Research Studies Might Be Story Leads

When you’re dry for story ideas, check out the Journalist’s Resource from the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard. It peruses news research curates it on its website. The staff tries to choose relevant topics to the news, so some of these studies become the basis for a good story. And then, as ReadyReporter loves, you have some real substance to put in your story.

The latest list, which I get via email, covers studies on IPOs, commuting’s effect on weight and health, and corruption in state capitals. I found the IPO study from The Journal of Finance particularly interesting as the Journalist’s Resource summarizes it in a headline, “Rocky IPOs More the Rule Than Exception in Tech Sector.”

The Shorenstein staff review the full study and pull out helpful key points for you. It explains that the studies are from authoritative institutions and “should be based on rigorous research, without bias or ideological motivation; be published in a peer-reviewed journal; and be timely and relevant, with public-policy applications.”

The Center says it promotes the concept of “knowledge-based reporting” which surely sounds like a good idea! You can read more about it from Professor Tom Patterson by clicking on the link.

See the info guide for journalists, as well as the list of topics. If you’re considering a story on a certain topic, plug it into the search bar at the top of the page  to see if there’s something current that might help.

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