization for data journalism Friday, March 3, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: This hands-on session will cover how graph databases (specifically the open-source graph database Neo4j) can be used to analyze data as part of data journalism investigations. We will learn how to import and model data in a graph database, how to query the data using the Cypher query language, and how to use graph algorithms like centrality, community detection, and graph embeddings alongside graph data visualization in the context of data journalism. This session is good for anyone who is comfortable working with data. Some experience with SQL or coding would be helpful. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Skill level: Advanced Speaker: William Lyon, Neo4j **************************************** Google Sheets: Importing and data prep Friday, March 3, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Don't give up if your data isn't presented in a neat spreadsheet. This session will teach you how to get data into a spreadsheet and prepare it for analysis. We will look at how to import text files, deal with data in a PDF, and get a table on a web page into a spreadsheet. This session is good for: Anyone comfortable working in Google Sheets. You must bring your own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class, and you will need a free Google account to participate. Skill level: Beginner Speaker: Paula Lavigne, ESPN **************************************** Networking: Journalists of color Friday, March 3, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Networking Description: Mix and mingle, meet friends old and new, and build your professional community in this fun and informal networking session. This session is for journalists of color. Track: Networking Speakers: Lucio Villa, The Washington Post Lam Thuy Vo, Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism **************************************** Data scraping and mining: What are your legal rights? Friday, March 3, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Recent court rulings have started to clarify some of the ambiguities in state and federal laws that the powerful have wielded to interfere with data journalism — but the risk of being targeted by legal actions for investigating stories online remains. This session would discuss the latest legal developments around data journalism practices like scraping, journalists’ legal rights when it comes to those practices, and the steps journalists can take if they find themselves on the receiving end of legal threats or actions as a result of their reporting. This session was planned in collabration with Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. IRE retains control of content, including the topic and speaker selection, for all conference sessions. Track: Public records Speakers: Grayson Clary, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Steven Rich, The Washington Post **************************************** Celebrating the 50th anniversary of "Precision Journalism" Friday, March 3, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Speakers: Sarah Cohen, Arizona State University Jaimi Dowdell, Reuters Brant Houston, University of Illinois and Investigate Midwest Jennifer LaFleur, Center for Public Integrity Shawn McIntosh, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Cheryl Phillips, Big Local News Aron Pilhofer, The Tiny News Collective/Temple University Janet Roberts, Reuters Jim Steele, Independent Journalist **************************************** Reporting on a military base near you using courts-martial records Friday, March 3, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: The United States has three systems of justice: civilian, tribal and military. Across the country and the globe, when service members commit a crime the offense largely goes unreported. While the Uniform Code of Military Justice means each branch shares the same legal code, data is separately kept by each branch and records may need to be requested from individual bases, an appellate court or the public information officers. Hear from experienced military reporters discuss data and records available to report on a military post near you, the common pitfalls, story ideas and terminology crucial to this topic. Track: On the beat Speakers: Vianna Davila, ProPublica/Texas Tribune Ren Larson, The Assembly Davis Winkie, Military Times Geoff Ziezulewicz, Military Times ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 4:45 p.m. CT on Friday, March 3 ------------------------------------------------------------ Making maps with command-line tools Friday, March 3, 4:45 – 5:45 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: This class will be a hands-on walkthrough of the methods used by Milligan to make the map files that power live, interactive election results maps, inspired heavily by Mike Bostock's Command-Line Cartography Series. (bit.ly/cli-carto) We'll dig into some popular JSON-based map formats, ways to convert between them, and, ultimately, how to bend them to your will. By the end we'll be able to take a Census shapefile, extract from it exactly what we need, project it, and turn it into either a static image or a TopoJSON ready for your interactive web app. And we'll do it all from the command line using open-source tools, so you can wrap it up in a script and run it again and again! This session would be good for people with some command-line experience who are comfortable getting knee-deep in some JSON. Skill level: Advanced Speaker: Andrew Milligan, POLITICO ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 5 p.m. CT on Friday, March 3 ------------------------------------------------------------ Lightning Talks ⚡️ Friday, March 3, 5 – 6:15 p.m. CT (75 minutes) Session type: Special Description: Sometimes you don't need 45 minutes to explain a useful technique or interesting resource. Join your colleagues for a session of short (5-minute) talks about doing data journalism, web development and related topics. Lightning Talks are sponsored by the Knight Foundation. Speaker: Lam Thuy Vo, Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 6:15 p.m. CT on Friday, March 3 ------------------------------------------------------------ Philip Meyer Award presentation and Ring of Honor recognition Friday, March 3, 6:15 – 6:30 p.m. CT (15 minutes) Session type: Special Description: The presentation of the 2022 Philip Meyer Journalism Awards will take place on Friday evening, directly following Lightning Talks. The awards recognize the best uses of social research methods in journalism, and they are named in honor of Philip Meyer, author of “Precision Journalism” and retired Knight Chair in Journalism and University of North Carolina School of Journalism and Mass Communications. ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 6:30 p.m. CT on Friday, March 3 ------------------------------------------------------------ Philip Meyer Award reception Friday, March 3, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Special Description: Join fellow NICAR attendees and award winners at a reception with light appetizers and a cash bar immediately following the awards presentation beginning at 6:30 p.m. Friday. ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 9 a.m. CT on Saturday, March 4 ------------------------------------------------------------ How to get a seat at the data journalism table and bring more chairs with you Saturday, March 4, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Commons Description: How can we make data journalism a more welcoming and accepting space, and how can we make it more open for newcomers? This NICAR Commons session will aim to create a space for conversation amongst all levels of data experience to break down assumptions, fears, questions and anxieties about getting involved with data and the things that newcomers need to know about it, versus what newcomers *think* they need to know. Speakers: Cam Rodriguez, Chalkbeat Aria Velasquez, Independent journalist **************************************** OCCRP Aleph: Learn the data tool that enables large cross-border investigations Saturday, March 4, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Demo Description: Kickstart your investigations with OCCRP Aleph, the leak taming, company registry matching, huge dataset wrangling tool that enables the Organized Crime Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) to launch multiple cross border projects a year. Come learn about how to conduct advanced searches, cross-reference data across multiple leaks, and create your own investigation workspace — including building network diagrams and timelines. Make use of the billions of records that OCCRP Aleph hosts for your next investigation. This session is going to be a demo, there's a deep dive hands-on session directly following. Track: Tools & tech Speaker: Jan Strozyk, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project **************************************** Findings and using undocumented APIs Saturday, March 4, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: This tutorial will introduce reporters to an exciting and often overlooked data source found on every website. You will learn how to find and use hidden APIs as a reporting resource, and hear about how this data source has been used in past reporting. This session is for reporters who want to diversify their data sources. You don't need to write code: we'll teach participants to find hidden APIs in your web browser, but knowing some coding will let you to unlock detailed and rich datasets hidden in plain sight. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. We'll be working off this scripted documented: https://inspectelement.org/apis Skill level: Intermediate Speakers: Dhruv Mehrotra, WIRED Leon Yin, The Markup **************************************** Finding the story: Digging into nonprofits for fun and, um, profit Saturday, March 4, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: The IRS collects vast amounts of data on millions of hospitals, universities, cultural organizations and other nonprofit organizations. Most of that information is public. You can find it in IRS Form 990. We’ll use R to import and analyze some 990s, so bring your laptop. But you don’t need to know any R for this session and you’ll learn plenty about the nonprofit world. This session is good for anyone who has some experience working with data. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Skill level: Intermediate Speaker: Ronald Campbell, NBC Owned Television Stations **************************************** R 1: Intro to R and RStudio Saturday, March 4, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Jump into data analysis with R, the powerful open-source programming language. In this class we’ll cover R fundamentals and learn our way around the RStudio interface for using R. This session is good for: People with a basic understanding of data analysis who are ready to go beyond spreadsheets. Skill level: Intermediate Speaker: Ryann Jones, ProPublica **************************************** Going beyond 'skills-based': contextualizing data journalism for students Saturday, March 4, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Many of us who are teaching at the university level agree that data journalism courses must involve more than Excel, DataWrapper and programming languages. How can we add thoughtful analyses of the history of and contemporary issues within data journalism to hands-on data journalism courses? How can we better mesh standard skills learning with exploratory thinking on data availability, data collection and creative data? Get ideas on adding Mimi Onuoha, Teju Cole, Mona Chalabi and Catherine D'Ignazio to your syllabus, and share ideas with your fellow journalism educators! Track: Educators Speakers: Meredith Broussard, New York University Nausheen Husain, Syracuse University Mago Torres, OpenNews Lam Thuy Vo, Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism **************************************** Mining financial disclosures Saturday, March 4, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: This panel will discuss the kinds of information that's available in SEC filings, from annual and quarterly reports to mergers and acquisitions, and how journalists can track down and use that information in our reporting. Track: On the beat Speakers: Noah Buhayar, Bloomberg News Peniley Ramirez, Futuro Investigates/Futuro Media Sara Silver, Quinnipiac University John West, The Wall Street Journal **************************************** Beyond the Dobbs story: Public health coverage in a post-Roe America Saturday, March 4, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: In this session, panelists will share key data that they’ve relied on while reporting on the aftermath of the Dobbs decision to ultimately tell a larger story about public health, including from the CDC and WHO on maternal mortality, the AMA on OB/GYN training and workforces, and more. Speakers will point reporters to those sources and encourage them to think about new ways to tell the post-Dobbs story, with angles that go beyond abortion. Track: On the beat Speakers: Annette Choi, CNN Kristen Hwang, CalMatters Elizabeth Nash, Guttmacher Institute **************************************** How to use investigative techniques to hold algorithms and artificial intelligence accountable Saturday, March 4, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Algorithms are everywhere, but many journalists too often defer to companies who built AI-powered tools. When journalists use investigative methods to test the tools themselves, many AI products underperformed, or led to dangerous and discriminatory outcomes. In this panel, we will discuss what methods journalists can use to hold AI accountable - even those who work as freelance reporters. Track: Equity & inclusion Speakers: Hilke Schellmann, New York University/independent journalist Maddy Varner, The Markup **************************************** First Visual Story Saturday, March 4, 9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (210 minutes) Session type: Pre-registration - Hands-on Description: Learn how America’s top news organizations escape rigid content-management systems to publish custom graphics on deadline. Take this class to get hands-on experience in every stage of the development process, writing JavaScript, HTML and CSS within a Node.js framework. You’ll start with data from a real-life Los Angeles Times analysis. You won’t stop until you’ve crafted a custom presentation and deployed a working application on the World Wide Web. Preregistration is required and seating is limited. Laptops will be provided. Workshop prerequisites: If you have a good attitude and know how to take a few code crashes in stride, you are qualified for this class. If you’re a little scared, that’s a good thing. You’re ready for this. ⚠️ This session requires pre-registration and an additional fee of $40 to reserve a seat: https://www.ire.org/product/nicar23-first-viz-story/ -- please note that you must purchase a conference ticket before you can buy a ticket for this session: https://www.ire.org/training/conferences/nicar-2023/nicar23-registration/ Skill level: Intermediate Speakers: James Thomas, The New York Times Ben Welsh, Reuters Aida Ylanan, Los Angeles Times **************************************** Exploring data in R with the Tidyverse Saturday, March 4, 9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (210 minutes) Session type: Pre-registration - Hands-on Description: Learn how to use the tidyverse, a collection of R packages, to help you make your data journalism more efficient, stronger and more fun. Learn how to import, clean, analyze and plot data for your stories. If you want to modernize your R workflow with dplyr, tidyr, readr, ggplot2, tibble and purr, this class is for you. This workshop assumes some familiarity with R and RStudio, or programming experience in another language (e.g., Python or JavaScript), but will start from the beginning with tidyverse principles. Preregistration is required and seating is limited. Laptops will be provided for the training. Workshop prerequisites: You should be comfortable working with R and RStudio and be familiar with basic data analysis. ⚠️ This session requires pre-registration and an additional fee of $75 to reserve a seat: https://www.ire.org/product/nicar23-tidyverse/ -- please note that you must purchase a conference ticket before you can buy a ticket for this session: https://www.ire.org/training/conferences/nicar-2023/nicar23-registration/ ⚠️ This session will take place over multiple days. Skill level: Advanced Speakers: Liz Lucas, IRE & NICAR Andrew Ba Tran, Washington Post **************************************** Digging into data for stories: A crash course in spreadsheets Saturday, March 4, 9 a.m. – 5:45 p.m. CT (420 minutes) Session type: Pre-registration - Hands-on Description: Get started using data in your stories with IRE's mini-boot camp. In this 6-hour, hands-on workshop, IRE’s experienced trainers will start with the basics of navigating Google Sheets and using formulas, then walk you through sorting, filtering and aggregating data with pivot tables to find story ideas. You'll come away with a solid base for analyzing data in your newsroom, including how to find and request data, identify and clean dirty data, find story ideas and make your work ironclad. We’ll also provide you with our detailed boot camp materials to help keep you on track long after you leave the conference. Workshop prerequisites: There are no prerequisites for this workshop and beginners are welcome. This workshop is good for those wanting to get started analyzing data for stories. Preregistration is required and seating is limited. