Bedroom Tax Investigators

For a two month period between January 2013 and March 2013, myself and a group of aspiring journalists, have been investigating the upcoming policy of Bedroom Tax, particularly the effects it would have in Birmingham. Seven of us have been working towards this investigation and all had a specific role to play. These included: Editor, Deputy Editor, Network Journalist, Community Manager, Data Journalist and Multimedia Journalist. 

My roles were to be Deputy Editor and Data Journalist. As Deputy Editor, I was required to assist the Editor in their duties and ensure all roles were being completed to good standard. I proof read my team's work and offered constructive criticism to help them improve. Being a Data Journalist was a very different role. This involved me focusing on data, statistics, documents, reports and regulations that framed the story I was pursuing. Therefore, I was investigating who was being affected by Bedroom Tax and the demographic of this set of people. I also researched into what parts of Birmingham would be affected the most and least by Bedroom Tax.

As well as analysing data, I conducted some interviews. I spoke to charity workers, to gain information on the amount of and how disabled people and foster carers would be affected by the benefit cuts. This gave me a massive insight into source seeking and interviewing techniques. 

Throughout the investigation, my team documented our efforts through an online blog, found at: www.bedroomtaxinvestigated.wordpress.com. Look out for my stories which will have been posted by 'abbeyhartley'. Most of my work will be featured in the 'Stats and Figures' section. I hope you find my investigative work interesting and inspiring.

Abbey Hartley

Update: Since completing this investigation, my work has been featured on the Birmingham Mail's website! I'm very proud that my work has been published by a regional newspaper. Click here to read the article.