Database tracks tragedy sources

Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. The IRE Journal, Jul/Aug 2004 by Parker, Paul Edward

Most journalists, if they have been in the business long enough, have covered their local public safety agencies conducting mass casualty disaster drills. But many journalists overlook the same sort of planning when it comes to their own coverage of real-life disasters.

Specifically, one aspect of any journalist's disaster plan should be a database to track the people involved. Every disaster will invite examination of its scientific or technical causes, but people are the story of any tragedy, and a database is the perfect way to manage the torrent of information that will flow out of any disaster.

The Providence Journal used just such a database for The Station nightclub fire. Here are some tips for using such a system:

* Immediately begin collecting data in the form of interviews with survivors of the disaster and with family and friends of those missing or dead.

* A simple database, which could even be a word processor file separated into columns to get started, should have six basic pieces of information about every person involved:full name;complete address; date of birth; phone number; and role in the disaster. Also, include a label, such as died, injured, unhurt, witness, or official.

* The source of the information. A name is good, but also important is a description of a source's relationship to the person: self, friend, family, or fellow survivor. This will be extremely valuable when trying to sort out how reliable the information in the database is and in explaining to readers how the information was gathered.

Beyond that, the information gathered will depend on the nature of the disaster and what the journalist hopes to do with it. For example, The Journal asked questions about height and weight, gender, alcohol consumption, where people were when the fire started and what exit they used.

We also asked survivors about others they had seen at The Station that night. This allowed us to expand its list of survivors, eventually publishing a list of 440 people inside the club when it caught fire, including the 100 who died. So far, state officials have not released their estimate of the size of the crowd.

Many other uses of the database did not show up in the paper as "computer-assisted reporting" stories. By reaching so many of the survivors, we developed tips for future stories and a network of sources in the yearlong coverage.

By Paul Edward Parker

The Providence Journal

Paul Edward Parker is an investigative reporter specializing in computer-assisted reporting at The Providence Journal. A more detailed account of CAR elements is in the july-August issue of Uplink.