I was in Tampa, Florida this past weekend and met a woman from Minnesota who was there training for a job with Nielsen Media Research, the company famous for providing Nielsen Ratings to TV and cable networks and ad agencies.

The woman talked about the company flying her to Tampa for three weeks, paying for her transportation, accommodations, basically everything except for alcohol, so she could learn how to sign up families who might be interested in participating in the ratings and how to maintain relationships with those families.

As she went on and on about how great her past three weeks have been, envy set in and I started thinking about my own job, wondering what three weeks of training would do for me as a reporter?

According to the Council of National Journalism Organizations website, a 2002 survey by Princeton Survey Research Associates, found the main source of job dissatisfaction for U.S. journalists is, you guessed it, lack of training. I couldn't agree more and believe it or not it even tops the complaint I have with my salary resembling that of a starving artist.

The survey, which interviewed 1,964 news executives and staffers, found "more than two-thirds receive no regular skills training; news companies overall have not increased their training budgets in the past decade; and news executives say time and insufficient budgets are the main reasons they do not provide more training opportunities," according to the CNJO website.

While the CNJO website lists organizations offering resources journalists can utilize to enhance their skills and a google search also pulls up training programs for journalists, most of these programs cost mucho dinero to attend, especially for the cub reporter who is just barely making enough to pay the rent. On a more positive note, the conferences are cheaper than going to grad school.

Here is a list of organizations listed on the CNJO website and others I found through google. Who knows, you may be able to convince your news organization to pay the cost. If anyone has attended a conference that was helpful or not, post a comment or send me an email.


1. Journalismtraining.org

2. Tomorrow's Workforce

3. News Train

4. Committee of Concerned Journalist

5. Poynter's News University

6. Learning Newsroom

7. NoSweat Journalism (UK)

8. Investigative Reporters and Editors

9. Reporter.org

10. Business.com

11. Reuters Foundation

12. American Press Institute

[Note: Reporter.org and Business.com list various organizations offering seminars, resources and training]

A colleague of mine, Dave Armstrong, developed the December 9, 2007 story (below) for Juliet Eilperin at the Washington Post on dangerously high levels of atrazine showing up in rivers and streams in the Midwest.

Separately, he and Jay Gourley, also a reporter at Natural Resources News Service, interviewed Tyrone B. Hayes on-camera, an atrazine expert interviewed in the Post article who has extensively researched the de-masculinization of frogs exposed to tiny amounts of the pesticide. Hayes discusses with NRNS more about atrazine contamination of U.S. waterways and industry's influence over the federal government in regulating the pesticide. Check out the video on the Stories That Matter website.

I hope to interview Armstrong and Gourley this week about their work on the story. If you have any questions you would like me to ask them, please send me an email or post a comment.

High Weedkiller Levels Found in River Checks
By Juliet EilperinWashington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, December 9, 2007; A06

Atrazine, the second most widely used weedkiller in the country, is showing up in some streams and rivers at levels high enough to potentially harm amphibians, fish and aquatic ecosystems, according to the findings of an extensive Environmental Protection Agency database that has not been made public.

The analysis -- conducted by the chemical's manufacturer, Syngenta Crop Protection -- suggests that atrazine has entered streams and rivers in the Midwest at a rate that could harm those ecosystems, several scientific experts said. In two Missouri watersheds, the level of atrazine spiked to reach a "level of concern" in both 2004 and 2005, according to the EPA, and an Indiana watershed exceeded the threshold in 2005.

Much of the data on atrazine levels has remained private because Syngenta's survey of 40 U.S. watersheds was done in connection with the EPA's 2006 decision to renew its approval of the pesticide. The Washington Post obtained the documents from the Natural Resources News Service, a District-based nonprofit group focused on environmental issues.

Atrazine has been linked to sexual abnormalities in frogs and fish in several scientific studies, but the EPA ruled in September that the evidence was not sufficiently compelling to restrict use of the pesticide. EPA spokeswoman Jennifer Wood said the agency "has concluded that atrazine does not adversely affect gonadal development in frogs, based on a thorough review of 19 laboratory and field studies, including studies submitted by [Syngenta] and others in the public literature."

The pesticide is popular among corn and sorghum farmers despite the controversy because it is inexpensive and blocks photosynthesis, thus killing plants to which it is applied.

