Chris Davis Visit

In our last class, we had the privilege of having Chris Davis, an investigations editor for the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, visit our class and explain how his line of work uses public records and in what ways he uses these records.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune is classified as a small-medium sized paper and it is said to be the best of its size in Florida.

In investigative reporting and editing, Davis explained that public records are used on a daily basis. He explains that public records gives an investigative reporter a direct source of information and that he doesn't have to rely on people and their statements to get the facts.

Their biggest project of sorts was using these public records they've obtained from their databases and put them in a special report to let the people know what is really going on in their own community.

One of their stories involved their reporters to go to a property appraisal office in each county for their database. From there, they were able to use all the public records to connect those who were involved and with the help of new technology, they were able to let people see how connected these people were using different graphs and models.

Another one of their stories involved a murder that occurred between the 50s and 60s and with public records they were able to recreate the murder scene digitally and let people see the crime scene from the comfort of their own computer. You could pick any of the crime scene photos and as soon as you click on the picture, you're able to see exactly what the crime scene looked like digitally. You could drag the mouse over any of the things or person in the room and it will explain the detail of what happened that day and the significance of that object or person.

These examples show that the web can do a great job with engaging readers into a story with the help of public records and that is exactly what Chris Davis intended for his readers.

The Herald-Tribune used that to their advantage by making a web report with different graphics and flash that made the report very interesting to read.