Disrupting Investigative Journalism

This book makes the case for the enormous potential embodied in investigative journalism if reporters collaborate in the digital sphere and engage with emerging techniques and technologies. Bringing together personal narratives from investigative journalists who have successfully found, verified and published stories using social media platforms and Web based communications, Disrupting Investigative Journalism explores the risks and benefits that come from this kind of digital collaboration. Citing how digital connection has enabled reporters around the world to form the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which in turn led to such global news sensations as the Panama Papers and the Paradise Papers, this book makes a practical argument for how the daily work of investigative journalism can change to capture enormous latent potential. This is a valuable text for students and scholars in the fields of investigative journalism, media and digital communication.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter details “how the U.S. business press could miss the most important economic implosion of the past eighty years” (Eric Alterman, media columnist for The Nation). In this sweeping, incisive post-mortem, Dean Starkman exposes the critical shortcomings that softened coverage in the business press during the mortgage era and the years leading up to the financial collapse of 2008. He examines the deep cultural and structural shifts—some unavoidable, some self-inflicted—that eroded journalism’s appetite for its role as watchdog. The result was a deafening silence about systemic corruption in the financial industry. Tragically, this silence grew only more profound as the mortgage madness reached its terrible apogee from 2004 through 2006. Starkman frames his analysis in a broad argument about journalism itself, dividing the profession into two competing approaches—access reporting and accountability reporting—which rely on entirely different sources and produce radically different representations of reality. As Starkman explains, access journalism came to dominate business reporting in the 1990s, a process he calls “CNBCization,” and rather than examining risky, even corrupt, corporate behavior, mainstream reporters focused on profiling executives and informing investors. Starkman concludes with a critique of the digital-news ideology and corporate influence, which threaten to further undermine investigative reporting, and he shows how financial coverage, and journalism as a whole, can reclaim its bite. “Can stand as a potentially enduring case study of what went wrong and why.”—Alec Klein, national bestselling author of Aftermath “With detailed statistics, Starkman provides keen analysis of how the media failed in its mission at a crucial time for the U.S. economy.”—Booklist

Theoretically grounded and using quantitative data spanning more than 50 years together with qualitative research, this book examines investigative journalism’s role in liberal democracies in the past and in the digital age. In its ideal form, investigative reporting provides a check on power in society and therefore can strengthen democratic accountability. The capacity is important to address now because the political and economic environment for journalism has changed substantially in recent decades. In particular, the commercialization of the Internet has disrupted the business model of traditional media outlets and the ways news content is gathered and disseminated. Despite these disruptions, this book’s central aim is to demonstrate using empirical research that investigative journalism is not in fact in decline in developed economies, as is often feared.

Journalism, Power and Investigation presents a contemporary, trans-national analysis of investigative journalism. Beginning with a detailed introduction that examines the relationship between this form of public communication and normative conceptions of democracy, the book offers a selection of spirited contributions to current debates concerning the place, function, and political impact of investigative work. The 14 chapters, produced by practising journalists, academics, and activists, cover a range of topics, with examples drawn from the global struggle to produce reliable, in-depth accounts of public events. The collection brings together a range of significant investigations from across the world. These include an assignment conducted in the dangerous sectarian environment of Iraq, close engagement with Spain’s Memory Movement, and an account of the work of radical charity Global Witness. Other chapters examine the relationship between journalists and state/corporate power, the troubled political legacy of WikiLeaks, the legal constraints on investigative journalism in the UK, and the bold international agenda of the investigative collective The Ferret. This material is accompanied by other analytical pieces on events in Bermuda, Brazil, and Egypt. Investigative journalism is a form of reportage that has long provided a benchmark for in-depth, critical interventions. Using numerous case studies, Journalism, Power and Investigation gives students and researchers an insight into the principles and methods that animate this global search for truth and justice.

