Chris Davis is a data based specialist at the Sarasota Herald- Tribune. His great team of investigative reporters has made the paper one the best medium size papers in Florida. The main key for their success is their extensive use of public records.
To emphasize the value of public record and their attribution to investigative reporting, Chris Davis introduced the flipping fraud case done by the Herald- Tribune. According to him this case was a lost battle if the journalist’s didn’t know how to take advantage of the Sunshine laws.
The flipping fraud case turned out to be a state wide problem. Speculators were driving the home market by buying a property and then have it unlawfully appraised in a higher price. In a period of 90 days the price of the property increased with 30% and more. The deals were done by people who knew each other. Their main goal was to trick the banks by asking them for loans to cover the expenses for the illegally appraised property. This circle of people was basically stilling the bank’s money.
To indentify the people who did the fraud, the Herald- Tribune’s investigative team asked each individual county in the state to provide them data base of 18 million sales from property appraisers. Public records helped to tie the chain between those people and 55 thousand suspicious flips were discovered. The reporters made a deep and explicit investigation in order to get the job done. They organized the data and present their results to the public by using program language, helpful graphs, and maps.
In his lecture, Chris Davis was kind enough to share how an investigative reporter went after a murder case from the 60’s. The only way he was able to track the data were the public records at the sheriff’s office. The more impressive part of this murder case was the illustrations of the data and the graphic designs on the web. Those tools dramatically enhance the story telling.
Another memorable part of the lecture by Mr. Davis was the investigation done on abusive teachers. The public has the right to know who is teaching their kids. Unfortunately according to Davis and his investigative team a lot of those teachers still have their teaching licenses even though their cross the line between them and their students. The Herald- Tribune made an online database where parents can search their child’s school for insulting teachers. In order to build the online database the paper created text documents by scanning all public records on those teacher. To merge all sources together the reporters need it SSC records of the teachers. Those SSC were the bridge for the news organization to finish their investigative reporting. The First Amendment Organization came into play to protect the media of accessing the SSC records.
Overall I realized that the web and the new technology enhances the storytelling and gives the public in depth information. I was surprised how many obstacles investigative reporters have to go through in order to provide the public with the information they deserve.
To emphasize the value of public record and their attribution to investigative reporting, Chris Davis introduced the flipping fraud case done by the Herald- Tribune. According to him this case was a lost battle if the journalist’s didn’t know how to take advantage of the Sunshine laws.
The flipping fraud case turned out to be a state wide problem. Speculators were driving the home market by buying a property and then have it unlawfully appraised in a higher price. In a period of 90 days the price of the property increased with 30% and more. The deals were done by people who knew each other. Their main goal was to trick the banks by asking them for loans to cover the expenses for the illegally appraised property. This circle of people was basically stilling the bank’s money.
To indentify the people who did the fraud, the Herald- Tribune’s investigative team asked each individual county in the state to provide them data base of 18 million sales from property appraisers. Public records helped to tie the chain between those people and 55 thousand suspicious flips were discovered. The reporters made a deep and explicit investigation in order to get the job done. They organized the data and present their results to the public by using program language, helpful graphs, and maps.
In his lecture, Chris Davis was kind enough to share how an investigative reporter went after a murder case from the 60’s. The only way he was able to track the data were the public records at the sheriff’s office. The more impressive part of this murder case was the illustrations of the data and the graphic designs on the web. Those tools dramatically enhance the story telling.
Another memorable part of the lecture by Mr. Davis was the investigation done on abusive teachers. The public has the right to know who is teaching their kids. Unfortunately according to Davis and his investigative team a lot of those teachers still have their teaching licenses even though their cross the line between them and their students. The Herald- Tribune made an online database where parents can search their child’s school for insulting teachers. In order to build the online database the paper created text documents by scanning all public records on those teacher. To merge all sources together the reporters need it SSC records of the teachers. Those SSC were the bridge for the news organization to finish their investigative reporting. The First Amendment Organization came into play to protect the media of accessing the SSC records.
Overall I realized that the web and the new technology enhances the storytelling and gives the public in depth information. I was surprised how many obstacles investigative reporters have to go through in order to provide the public with the information they deserve.
Biseto,
ReplyDeleteI think you did a very nice job at relaying the details of Davis's visit.
You seem to have a knack for cathing small details, like the "chain between those people and the 55 thousand suspicious flips were discovered."
I did not get that accurate of a number and so I think that is a wonderful skill to have. Keep up the good work!
Bistra, I like the detail in your blog. You did a great job in communicating each story throughout your blog so that readers are able to better understand what Chris Davis was talking about. Great job!
ReplyDeleteI like the amount of detail in this blog. It explains all the essential questions: who, what when, where, why and how. The picture of the story was cool as well.
ReplyDeletePicking up on the little things and small details in a story will almost always enhance it and make it more interesting for the reader. Your post was lengthy, but not to the point where it was too much to read. Very informative!
ReplyDeleteBistra, I thought the blog was informative. I like the use of the photo, but I didn't think the headline was catchy enough. You did a nice job on the writing.
ReplyDeleteB!
ReplyDeleteGood job establishing what Davis does and what reports he has contributed to. Very informative with specific examples and definitions.
Bistra-I like your post, and I totally agree that investigative reporters have many more loops to jump through than I was aware of.
ReplyDeleteI can tell that you did some research before writing this post and you did a good job going over the main points Davis mentioned in his lecture.
ReplyDeleteI think the use of the photo definitely helps to get the point across. It's always good to have visual aids as we are learning in this ever-growing digital world. I noticed and liked the amount of extra details involved in the blog!
ReplyDeleteI like your introducation because it is straight to the point. I would suggest shorter paragraphs because I get lost on all the words in your long paragraphs. I am having that problem too, so it's not just you. But out of all the blogs we had to read, yours was definitely the most descriptive!
ReplyDeleteLove the outline of your blog. As far as the post goes, I really appreciate your depth, I felt like I relived the experience.
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