5 takeaways:
➀ Good ’ol Google will often do the trick. But use the advanced search. As every journalist knows, a general Google search will yield thousands of results, many of which might be redundant, nonsense, or both. The advanced search allows you to target your results to a specific institution. For example, filling in the “site or domain” field — say, “nationalpress.org” — yields only results from that website. Results will therefore likely be more relevant. Also: filling in “file type” will allow you to search for PowerPoint presentations or Excel spreadsheets hidden away on websites. “You’ll find records, documents, data that they don’t even mean to have linked publicly,” said Mark Horvit, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism and former executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors. “Because if it’s on the domain, Google is going to find it, whether it’s linked anywhere or not — whether they want you to find it or not.”
➁ Use image search as a way to find connections to people you are backgrounding. Horvit uses name searches, but image searching yields different links and connections. A demonstration search on his own image found his face on plenty of websites, some several years old and revealing connections to groups and individuals. “Oftentimes, what we’re looking for is, what groups do they belong to? Who do they know? Who are they connected with? Where do they travel? What do they do?” Horvit said. “I’ve found the image search to be really useful for that.”
➂ A rotating cast of people-search websites can help unearth phone numbers, addresses and other data. Horvit’s go-to site of the moment is Cyber Background Checks, which offers up phone numbers, often from years in the past. He and his reporters have used it to track down politicians’ cellphone numbers — vital on a breaking story. “This thing is crazy accurate, crazy good, and it’s free,” he said. “It won’t stay free forever I’m sure, because they never do.” Sites are often free until people come to depend on them, and then they switch to a pay model. For now, Horvit said, the wealth of information is a bit creepy. A search on his own name turned up an address where he hasn’t lived since 1982. “There is no such thing as privacy,” he said.
➃ Federal and court records are a goldmine, and there are ways to get them for free. Cheryl Thompson, an investigative reporter for NPR and current president of Investigative Reporters and Editors, said reporters should think broadly when it comes to court records. They’re not just helpful for stories about the legal cases themselves — they also offer details about the people or companies involved in the cases. There are legal websites that charge for access, including the federal PACER system, which National Press Foundation has urged Congress to make available free of charge, or Law360, a private site. But you can often get free trials for paid sites and some legal filings are available for free through sites such as RECAP (PACER backwards), which post documents that have been purchased by other users.
➄ Free sources are available to help reporters background companies. Thompson said one of the best is Violation Tracker from Good Jobs First. The site focuses on corporate misconduct and covers banking, consumer protection, false claims, environmental, wage and hour, safety, discrimination, price-fixing and other cases from state or federal regulators. “It’s terrific at wading through government databases for companies that may be violating medical safety and other regulations,” Thompson said. See Good Jobs First’s Mellissa Chang demonstrating how to use the site here.
This program was funded by the Evelyn Y. Davis Foundation. NPF is solely responsible for the content.
