An Interview with Bruce Garrison, Professor

Journalism and Photography Program, School of Communication

University of Miami, Coral Gables, Fla.

Reprinted with Permission

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askSam:  Bruce, tell us about your current projects as an author and as a professor in the Department of Journalism at the University of Miami?

BRUCE GARRISON:  I have a variety of research interests, but my main projects this year focus on how journalists use computers in information gathering (news reporting) and new methods of distribution (the Web). A specific type of journalism that has evolved in this decade is known as computer-assisted reporting. I wrote a book about it, "Computer-Assisted Reporting" that was published in 1995. It will be revised this fall for a second edition for 1998, so this is a current project of high priority. I am also planning a new third edition of another book I wrote, "Professional Feature Writing" for 1998. Of course, my teaching and other research projects are important also.

askSam: Which askSam product(s) do you use and teach in your classes?

BRUCE GARRISON:  I use askSam Professional for Windows 3.0 in my reporting and Internet / World Wide Web classes. It is very useful to use in database building and information retrieval. We have, for example, two main databases that we use that are based in askSam. One is a database of all written documents by students that relate to special reporting projects we have done for the daily newspaper in Monroe County, the Key West Citizen, since 1992 or so. This allows us to seek and find information in an instant that could be anywhere in almost 300 documents (a 500 to 1,000 word story or list is a document). The second is a database of fewer, but longer, documents that contain information about the incorporated areas of Dade, Broward, and Monroe Counties of South Florida. This helps our student reporters to find information about public officials, such as office locations or phone numbers, quickly. We update the two databases one or more times a year.

askSam: Can you tell us how you see journalists using askSam?

BRUCE GARRISON: What I described in the previous response is one way. Some use askSam to organize notes and to keep source lists (much like a personal information manager would do). askSam is such a versatile document/text database program, I suspect many journalists (and other users for that matter) have not discovered all the potential of this

software.

askSam: How has askSam made your job any easier, faster or more efficient?

BRUCE GARRISON: I think I have answered that in my description of how we use the program for documents in the reporting classes. It will make our work even easier when I take the next step with the project's databases by moving them to World Wide Web sites in the next year or so. The reporting classes that I teach each have Web sites and it makes sense to integrate these askSam databases into the sites. I simply have not had the time to do that yet. Sigh. askSam does so much, does it clone people, too?

askSam: Can you describe the implementation of our education licensing program within your organization and was pricing a factor in deciding to use our products?

BRUCE GARRISON: We have taken advantage of the education licensing opportunities to place askSam Professional 3.0 on the Dell pentiums in one of our School of Communication computer labs and on the main PC in our School of Communication library/reading room. This enhances access to the databases for our students and permits them to learn to use the software.

askSam: What kind of customer support you have received from askSam Systems?

BRUCE GARRISON: I'll be honest, Bea, I have never called customer support. You are the only contact with the company that I have ever had and it has been a terrific relationship so far.

askSam: Would you recommend askSam and why?

BRUCE GARRISON:  Yes. I recommend it because of its intuitive design and ease of use. For me, that is important; for students, it is critical since that cuts the steepness of the learning curve.

askSam:  What applications do you plan for askSam in the future?

BRUCE GARRISON:   I think I want to integrate the askSam databases we have built into our class Web sites, as I described. I hope to bring more new uses as well.

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Bruce Garrison, Professor

Journalism and Photography Program

School of Communication

University of Miami

Post Office Box 248127

Coral Gables, FL 33124-2030

Phone: 305-284-2265

Email: bgarriso@umiami.ir.miami.edu

CAR research site is http://www.miami.edu/com/car/index.htm