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop for the training and must have a Google account. ⚠️ This session requires pre-registration and an additional fee of $75 to reserve a seat: https://www.ire.org/product/nicar23-digging-into-data/ -- please note that you must purchase a conference ticket before you can buy a ticket for this session: https://www.ire.org/training/conferences/nicar-2023/nicar23-registration/ Skill level: Beginner Speakers: David Herzog, IRE-Missouri School of Journalism Laura Moscoso, IRE & NICAR Adam Rhodes, IRE & NICAR ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 10:15 a.m. CT on Saturday, March 4 ------------------------------------------------------------ Mental health for journalists and investigators Saturday, March 4, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Commons Description: Researching and working on sensitive subjects can have a very heavy toll on your mental health. By talking about it, we hope to create a safe space for other researchers and journalists, letting them know it’s okay to have certain feelings, and provide some suggestions for how to deal with them. Speakers: Giancarlo Fiorella, Bellingcat Annique Mossou, Bellingcat **************************************** Sneak peek of Google's new PDF-busting reporting tool Saturday, March 4, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Demo Description: Have you ever received a 300-page PDF containing a large table, printed from a spreadsheet and then scanned? Have you ever had a large pile of similarly-structured scanned documents (for example, police incident reports) and wondered “I wish I could get all this data into a spreadsheet”? Well, a new feature of Google Journalist Studio’s Pinpoint helps you do just that. Learn what it’s good for, how to use it, and how to get access to its beta program. Track: Tools & tech Speaker: Shlomo Urbach, Google **************************************** Showcase: Big Local Data tools Saturday, March 4, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Demo Description: A lightning-round showcase of innovative newsroom tools that can help you manage mass FOIAs, automate web scraping, analyze large document dumps with artificial intelligence and track how special interests influence statehouse legislation. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Track: Tools & tech Speaker: Serdar Tumgoren, Stanford University **************************************** Find public records and leaks: OCCRP Aleph Saturday, March 4, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Kickstart your investigations with OCCRP Aleph, the leak taming, company registry matching, huge dataset wrangling tool that enables the Organized Crime Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) to launch multiple cross border projects a year. Come learn about how to conduct advanced searches, cross-reference data across multiple leaks, and create your own investigation workspace — including building network diagrams and timelines. Make use of the billions of records that OCCRP Aleph hosts for your next investigation. This session is good for: People who are beginner Aleph users or haven't used it in a while and are interested in new features and improvements. (You do not need to code.) Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Speaker: Jan Strozyk, Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project **************************************** Scraping without programming Saturday, March 4, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Yes, you can scrape data without using code -- in fact, all you need is Google Sheets! We'll be using Excel-type formulas (don't worry if you don't know what those are, either) to make simple scrapers that automatically pull data into Google Sheets. It’s the best way to get around clunky websites and unhelpful PIOs! This session is good for: Beginners who want to start using data for their stories. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) for the training and must have a Google account. Skill level: Beginner Speaker: Samantha Sunne, ProPublica/WVUE **************************************** R 2: Data analysis and plotting Saturday, March 4, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: We'll use the tidyverse packages dplyr and ggplot2, learning how to sort, filter, group, summarize, join, and visualize to identify trends in your data. If you want to combine SQL-like analysis and charting in a single pipeline, this session is for you. This session is good for: People who have worked with data operations in SQL or Excel and would like to do the same in R. Skill level: Intermediate Speaker: Sean Mussenden, University of Maryland **************************************** How to make your data story pop on TV Saturday, March 4, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: When you have a limited time to tell a story — like in TV news — sharing statistics, figures and data can be a challenge. Come to this session to learn how to share your data-driven stories on TV in dynamic but easy to understand ways. Speakers: Rosie Cima, EW Scripps Josh Hinkle, KXAN/St. Edward's University Zaneta Lowe, WREG-TV **************************************** Supercharge your local investigation with machine learning Saturday, March 4, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Forget the buzzwords and AI hype. In this session you will learn how machine learning is helping local journalists produce groundbreaking investigations that without the technology would not be possible. From untangling a maze of subsidiaries to reveal the hedge funds that now control the single-family house market in North Carolina to uncovering the true scope of oil-well abandonment in Texas (and its associated human and environmental tragedies), the speakers will share how they combined machine learning with traditional reporting to pursue untold stories that affected the most vulnerable members of their communities. They will show and share the toolkits, templates, and data repositories they created to help other journalists reproduce their work, and will discuss tips for pitching and funding machine learning projects in small newsrooms. This session was planned in collaboration with the Pulitzer Center. IRE retains control of content, including the topic and speaker selection, for all conference sessions. Speakers: Clayton Aldern, Grist Tyler Dukes, The News and Observer Naveena Sadasivam, Grist Lucia Walinchus, Eye on Ohio, the Ohio Center for Journalism **************************************** Using public data to uncover the hidden costs of the housing crisis Saturday, March 4, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Almost half of Americans surveyed by the Pew Research Center say that housing is a significant problem where they live. Rental prices have gone up and, for many, homelessness is just an accident or health issue away. But, despite the importance of the problem and many sources of data available, some of the key questions regarding housing and homelessness remain unanswered. One of the biggest challenges is understanding the role of landlords in rapidly gentrifying markets. San Francisco Chronicle’s Susie Neilson worked for months to uncover some of the biggest property owners in her city and will share the lessons of this work. Gathering reliable data on homelessness is another major challenge facing