ProPublica has employed Nick McMillan as a computational journalist on our information and information apps crew. On this position, McMillan will use expertise and information in progressive methods to search out and report tales that might in any other case be out of attain.
“Nick has a formidable observe file of utilizing cutting-edge expertise to unlock reporting paths,” mentioned Ken Schwencke, senior editor for information and information functions. “I’m excited for him to make use of these abilities to carry energy to account at ProPublica.”
McMillan involves ProPublica from NPR, the place he was an information journalist on the investigations crew. At NPR, he mixed reporting with information evaluation, constructing instruments that reworked uncooked information into proof for investigations. His work included creating a customized optical character recognition program to parse greater than 7,000 authorities work job recordsdata, which helped to disclose how a federal program was killing 1000’s of untamed animals with little accountability. He additionally co-reported a narrative revealing how energy strains operated by Southern California Edison sparked new fires as crews battled present ones, making a software that processed and transcribed greater than 2,000 hours of first responder radio into searchable, time-stamped timelines. Earlier than NPR, he labored on investigative documentaries at Newsy, contributing to reporting on white supremacists within the U.S. army and on the long-term results of Hurricane Maria on Puerto Rican schoolchildren.
Tales that McMillan has labored on have been acknowledged nationwide with honors together with the Nationwide Press Award and an Edward R. Murrow Award.
“ProPublica has led the way in which for making use of information and computational methodologies to uncover
abuses of energy,” McMillan mentioned. “I’m excited to hitch the crew and grateful for the chance to contribute to investigations that serve the general public.”
