Chapter 8 - Documenting the Story

No matter how many people you interview for your story and how diverse and expert they are, you will find it hard to prove your premise without documentation. Documents include the forms, papers and correspondence that can leave a trail of evidence. They come in many forms, and to find them you need to understand how people communicate and the different ways information is created, distributed and stored. You will discover where to look for different types of documents over the Internet and learn why you need to look offline as well.

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Exercises

Use search engines such as sec.gov to find documents

  1. Go to sec.gov and click on the link to Edgar at “Search for Company Filings.” Find the latest proxy statement for the Walt Disney Co. In it find the table for compensation paid to top executives. Who is the CEO of the Walt Disney Co., and how much did this executive receive for one year’s total compensation?
  2. Go to guidestar.org and register so that you can search nonprofit documents and 990 Forms for free. Search for the Form 990 for the Make a Wish Foundation of America. Read through the form and find out how much the organization paid its top officer in salary for the year covered in the form. What was its top expense outside of salaries?
  3. Go to regulations.gov. Under “Search” type in the term “immigration.” Find a proposed rule or rule change that interests you. Pull up the docket and see if you can find a public comment letter. Who wrote the letter, and what stand was the person taking? What issues did the person want the government to address?
  4. Go to google.com. Enter the terms “toy safety” and “congressional testimony.” Find the transcript for someone who testified before a congressional committee on the issue of toy safety. What did the hearing investigate? What argument did the person make in his or her testimony? Now see if you can find other testimony that came out of the same hearing.
  5. Using an Internet search engine, find the home page for your state government and find the Web site for your state auditor. Does your state auditor post audit reports online? If so, look for a list and find a recent audit report. What did it investigate? What did it find? If you wanted to take the investigation further, what would you look into?

Big Story Steps

Finding the documentation for your story

  1. 8.1 Now is the time to check on those public records requests you made as part of Project Story Step 3.
    1. Read any material you obtained and summarize any relevant information in your Interviews spreadsheet. To do that, treat each document as a person interviewed.
    2. Follow up on requests that have not yielded information. If your request was too broad, narrow it and resend to the agency. If it was rejected, file a letter of appeal to the head of the agency.
    3. In light of the interviews you have done so far and material you have read, consider other public documents you might need and file those public record requests.
  2. 8.2 Brainstorm what kinds of documents might be easily available through your local and state governments and at the federal level.
    1. Do laws regulate your topic?
    2. Try to come up with a list of professionals who could point you to the right documentation: a professor who studies the issue, a lawyer who sues companies over the issue, an independent consultant who works with government agencies or corporate clients on it.
    3. Divide up your team and assign the following areas in which to search for documents.
      Local government
      State government
      Federal agencies
      Academia
      Independent consultants