Investigative journalism
Investigative journalism is a kind of
journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a topic of interest, often involving crime,
political corruption, or some other
scandal. An investigative journalist may spend a considerable period researching and preparing a report, sometimes months or years, whereas a typical daily or weekly news reporter writes items concerning immediately available news. Most investigative journalism is done by
newspapers,
wire services and
freelance journalists. An investigative journalist's final report may take the form of an
exposé.
The investigation will often require an extensive number of interviews and travel; other instances might call for the reporter to make use of activities such as surveillance techniques, tedious analysis of documents, investigations of the performance of any kind of equipment involved in an accident,
patent medicine,
scientific analysis, social and legal issues, and the like. In short, investigative journalism requires a lot of scrutiny of details, fact-finding, and physical effort. An investigative journalist must have an analytical and incisive mind with strong self-motivation to carry on when all doors are closed, when facts are being covered up or falsified and so on.
Some of the means reporters can use for their fact-finding:
* studying neglected sources, such as
archives, phone records, address books, tax records and license records
*
anonymous sources (for example
whistleblowers)
*
going undercover*
Black Like Me**In
1959,
John Howard Griffin, a caucasian, changed the color of his skin and traveled in the
U.S.'s
Deep South as an African-American, later writing a series of articles for
Sepia magazine and then his famous book.
*
Thalidomide**The 'Insight' team of
The Sunday Times achieved great renown in the
1960s for its exposure of
public health scandals, most notably Thalidomide.
**
Paul Foot used his columns in
The Daily Mirror and
Private Eye to expose miscarriages of justice.
*
Watergate**
The Washington Post's investigation by
Bob Woodward and
Carl Bernstein led to the resignation of
U.S. President Richard Nixon.
*
The Iron Fist**
Alexenia Dimitrova of the
24 Hours Daily (
Sofia,
Bulgaria) investigated the
American and Bulgarian governments secret
Cold War files.
Revelation$, about Clearstream, which has been called the "biggest financial scandal in Luxembourg" and was discovered by ex-Clearstream banker
Ernest Backes who co-authored a book about it with French journalist
Denis Robert.
In
The Reporter's Handbook: An Investigator's Guide to Documents and Techniques, Steve Weinberg defined investigative journalism as: :Reporting, through one's own initiative and work product, matters of importance to readers, viewers or listeners. In many cases, the subjects of the reporting wish the matters under scrutiny to remain undisclosed.
60 MinutesABC News 20/20
*Ida M. Tarbell
*Mother Jones''
*
Muckraker*
Investigative Reporters and Editors
