What is precision journalism?

Question

I can't seem to find an article in the net about it so I really hope you can help me. thanks!=)

Answer 1

Precision journalism became a popular term in the late 1970s when computers allowed statistical mining of data.

Phillip Meyer popularized the idea of applying social science methods to journalism so reporters could run data and compare data with relative ease.  

So-called precision journalism allowed reporters to spot trends not easily surfaced before comparing data bases.

This allowed journalists -- and others -- to compare something like "first-time home-buyers" with a government employment list, and then compare the data to home ownership data from deed records.

This data mining brought out issues like government employees who already owned a home filing for reduced "first-time" home buyer assistance from government.

Precision journalism allowed reporters to uncover indications of government fraud which might not have been apparent without the data mining.

I think this technique was also used to show that government employees were "adopting" wild horses and selling them to dog food manufacturers.

Since most data bases are private, reporters were limited to using government records.  Today, many corporations use this technique to spot trends and prevent fraud within their companies.  

Home Depot found people switching bar codes on certain items and then returning the item for a profit.  Further data mining indicated where and when these purchases and returns were being done, and the system even identified some of the customers involved in this pattern.

Hope this answer helps you.