The fascinating world of forgotten information
News Web sites unlock practically obscure public records
This report was prepared by Pete Weitzel, a retired ASNE member, as part of a Freedom of Information Committee project assessing the use of public records databases by media Web sites. He was assisted by Nora Paul, director of the Institute for New Media Studies at the University of Minnesota and former Sunshine Week coordinator Debra Gersh Hernandez.
There’s a fascinating world of all but hidden information out there waiting to be tapped. A growing number of news organizations are beginning to mine and manipulate that information, which in many instances rests in government records files that while public are, for practical purposes, obscure. The conversion by government units to electronic record keeping has not, in many instances, made it easier for the average reporter, let alone the average citizen, to get access to that information. And even when agencies post records online, the data is frequently difficult to find.
Media Web sites that have found ways to cull or link to this data are helping regular readers get information they want and need, and bringing new readers to their Web sites It’s a fresh way to deliver “news” that holds enormous potential to increase site visits and time spent, and to build a new allegiance as a source of essential information about neighborhood and community.
Some months ago, ASNE’s Freedom of Information Committee began a survey of newspaper Web sites, exploring their use of public records data. The initial goal was to establish a baseline of available records and make that report available so news organizations could use the information to push for greater online transparency in their communities and states.
In a parallel effort, the committee worked with Sunshine Week to put a spotlight on the availability, or in too many cases the unavailability of public records online.
As the Web site survey proceeded, we were pleased to see that many cities and states were proactively moving to establish new Web sites and to add information not previously available online. The Obama administration launched its data.gov site as a first step at the federal level and shortly after The National Association of State Chief Information Officers said they were drafting standards for the states.
The survey found enormous variations among media Web sites. On some sites, we were unable to locate a single database feature utilizing a public record or any other database presence. But many are doing highly innovative and exciting work, putting up database pages that offer scores of information searches that could be enormously helpful, intellectually satisfying, and sometimes just plain fun.
The databases permit both critical and trivial pursuit of information, and a lot of simply useful searching in between.
You can check on telemarketers and charities, mortgage bankers and rental housing rates, school test scores and teacher evaluations, bridge safety and toy recalls. You can identify the most dangerous intersections – and the most likely places to run into a deer. And that’s just a few of the more than 100 databases listed on just one Web site.
On another, you can review all of the requested vanity license plates that state officials had rejected as “objectionable.” Still another site presents historical weather data to help determine the best weekends to stay around or to get out of town. The newspaper Web sites in a couple of sports crazy towns let you read game stories going back dozens of years. And in a different kind of community boosterism, one Web site provides a map locating all of the art in public places, and a click shows you a photo of the artwork.
Obviously, what we found was more than just public records databases.
Many sites have expanded their database page into a public bulletin boards in a very grand sense of the term, offering a wide-variety of consumer, health and environment oriented listings. There are also links to public interest databases made available by commercial sources and non-profit interest groups.
In addition, some provide records and data gathered in the course of their investigative reporting, often pairing the data with the archived news stories. One newspaper, the St. Petersburg Times, won a Pulitizer Prize for the reporting it did in compiling a different sort of database – PolitiFact , a truth-checking of candidate and other political claims.
It is in this joining of public records and broader public data interests that we see enormous opportunity for newspapers seeking to build and retain audiences. These Data Central, to pick one name, pages are making the newspaper’s Web site the place to go when you need to know something specific about their community.
Many of the database pages also appear to draw significant advertising support as well, particularly because of the tie-in possibilities to the information offered.
In the following report, we spotlight a dozen database pages that impressed us and that we believe provide good models. We also highlight some of the more interesting, useful and unusual individual database features we came across, and point to several media sites that have done a particularly good job presenting open records resources and freedom of information links.
For those who don’t yet have a database page and might be thinking of launching one, we’ve provided a quick look at the names currently being used. There’s also a reminder of the need to let readers know that raw data is quite often just that. We’ve also culled a few examples of helpful “numbers in the news” columns and of credits to database site managers.
Finally, we provide the raw data of our survey, the findings of our look at each of the 133 newspaper Web sites reviewed.
In addition, there’s also a compilation of the full range of databases that can be found on those sites – a database of our own, sorted into 11 categories of information.
Call it a list of the possible, and an indicator of the potential.
