Writing about think tanks and using their research: A cautionary tip sheet
2016 tip sheet that helps journalists navigate the big-money and often partisan world of think tanks.
Know Your Research
Tip sheets and explainers to help journalists understand academic research methods, find and recognize high-quality research, and avoid missteps when reporting on new studies and public opinion polls
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10 things we wish we’d known earlier about research: Tips from The Journalist’s Resource
The staff of Journalist’s Resource offers advice on how to find, understand and use academic research to ground a story and fact-check claims.
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Data journalism lesson with crime stats: Parsing close-call numbers
Tip sheet explaining a few basic statistical techniques that can help reporters and editors make decisions when there is some ambiguity — and a borderline “call” — inherent in the numbers.
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Finding trade and tariff data: Tips for journalists
A host of government agencies and multilateral organizations publish trade data. They hold thousands of untold stories. Here are some places to start.
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Mining census data to better cover the health-gap story: A tip sheet from AHCJ
This tip sheet from the Association of Health Care Journalists offers reporters insights on the best ways to mine census data to better cover health-gap stories.
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Polling fundamentals and concepts: An overview for journalists
Basic polling concepts for journalists, including how polls are conducted, polling organizations, and things to watch out for when reporting on polling results.
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Mapping data and visualizing geospatial information: A quick introduction for journalists
2016 tip sheet providing a broad overview of key tools, terminology and applications that can help journalists map data and tell stories that have geospatial dimensions.
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Reporting on health risk in medical studies, pharmaceutical trials: Tips from The Poynter Institute
2016 tip sheet from The Poynter Institute that explains how to report on changes in risk as it relates to health and medical studies and pharmaceutical trials.
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Tips for journalists working with math, statistics: A list of key resources
A 2016 list of math-related resources for media professionals of various experience and backgrounds.
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Using Python to scrape a website and gather data: Practicing on a criminal justice dataset
Tutorial on how to use the programming language Python to scrape website data from a local county prison roster. The exercise highlights website source code and data structures.
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