journalists today. Amy DiPierro worked to explain what we know about how homelessness impacts children and schools, a side of this issue that many times is overlooked. Track: On the beat Speakers: Amy DiPierro, Center for Public Integrity Juan Pablo Garnham, Eviction Lab Susie Neilson, The San Francisco Chronicle ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 11:30 a.m. CT on Saturday, March 4 ------------------------------------------------------------ How and when to open-source your code and analysis Saturday, March 4, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Commons Description: How many times has a fellow journalist's decision to open source code and/or data saved your life? Thanks to the generosity of the news nerd community, many of us have been able to pull methods for cleaning, analyzing and visualizing data so we can develop our own code and stories. But what considerations go into open sourcing data and analysis? If you've ever considered open sourcing your own code, join us for this important discussion with new and veteran open sourcers as we address topics including responsibility and culpability, documentation requirements, sustainability and security. Speakers: Alexandra Kanik, Houston Chronicle / San Antonio Express-News Justin Myers, The Associated Press Libby Seline, San Antonio Express-News **************************************** Finding criminal justice data in public records Saturday, March 4, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Demo Description: Lucy Parsons Labs and the Chicago Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee have spent the last six years beginning to understand how police departments, jails and prisons rely on opacity to shield from public criticism harmful and often dangerous practices. Using Muckrock to send targeted and automated requests and DocumentCloud to store, annotate, and analyze documents using their many features and Add-Ons, Lucy Parsons Labs, IWOC and the Muckrock Foundation have begun to chip away at the secrecy. The goal of this session is to help reporters understand the Muckrock and DocumentCloud platforms and how both offer great research opportunities, avenues for collaboration, and built in tools for document analysis to pull back the veil of secrecy as it relates to the treatment of those who are policed and incarcerated. Public data and records help us advocate for the policed & incarcerated and continue on our pathway to abolition. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Track: On the beat Speaker: Sanjin Ibrahimovic, MuckRock **************************************** Investigating the big business of medical marijuana cards: questionable health claims, weak oversight, unfair rules and 1 million certification records Saturday, March 4, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Demo Description: The investigative series Cannabis Card Game from Spotlight PA revealed serious flaws with Pennsylvania's medical marijuana program and deceptive practices by businesses that offer to connect patients to physicians. Reporter Ed Mahon will offer a behind-the-scenes look at how he investigated medical claims on more than 60 business websites, analyzed more than 1 million records of medical marijuana certifications, reviewed thousands of pages of public records and lawsuits and won a court battle against his state's health department. This reporting had an impact, but it was also possible with relatively simple data tools, which Mahon will discuss. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Track: On the beat Speaker: Edward Mahon, Spotlight PA **************************************** The international money trail Saturday, March 4, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Participants will combine their financial analysis skills with open search techniques to find the foreign filings of global financial firms, U.S. hedge funds and fraudulent companies in this workshop with Quinnipiac University professor and investigative journalist Sara Silver. The class will retrace a fraud at a Greek luxury goods chain using the filings of a U.K. subsidiary, use EU filings to shed light on secretive U.S. hedge funds and examine the charitable giving of a Mexican foundation serving as a campaign war chest. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Track: International Speaker: Sara Silver, Quinnipiac University **************************************** R 3: Gathering and cleaning data Saturday, March 4, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Learn how to use R to scrape data from web pages, access APIs and transform the results into usable data. This session will also focus on how to clean and structure the data you've gathered in preparation for analysis using tidyverse packages. This session is good for: People who have used R and have a basic understanding of how to retrieve data from APIs. Skill level: Intermediate Speaker: Sean Mussenden, University of Maryland **************************************** Navigating the federal FOIA long game Saturday, March 4, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: The Freedom of Information Act can serve as a gateway to vital information about how the federal government is operating at the national, state, and local levels, but too often journalists are stonewalled — sometimes for years — when requesting records under the law. This session would cover strategies to find success in the FOIA long game: from how to request expedited processing, make progress using what's available, and stay motivated while pursuing records, to where to find free legal resources and support to craft administrative appeals and take legal action to compel agencies to comply with the law. This session was planned in collabration with Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. IRE retains control of content, including the topic and speaker selection, for all conference sessions. Track: Public records Speakers: Beryl Lipton, Electronic Frontier Foundation Adam Marshall, RCFP Brian Rosenthal, The New York Times **************************************** Best practices when teaching investigative and data journalism classes Saturday, March 4, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Investigative and data journalism courses in colleges and universities have taken off at the graduate and undergraduate levels. Join this session of veteran educators to learn and share best practices and ideas for effective teaching of these kinds of courses to the investigators/data journalists of tomorrow. Track: Educators Speakers: Meredith Broussard, New York University Sarah Cohen, Arizona State University Brant Houston, University of Illinois and Investigate Midwest Nausheen Husain, Syracuse University Maggie Mulvihill, Boston University Hilke Schellmann, New York University/independent journalist Jonathan Soma, Columbia University Derek Willis, University of Maryland **************************************** Telling data stories in audio Saturday, March 4, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Numbers are notoriously confusing on the air, so here’s an hour of tips and tricks to accurately and effectively share your findings on the radio or in a TV broadcast. Speakers: Justin Hicks, Louisville Public Media Kelly Kenoyer, WHQR Ben Schachtman, WHQR Public Media Natasha Senjanovic, Independent journalist **************************************** Keeping it local: Inspiring regional reporters to use data journalism tools for their stories Saturday, March 4, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: In this session, we'll talk about how national outlets can work with local reporters to produce data stories for their own communities. Speakers: Helena Bengtsson, Gota Media Cheryl Phillips, Big Local News ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 2:15 p.m. CT on Saturday, March 4 ------------------------------------------------------------ Data blitz Saturday, March 4, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Commons Description: Like Lightning Talks, but for data. Five presenters will guide you through their favorite datasets. To propose presenting a dataset, please fill out this form by February 3: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScflesJGWaChVJp1OokDpX3m7Ob8p_ZIqPakboD_BnC5MH_5g/viewform Speaker: Jeremy Singer-Vine, The Data Liberation Project **************************************** Sharing your rapid Python analysis with the newsroom using Google Sheets Saturday, March 4, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Demo Description: Want to have fast analysis ready for reporters right when an anticipated data set is released? Learn how to connect your python analysis to reporter-friendly Google Sheets. At The Texas Tribune, we created a pipeline that quickly cleans and analyses data to create Google Sheets for reporters to use in their breaking news stories the minute the data is released. I'll share tips and tricks on how you can adapt it for your newsroom. