CARR HOT SHEET - May 2003

In this Issue

• CARR Boot Camps at National Press Club:
• Boot Camp Grad's "Justice For All?" Series Wins Grand Prize
• FOIA: COPS Office Releases Data
• New Database Release: General Social Survey (1972 - 2002)
• PDF to Spreadsheet (Acrobat or trial shortcut)
• Mapping in the News: Conference
• Mapping: Adding an External Database w/in Arc View
• FAQ's: Access*, Total Sum in Access, Excel Rows and Columns
• Summer Intern "Mini" Database 101
• 2003 CARR Boot Camp Schedule (NPC and Heritage)
• New Database 101 CD-Roms
  

CARR Boot Camps at National Press Club:


Barely two days went by before the May 30 Database 101 CARR boot camp at the National Press Club was completely booked (15 slots) following the event's announcement and online enrollment was activated on The Heritage Foundation's web site. And five NPC members have already signed up for the August 8 boot camp. A third boot camp will be held at the club Oct. 3.

These one-day boot camps are open to all members of the National Press Club, as well as interested journalists - editors, reporters, researchers, graphics artists - working with a recognized news organization. Free lancers with recent clips are also welcome.

Focus of the Database 101 day is on learning basic skills for Excel and Access and beginning newsroom applications for those software programs. The boot camps at the NPC are in addition to the regular schedule of two-day boot camps at The Heritage Foundation.

All sessions will be held in the Bloomberg Center at the NPC's Eric Friedheim Library and are being co-hosted by the club's High Tech Committee. Details are available on the club's web site at http://npc.press.org/. Or you can call Mark Tapscott at 202-608-6155 or email him at Mark.Tapscott@Heritage.org.


Boot Camp Grad's "Justice For All?" Series Wins Grand Prize

One of the first things Tallahassee Democrat courts reporter Jim Rosica worked on after attending a Database 101/201 CARR Boot Camp here in 2001 was a massive database from the Leon County court system.

Rosica's work resulted in an eight-part series that appeared in the Florida paper in July 2002. Last week, the Florida BAR association recognized the series as its Grand Prize winner for Excellence in Legal Reporting.

The Florida BAR described the series as "a comprehensive examination of why justice is slow in Leon County, with hundreds of felony cases unresolved, often long past the state's 180-day recommended deadline for completion."

The BAR continued, noting that Rosica's series "showed that all of the players were guilty of slowing down the system. During the investigation, the Democrat interviewed private lawyers, prosecutors, public defenders, judges, crime victims, defendants, legislators, court administrators and trial court administration experts."

At the heart of the award-winning series was a spreadsheet containing a vast amount of data on the Leon County judicial system handling of its caseload. Rosica and a team of colleagues crunched the numbers, then went out and did the hard work of reporting a comprehensive look at all of the angles suggested by the analysis.

CARR Hot Sheet offers its congratulations to Rosica and Tallahassee Democrat for an outstanding series that exemplifies what can be done without having an advanced degree in rocket science or statistics! For more information, you can reach Jim at jlrosica@nettally.com.


FOIA: COPS Office Releases Data


It took more than a year but the U.S. Department of Justice's Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) office finally relented last week and made public the datasets and other documentation associated with a controversial study by professors at the University of Nebraska at Omaha and Southwest Texas State University. We sought the material via an April 2002 Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.

The study was funded by the government for $156,000 and was presented to a Senate subcommittee hearing in December 2001. The hearing was considering proposals to continue funding the COPS program, which to date has cost more than $7 billion. The study concluded that the COPS program had a positive impact on reducing violent crime, as claimed by the Clinton administration. The COPS program was also claimed by its sponsors to have put 100,000 new police officers on duty fighting crime, as President Clinton promised to do in 1992.

The COPS office study was done in response to our multiple regression analysis, which was sought by then-Scripps Howard News Service Justice Department reporter Mike Hedges. Hedges reported that the analysis found no relationship between the receipt of a COPS grant and changes either up or down in the violent crime rate in a given city or county.

