Investigative journalism is a form of journalism Journalism is the investigation and reporting of events, issues, and trends to a broad audience. Although there is much variation within journalism, the ideal is to inform the citizenry. Besides covering organizations and institutions such as government and business, journalism also covers cultural aspects of society such as arts and entertainment in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, often involving crime Crime is the breach of rules or laws for which some governing authority can ultimately prescribe a conviction. Individual human societies may each define crime and crimes differently. While every crime violates the law, not every violation of the law counts as a crime; for example: breaches of contract and of other civil law may rank as ", political corruption Political corruption is the use of legislated powers by government officials for illegitimate private gain. Misuse of government power for other purposes, such as repression of political opponents and general police brutality, is not considered political corruption. Neither are illegal acts by private persons or corporations not directly involved, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching Research can be defined as the search for knowledge or any systematic investigation to establish facts. The primary purpose for applied research is discovering, interpreting, and the development of methods and systems for the advancement of human knowledge on a wide variety of scientific matters of our world and the universe. Research can use the and preparing a report. Most investigative journalism is done by newspapers A newspaper is a regularly scheduled publication containing news, information, and advertising. By 2007 there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a day (55 million in the U.S). The worldwide recession of 2008, combined with the rapid growth of web-based alternatives, caused a serious decline in advertising and, wire services A news agency is an organization of journalists established to supply news reports to organizations in the news trade: newspapers, magazines, and radio and television broadcasters. Such an agency may also be referred to as a wire service, newswire or news service and freelance Fields where freelancing is common include journalism, book publishing, journal publishing, and other forms of writing, editing, copy editing, proofreading, indexing, copywriting, computer programming, web design and graphic design, consulting, tour guiding and translating journalists. Practitioners sometimes use the terms "watchdog journalism" or "accountability reporting."
As part of an investigation, journalists make use of:
- Analysis of documents, such lawsuits A lawsuit, or "suit in law", is a civil action brought before a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have received damages from a defendant's actions, seeks a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint. If the plaintiff is successful, judgment will be given in the and other legal documents Legal instrument is a legal term of art that is used for any formally executed writing that can be formally attributed to its author, records and formally expresses a legally enforceable act, process, or contractual duty, obligation, or right, and therefore evidences that act, process, or agreement. Examples include a certificate, deed, bond,, tax records, government reports, regulatory reports and corporate financial filings.
- Investigation of technical issues, including scrutiny of equipment and its performance
- Research into social and legal issues
- Subscription research sources such as LexisNexis LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier, was founded in 1977 by H. Donald Wilson as a database service and its electronic research unit. Reed Elsevier acquired LexisNexis in 1994. LexisNexis' headquarters is located in Dayton, Ohio Although other sources claim New York City as the headquarters location
- Numerous interviews with on-the-record sources as well as, in some instances, interviews with anonymous sources (for example whistleblowers A whistleblower is a person who raises a concern about wrongdoing occurring in an organization or body of people. Usually this person would be from that same organization. The revealed misconduct may be classified in many ways; for example, a violation of a law, rule, regulation and/or a direct threat to public interest, such as fraud, health/)
- Federal or state Freedom of Information Acts Freedom of information legislation are rules that guarantee access to data held by the state. They establish a "right-to-know" legal process by which requests may be made for government-held information, to be received freely or at minimal cost, barring standard exceptions. Also variously referred to as open records or sunshine laws, to get documents and data from government agencies.
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Professional definitions
Weinberg defined investigative journalism as: Reporting, through one's own initiative and work product, matters of importance to readers, viewers or listeners.[1] In many cases, the subjects of the reporting wish the matters under scrutiny to remain undisclosed. There are currently university departments for teaching investigative journalism. Conferences are conducted presenting peer reviewed research into investigative journalism.
De Burgh (2000) states that: "An investigative journalist is a man or woman whose profession it is to discover the truth and to identify lapses from it in whatever media may be available. The act of doing this generally is called investigative journalism and is distinct from apparently similar work done by police, lawyers, auditors and regulatory bodies in that it is not limited as to target, not legally founded and closely connected to publicity."[2]
Notable examples
William Thomas Stead William Thomas Stead was an English journalist. He was born in Darlington, the son of a Congregational minister's series of articles in 1885, entitled The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon regarding child prostitution in Victorian The Victorian era of the United Kingdom was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from June 1837 until her death on the 22nd of January 1901. The reign was a long period of prosperity for the British people, as profits gained from the overseas British Empire, as well as from industrial improvements at home, allowed an educated middle class to London London is a leading global city, the world's largest financial centre alongside New York, and has the largest city GDP in Europe. Central London is home to the headquarters of most of the UK's top 100 listed companies and more than 100 of Europe's 500 largest. London's influence and strengths in the arts, education, entertainment, fashion, finance,, resulting in the Eliza Armstrong case The Eliza Armstrong case was a major scandal in the United Kingdom involving a child supposedly bought for prostitution for the purpose of exposing the evils of white slavery. While it achieved its purpose of helping to enable the passage of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, it also brought unintended consequences to its chief perpetrator,.
