Paul Bradshaw is an investigative journalist and author based in Birmingham, U.K., who teaches online journalism at Birmingham City University and is also a visiting professor at City University in London. He publishes the Online Journalism Blog and recently wrote about data visualization for The Guardian’s Data Blog. CJR assistant editor Lauren Kirchner spoke with Bradshaw about Help Me Investigate, a project he launched last summer that invites readers to suggest local governance issues for each other to investigate—issues that the mainstream media might miss. This is an edited transcript of that conversation.

via Q & A: Paul Bradshaw, Founder of Help Me Investigate : CJR.