ire invest reporters & eds

11 22

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigative_Reporters_and_Editors

investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. (IRE) is a nonprofit organization that focuses on improving the quality of journalism, in particular investigative journalism.^[1] Formed in 1975,^[2] it presents the IRE Awards and holds conferences and training classes for journalists. Its headquarters is in Columbia, Missouri, at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. It is the largest and oldest association of investigative journalism.^[3]

Programs of IRE include the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting, which aims to foster excellence in data journalism.^[2]

History

Beginnings

After the resignation by President Nixon, eleven journalists met in Reston, Virginia.^[2] These journalists hoped, after they conducted poor investigative journalism in during the 1960s and 1970s, to create a national association that could help journalists to produce best practices in the craft. It was in that meeting that Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. was founded. A grant of $3,100 from the Lilly Endowment of Indianapolis paid the expenses for the meeting.^[4]

During debate over what to call the organization, Les Whitten, one of the journalists attending the meeting, pointed out that a defining characteristic of investigative journalists was a sense of outrage. Someone in the meeting grabbed a dictionary to find synonyms of “out-rage” and came up with “ire,” which would work as an acronym for "Investigative Reporters and Editors Group".^[4]

The meeting also debated who should and should not be allowed in the upcoming organization. Some of the journalists gathered suggested restricted membership to add prestige to the organization, while others suggested a more open organization to investigative journalists and editors, so even inexperienced journalists could get help from IRE. In the end, the journalists decided for openness. Later in March 1975, writing in a trade magazine to publicize the new organization, Harley Bierce of the *Indianapolis Star* emphasized that the organization would provide services to any reporter needing assistance on an investigative story. “We want to stress that this won’t bean exclusive organization,” he wrote. “Good reporters naturally fall into this classification [of investigative reporter]."^[4]

First meeting

After the meeting, a steering committee was created, charged in exploring interest in a national organization for investigative journalism, and to plan a national conference. An executive committee was also formed, composed of Robert Peirce, Ronald Koziol, Paul Williams, Myrta Pulliam, Harley Bierce, Edward O. DeLaney, and Robert Friedly.^[4]

IRE was in a delicate position to ask for funds and grants, since a journalist also investigate foundations, even though IRE accepted the Lilly Endowment, created by the founders of Eli Lilly and Company, a pharmaceutical company. The initial gathering of funds, IRE hoped, would finance 250 journalists and editors to the first national conference of IRE. After a lot of successes and failures in seeking funds, IRE funds attained to more than USD 18,000, but far from the funds needed to financially support financially the journalists and editors of the first conference. The first national conference also had journalists criticizing IRE for taking grants from foundations such as Lilly, and from publications, because these publications were sometimes restricting funds to their own investigative journalists. Consequently, the members of IRE passed a resolution to take funds only from foundations that "which owe their existence to journalistic enterprise", and educational and research foundations.^[4]

The first national conference of IRE was held between June 18–20, 1976, in Indianapolis. More than 300 people attended, including approximately 200 paying participants from 35 states, 30 speakers and 40 students. Workshop topics included the state of the art of investigative journalism, how to manage an investigation, how to work as a team, how to report specific topics such as crime, and how to deal with legal and ethical issues in investigative reporting. The members of IRE also voted to seek funds to establish a resource center at Ohio State University by July 1, 1977. Members also voted for a resolution that called for journalists, editors, and news agencies to end their associations with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), or other law enforcement agencies to maintain "American journalistic independence". The members also voted to establish an ethics committee "responsible for raising in a continuing way the ethical questions which confront journalists" and to be "responsible for examining the assumptions that underlie" investigative journalism. The members also voted to establish a committee of broadcast journalists to advise the board of directors of IRE about problems specific to broadcast investigations.^[4]