Ida Tarbell's history of John D. Rockefeller John Davison Rockefeller was an American oil magnate. Rockefeller revolutionized the petroleum industry and defined the structure of modern philanthropy. In 1870, he founded the Standard Oil Company and aggressively ran it until he officially retired in 1897. Standard Oil began as an Ohio partnership formed by John D. Rockefeller, his brother and the Standard Oil Company
Lincoln Steffens's "Shame of the Cities" series on municipal corruption
Seymour Hersh Seymour Myron Hersh (born April 8, 1937) is a United States Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist and author based in Washington, D.C. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine on military and security matters's stories on the My Lai massacre The My Lai Massacre (Vietnamese: thảm sát Mỹ Lai [mǐˀ lɐːj]; English pronunciation: /ˌmaɪˈleɪ, ˌmaɪˈlaɪ/ , Vietnamese: [mǐˀlaːj]) was the mass murder conducted by a unit of the U.S. Army on March 16, 1968 of 347–504 unarmed citizens in South Vietnam, all of whom were civilians and a majority of whom were women, children ( during the Vietnam War
Woodward and Bernstein's reporting on the Watergate The Watergate scandal was a political scandal in the United States in the 1970s, resulting from the break-in to the Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. Effects of the scandal ultimately led to the resignation of the President of the United States Richard Nixon on August 9, 1974, the first break-in and other Nixon-administration-related crimes
Mark Dowie's Mother Jones magazine investigation of fatal dangers in the Ford Pinto The Ford Pinto debuted as a compact car by the Ford Motor Company on September 11, 1970, deriving its name from the Pinto horse and competing in the nascent United States small car market from 1971-1980 automobile.
See also
- Barlett and Steele
- Bob Woodward Robert Upshur "Bob" Woodward is regarded as one of America's preeminent investigative reporters and non-fiction authors. He has worked for The Washington Post since 1971 as a reporter, and is currently an associate editor of the Post. While a young reporter for The Washington Post in 1972, Woodward was teamed up with Carl Bernstein; the
- Bureau of Investigative Journalism
- Carl Bernstein Carl Bernstein (born February 14, 1944) is an American journalist who, at The Washington Post, teamed up with Bob Woodward; the two did the majority of the most important news reporting on the Watergate scandal. These scandals led to numerous government investigations, the indictment of a vast number of White House Officians such as H.R. Haldeman,
- California Watch
- Center for Investigative Reporting - Berkeley, Calif.
- Center for Investigative Reporting - Bosnia-Herzegovina
- Investigative Reporting Workshop
- Exposé: America's Investigative Reports (PBS documentary series)
- Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting The Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting is an award for journalists administered by the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University. The program was launched in 1991, with the goal of exposing examples of poor government, and encouraging good government in the United States of America. There is a $
- Henry Demarest Lloyd
- Ida M. Tarbell Ida Minerva Tarbell was an American teacher, author and journalist. She was known as one of the leading "muckrakers" of the progressive era, work known in modern times as "investigative journalism." She wrote many notable magazine series and biographies. She is best-known for her 1904 book The History of the Standard Oil
- Investigative Reporters and Editors
- Jeremy Scahill Jeremy Scahill is an American investigative journalist and author whose work focuses on the use of private military companies. He is the author of the best-selling book Blackwater: The Rise of the World's Most Powerful Mercenary Army, winner of a George Polk Book Award. He also serves as a correspondent for the U.S. radio and TV program Democracy
- Muckraker A muckraker is, primarily, a reporter or writer who investigates and publishes truthful reports involving a host of social issues, broadly including crime and corruption and often involving elected officials, political leaders and influential members of business and industry. The term is closely associated with a number of important writers who
- Seymour Hersh Seymour Myron Hersh (born April 8, 1937) is a United States Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist and author based in Washington, D.C. He is a regular contributor to The New Yorker magazine on military and security matters
- Uğur Mumcu
- John Pilger John Richard Pilger is an Australian journalist and documentary maker, based in London. He has twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US. Noam Chomsky said of Pilger: "John Pilger's work has been a beacon of light in often dark times. The realities he has brought
- Greg Palast
References
- ^ Steve Weinberg, The Reporter's Handbook: An Investigator's Guide to Documents and Techniques," St. Martin's Press, 1996
- ^ Investigative Journalism: Context and Practice, Hugo de Burgh (ed), Routledge, London and New York, 2000
Further reading
- Web
- "Current State of Investigative Reporting," talk by Seymour Hersh at Boston University, May 19 2009
- Video of the 2010 Logan Symposium at UC Berkeley's Consequences of Investigative Reporting" panel. Reporters from the Sahara Reporters, the Medill Innocence Project at Northwestern, The Washington Post, The Las Vegas Review-Journal and The El Paso Times talk about the dangers investigative reporters face. Their experiences range from threat to life and limb for reporting on corruption in Africa, to subpoenas aimed at a journalism professor and his students for attempting to bring to light a miscarriage of justice. A Pulitzer Prize winner describes reporting on national security as her sources face internal inquisitions; a veteran reporter in Las Vegas talks about taking on casino moguls and organized crime; while a reporter covering the Mexican border explains how she has survived the violent reality of the undeclared war on our border. April 2010.
- Books
- Investigative Reporting: A Study in Technique (Journalism Media Manual), by David Spark, (paperback) 1999.
- Tell Me No Lies: Investigative Journalism That Changed the World, John Pilger John Richard Pilger is an Australian journalist and documentary maker, based in London. He has twice won Britain's Journalist of the Year Award, and his documentaries have received academy awards in Britain and the US. Noam Chomsky said of Pilger: "John Pilger's work has been a beacon of light in often dark times. The realities he has brought, ed.
External links
- The International, a publication that encompasses investigative journalism standards.
- Center for Investigative Reporting
- Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting
- Investigative Reporting Workshop
- Many Rivers Films Investigative Reporting Workshop
Categories: Investigative journalism | Journalism genres
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Wed, 02 Jun 2010 08:51:50 GMT+00:00
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