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Track: Tools & tech Speaker: Carla Astudillo, The Texas Tribune **************************************** Who's behind that website? Saturday, March 4, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Demo Description: Reporting online today, journalists must battle with astroturf campaigns, fake news sites and sketchy shell companies to find out who is behind the story. Usually it leads to a frustratingly common question: Who is behind this website? Using a range of tools (free and otherwise), we walk you through how to investigate the provenance and ownership of websites: how can you identify the scope and scale of the network it belongs to — if any? Who’s behind the site, now and in the past? Who are the main actors promoting this website? Where else does this site crop up? While it is not always possible to fully unmask the owner of a site, using a thorough checklist of tools and techniques that we have used in real-world investigations, we can help you make sure to reveal as much as possible about a website, and potentially uncover important clues. Track: Tools & tech Speakers: Pri Bengani, Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia Journalism School Jon Keegan, The Markup **************************************** Stats in R Saturday, March 4, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Learn how to use R to spot trends and identify relationships in data using social science theories and methods. In this session, we will use R for statistical significance tests, cross-tabulations and linear regression. This session is good for: Anyone who is comfortable working with spreadsheets and database managers and wants to learn how to do basic statistical analysis. Some experience with R will be helpful. Skill level: Advanced Speaker: Holly Hacker, Kaiser Health News **************************************** Using geographic data to find disparities in the news Saturday, March 4, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: The stories found in geographic data don’t affect everyone the same, and Census data can help reveal these inequities. POLITICO editor Sean McMinn will talk through how some examples of these stories, then will do a hands-on walkthrough to teach you how to: - Find geographic data - Combine Census demographic and shapefile data in QGIS - Cross Census data with geocoded data You must bring your own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class, and you will need to have QGIS3 installed in order to participate. Skill level: Intermediate Track: Equity & inclusion Speaker: Sean McMinn, POLITICO **************************************** PDF processing with command-line tools Saturday, March 4, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: This class seeks to help you solve a common problem in journalism: Data stored in PDFs. We'll first walk through extracting text from a computer-generated PDF using a command-line tool. Then we'll step up to Optical Character Recognition, or OCR, to work on freeing data from image files. This session is good for: People with experience using their computer's command-line interface. Skill level: Intermediate Speaker: Chad Day, The Wall Street Journal **************************************** Which data viz should I use and why? Saturday, March 4, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: We'll explore ways to think about choosing charts to tell your data's story, and some best practices about what works best. And, no, that doesn't mean everything is a bar chart. In fact, we'll bring examples of inspirational data visualizations we guarantee Datawrapper can't do. Speakers: Scott Klein, THE CITY Erin Petenko, VTDigger Emilia Ruzicka, Stacker **************************************** Next steps after ‘no’: What to do when your records request is denied Saturday, March 4, 2:15 – 3:15 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: You’ve asked for the public information that will form the basis of your reporting, but government agencies are delaying responses to your records requests, or denying them altogether. What now? This session would cover tips and tricks for journalists who want to understand ways to help federal, state, and local public agencies respond to their records requests more quickly, appeal public records denials, look for records that might be public in other places, and everything in between. This session was planned in collabration with Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. IRE retains control of content, including the topic and speaker selection, for all conference sessions. Track: Public records Speakers: Kate Howard, Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting Jason Leopold, Bloomberg News Gunita Singh, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press Phil Williams, WTVF **************************************** R: Introduction to statistics Saturday, March 4, 2:15 – 5:45 p.m. CT (210 minutes) Session type: Pre-registration - Hands-on Description: Statistics can help you find newsworthy patterns by measuring relationships. This class will help you correctly interpret and report using methods such as correlation, linear regression, and t-test. It will help you visualize data and apply statistical significance. This class is for anyone with some spreadsheet knowledge and a little exposure to R Studio. ⚠️ This session requires pre-registration and an additional fee of $40 to reserve a seat: https://www.ire.org/product/nicar23-intro-stats/ -- please note that you must purchase a conference ticket before you can buy a ticket for this session: https://www.ire.org/training/conferences/nicar-2023/nicar23-registration/ Skill level: Intermediate Speaker: Norm Lewis, University of Florida **************************************** Practical machine learning for everyone Saturday, March 4, 2:15 – 5:45 p.m. CT (210 minutes) Session type: Pre-registration - Hands-on Description: Whether you're interested in classifying images, sorting documents, summarizing text, transcribing audio, or a million other topics, machine learning is here to help! Learn to set up practical machine learning pipelines in minutes: we'll train custom models, build easy-to-use web apps, host private APIs and more through the adorably-named Hugging Face. Whatever your level of technical comfort, we'll set you up with a system that works perfectly just for you. Beyond showing off all our fun new tricks, we'll also look at the tradeoffs between ease-of-use versus diving deep into the innards of the machine. What nuance do we miss when we shovel the details off to a convenient tool? You'll leave this session with a dozen new tools in your toolbox – at all levels of the tech tree – along with the confidence (or necessary suspicion) in wielding these tools in the newsroom. Preregistration is required and seating is limited. You must bring your own laptop (no tablets) to this training. ⚠️ This session requires pre-registration and an additional fee of $40 to reserve a seat: https://www.ire.org/product/nicar23-python-ml/ -- please note that you must purchase a conference ticket before you can buy a ticket for this session: https://www.ire.org/training/conferences/nicar-2023/nicar23-registration/ Skill level: Advanced Speaker: Jonathan Soma, Columbia University ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 3:30 p.m. CT on Saturday, March 4 ------------------------------------------------------------ AI Art Creation: From the Classroom to the Newsroom Saturday, March 4, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Commons Description: When crediting Midjourney for the two illustrations included in a newsletter produced for The Atlantic, Charlie Warzel faced a backlash from Twitter users who thought the publication tried to cut its art budget. Since the release of art creation