Nailing Down the Numbers: Bolstering your stories with economic data

For college students and early-career business journalists, tracking down credible economic data for stories can be a challenge — especially on deadline. This training session will cover tips and strategies on locating and navigating economic data; and how to bring those numbers to life in your stories.

Presenters include:

• Sarah Foster is the Federal Reserve and economy reporter for Bankrate.com. Originally from a small town in rural Illinois, Foster developed a passion for economics while watching her community recover from the Great Recession. She previously worked for Bloomberg News, the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Daily Herald and has been interviewed by national and regional media outlets including Good Morning America, Yahoo! News, CNBC, the Toronto Star, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and more.
• Ana Hernández Kent is a senior researcher for the Institute for Economic Equity (IEE) at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Her primary research interests include examining economic disparities and opportunities through a demographic lens; exploring wealth outcomes and wealth inequality; and highlighting the role of systemic biases and historical factors in facilitating or blocking wealth accumulation. Her work has been featured in an array of media outlets ranging from The Wall Street Journal to CNN to The Atlantic.

The conversation will be hosted by Jake Batsell, the O’Neil Chair in Business Journalism at Southern Methodist University, with a question-and-answer session moderated by Grace Lawrence, a senior journalism major at SMU.