"It works and it's inexpensive, and that's what farmers love," said Tim Pastoor, head of toxicology at Syngenta. "It's magic for them. It's like the aspirin of crop protection."

EPA officials and independent experts spent last week in meetings in Arlington, debating the "ecological significance" of atrazine water contamination, according to agency documents. The results of the deliberations -- the monitoring data was plugged into computer models to estimate the effects on ecosystems -- will be published in several weeks and will help determine how EPA officials regulate the pesticide in the future.

The federal government first approved atrazine in the 1950s, but it came under increased scrutiny in the late 1990s after Tyrone B. Hayes, a professor of integrative biology at the University of California at Berkeley, did a series of studies -- first for chemical companies and then on his own -- that indicated that tiny amounts of the pesticide de-masculinized tadpoles of African clawed frogs. The European Union declared it a harmful "endocrine disrupter" and banned it as of 2005, but the EPA decided to allow its continued use after determining that the agency lacked a standard test for measuring the hormone-disrupting effects of chemicals.

Instead, EPA officials and company representatives agreed on a plan to monitor atrazine levels in "40 of the most vulnerable watersheds in the country," said Jim Jones, deputy assistant administrator for the EPA's Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances.
Syngenta has collected more than 10,000 samples since 2004, Pastoor said, taking readings at least every four days at each site.

Jones said there are limits on what details of the Syngenta survey can be released to the public -- the company claims some of the data is proprietary information, and anyone who requests the information must pledge not to share it with competing pesticide companies -- but the monitoring system is protecting the public's health.

Nancy Golden, a biologist and toxicologist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service who studies how chemicals affect aquatic creatures, said fish exposed to as little as 0.5 parts per billion of atrazine in the lab demonstrate behavioral problems. At higher levels, they experience stunted growth. The levels of atrazine in 2004 in the two Missouri sites were more than 100 times the 0.5 parts per billion concentration, the Syngenta data show.

Golden said the data documented "atrazine levels that are sustained at pretty high levels for several weeks. That's definitely a cause for concern."

Peter L. deFur, a biologist at Virginia Commonwealth University, said "chronic low-level exposure" to atrazine can harm aquatic life. "I don't think low levels of atrazine exposures are safe," deFur said.

Charles Scott, field supervisor for the Fish and Wildlife Service's Missouri Ecological Services Field Office, said high levels of atrazine in northeastern Missouri could potentially affect several endangered and threatened species, including the pallid sturgeon, the Higgins' eye mussel, the fat pocketbook mussel and the decurrent false aster, a wetland plant. "It has a lot of biological impacts," Scott said of the pesticide.

The EPA has asked Syngenta to do additional monitoring at the two sites in northeastern Missouri where atrazine concentrations significantly exceeded 10 parts per billion, the level at which the agency believes it can impact aquatic systems. In these two watersheds, concentrations reached more than 50 parts per billion for days at a time.

Wood, the EPA spokeswoman, said the Indiana watershed did not trigger the agency's level of concern in 2006 and the company will be monitoring it for another year.

Pastoor, who noted that atrazine's effect of stunting plant growth is reversed as soon as the pesticide is taken away, said the fact that two watersheds showed high levels of exposure "doesn't mean there's a problem there. It just means there's a yellow flag that says you should take a look."

The two sites in question, he added, were prone to excessive runoff because they have an impervious clay soil that channels runoff into waterways, the land is sloped, and one of the farmers working the land had cleared much of the vegetation. Syngenta sales agents and local corn growers are trying to reform the practices of the farmer in question.

"We anticipate that site will significantly improve," Pastoor said, adding that the computer models Syngenta ran suggest there has been no ecological damage to the watersheds the company has monitored.

Hayes, who stopped working as a contractor for a coalition of chemical companies years ago and is now one of atrazine's most vocal opponents, said he does not think the federal government is surveying the pesticide enough in light of its pervasive influence.

"What's most disturbing about the information you're talking about is all that EPA requires Syngenta to do is monitor atrazine in a few key sites," Hayes said. "Industry's been allowed to have such a huge hand in the regulation of atrazine."

Whether your beat is sports, politics, the environment or national security, bringing the human element into a story, I think, is necessary and what truly makes a story interesting. From what I’ve observed, people like to talk, hear and read about other people and by showing how people are affected by news or their involvement in it gives your audience something they can relate to or not relate to for that matter.

