Computers in Journalism

Doing Journalistic Work

Journalists' tasks include reporting, or gathering the news, writing and other forms of storytelling, and editing. For each of these tasks, computers and what this entry will call generally “digital” technology have had a profound impact. In many cases, this has been positive and planned for. For example, large volumes of data are now processed in short time frames and with much greater efficiency than humans acting without computers could do. This is perhaps best exemplified in precision journalism. Pioneered by Pulitzer Prize winner Philip Meyer, precision journalism applies scientific methods of systematic empirical inquiry to journalism. This might take the form of surveys and public opinion polls or other methods, including the analysis of large databases of public or governmental records (typically records of transactions, such as tax data). Often times the data are obtained in digital form from governmental agencies, although in some cases the data are generated directly by the news organization, sometimes in partnership with a polling organization, for example. Such large data sets could not be analyzed without the use of computers. Landmark studies of this type include Meyer's pioneering 1967 study of the civil rights protests in Detroit, MI, which led to his winning the Pulitzer Prize with the Detroit Free Press for the series “The People Beyond 12th Street.” David Burnham, the former New York Times reporter, who achieved fame for his reporting work with Frank Serpico (as depicted in the motion picture Serpico) and the Knapp Commission on police corruption in the 1960s and early 1970s in New York city, was the first journalist to use a computer to analyze crime data by precinct in New York, and with the results write a major series in the early 1970s showing crime rates in different areas of the city. Since these early pioneering efforts, the computer has become a standard part of virtually every investigative reporter's tool kit.

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