bots, many artists have voiced their concerns about the use of their artwork for data training purposes. On a different note, the quality of illustrations generated by the bots has not even come close to the professional journalism standards held by many newsrooms. At Kansas State University, while journalism students are excited about generating graphics with the assistance of AI bots, the Kansas State Collegian editorial board has quite a lot of concerns. In this session, the news staff will share their perspectives on why they haven't rushed to adopt AI art creation tools in their newsroom yet. Tips on how to work with the bots will also be shared. Speakers: Huyen Nguyen, AQ Miller School of Media and Communication, Kansas State University Carter Schafer, Kansas State University Zoe Schumacher, Kansas State Collegian Kelsey Volk, Kansas State Collegian **************************************** Introducing moneyinpolitics.wtf, a new campaign-finance dictionary made by and for data journalists Saturday, March 4, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Demo Description: moneyinpolitics.wtf is an open-source website that aims to be America's most comprehensive glossary of political fundraising jargon. Come check it out and tell us how it could improve — and maybe even be useful one day. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Track: Tools & tech Speakers: Agustin Armendariz, The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists Anupama Narayanswamy, The Washington Post Ben Welsh, Reuters Derek Willis, University of Maryland **************************************** Finding the story: Policing and crime data Saturday, March 4, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: There’s a lot of data out there on policing and crime but so much of it is bad for a variety of reasons. In this session we’ll separate the good from the bad and discuss stories just waiting to be written in your community. Skill level: Beginner Track: On the beat Speaker: Steven Rich, The Washington Post **************************************** Scraping without programming (repeat) Saturday, March 4, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Yes, you can scrape data without using code -- in fact, all you need is Google Sheets! We'll be using Excel-type formulas (don't worry if you don't know what those are, either) to make simple scrapers that automatically pull data into Google Sheets. It’s the best way to get around clunky websites and unhelpful PIOs! This session is good for: Beginners who want to start using data for their stories. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) for the training and must have a Google account. Skill level: Beginner Speaker: Samantha Sunne, ProPublica/WVUE **************************************** Datasette: An ecosystem of tools for exploring data and collaborating on data projects Saturday, March 4, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Datasette is a growing ecosystem of tools for exploring and publishing data. With Datasette you can take raw data from a variety of different formats, import it into a SQLite-backed web interface, explore it, visualize it, map it and then publish it along with an API to enable further custom development. This workshop will introduce Datasette using Datasette Cloud, a new hosted service that allows you to run the tools and collaborate on data projects with members of your team. Topics covered will include: - Using Datasette Cloud to upload, explore and analyze data from a variety of sources - Using full-text search and facets to quickly analyze large and complex datasets - Visualizing numeric and geographic data using Datasette plugins - Running Datasette and associated tools on your own machine using the command line This session is good for anyone. Basic familiarity with SQL and the command line is helpful but not necessary. Skill level: Intermediate Speaker: Simon Willison, Independent journalist **************************************** Suspicion machine: Expose algorithmic bias in welfare fraud detection Saturday, March 4, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: With the training data, the code and the final model file for an AI system designed to flag people within the Rotterdam welfare system for potential fraud, we have had an unprecedented opportunity to prove how one of these systems turn people’s vulnerabilities against them. We’ll take you through the algorithm, the methodology and the steps to run your own experiment to prove algorithmic bias-and how we obtained it all in the first place. Speakers: Eva Constantaras, Lighthouse Reports Gabriel Geiger, Lighthouse Reports Dhruv Mehrotra, WIRED **************************************** Tools for statehouse reporting Saturday, March 4, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Providing journalists who write on the statehouse/state level with the best and most useful data tools & public records requests to crack open statehouses. We'll explore national tools like FollowTheMoney.org, and also do quick tutorials of different states' lobbying, campaign finance and financial disclosure websites. We'll recommend helpful datasets, offer examples of data-based stories, and talk about ways to make data/the investigative mindset a central focus of your statehouse coverage. Track: On the beat Speakers: Jeremy Finley, WSMV-TV Phil Williams, WTVF Yue Yu, Bridge Michigan **************************************** Beyond checking the facts: Tracing the spread of misinformation to the source Saturday, March 4, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Discuss ongoing research to trace and group pieces of misinformation to their source. Fact-checkers tend to focus on the pieces of misinformation as individual pieces of content, however, it has been shown in previous research that most misinformation originates from a small number of malicious sources who then actively spread it to a wider audience. Track: Tools & tech Speaker: Christopher Guess, Duke University Reporters' Lab **************************************** Census 2020: Get ready for Round 2 Saturday, March 4, 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: The Demographic Profile and Demographic and Housing Characteristics File for the 2020 Census are now (this time they really mean it) due for release in May 2023. By the time of the conference, we should know how accurate the data will be - a big consideration because of the Census Bureau's evolving privacy protection rules. In any case, however, the May releases will almost certainly be the best part of the 2020 Census. Speakers: Ronald Campbell, NBC Owned Television Stations Meghan Hoyer, The Washington Post Paul Overberg, The Wall Street Journal ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 4:45 p.m. CT on Saturday, March 4 ------------------------------------------------------------ Code Buddies: Get help on your data project Saturday, March 4, 4:45 – 5:45 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Commons Description: Need help on a data project? Having trouble figuring out how to use that cool tool you learned about in another session? Just want to network with some other news nerds? Stop by this session and get one-on-one help from experienced data journalists who would be delighted to help you solve your problems. Speaker: Alexandra Kanik, Houston Chronicle / San Antonio Express-News **************************************** Finding the story: Higher education data Saturday, March 4, 4:45 – 5:45 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Interested in uncovering enterprising higher education stories in your community but aren’t exactly sure where to start? In this session, we’ll explore data sets that you can use today to dig into college finances, the student experience and safety. This session is good for people who are comfortable using spreadsheets. Skill level: Beginner Track: On the beat Speaker: Alex Richards, Syracuse University **************************************** 311: The 411 on how to report on your city’s infrastructure issues — and how this data can uncover stories on gentrification Saturday, March 4, 4:45 – 5:45 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: 311 data, or “customer service” data from your city’s citizen complaints department, can help you feed the daily/online beast while also feeding into bigger-picture stories. In this end-of-day Saturday session, you won’t have to lift a mouse finger: We’ll go through examples of stories done using this data, talk about how you can do the same, and you’ll leave with a long list of potential story ideas. This session is good for: People comfortable with Python and Jupyter notebook. Taking or having taken "introduction to Python for data analysis" or "first Python notebook" is strongly recommended. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) and a free Google account to participate in this class. Track: On the beat Speaker: Janelle O'Dea, The Center for Public Integrity **************************************** Gathering data with APIs Saturday, March 4, 4:45 – 5:45 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: In this hands-on session, we'll learn how to use data from Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to enhance reporting and augment data from other sources. This session will cover how APIs fit in with other sources of data, a basic understanding of the web technologies that make them work, using some desktop tools to fetch data from API endpoints and sharing useful APIs and tools for journalism. Some basic data analysis skills and knowledge of coding concepts is helpful, but not required. Skill level: Intermediate Speaker: Geoff Hing, The Marshall Project **************************************** Networking: Women journalists Saturday, March 4, 4:45 – 5:45 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Networking Description: Mix and mingle, meet friends old and new, and build your professional community in this fun and informal networking session. This session is for people who identify as women. Track: Networking Speakers: Jennifer LaFleur, Center for Public Integrity Linly Lin, Bloomberg News **************************************** Public records and data to request for (almost) any beat Saturday, March 4, 4:45 – 5:45 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: From criminal justice and health, to education and the environment, reporters tackling a variety of subjects can obtain revealing public records and data beyond the basics with the right skills. Come to this session to (briefly) learn about using federal and research/restricted datasets, getting public records on private companies, requesting records to find more records to request, building relationships to get data and more. We'll include examples of both short and long-term stories and offer resources and inspiration for your post-NICAR hunts for records. Track: Public records Speakers: Amy Fan, Scripps News Mike Reicher, The Seattle Times K. Sophie Will, CQ Roll Call **************************************** Building an interactive map in the newsroom: How to bring skills and talent together Saturday, March 4, 4:45 – 5:45 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Unlike past conflicts, the global public can follow the war in Ukraine in real time. Our interactive map tracks the events of Russia’s invasion since 24th February 2022. It’s updated daily to show recent events, territorial gains and losses, satellite imagery, and the position of Russian troops. By clicking on the events, readers are presented with a more detailed description of the event, as well as images and direct links to sources. The map was created by an interdisciplinary team of designers, data journalists, and developers. New information that is added to the map is verified by a team of data journalists and OSINT specialists. Below the map we explain the methodology behind the data and map design. The map is published on the main page of the Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung, often alongside other articles on the war, and provides readers with both an overview and with detailed, on-the-ground news of what is happening in Ukraine. Here’s the German version – and the English version, which is translated by a bot and then checked by translators. In this NICAR presentation I’ll discuss, how we were able to build this interactive map, the tools involved, the sources we used, and how many iterations we have released until now. Most importantly, how the map offers a new way for readers to discover the content – and sell subscriptions. One of the biggest challenges for the future will, of course, be to somehow secure the compatibility of the map with future technologies. Track: Tools & tech Speaker: Barnaby Skinner, Neue Zürcher Zeitung **************************************** Gearing up for the 2024 election Saturday, March 4, 4:45 – 5:45 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Get a head start on your 2024 election coverage by learning about the campaign finance data you need to be looking at now. We'll also cover the wealth of information to dig into what goes beyond the traditional election data. Speakers: Sandra Fish, Independent journalist Jessica Huseman, Votebeat Aaron Mendelson, The Center for Public Integrity **************************************** Behind the story: Data dives on the crime beat Saturday, March 4, 4:45 – 5:45 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Hear from reporters on how they gathered, cleaned, analyzed, visualized and told stories on covering cops, courts, crime and the intersections that connect them Track: Behind the story Speakers: Josh McGhee, MindSite News Lisa Pickoff-White, The California Reporting Project Rachel Polansky, WANF CBS Atlanta News First Dylan Purcell, The Philadelphia Inquirer ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 9 a.m. CT on Sunday, March 5 ------------------------------------------------------------ Google Sheets 1: Getting started with spreadsheets (repeat) Sunday, March 5, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: In this introduction to spreadsheets, you'll begin analyzing data with Google Sheets, a simple but powerful tool. You'll learn how to enter data, navigate spreadsheets and conduct simple calculations like sum, average and median. This session is good for: Data beginners. You must bring your own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class, and you will need a free Google account to participate. Speaker: Sandra Fish, Independent journalist **************************************** Data of divides (repeat) Sunday, March 5, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Doing data-driven inequality stories often means using statistical tools. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Basic familiarity with R is a plus, Download and install R and the free open-source version of R Studio for your operating system. We'll be focusing on some basic statistical tools in R. Please make sure you have installed the following packages: install.packages("tidyverse") #Working with data install.packages("knitr") #make code files install.packages("psych") #stats install.packages("tidycensus") #it will change your life install.packages("lme4") #for logistic regression install.packages("boot") #for logistic regression install.packages("ggeffects") #for logistic regression install.packages("DescTools") #for logistic regression install.packages("varhandle") #for creating dummy variables Track: Equity & inclusion Speaker: Jennifer LaFleur, Center for Public Integrity **************************************** Behind the story: Using data to report on (and for) your communities Sunday, March 5, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Hear from reporters on how they gathered, cleaned, analyzed, visualized and told stories about, and for, the communities they serve. Track: Behind the story Speakers: Suhail Bhat, THE CITY AJ Lagoe, KARE-TV Natasha Senjanovic, Independent journalist **************************************** Early career roundtable Sunday, March 5, 9 – 10 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: Whether it is a new investigation, a new beat or a new job, the choices we make early on can set us on the path to success or ruin. This session will offer practical tips on changing gears or media, source-development and finding the story others have missed. Speakers: Josh Hinkle, KXAN/St. Edward's University Amir Khafagy, Documented Nicole Vap, CBS News **************************************** Web scraping with Python Sunday, March 5, 9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (210 minutes) Session type: Pre-registration - Hands-on Description: If you need data that's trapped on a website, writing some code to scrape the page could be your solution. This entry-level class will show