ABSTRACT
The resource centers at Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE) have thousands of data stories indexed at its website, and the Global Investigative Journalism Network keeps track of international stories. Many of those stories at IRE, both US and international, have been entered into the IRE awards contest which requires journalists to fill detailed contest forms that explain how they did the story, what databases and documents they used, and what challenges they faced. A database is a mirror of reality, but a mirror always has flaws. Reporter or journalism student need to know how flawed the mirror is and how distorted the image. Some journalists use databases only for long projects, reporter or journalism studentshould try to integrate their use into stories on the beat and on the deadline. In the 1980s and early 1990s, most databases came from mainframe computer tapes.
