Analysis on records/CAR
Two writers from USA Today have written a series of articles examining the air quality of schools that are in close proximity to industrial plants. IRE reported that to complete this story, they used government data and sought out the air quality in these particular areas. It was innovative because they state that the EPA doesn't even run models such as this, and does not record information on the air quality around U.S. schools.
To do so, they had to have skills in mining government databases of air quality. They had to compare these levels to what is considered an acceptable amount of pollution. Then, most likely by mapping the data out, they could see where the bad levels of pollution lie in relation to schools. Through this, they could see exactly what schools were at risk. Being able to sift through government databases and then map it out to seek information was required.