Investigative journalism is "what someone, somewhere, wants to suppress," says Lord Northcliffe (of The Times and The Daily Mail). The purpose of investigative journalism is to give those without voice a hearing, and to hold the powerful to account. Investigative journalists take their views on society's norms and morals and find breaches, and more importantly, people or agencies or forces to blame for these breaches. They are private investigators, corruption watchdogs, and when at their best, champions of the underdog.
In contrast, a large portion of contemporary 'journalism' is a regurgitation of official lines, reporting on the symptoms of problems rather than their causes. Investigative journalism is more piecemeal, more detailed and in depth, more complex, more time-consuming, and not guaranteed to produce anything that will be a commercially successful story. However, both public and commercial media purport to continue to support investigative journalism, as it is seen by most to be in the public interest.
There are countless methods at the disposal of the modern investigative journalist in a interconnected world of communication and data. Some of these include:
- Interviews
- Observations
- Analysing Documents
- Briefings
- Leaks
- Trespass
- Theft
Finally we looked at the future of investigative journalism, including the challenges of funding in a increasingly diversified and harder to monetise environment. We also examined the possibility of social media services covering at least part of the gap that industry-sponsored investigative journalism used to fill.
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