Hedges' story was picked up by most of the Scripps Howard-owned dailies in the country, and went out on the Scripps wire to its more than 400 newspaper clients. Soon after filing his COPS story, Hedges left Scripps to join the Washington reporting staff of the Houston Chronicle where he did a lengthy front-page feature on COPS and the Houston Police Department.

We requested the COPS office study material because we strongly support and practice rigorous standards of methodological transparency and peer-review of statistical analysis. We also believe the public, including independent researchers, should have access to the supporting data and documentation for all tax-paid statistical studies.

We are doing an analysis now of the COPS office study datasets to try and determine why the government-paid study came to the opposite conclusion of our own study for reporter Mike Hedges and Scripps Howard News Service. We'll keep you posted on developments. For more information, contact: Mark Tapscott at Heritage, 202-608-6155 or Mark.Tapscott@Heritage.org


New Database Release: General Social Survey (1972 - 2002)

Interested in voting trends, gun control views, or how about the country's general happiness? Would you like to track changes in our nations views on these and many other issues for the past three decades?

The General Social Survey is of one of the nation's longest running surveys of social, cultural and political indicators available today. It encompasses 30 years of national survey data in one comprehensive data file. We use a slice of GSS data for the closing application exercise of the Database 101/201 CARR boot camps held here at The Heritage Foundation.

The newly released GSS data file was recently obtained by The Heritage Foundation and contains individual response data for 43,698 respondents and over 4,200 variables. The 2002 GSS follows the biennial, double-sample design that was first adopted in 1994. The data can be used to track trends on a wide variety of topics, including, political, economic and social issues by age, gender, ethnicity, income, education and many others.

Because the GSS has been conducted over a three-decade period, it includes a great deal of data on the Baby Boomer and Gen X generations, and is beginning to accumulate some insights into the Gen Y cohort as well.

If you're interested in the new survey and want more information for possible news features, contact Dexter Ingram, Heritage's Database Editor, at 202-608-6227 or Dexter.Ingram@Heritage.org.

PDF to Spreadsheet (Acrobat or trial shortcut)

Have you ever received a dataset electronically only to discover that, instead of being in a spreadsheet or database format, it's in a PDF file? For years, the only software available to convert a PDF file to a more useful format was Adobe Acrobat.

Not anywhere, as ScanSoft and Microsoft have teamed to create a new plug-in for Microsoft Office 2003 that allows you to instantly convert PDF into editable documents from within Microsoft Word 2003 - complete with the layout of the original.

The ScanSoft PDF Converter for Microsoft Word unlocks the information trapped in PDF files, separating text from graphics, tables and columns. Now you can re-use information in PDF documents that you download from the Web or receive as email attachments. (No other software is required). The ScanSoft PDF Converter for Microsoft is tightly integrated with Microsoft Office 2003 in two ways.

First, Microsoft Word 2003 is extended with the ability to "File>>Open" PDF files. Second, ScanSoft has developed a Smart Tag that automatically converts PDF into Microsoft Word whenever a PDF is encountered in the Research area within Microsoft Word 2003.

You can give ScanSoft a try by going to http://www.neowin.net/comments.php?id=10450&category=main.
If you have any comments or suggestions on this new product, you can let the makers know by completing the form at www.ScanSoft.com/PDFConverter/Beta.

We have been using the Beta version of ScanSoft for about a month and have found a few kinks, specifically with larger font and graphics, but it seems to work well with the actual data. We'll see how the real version looks in June. Let us know if you have any observations.

Mapping in the News: ESRI Conference in San Diego

Many larger newsrooms use geographic mapping software to help stories "come alive" visually for readers. Whether you're mapping crimes across your city, environmental changes in a particular area, or potential terrorism scenarios, being able to apply Geographic Information System (GIS) technology adds a valuable dimension to your CARR stories.

ESRI, the company behind many mapping products, is hosting a GIS in Journalism meeting July 6, 2003, at the San Diego Convention Center in San Diego, California. Working journalists, academics, and students are invited to attend the event, as well as the ESRI International User Conference that follows, July 7-11.

