What is Investigative Journalism?
“Isn’t all journalism meant to involve questioning investigation of facts and opinions presented to us?” (Ross Coulthart, Australian Investigative Journalist)
But what is the job of an investigative journalist? “… to discover the truth and to identify lapses from it…” (Hugo de Burgh, British media theorist)
“ … what somebody somewhere wants to suppress…” (Lord Northcliffe, Owner of The Times, The Daily Mail)
The Five “in’s” of Investigative Journalism:
- Intelligent – well thought out stories. Have to know what you are doing before entering people’s lives. Look at things like what corrupts people e.g. sex, power.
- Informed – know the facts; you inform the public so you must be informed yourself.
- Intuitive – knowing something isn’t right and always tuning your skills.
- Inside (Intimate?) – getting inside the intimate parts of people’s lives
- Invest – inevesting something in yourself. Can be draining emotionally, mentally and physically, one needs to know when to draw the line.
Taking a deeper look
into the purpose of Investigative Journalism we can see 4 key functions:
- Journalism that is critical and thorough
-
Critical = the journalists are active
participants, in and amongst it à ACTIVE INTERVENTION
-
Thorough = journalist dedicates substantial time
and effort to a particular story
- Custodians of conscience
-
challenging what is considered to be the status
quo -
EXPOSURE of real issues in society
- To provide a voice and power to those without them
-
Social justice - PUBLIC INTEREST
- Fourth Estate/Fourth Branch of Government/“Watchdog”
-
Fourth Estate: journalists represent the
interests of those without power to balance the power of government
-
Fourth Branch of Government: ensuring freedom of
information for the functioning of democracy by interrogating those in power
-
“Watchog”:
journalists make accountable those who have an impact on social and political
life in society
The message that can be seen from
these four key functions is hat Investigative Journalism is about cutting
through the typical agenda and seeking out the truth to benefit the public.
Investigative Journalism is not a new
concept, the last 200 years has seen pioneers who have really defined the
meaning of Investigative Journalism.
- 1826, Edward Smith Hall – exposed bad treatment of convicts in the Sydney Monitor
- 1885, W.T. Stead & Salvation Army – uncovered the reality of child prostitution that was occurring, resulting in the legal age of consent to be raised from 12 to 16 years of age.
- Julian Assange & Wikileaks
All of these changed the world and
society in some way, usually by challenging the government or large
corporations in power. This really shows that once a journalist can get their
audience to listen to what they have to say and what they have discovered, they
have the power to start to make a change. But to do this, situations, issues
and people concerned in the matter need to be investigated.
Various types of investigation
interaction (legal and illegal) include:
- Interviews
- Observations
- Documents (law suits, tax records, legal documents etc.)
- Briefings
- Leaks
- Trespass
- Theft
The threats to Investigative
Journalism have been mentioned several times across the semester, mainly the
threat of online news and public relations. Online news and public resistance
against having to pay to access it results in less revenue for journalism.
Without money, there isn’t enough incentive to put in the hard work required
for investigation and exposing stories. Journalism requires PR to gather
information, however PR is selective about what they want to release, allowing
them to spin the truth or suppress some things. This making the investigation
process even more difficult for journalists.
Despite this, the
future of Investigative Journalism can still be seen, in citizen journalism,
much like what Julian Assange achieved. Blogs and websites such as Youtube are
taking over. However, revenue is still an issue. People won’t work for free.
Therefore, Paywalls are currently the potential successful answer to making
this work out. This way we will continue to have journalists uncovering the
truth for us in the future.
-Laura
20/10/12
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