Tell Me No Lies is a celebration of the very best investigative journalism, and includes writing by some of the greatest practitioners of the craft: Seymour Hersh on the My Lai massacre; Paul Foot on the Lockerbie cover-up; Wilfred Burchett, the first Westerner to enter Hiroshima following the atomic bombing; Israeli journalist Amira Hass, reporting from the Gaza Strip in the 1990s; Gunter Wallraff, the great German undercover reporter; Jessica Mitford on 'The American Way of Death'; Martha Gelhorn on the liberation of the death camp at Dachau. The book - a selection of articles, broadcasts and books extracts that revealed important and disturbing truths - ranges from across many of the critical events, scandals and struggles of the past fifty years. Along the way it bears witness to epic injustices committed against the peoples of Vietnam, Cambodia, East Timor and Palestine. John Pilger sets each piece of reporting in its context and introduces the collection with a passionate essay arguing that the kind of journalism he celebrates here is being subverted by the very forces that ought to be its enemy. Taken as a whole, the book tells an extraordinary 'secret history' of the modern era. It is also a call to arms to journalists everywhere - before it is too late.

This open access book is a rare example of the ethnographic study of investigative journalism. This book explores entrepreneurial attempts to combine traditional investigative journalism with alternative ways of organising this work. It transcends watershed investigative projects in favour of the ways in which new actors (citizens, technologists, bloggers and local reporters, among others) join experienced investigative journalists in experiments with the practices of watchdog journalism in the digital era. Cases include Bristol Cable, Bureau Local and the Korea Center for Investigative Journalism, as well as Forbidden Stories. The book also includes two chapters on the impact of COVID-19 upon the development of cross-disciplinary work in a traditional newsroom and in the larger media ecosystems of both Norway and China. This is a timely book for journalism students, scholars and investigative reporters, who share a passion for this form of journalism.

A collection of finalists of the Taco Kuiper Award for Investigative Reporting, this book illustrates the revival of hard-hitting investigative reporting in South Africa and highlights its important role. These exposés range from government corruption and white collar crime to environmental and social issues. With a comprehensive discussion on the state of South African journalism, these stories were originally published by the country's most reputable newspapers and make no qualms about covering the controversial: the horrors of Zimbabwe prisons, shifty politicians, and shoot-to-kill policemen.

This book offers new insights into the crucial role of investigative journalism at a pivotal time of technological changes and upheavals. It surveys innovations and unexpected impacts of the field, from past and present challenges and what may be in store for the future of the industry. The book begins by exploring the increasingly investigative innovations in political and independent reporting, along with a comparison of the rhetoric and reality of a so-called golden era of investigative journalism in the past and the present. It goes on to analyse the growth of creative and sports investigative reporting, as well as the ability of contemporary conflict journalism to overcome surmounting challenges. It also examines the capacity of groundbreaking investigations, including data reporting, to expose injustices involving women, indigenous communities and other minorities. In interviews with key industry and research professionals, this book presents the reactions of four media experts to the crises faced by investigative journalism in a digital environment of escalating disinformation, legal restrictions and popular interest in the news. The book concludes by reflecting on previous and current challenges and offers insights into the prospect for investigative journalism of the future. Presenting unique views on the diversity, resilience and transformative power of investigative journalism, this book will be a valuable resource to students and scholars of journalism, communication, media and politics, as well as professionals already operating within the field of journalism.

Now a major motion picture, starring Carey Mulligan and Zoe Kazan "An instant classic of investigative journalism...‘All the President’s Men’ for the Me Too era." — Carlos Lozada, The Washington Post From Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey, the untold story of their investigation of Harvey Weinstein and its consequences for the #MeToo movement For years, reporters had tried to get to the truth about Harvey Weinstein’s treatment of women. Rumors of wrongdoing had long circulated, and in 2017, when Jodi Kantor and Megan Twohey began their investigation for the New York Times, his name was still synonymous with power. But during months of confidential interviews with actresses, former Weinstein employees, and other sources, many disturbing and long-buried allegations were unearthed, and a web of onerous secret payouts and nondisclosure agreements was revealed. When Kantor and Twohey were finally able to convince sources to go on the record, a dramatic final showdown between Weinstein and the New York Times was set in motion. In the tradition of great investigative journalism, She Said tells a thrilling story about the power of truth and reveals the inspiring and affecting journeys of the women who spoke up—for the sake of other women, for future generations, and for themselves.

Investigative Journalism is a critical and reflective introduction to the traditions and practices of investigative journalism. Beginning with a historical survey, the authors explain how investigative journalism should be understood within the framework of the mass media. They discuss how it relates to the legal system, the place of ethics in investigations and the influence of new technologies on journalistic practices.