Granted, adding the human element simply isn't suitable for some news stories. I don't think my editors at National Mortgage News would have encouraged me to report the human element when I reported on national housing starts. However, there were definitely some stories where I could've stressed the human effect or human involvement. I'm sure if I had than I wouldn't have fallen asleep while reading my own story.

I will admit though, finding that “special someone” for news stories whether it's a victim, expert or character is conceivably one of the most difficult tasks to accomplish. Here are some tips I've learned on my own or from colleagues and editors mostly while working at Natural Resources News Service.

1. See if a reporter or organization has already done the work for you

My editor always says, “see if the work has already been done for you and if it hasn’t see if you can get someone to do it for you.”

At first I thought my editor was lazy since he prides his reporting abilities on producing great stories without much work, but he’s right. Chances are there’s probably a reporter who has already reported on some aspect of your story.

Search Google Web, News, Scholar or Lexis-Nexis

My first set of victims for my vibrio story came from local news stories I came across about people who had lost a limb or died from the flesh-eating bacteria. Luckily, most of those stories listed the person's name and location.

Once you have the name and place, it's easy. You can search Accurint or if you don't have Accurint, you can use Whitepages. Note Accurint and Whitepages aren't always accurate or they will only list the address and not a phone number.

All is not lost. You know the street, city and zip code of your “special someone” from the first search. This means you can get a list of neighbors who then may be able to put you in touch with the person you are looking for.

Google Scholar is great for finding experts. Use the same search criteria you would when searching the web. Instead of the search results returning a bunch of bogus sites, they return published material on the subject or at least the abstracts. Don’t bother paying for the material. Contact the author and ask for a copy of his or her work.

Ask a Reporter

Don't let your pride or fear of another reporter scooping your story get in the way of finding that “special someone.” Ask reporters for help. Most of the time, they are more than willing to help out another reporter.

After Roberta Baskin at ABC's WJLA broke her vibrio story and Al Tompkins with Poynter Online interviewed her about it, local reporters from Florida to Massachusetts called me for help finding victims.

I was more than happy to help. I put them in touch with people I had already contacted in addition to finding new victims in their coverage area. It was great. My story not only received more play, but it also made their lives easier.

Organizations

There are millions of organizations out there and chances are there is probably one involved or following some aspect of your story.

I had to find an "interesting" average Joe who tested water and air quality. I had over 50 prospective "interesting" average Joe's, but I didn’t have the time. I contacted an organization involved in air and water quality testing for help. Within a couple of days, I had the names and contact info for ten to fifteen people. This saved me a lot of work and time.

2.) Word of Mouth

The truth is the world is a very small place. To view the world in this way has been advantageous for me as a reporter. Generally, there is someone out there who knows the person you're looking for or who knows someone who does. You just have to be creative when searching for them.

I needed to find victims for my vibrio story who had contracted the bacteria north of the Gulf of Mexico. I knew the number of cases in each state along the Atlantic coast and maybe the name of a hospital that treated a case, but that was it.

My editors and colleagues told me to call hospitals, which I did for a while, but then ignored them after the first couple of responses. They were all the same. "What is vibrio?" or "it's going to take three to five week to go through the records.”

I didn’t have much time and had to be creative. I figured if anyone had heard of someone who contracted a vibrio infection, it would be at a marina or bait shop. I googled all the marinas in Maryland and Virginia and within one hour of making phone calls, I had the name and location of a vibrio victim or the name and contact info for someone who knew a vibrio victim.

3.) Knocking on Doors and Cold Calling

Hopefully, you will find that “special someone” before you get to this point. This has only worked for me if I know the general area of where to look. You can use a computer program called Delorme Street Atlas or Accurint or actually go there and knock on doors.

I needed to find a farmer who would show me how a type of "toxic" fertilizer was spread on his field. I knew the location of where the fertilizer was spread, but not a farmer. I used Delorme Street Atlas to retrieve phone numbers of people living in the area. I cold called them and asked if they knew of any farmers who used the manure in addition to driving there and knocking on doors. Both worked.

I got names, phone numbers and addresses of numerous farmers. Unfortunately, the farmers I found were reluctant to talk about spreading toxic fertilizer. I will keep trying though.

I hope these tips are useful and I'm always interested in learning new ones, especially one's that will save me time. Email them to me and I will add them to this post.