ABSTRACT
Robert Tiernan believes computer-assisted reporting (CAR) elevates journalism in a manner that had not been possible until personal computers were developed. “It allows reporters to do ‘expert journalism’ in which they frequently know more than professionals in the field,” Tiernan stated. CAR has quickly grown into a second generation of development and use. If the early and mid-1990s gave birth to the first generation, the movement into more sophisticated analysis and tools, combined with data on the Web and other access benchmarks, have placed us in a second generation. With CAR tools, reporters can take public records and analyze them on their own for new understanding of the political, social, and economic trends in their communities. Transportation has also been popular for CAR-based stories in recent years. Typical approaches include traffic tickets, accident data for cars and roads, truck safety, aviation accidents, railroad accidents, and the safety of highway bridges.
