In 2007, the LA Times launched an informative (and understandably hard-to-read) site, The Homicide Report, that aimed to give a more complete picture of LA County's violence (not just the few cases that made it into headlines) by attempting to report on every homicide in LA County. The latest iteration of the project combines data and journalism, offering the name, age, and cause of death of each victim since 2007 on an interactive map, along with a blog (including a space for people to write comments or memories of the deceased; so far 40,000 comments have been posted). HR also has a reporter who maintains the site, keeping tabs on the court cases, recording eyewitness reports of the murders, and adding information to posts. "It's not just abstract, it's not just dots on the map, those dots on the map represent people and we're going to tell you about those people. It's not just a name, we're going to tell you who they were and what happened," an LA Times official told Journalism.co.uk.
· The Homicide Report [LAT]
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