Matthew Doig, an investigative reporter for the Sarasota Harold Tribune, proved how important public records really are. He put a real-life practical use to all of the information we learned from Adria Harper the week before Doig visited.
I found the story he wrote about teachers in his community to be very interesting. Doig and his partner proved that teachers who pass the required exam the first time teach in more privileged schools, while the teachers who fail the test multiple times teach in the poorer “minority” schools. That is a valuable piece of information for the public to know. The topic was interesting, but what I found more intriguing was that once he gathered all of the information he needed from as many agencies that he needed them from, he simply loaded all of the data into one database which pretty much just spit out the results. It is still exciting to me how technology really does affect every job.
Another part of Doig’s presentation that stood out to me was when someone asked how he goes about obtaining public records from other states. Even though each state has their own laws, Doig goes about getting public records the same way as he would in Florida. If he has problems with the agency and receiving the information he needs, he will than go back and review that stats particular law.
It was all very interesting to me.
Harper’s presentation went hand in hand with Doig’s. While Harper works to educate people about public record laws in Florida, Doig is evaluating those records to uncover corruption and dig for the cold hard facts, all for the betterment of his community. Doig simply illustrated the importance of understanding the Public Record laws in a practical manner. To “investigate” properly, one needs to be able to get their hands on certain information and I believe Doig did a great job exemplifying that.
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