The fascinating world of forgotten information
News Web sites unlock practically obscure public records
This report was prepared by Pete Weitzel, a retired ASNE member, as part of a Freedom of Information Committee project assessing the use of public records databases by media Web sites. He was assisted by Nora Paul, director of the Institute for New Media Studies at the University of Minnesota and former Sunshine Week coordinator Debra Gersh Hernandez.
There’s a fascinating world of all but hidden information out there waiting to be tapped. A growing number of news organizations are beginning to mine and manipulate that information, which in many instances rests in government records files that while public are, for practical purposes, obscure. The conversion by government units to electronic record keeping has not, in many instances, made it easier for the average reporter, let alone the average citizen, to get access to that information. And even when agencies post records online, the data is frequently difficult to find.
Media Web sites that have found ways to cull or link to this data are helping regular readers get information they want and need, and bringing new readers to their Web sites It’s a fresh way to deliver “news” that holds enormous potential to increase site visits and time spent, and to build a new allegiance as a source of essential information about neighborhood and community.
Some months ago, ASNE’s Freedom of Information Committee began a survey of newspaper Web sites, exploring their use of public records data. The initial goal was to establish a baseline of available records and make that report available so news organizations could use the information to push for greater online transparency in their communities and states.
In a parallel effort, the committee worked with Sunshine Week to put a spotlight on the availability, or in too many cases the unavailability of public records online.
As the Web site survey proceeded, we were pleased to see that many cities and states were proactively moving to establish new Web sites and to add information not previously available online. The Obama administration launched its data.gov site as a first step at the federal level and shortly after The National Association of State Chief Information Officers said they were drafting standards for the states.
The survey found enormous variations among media Web sites. On some sites, we were unable to locate a single database feature utilizing a public record or any other database presence. But many are doing highly innovative and exciting work, putting up database pages that offer scores of information searches that could be enormously helpful, intellectually satisfying, and sometimes just plain fun.
The databases permit both critical and trivial pursuit of information, and a lot of simply useful searching in between.
You can check on telemarketers and charities, mortgage bankers and rental housing rates, school test scores and teacher evaluations, bridge safety and toy recalls. You can identify the most dangerous intersections – and the most likely places to run into a deer. And that’s just a few of the more than 100 databases listed on just one Web site.
On another, you can review all of the requested vanity license plates that state officials had rejected as “objectionable.” Still another site presents historical weather data to help determine the best weekends to stay around or to get out of town. The newspaper Web sites in a couple of sports crazy towns let you read game stories going back dozens of years. And in a different kind of community boosterism, one Web site provides a map locating all of the art in public places, and a click shows you a photo of the artwork.
Obviously, what we found was more than just public records databases.
Many sites have expanded their database page into a public bulletin boards in a very grand sense of the term, offering a wide-variety of consumer, health and environment oriented listings. There are also links to public interest databases made available by commercial sources and non-profit interest groups.
In addition, some provide records and data gathered in the course of their investigative reporting, often pairing the data with the archived news stories. One newspaper, the St. Petersburg Times, won a Pulitizer Prize for the reporting it did in compiling a different sort of database – PolitiFact , a truth-checking of candidate and other political claims.
It is in this joining of public records and broader public data interests that we see enormous opportunity for newspapers seeking to build and retain audiences. These Data Central, to pick one name, pages are making the newspaper’s Web site the place to go when you need to know something specific about their community.
Many of the database pages also appear to draw significant advertising support as well, particularly because of the tie-in possibilities to the information offered.
In the following report, we spotlight a dozen database pages that impressed us and that we believe provide good models. We also highlight some of the more interesting, useful and unusual individual database features we came across, and point to several media sites that have done a particularly good job presenting open records resources and freedom of information links.
For those who don’t yet have a database page and might be thinking of launching one, we’ve provided a quick look at the names currently being used. There’s also a reminder of the need to let readers know that raw data is quite often just that. We’ve also culled a few examples of helpful “numbers in the news” columns and of credits to database site managers.
Finally, we provide the raw data of our survey, the findings of our look at each of the 133 newspaper Web sites reviewed.
In addition, there’s also a compilation of the full range of databases that can be found on those sites – a database of our own, sorted into 11 categories of information.
Call it a list of the possible, and an indicator of the potential.