WRITER’S TOOLBOX

Older newspaper reporters will recall the days of covering such public institutions as the local conservation authority, dutifully reporting budget number after budget number because our paper was the “journal of record.”We would record what was budgeted for administration, capital projects, flood control, forestry rejuvenation, natural resources planning and contingency accounts. And how much the levies were for each member municipality.But they were simply numbers with no context or meaning for readers. Editors didn’t seem to mind as long as the numbers added up.

Then we became slightly more comfortable with numbers, dutifully reporting only those numbers we thought were relevant to our stories. But again,we made no real attempt to study,analyze or explain them.

Then along came a small band of sophisticated journalists who discovered, to the skepticism of most of us, something called databases and spreadsheets — something called computerassisted reporting (CAR).They would toss numbers
into a blender, mix them up and come up with a refreshing and comprehensive look at crime statistics,government spending habits and cutbacks in health care ... anything that involved lots and lots of numbers.

But it was still just numbers. Numbers, mind you, that made more sense and, when used wisely, revealed important information. They gave reporters the chance to ask,with confidence, more challenging questions.

Journalists began talking about the potential of this new research tool, but at journalism conferences,CAR enthusiasts were often huddled in a tiny corner talking to themselves.

Today, however, more journalists and editors are realizing that the newest research tool is most powerful when it employs the traditional tools of journalism.That is, to tell a richly detailed story in an interesting and informative way where words do not take a back seat to numbers. Storytelling. Narrative writing.Making statistics and numbers visual.

We still have to find the people who not only represent the statistics we use,but show us precisely what they mean in human terms.

The temptation — and the weakness — is leaving the human element until the last minute, then rushing to find a warm body to lend credence to the mass of numbers we have collected. By warm body I mean the cardboard cut-out, one dimensional character who serves no other purpose than that of a warm-up act for the cast of a thousand numbers.

Here’s an example:

Sally Saver plans to invest $3,000 in her RRSP this year.

Saver, 49, a personal banker, hopes to have enough money to retire when she’s 62, but she knows she will need to triple her RRSP savings to reach her goal.

“At this rate, I’ll be working until I’m 92,” she quipped.

“Saver is among four million Canadians who will contribute to their RRSP funds this year.

Government statistics show that Canadians have $80 billion tied up in 20 million individual accounts at 20,000 bank branches across the country ...”

There are plenty of Sally Saver anecdotal leads in every newspaper every day and they serve no other purpose than to give us someone ... God, anyone, please ... to illustrate the story.

So how do we gussy-up numbers, facts, statistics? How do we combat watery eyes and deep yawns when we put so much work into a project for the benefit of our readers, viewers or listeners?

It begins with thinking about and finding sources beyond the usual talking heads and socalled experts. It means capturing moments that say this isn’t just a number,but here’s the face or the crucial detail behind the number.

In the Toronto Star’s recent series on racial profiling by police, there’s a perfect example of how to match a real face — and a real place — to a number. (See David Akin’s account of the series and the reaction it provoked on page 8)

The reporter takes readers to a fenced-off basketball court in Rexdale where Kevin King,now a black community activist, “earned his neighbourhood passport.”

“There are garbage piles in the corners, and four poles cast long shadows through the centre of the basketball court.” There was a time, King says, when 50 sweaty teenagers owned this area, playing ball long after the streetlights of Kipling
Avenue and Panorama Court came on. But sometime around 1996, the rims were removed and the court was shut down because of complaints about noise.

So, teenagers who had been drawn together by basketball went their own ways. King tells us about two of them:A short baller named Garcia who was shot and killed during a birthday party in a local apartment building, and Jughead, who shot an undercover officer in the chest and arm, and remains in jail today. “An analysis of police data obtained by The Star shows this patrol area (Rexdale) has more people charged with violent crimes ... than any other in the city.”

This storytelling to explain the numbers shows the importance of being there. It means getting away from the computer screen of numbers, away from the telephone interview and away from the talking heads who say predictable things.

The reporter took King back to his basketball court where his recollections are more vivid because he is there where he “earned his neighbourhood passport.” Not only that, but the reporter has the keen sense to observe and describe the scene. It is narrative, descriptive writing and reporting that goes far beyond what numbers alone can show and tell readers. Here’s a brief checklist designed to
remind the databasers and spreadsheeters that engaging, compelling storytelling is the only way to ensure that the numbers get read and understood:

1) Develop the human side of your story fully. Find the right person (or persons) who fits the story theme perfectly.
2) Capture moments. It’s a term one of my colleagues in radio likes to use.My favourite “moment” in a CAR story was the visual image Rob Cribb brought to his Toronto Star series on Dirty Dining. It was the cockroach scurrying along a restaurant wall and the owner matter-of-factly ending its life with the swat of a newspaper.
3) Go to the scene so that you can describe it visually in your story.
4) Limit numbers. Give the reader breathing space by spreading them out.
5) Consider sidebars and fact boxes for numbers. They help unclutter a story.
6) Omit some numbers.Actually, omit lots of numbers. Just because you’ve collected them doesn’t mean you have to use them. Every number should be put to a test.Ask yourself: Is this particular number crucial to understanding the story? Do readers,viewers and listeners need it? For the number to survive,
both answers must be an unequivocal, “yes.”
7) Blend narrative and number. Fight the temptation to tease readers with a little narrative before giving them a nasty dose of numbers.The hard work of gathering and interpreting the numbers must be followed by the harder work of telling their story.
8) Think shorter from the beginning.Write the story in chapters rather than lengthy series. Instead of blockbuster two-, three- and four-page series, try one story a day.Running the stories over a longer period gives readers a better chance to digest the content.
9) Read your draft copy to a friend or read it to yourself.You should be able to tell the story and have a person understand the numbers with relative ease.
10) Tell your audience how the research was done.Repeat it every day if the story is a series.All of the excellent research and storytelling will mean little if critics challenge the data. In the recent Star series on racial profiling, it served readers well to tell them how the data were gathered. An accompanying letter from the managing editor explained why The Star had embarked on such a controversial subject.Better to tell people up front rather than to react after critics have fired the
first shot.