Lowell Bergman gives keynote speech at IRE 2014

Lowell Bergman, director of UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program, delivered the keynote speech at the IRE Awards Luncheon on Saturday, June 28. Bergman is the Reva and David Logan Distinguished Chair in Investigative Journalism at the Berkeley J-School, where he has taught for more than two decades. He has been a torchbearer for investigative reporting, covering everything from drug trafficking to corporate crime for Rolling Stone, ABC News, 60 Minutes, and PBS Frontline.

This year’s IRE panels featured a who’s who of J-School faculty and alumni. Paul Grabowicz, director of the school’s New Media program, led News flash: Bringing investigative reporting to life with interactives, a panel that includes alumna Tasneem Paghdiwala (’10), who now works as Mother Jones’ Interactive Editor. Andres Cediel, a lecturer at the J-School’s IRP, discussed techniques for getting reluctant sources to talk, and J-School alum Ali Winston (’11) was a panelist for All about surveillance: Cameras, GPS, drones, and databases that will focus on emerging technologies in law enforcement. Lance Williams, former J-School lecturer and alum (’74) talked about breaking the Barry Bonds steroids story more than a decade ago in Unmasking the cheaters: From biogenesis to BALCO. And lecturer Garance Burke will lead a workshop on cleaning up “dirty” data.

Current J-School students Jason Paladino (’15) and Courtney Quirin (’15) attended the conference. Paladino traveled to Baltimore last year to attend NICAR, IRE’s annual data journalism conference. “NICAR gave me a taste of the intersection between data science and investigative reporting,” he said. “I’m looking forward to attending the sessions on investigating the military.”

The J-School was an official sponsor of the 2014 IRE Conference, which will bring more than 1,000 journalists to the Bay Area during the last week of June. This year’s conference featured conversations about producing valuable investigative journalism in print, broadcast, and on the web. The event included more than 100 panels, presentations, and classes that offered tips on everything from obtaining public records to conducting cross-border investigations.

The 2014 IRE Conference runs from Thursday, June 26 to Sunday, June 29, 2014.