For giving us the opportunity to get our first experience covering breaking news, for giving us the opportunity to mingle with the people we want to emulate, for treating us so nicely, for welcoming us.

We’ll be back, as bloggers or, hopefully, as your colleagues.

– The FIU Blogging Team

Attending my first IRE conference, I was not sure what to expect. When I arrived at the InterContinental Hotel on Thursday, I was greeted by friendly faces eager to guide me. It felt great being in the same room with so many prestigious journalists.

As a Spanish-language graduate student, I was particularly interested in the Ethnic Media boot camp. I sat next to one of the speakers, Doug Pardue, special assignments editor for The Post and Courier in Charleston, S.C.

I was impressed by how helpful experienced journalists were to novices like me. Pardue offered advice on how to approach investigative stories.

“Always learn to question and ask, ‘How come?’” he said. He also took me through the key steps of developing a story.

As the conference progressed, I learned from attendees and other speakers. I feel honored to have had the experience and look forward to next year’s conference.

– Angie Giacoman

From experienced journalists to newbies like me, those seeking constructive criticism walked into the Balmoral Room for critiques of their TV resume tapes.

The 30-minute session with Al Tompkins, broadcast and online group leader for at Poynter Institute, helped those interested in working in front of the camera.

Here are some of Tompkins’ tips:

THE PICTURES

– The camera hates white. Avoid colors that fade you. Stick to ones that make you pop out in a frame.

– Don’t dress down. Always look professional. “I know how funny it is to hear me give fashion advice,” Tompkins laughed.

– Use stand-ups as transitions, not just at the front and end of a story.

THE SOUNDS

– Don’t worry about your voice changing over time. That’s normal.

– Use short, declarative sentences of 12 to 14 words. This will give you more control over your voice.

– Use subjective sound (sound bites) to express thoughts, opinions, feelings, emotions and observations. Use objective copy (everything you say) to communicate facts.

THE WORDS

– Put power at the end of the sentence. When you don’t do this, the last word tends to get cut out.

– Avoid the passive voice. “The reason to use active voice is not stylistic, it’s journalistic,” Tompkins said. “Passive verbs are escape valves for the truth. The active voice locks down the truth.”

– Don’t use the word “it.”

– Don’t tell viewers what they can already see. Words should explain the pictures. “Tell me what I don’t know about what I can see,” Tompkins said. “This way, the image is essential, not optional.”

– Lidia Romero

With cuts in newsroom budgets, investigative reporters need to get creative, become more resourceful and find new ways to produce stories.

“Solve your own problems,” said panelist Steve Daniels of WTVD-TV Raleigh. Staffs must find ways to produce stories with fewer economic resources. Daniels Doug Smith of WTVT-TV Tampa offered tips on how to save money without sacrificing quality.

Daniels and Smith acknowledged that while interviewing sources in person adds sizzle to a report, news organizations are cutting travel budgets. Before traveling, the team should develop a detailed expense budget and look for ways to avoid expenses. The budget also helps management get a clearer view as of the expenses they are being asked to approve. Here are other suggestions:

– Negotiate hotel room rates. Book rooms yourself and avoid paying a commission to a travel agent.

– Manage the work hours of photographers and videographers. Hire a local freelancer from an affiliate in the visiting city or use an intern. All of those can cut travel and hourly wage expenses.

– Get more out of the trip. Can you produce more than one story while in a location? Can videographers take footage for another department in your news station?

– Schedule interviews in advance and have the script ready before your arrive. This will reduce the time spent in a location and allow you to concentrate on getting the story.

Smith’s best advice was to establish relationships with media people in the places to which you are traveling. Good contacts come in handy when traveling.

“You never know when you might need them to get an interview, documents or footage for you,” said Smith.

– Liliana Zamudio

Being surrounded by experienced journalists was intimidating, but I am happy I had the privilege to be part of the Florida International University blogging team.

Attending discussion panels, interviewing participants and blogging in limited time gave me a taste of the exciting and fascinating career I am ready to pursue. I thank Professor Reisner for insisting that the conference could mean much for me.

Investigative journalism looks difficult and rewarding. The experiences that speakers shared with were memorable, and were all achieved through hard work and perseverance.

I face a long road of challenges, but after attending the conference, I know that this is what I want to do.

– Pamela Duque

Schemes, scoundrels and scams.

All are targets for an investigative reporter. They’re also entertaining and informative in the hands of panelists a session that ran well past its scheduled end time.

Wayne Dolcefino, an investigative reporter for KTRK-TV Houston, came off as abrasive, which he used to his advantage in the video clips he showed.

The other panelists, Peter Franceschina, a reporter for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and Matt Goldberg, a producer for KNBC-TV in Los Angeles, added their tips on how to chase down bad guys.