The location of IRE's headquarters

Paul Williams' death in 1976 caused the first dilemma of IRE. Williams had connections to Ohio State University, being a professor there, and had established a working relationship between IRE and the university. The executive committee then decided to find another university for their resource center. In 1978, two proposals came to the IRE board of directors: one from Boston University, and one from the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Although the board initially favored Boston, University of Missouri School of Journalism Dean Roy M. Fisher stressed his school's tradition in journalism. The Missouri's proposal also offered free clipping services for IRE, pay the salaries of office staff members, and help IRE with fundraising. In the end, in June 1978, a meeting in Denver by the members of IRE decided unanimously for the University of Missouri.^[4]

IRE'S headquarters at Missouri School of Journalism

From 1976 and 1980, the resource center was established in the University of Missouri School of Journalism, hired a permanent staff, founded a publication (IRE Journal), held annual and regional conferences, setup an annual awards program, and adopted a definition of investigative journalism.^[5][4]

Arizona Project

In 1976, one of the members, Don Bolles of the *Arizona Republic* was murdered by a bomb explosion beneath his car. Led by Newsday journalist Robert W. Greene, the Arizona Project team consisted of 38 journalists from 28 newspapers and television stations. They went to Phoenix, Arizona to produce a 23-part series in 1977 exposing widespread corruption in the state.^[4][6][7]

NICAR (National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting)

The NICAR project was founded in 1989, with the aim of assisting journalists with data journalism.^[2]

References

^ "ire.org". IRE. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a ^b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigative_Reporters_and_Editors#cite_ref-aboutire_2-1) ^c(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigative_Reporters_and_Editors#cite_ref-aboutire_2-2) ^d(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigative_Reporters_and_Editors#cite_ref-aboutire_2-3) "About IRE". ire.org. Retrieved 24 February 2021.
^ "2014 IRE Award winners Announced". Global Investigative Journalism Network. 2015-04-04. Retrieved 2021-03-04. Editor’s Note: Investigative Reporters and Editors is the world’s largest and oldest association of investigative journalists.
^ :{Jump up to::(style="user-select:none;top:-99999px;clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);overflow:hidden;position:absolute !important;padding:0px !important;border:0px !important;height:1px !important;width:1px !important"):}:^a ^b(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigative_Reporters_and_Editors#cite_ref-:0_4-1) ^c(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigative_Reporters_and_Editors#cite_ref-:0_4-2) ^d(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigative_Reporters_and_Editors#cite_ref-:0_4-3) ^e(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigative_Reporters_and_Editors#cite_ref-:0_4-4) ^f(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigative_Reporters_and_Editors#cite_ref-:0_4-5) ^g(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigative_Reporters_and_Editors#cite_ref-:0_4-6) ^h(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigative_Reporters_and_Editors#cite_ref-:0_4-7) ⁱ(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Investigative_Reporters_and_Editors#cite_ref-:0_4-8) Aucoin, James (2005). *The evolution of American investigative journalism*. Columbia, Mo.: University of Missouri Press. ISBN 978-0-8262-1615-1. OCLC 61240555.
^ Ismail, Adibah; Ahmad, Mohd Khairie; Mustaffa, Che Su (2014). "Conceptualization of Investigative Journalism: The Perspectives of Malaysian Media Practitioners". Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. 155: 165–170. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.10.274. Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), [...] defined investigative journalism as “systematic, in-depth, and original research and reporting, often involving the unearthing of secrets, heavy use of public records, and computer assisted reporting, with a focus on social justice and accountability”
^ "IRE History | The Arizona Project". March 29, 2007. Archived from the original on March 29, 2007. Retrieved September 28, 2019.
^ "History". Retrieved September 28, 2019.