you how to use the Python programming language to harvest information from websites into a data file. We'll introduce you to the command line and show you how to write enough code to fetch and parse content on the web. Preregistration is required and seating is limited. Laptops will be provided. Workshop prerequisites: This class is programming for beginners. Some basic familiarity with Python and HTML is helpful but not required. ⚠️ This session requires pre-registration and an additional fee of $40 to reserve a seat: https://www.ire.org/product/nicar23-web-scraping-python/ -- please note that you must purchase a conference ticket before you can buy a ticket for this session: https://www.ire.org/training/conferences/nicar-2023/nicar23-registration/ Skill level: Intermediate Speaker: Cody Winchester, IRE & NICAR **************************************** Exploring data in R with the Tidyverse (continued) Sunday, March 5, 9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (210 minutes) Session type: Pre-registration - Hands-on Description: Learn how to use the tidyverse, a collection of R packages, to help you make your data journalism more efficient, stronger and more fun. Learn how to import, clean, analyze and plot data for your stories. If you want to modernize your R workflow with dplyr, tidyr, readr, ggplot2, tibble and purr, this class is for you. This workshop assumes some familiarity with R and RStudio, or programming experience in another language (e.g., Python or JavaScript), but will start from the beginning with tidyverse principles. Preregistration is required and seating is limited. Laptops will be provided for the training. Workshop prerequisites: You should be comfortable working with R and RStudio and be familiar with basic data analysis. ⚠️ This session requires pre-registration and an additional fee of $75 to reserve a seat: https://www.ire.org/product/nicar23-tidyverse/ -- please note that you must purchase a conference ticket before you can buy a ticket for this session: https://www.ire.org/training/conferences/nicar-2023/nicar23-registration/ ⚠️ This session will take place over multiple days. Skill level: Advanced Speakers: Liz Lucas, IRE & NICAR Andrew Ba Tran, Washington Post ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 10:15 a.m. CT on Sunday, March 5 ------------------------------------------------------------ Building your own AI editors Sunday, March 5, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Demo Description: We spend a lot of time trying to replace journalists with machines, but maybe it's time we let editors in on the fun, too? In this session, we'll look at several examples of building custom AI-assisted tools that play the editor for style and content in news stories. This might be as simple as encouraging a more accessible reading level, as deep as analyzing gender balance in sourcing, or as complex as managing editorial "anti-patterns" when reporting on crime or other hot-button issues. Track: Tools & tech Speaker: Jonathan Soma, Columbia University **************************************** How to analyze freely-available real estate data to tell your community's story Sunday, March 5, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Demo Description: The housing market has come to dominate the news lately, as mortgage rates have risen in an attempt to fight inflation, and having the additional effect of cooling off the real estate market after years of meteoric rises in home values. This came after decades of a widespread housing shortage, which had driven up values already, all working together to push home affordability—and in many ways the American Dream—out of reach for many. Making sense of this through data is where we can help. Realtor.com provides free, near-realtime housing market data that can be used to tell this story at any level, from national or statewide trends, down to the real estate dynamics at city or even ZIP code level. In this session, we will show NICAR attendees how to get and use Realtor.com's data, so they can immediately begin producing thorough, data-driven reporting on the housing market. Attendees will be able to take what they learn in this session and generate analyses that use time-series data, supply-and-demand metrics and even pairing Realtor.com's data with Census Bureau data to produce correlations between the housing market and demographics, as well as creating maps that illustrate the data. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Track: Tools & tech Speaker: Evan Wyloge, Realtor.com **************************************** Google Sheets 2: Formulas & sorting (repeat) Sunday, March 5, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: Much of Google Sheets' power comes in the form of formulas. In this class, you'll learn how to use them to analyze data with the eye of a journalist. Yes, math will be involved, but it's totally worth it! This class will show you how calculations like change, percent change, rates and ratios can beef up your reporting. This session is good for: Anyone who has taken Google Sheets 1 or has been introduced to spreadsheets. You must bring your own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class, and you will need a free Google account to participate. Speaker: Julie Christie, Resolve Philly **************************************** Tracking nursing home data amid state and federal staffing reforms Sunday, March 5, 10:15 – 11:15 a.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: In this panel, speakers will provide an overview of the big reform discussions happening as well as key datasets reporters can use to investigate the extent of nursing home staffing problems in their state, as well as the campaign influence of the nursing home industry that has routinely fought reforms. Track: On the beat Speakers: Jayme Fraser, USA TODAY / Gannett Sidnee King, Illinois Answers Caitlin McGlade, Arizona Republic ------------------------------------------------------------ Sessions starting at 11:30 a.m. CT on Sunday, March 5 ------------------------------------------------------------ CANCELED: Introduction to Flourish Sunday, March 5, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Demo Description: ⚠️ This session has been canceled. Learn how to build customized visualizations without coding in this demonstration on Flourish: a free online tool. This session is good for anyone familiar with spreadsheets. No dataviz experience is required. Attendees will need to bring their own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class. Track: Tools & tech Speaker: Laura Moscoso, IRE & NICAR **************************************** Google Sheets 3: Filtering & pivot tables (repeat) Sunday, March 5, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Hands-on Description: A look at the awesome power of pivot — and how to use it to analyze your dataset in minutes rather than hours. We'll work up to using a pivot table by first sorting and filtering a dataset, learning how to find story ideas along the way. This session is good for: Anyone familiar with formulas, sorting and filtering in a spreadsheet program. You must bring your own laptop (no tablets) to participate in this class, and you will need a free Google account to participate. Speaker: Jessica Huseman, Votebeat **************************************** Quick-hit investigations Sunday, March 5, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: One of IRE's most requested trainings: Strategies, story ideas, resources and tips for watchdog stories on a variety of beats. How to produce meaty enterprise stories that take days or weeks rather than months. Speakers: Adam Rhodes, IRE & NICAR Francisco Vara-Orta, IRE & NICAR **************************************** What's next? Career advice for those looking for the next move Sunday, March 5, 11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. CT (60 minutes) Session type: Panel Description: You've done it all -- beat reporter, enterprise desk, executive producer, investigative correspondent, editor, publisher, you name it! But what's next for your career? Join this roundtable discussion to hear from journalists who have been successful in navigating their next moves and instrumental in helping others take the big leap. Speakers: AmyJo Brown, War Streets Media Tony Gonzales, Nashville Public Radio Charles Minshew, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution