Investigative Reporter's Handbook: A Guide to Documents, Databases, and Techniques

Learn how to use fundamental news reporting and writing skills, from gathering sources and tracking information, to interviewing and pursuing investigative stories on a variety of beats with the Investigative Reporter's Handbook.

Brant Houston is the Knight Chair in Investigative & Enterprise Reporting at the College of Media at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was the executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) and a professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism for 10 years. The author of three editions of "Computer-Assisted Reporting: A Practical Guide," Houston served as managing director of the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting for three years after working in daily journalism for 17 years. He was an award-winning investigative reporter at The Hartford (Conn.) Courant, The Kansas City Star and several news organizations in the Boston area.

Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. is a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of investigative reporting. IRE was formed in 1975 to create a forum in which journalists throughout the world could help each other by sharing story ideas, newsgathering techniques and news sources.