External links

Authority control

Categories:

david c johnson matt dempsey/ cribb/

Mark Walker is the FOIA coordinator at the Washington bureau of The New York Times. Prior to joining the New York Times, he was a training director for Investigative Reporters and Editors. Before joining IRE, Mark worked as a watchdog reporter focusing on law and order at The Argus Leader newspaper in Sioux Falls, S.D. In 2016, he was named South Dakota Outstanding Young Journalist of the Year and won the South Dakota Newspaper Association’s public service reporting award for the series Locked in Limbo, on mentally ill criminal defendants languishing in jail because of delays in mental competency evaluations. Mark, a graduate of Fort Valley State University in Georgia, grew up in Savannah. Twitter: @bymarkwalker

mark.walker@nytimes.com

Mark Walker, President

• Cindy Galli, Vice President

• Brian M. Rosenthal, Treasurer

• Josh Hinkle, Secretary

• Jodie Fleischer, At-Large Executive Committee Member

• Darla Cameron, Board Member

• Mark Greenblatt, Board Member

• Kate Howard, Board Member

• Aaron Kessler, Board Member

• Barbara Rodriguez, Board Member

• Neena Satija, Board Member

• Lam Thuy Vo, Board Member

• Simone Weichselbaum, Board Member

2008? m

RE MEDALS

The highest honor IRE can bestow for investigative reporting is the IRE Medal. This year's medal winner is:

NOAH Housing Program — WWL-New Orleans; Lee Zurik (read judges' comments | View story clip)

SPECIAL AWARDS

The IRE Medal is also awarded to winners of two special award categories:

Renner Award: Tobacco Underground— The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the Center for Public Integrity; Stefan Candea, Duncan Campbell, Te-Ping Chen, Gong Jing, Alain Lallemand, Vlad Lavrov, William Marsden, Paul Cristian Radu, Roman Shleynov, Leo Sisti, Drew Sullivan, Marina Walker Guevara, Kate Willson, David E. Kaplan (read judges' comments)

FOI Award:The Email Trail; KTRK-Houston; Wayne Dolcefino, Steve Bivens, David Defranchi (read judges' comments)

IRE CERTIFICATES

NEWSPAPERS

Circulation over 500,000 and Wire Service: (Two certificates awarded)

A Mayor in Crisis — Detroit Free Press; Jim Schaefer, M.L. Elrick, David Zeman, Jennifer Dixon and Dawson Bell, with contributions from Free Press Staff (read judges' comments)

Guantanamo: Beyond the Law — McClatchy; Tom Lasseter, Matthew Schofield (read judges' comments)

Circulation 250,000-500,000: Culture of Resistance The Seattle Times; Michael J. Berens, Ken Armstrong (read judges' comments)

Circulation 100,000-250,000: Chauncey Bailey Project; Oakland Tribune/Chauncey Bailey Project; Thomas Peele, Mary Fricker, Bob Butler, A.C. Thompson, Josh Richman (read judges' comments)

Circulation under 100,000: Hospital Corruption; Virgin Island Daily News; Tim Fields, Joy Blackburn (read judges' comments)

Local Circulation Weeklies: Hear No Evil, Smell No Evil; Fort Worth Weekly and the Center for Public Integrity; Joaquin Sapien, Ben Welsh (read judges' comments)

TELEVISION

Network/Syndicated: The Wasteland; CBS News-60 Minutes; Jeff Fager, Bill Owens, Scott Pelley, Solly Granatstein, Tom Honeysett (read judges' comments| View Story Clip)

Top 20 markets: Contaminated Water KNBC-Los Angeles; Joel Grover, Matt Goldberg (read judges' comments | View Story Clip)

Below Top 20 markets: NOAH Housing Program — WWL; Lee Zurik (read judges' comments | View Story Clip)

OTHER MEDIA

Magazine/Specialty:Cyber-War — BusinessWeek; Keith Epstein, Brian Grow, Ben Elgin, Cliff Edwards, Chi-Chu Tschang (read judges' comments)

Radio:36 Years of Solitary: Murder, Death and Injustice at Angola — NPR; Laura Sullivan, Amy Walters, Steven Drummond (read judges' comments)

Online:The Redevelopment Investigation — voiceofsandiego.org; Will Carless, Rob Davis, Andrew Donohue (read judges' comments)

Book:The Shadow Factory by James Bamford (read judges' comments)

SPECIAL CATEGORIES

Student (All Media): Sexual Harassment at UGA — The Red and Black; Kristen Coulter, Brian Hughes, Carolyn Crist, Melissa Weinman, Matthew Grayson (read judges' comments)