Computer-Assisted Reporting

This book presents an overview of what is suddenly happening within the relatively new field called computer-assisted reporting (CAR). The rapid rate at which personal computing is changing has made it a tool for journalists. And as personal computing grows, so do its applications in the media newsroom.

To introduce journalists to computer-assisted reporting, this book describes how leading journalists are using personal computers for more than just writing in the news gathering process. American society has been inundated by a flood of computerized public and private records. Many records formerly kept on paper are now stored in computers. Many records that were never before kept are now retained in databases. And records that are not computerized can very easily be converted into databases. These developments have prompted journalists to become increasingly more involved with computers during the past decade. Much, if not most, news reporting now depends upon the use of computers. Knowledge of how to access and use computer databases is essential for the journalists of the future.

This book focuses on the computerization of news reporting. Not only does the personal computer of the mid-1990s assist journalists by making writing easier, it makes reporting more efficient. The book begins with a demonstration of methods reporters can use to get more from their computers -- data retrieval and analysis, information storage, and dissemination of that information in both processed and unprocessed forms. The book concludes with a proposal for development of computer literacy in the newsroom.

This is not a "how-to" book. It is best described as a "what's happening" book because it discusses current and future developments in the use of computers for information gathering by the news media. The single most important focus is on the changing nature of news reporting in the wake of down-sizing, down-pricing, up-powering, and up-speeding of business-type desktop and portable personal computers. Numerous new approaches to reporting and research have developed in the past decade in parallel with the evolution of personal computers. With these new techniques coming to the field of reporting in the mid-1990s, there is need for a book that covers both the merger of traditional information gathering methods and the newly developing ones. This book introduces readers to the new information gathering and analytical techniques evolving with new computer-based technology.