Deputy managing editor Shawn McIntosh oversees investigative reporting.
At a luncheon in our newsroom last month, we heard from a group of remarkable college students, all four on their way to a bright future in journalism.
They’ve all been trained in the techniques of investigative reporting and have already produced work that is the result of the deep digging such journalism requires. That’s a pretty rare accomplishment for a student or even a young reporter just a few years in the business.
Chelsea Cariker-Prince, a senior at Emory, worked with an AJC reporter last summer to examine the state’s spending — more than $100 million in three years — on private attorneys paid to represent the state.
Terah Boyd, a Georgia State senior, has worked with Channel 2 Action News as an intern for investigative reporter Jodie Fleischer. Boyd said she got hands-on experience she could never get in a classroom — joining stakeouts, sitting through court hearings, sifting through stacks of documents and obtaining public records. “We produce these wonderful stories, and I think they are actually having an impact and a difference in the community,” she said.
As a student, David Michaels, an Emory graduate, broke a big story of former Georga Senate Majority Leader Chip Rogers’ ties to the offshore casino industry.
Aaron Gregg, also an Emory grad, wrote a front-page story for the AJC that exposed inappropriate gifts from lobbyists to executive branch employees. Like the other students, Gregg will soon be looking for a permanent position, after finishing up some work with The Washington Post and some graduate study. “In the long term, I want to work on in-depth public interest journalism which helps people understand the inner workings of powerful institutions, hence empowering them to demand more effective government,” Gregg emailed me last week.
Gregg and the other three students were featured at the announcement of an exciting new partnership between Georgia colleges and news organizations that will train even more student investigative journalists. Officially called The Georgia News Lab, the partnership will include students from UGA, Georgia State University, Clark Atlanta University and Morehouse College.
The AJC and our sister news organization, WSB-TV, will be partners and beneficiaries, helping train the students, publishing their stories and hiring some as summer interns.
The News Lab got a great boost last week when the Online News Association announced a grant for startup funding. Only 12 programs nationwide received such a grant, designed to provide more innovative journalism education.
Cariker-Prince told guests at the luncheon that taking on investigative work as a student is daunting, so it was helpful to have professional and academic mentors. Her project took months, instead of the weeks she had expected, but the extra time was worthwhile.
“To uncover more of the truth, no matter how small, every time you publish a story, is such a noble endeavor,” she said.
The News Lab grows out of a model developed by David Armstrong, who taught the Emory students and will be director of the new program.
“We believe this is a win, win, win situation,” Armstrong told me last week. “Students will develop advanced reporting skills that will prepare them for careers as investigative journalists.
“News organizations will be able to draw from a new, more diverse cohort of skilled, data savvy reporters who can shape the future of public service journalism. And the public will gain access to more and better accountability reporting.”
Michaels told me last week that the kind of investigative training the News Lab will offer can have quite an impact.
“Since I’ve graduated, I’ve interned at WSB, ‘60 Minutes’ and an investigative documentary series at Al Jazeera called ‘Fault Lines,’” Michels wrote in an email. “Right now I cover Congress as an intern at CQ Roll Call. Each one of those experiences allowed me to work on interesting and unique stories that most journalists my age don’t get the chance to cover. And I’m not sure if any of those opportunities would have been possible if I hadn’t learned how to do investigative reporting in college.”
I’m thrilled that other Georgia students will get this opportunity. Investigative reporting takes special techniques, including deep analysis of data and public records and the ability to make a fair, unbiased case that a system is broken or an action is wrong. Investigative reporting is aimed at improving our communities, so having more students trained in those techniques helps everyone.
I am just as excited about what the students can teach us as what they can learn.
Journalism is at a crossroads, with fewer readers consuming media in traditional ways. It will be important that the future of news always include robust investigative reporting, whatever digital form it takes. Who better than young people to help discover new ways of telling these important stories?
Also important is the diversity promised by the participation of different schools. Investigative reporting has traditionally attracted fewer minority journalists than other areas of the field. I’m hoping the students in this program can help us better understand that issue and remedy it. Journalism will paint a more accurate picture of our society if the pool of investigative reporters also reflects society.
As a reader, you will benefit from this important new partnership with more and different investigative reporting. We’re proud to be part of The Georgia News Lab and excited about how it will contribute to a better newspaper and a better Georgia.
