Investigative journalism

Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing a report. Most investigative journalism is done by newspapers, wire services and freelance 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 and other legal documents, 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
• Numerous interviews with on-the-record sources as well as, in some instances, interviews with anonymous sources (for example whistleblowers)
• Federal or state Freedom of Information Acts to get documents and data from government agencies.

Professional definitions

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. 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."

Notable examples

William Thomas Stead's series of articles in 1885, entitled The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon regarding child prostitution in Victorian London, resuting in Eliza Armstrong case.

Ida Tarbell's history of John D. Rockefeller and the Standard Oil Company

Lincoln Steffens's "Shame of the Cities" series on municipal corruption

Seymour Hersh's stories on the My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War

Woodward and Bernstein's reporting on the Watergate break-in and other Nixon-administration-related crimes

Mark Dowie's Mother Jones magazine investigation of fatal dangers in the Ford Pinto automobile.

See also

• Barlett and Steele
• Bob Woodward
• Bureau of Investigative Journalism
• Carl Bernstein
• 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
• Henry Demarest Lloyd
• Ida M. Tarbell
• Investigative Reporters and Editors
• Jeremy Scahill
• Muckraker
• Seymour Hersh
• Uğur Mumcu
• John Pilger
• Greg Palast

References

• 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, 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