Computer-assisted reporting describes the use of computers to gather and analyze the data necessary to write news stories.
The spread of computers, software and the Internet changed how reporters work. Reporters routinely collect information in databases, analyze public records with spreadsheets and statistical programs, study political and demographic change with geographic information system mapping, conduct interviews by e-mail, and research background for articles on the Web.
Collectively this has become known as computer-assisted reporting, or CAR. It is closely tied to "precision" or analytic journalism, which refer specifically to the use of techniques of the social sciences and other disciplines by journalists.