Filing public records requests is a lot like fishing, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Senior Investigative Researcher Dave Maass. In this episode of the Reynolds Hotbox, with host Lucia Starbuck and cohost Nico Colombant, Maass shares his proudest Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, when he uncovered that South Carolina corrections officials were punishing inmates for using social media. Maass even discovered that one person got 37 years in solitary confinement from cell phone use. Maass covers issues related to police surveillance, free speech and government accountability. Maass started reporting as a child when he was only eight years old. In his adult life he went on to be a muckraker, which is someone who digs into institutions in order to uncover injustices. “Over the years I've really developed a practice of using investigative reporting techniques with the idea of exposing things, but also incorporating a component to get change," he says. "So not just putting the information out there and expecting somebody else to do something about it, but putting the information out there and figuring out how I can make that difference.”
Maass is currently working on a project called Atlas of Surveillance, organized by EFF in partnership with UNR’s Reynolds School of Journalism. Take a listen to this episode of the Reynolds Hotbox to learn how Maass has accessed government records to uncover truths and why he thinks it’s so important for journalists to have these skills as well.

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