Precision Journalism

Precision journalism is the use of social and behavioral science where a scientific method of investigation or research technique is used as a tool of reporting. Journalists work hard to gather and analyze data beyond anecdotal evidence. Although it can be practiced without computers, precision journalism is usually a subset of “computer-assisted reporting,” the catch-all term for anything from using the Internet for gathering information to developing newsroom intranets for sharing information among reporters. Precision journalism may expand most in places with high concentrations of computers, where public records exist in electronic form, but internationally journalists practice it using any available techniques if they can get access to information and have sufficient training to carry out an analysis. The term “Precision journalism,” and the central idea behind it was popularized by the 1973 book of the same name written by Knight-Ridder reporter Philip Meyer.