In his first clip, Dolcefino confronted the director of a Christian school who solicited mothers of prospective students with an offer to exchange sex for fee waivers. Dolcefino’s crew caught the director on tape using a hidden camera that one mom carried to a meeting in the director’s vehicle.

A hidden camera helped Franceschina prove that a Southern California chain of car repair garages was still ripping off customers by charging them for work not needed and not done. The TV station had exposed the company several years earlier and it was supposedly complying with a state order to clean up its operations.

While secretly recorded video holds viewers’ attention, panelists said the story comes from public records, tips and consumers who are enraged enough to help a reporter humanize a story.

And, sometimes, getting the story can be as simple as asking a few questions and let the stupidity of the responses do the job.

– Vanessa Ruiz

At the age of 33, Tom Merriman decided he would rather be a reporter than a lawyer. Today, the investigative reporter at WJW-TV Cleveland and has learned much about writing for the eye instead of the courts.

In a session on crafting stories for TV, radio and the Web, he offered this advice:

– Grab the viewer early. Don’t bury the best video, put it at the beginning.

– Struggling with a tough interview? Find a way to incorporate an interesting tidbit about the subject. If the person repeats his or her title 27 times, as someone did, then put that into the story. A loop of someone simply repeating his or title 27 times can demonstrate that person’s incompetence.

– Make the viewer part of the reporting by including what may seem to be irrelevant material. If, for example, a public relations person interrupts an interview, include that moment to show what it’s like to get an interview.

So, what elements are important to a good visual or audio story? Merriman included these six:

* Human conflict and the connection to human emotion.

* Great stories have great characters.

* The personal is the most universal.

* Humor can be a stand-in for outrage.

* Boil it down.

* Love the bad guy! He or she will put the cherry on your story.

– Juan Alejandro Prado and Vanessa Ruiz

The conference took on an international flavor at a session on digital journalism ideas from around the world.

“Transnational journalism is a key aspect of investigation nowadays,” said Fernando Rodrigues, a panelist and vice president of the Brazilian Association for Investigative Journalism. He was joined by Rosental Alves of the University of Texas and Sandra Crucianelli of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.

Rodrigues cited a story in which the government said that criminal rates in Rio de Janeiro had decreased. A spreadsheet analysis of the raw data showed that the criminal rates had, in fact, increased.

Foreign journalists attending the session came looking for story ideas like that. Gary Horne, a professor at London College of Communication at the University of the Arts, has been an IRE member since 1995 and was attending his first conference. A producer-director for the BBC and freelancer, he rarely travels to the United States.

“I am seeing what other people are doing in journalism,” he said, and taking back ideas that he can share with his students and use in his work.

The conference is very useful, said Gabriel Bermudez, executive producer of the news team at Canal 9 from Bahia Blanca, Argentina. He came to IRE as a representative of the Argentine Journalism Forum, or FOPEA. Bermudez was amazed at the “great difference with respect to my country in the outreach of information.”

Every month or so, Canal 9 airs a special investigative report, he said. The show gives the audience a change in perspective and Canal 9 a competitive edge “that other channels don’t have.”

– Dainelys Martinez

Here are the results of the Board of Directors Elections. The top seven vote-getters are elected.

Name                                                                 Votes       Pct. Total

Mc Nelly Torres                                              164                  14.6%

Manny Garcia                                                  153                  13.6%

Phil  Williams                                                    149                  13.3%

Duff  Wilson                                                     146                  13.0%

Lawan  Williams                                              137                  12.2%

Jason Grotto                                                    130                  11.6%

Stephen C.  Miller                                          124                  11.1%

Wendell  Cochran                                          119                  10.6%

 TOTAL                                                                1122               100.0%

In a time where most people seem to be changing their habits to be more environmentally friendly, it’s easy to get “greenwashed.”

Some materials with the three-arrowed recycling symbol are not always recyclable? And some organizations that claim to recycle certain products sometimes take your money and turn around and throw these in the trash?

“Challenge all assumptions and don’t assume anything,” said Jim DeFede, commentator for WFOR-TV in Miami and and moderator of “The truth about alternative fuels and going green.”

Iowa is a leader in biofuel and Lee Rood, project and investigative editor for The Des Moines Register, warned reporters to look critically at the hidden costs of biofuels, including air, water and soil pollution.

“Watch what people are saying about renewable fuels - the industry has seen a huge build up in the last 5 years,” she said.

Jeff Burnside, investigative and environmental reporter for South Florida’s WTVJ-TV, said “going green” claims made by some companies and restaurants are bogus.

Just as the color green began losing its charm, panelists tossed out some ideas for stories.

Reporters can, for example, see whether local groceries are really recycling and check the policies of local recycling centers.

Going green begins with getting good information.

– Lidia Romero