This is my first post on Desk Set Research. I have been a researcher in newsrooms for more than forty years, and have worked at Time Inc, Gannett, The Washington Post, The New York Times, NPR, the International Consortium for Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) and The Intercept, as well as a researcher for book authors. I am also a librarian, with a degree from Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY.
The title Desk Set comes from the 1957 movie starring Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. See details at IMDB, which describes the plot as “Two extremely strong personalities clash over the computerization of a television network’s research department.” https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050307/
A whole generation of news librarians and researchers looked to Bunny Watson as our ideal and idol. And now again “computerization” in the guise of Artificial Intelligence is seen as a threat to our profession, and targets us for layoffs. I think that we can prove that our knowledge and experience can defeat that threat again, in real life.
Please pardon an early attempt at using the Substack platform to share materials I use to train journalists worldwide in research and factchecking before publication. Most of these materials were created in PowerPoint, and so far I haven’t seen a Substack tool for converting PowerPoint to newsletter format. I hope to find a better way.
Here’s the first of several posts on research for journalists.
Finding and Backgrounding People
Finding People
US landlines; what happened to the phonebook?
AnyWho? http://www.anywho.com FREE PHONE BOOKS ARE GONE!
