INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING
DEFINITION, via IRE
Journalists have for many years debated the specific meaning of
the term “investigative journalism.”
IRE defines it as “the reporting,
through one’s own initiative and work product, of matters of importance to
readers, viewers or listeners. In many cases, the subjects of the reporting wish
the matters under scrutiny to remain undisclosed.” Over the years, journalists
have expanded the definition to include analyzing and revealing the breakdown
of social or justice systems and documenting the consequences.
Others
have proposed a broader definition, suggesting that every journalist is an investigative journalist
because they all ask questions and read documents, but the broader definition
ignores the more rigorous requirements of credible investigative journalism. Every
journalist can be an investigator, even if only for one story,
if the journalist is willing to put in the time. Investigative journalists ask more
questions, go through more documents and data, and spend more time thinking
about and producing a story than daily reporters do. Investigative journalism also demands
the curiosity and desire to know the story behind the story – that is, to
understand the circumstances of a situation and the real goals of a politician
or businessperson.
Investigative journalists
also spend more thought and time on deciding on what is worthy of coverage.
Instead of simply attending a city council meeting and filing a brief deadline
story, an investigative reporter
will often read council and staff reports, audits and city contracts, and
minutes of previous meetings, and collect and analyze city databases to find
out if there is favoritism or misdeeds in how the city is being run.
An investigative journalist
wants to know how the world works – or fails to work – and takes the time to
study it closely. But persistence and study must always be accompanied by a
healthy skepticism, stopping short of cynicism. Investigative reporting must be accompanied by an
outrage that expresses itself through the journalists’ creed of accompanying
the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable. Those traits of a good investigative reporter
– curiosity, persistence, skepticism, a sense of outrage – lead to important
exposes not because of luck but because chance favors those who have done the
deeper research and interviews. If a reporter has these traits, than much of
the rest can be learned.
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