The GIS in Journalism seminar will feature reporters who often use mapping in their reporting, as well as graphics artists who visualize news in compelling ways, and GIS professionals who create fascinating data. There will be hands-on training, demonstrations of ESRI technology, and tips on cartographic design at this event.

Reporters, editors, graphic journalists, and television producers will find these sessions especially valuable whether they are new to GIS or are more advanced users. For more information on the conferences and registering at a special journalist rate complete the registration form [PDF-156 KB] and e-mail it to journalism_precon@esri.com.

Questions? E-mail Kris Goodfellow, former New York Times writer and now ESRI media industry manager.

Mapping: Adding an External database w/in ArcView

Have you ever received a database or spreadsheet containing more up-to-date information on something you've previously mapped? Don't fear, there's a fairly simple way to update your image.
Here are the steps:
1. ArcView can import databases and spreadsheets. If your data is in a database format such as Access it's already formatted properly. If it's in a spreadsheet format it will first need to be saved as a dbf file.
This can be done by simply using the "save as" function and selecting one of the dbf formats.
2. In ArcView select the "table" view icon.
3. Select "Add"table. The "Add Table" window will now open and ask what table you want to import into ArcView.
4. Find the file of the table you want to import, ensuring it's formatted as a database. Remember if your mapping data, pertinent information such as latitude and longitude or address must be included.
5. Select the table by either double clicking it or by highlighting it and clicking "OK."
6. The data and new table should now appear in the "Table View."
7. Look over the new table to ensure the data is correct.
8. Ensure that you have a mapping theme open, such as "StreetMap."
9. Highlight the "View" window and under the "View" icon at the top of the screen click "geocode addresses."
10. Once this is complete, ensure you save and label your new them.
That's it. After doing this a few times, it becomes old hat and it's a useful way to add a new dimension to a story from the past.
Questions? Contact Dexter Ingram at 202-608-6227 or email at Dexter.Ingram@heritage.org.

"Mini" Database 101 Boot Camps Available:


Summer's almost here and many newsrooms will soon be filled with interns eager to learn all they can. It also means we're offering "mini" Database 101 training days again. We're always seeking new ways of providing CARR training for journalists in the most convenient possible way. Last year, we conducted Mini -i.e. condensed - Database 101 Boot Camps for journalism interns from Knight Ridder Tribune News and Scripps Howard News Service.

These mini boot camps provide highly compressed half-day introductions to Newsroom Uses of Excel and Access. This approach can be useful as an introduction to CARR for skeptical and/or time-pressed newsroom colleagues, too.

Also during 2002, we took the CARR Boot Camp on the road for the first time, providing two days of training for eight editors and reporters at the Army Times Publishing Co. Let us know if this sounds like something for your organization to consider.

For more information, contact: Dexter Ingram at 202-608-6227 or at Dexter.Ingram@Heritage.org.

2003 CARR Boot Camp Schedule at The Heritage Foundation

Computer-Assisted Research and Reporting:
Database 101 | 201 Boot Camps
Each camp is limited to eight students and teaches practical, real-world skills to help you find the news behind the PR stats and spin. Tuition is free and there are a limited number of fellowships to assist with travel and hotel expenses. Media organizations that do not allow employees to accept fellowships or free training should consider contributing to the IRE Endowment Fund instead as an alternative.

2003
April 18-19 Full
June 20-21 Full
September 19-20
November 14-15

Courses are taught by experienced CARR journalists and statistics experts who have worked with editors, reporters and researchers for such news organizations as AP, Scripps Howard News, Knight Ridder Tribune News, USA Today and ABC News.
For more information about enrolling and schedules, contact Mark Tapscott at 202-608-6155 or Mark.Tapscott@Heritage.org.

New Database 101 CD-Roms

We now have CD-Roms containing all the data from our bootcamps. The tip sheets, actual spreadsheet and database data, vocabulary lists, and a variety of other helpful items are all easily accessible to every graduate. If you're a past graduate and would like a copy contact Dexter Ingram at 202-608-6227 or Dexter.Ingram@heritage.org.