Fall is primetime for hard-hitting investigations at many news organzations, the Star Tribune included. On Sunday, the newspaper launched "Breakdown," an investigative series exposing failures in Minnesota's mental health system. You can read the first article here, if you missed it.
Today Reuters released "The Child Exchange," a shocking report examining how American parents use the internet to find new families for children they regret adopting.
The story is compelling on its own, but what really makes this story hit home are some of the graphics. As someone who is an interactive news graphic nerd, I particularly liked the "Explore an online child market" feature.
Reuters gathered posts from parents or "middlemen" advertising unwanted children in Yahoo message boards over a five year period, and then created an interactive where you can pore over the posts. You can sort the graphic by gender, age and characteristics such as "special needs" or "history of abuse."
What investigative stories are you reading? Send me a link via Twitter to @amatos12 or @whistle_blower and use the hashtag #investigativereads.
