Investigative Reporter (Wikipedia definition)

Investigative journalism
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v t e
Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing a report. Investigative journalism is a primary source of information. Most investigative journalism is conducted by newspapers, wire services, and freelance journalists. Practitioners sometimes use the term "accountability reporting".

An investigative reporter may make use of one or more of these tools, among others, on a single story:

Analysis of documents, such as lawsuits and other legal documents, tax records, government reports, regulatory reports, and corporate financial filings
Databases of public records
Investigation of technical issues, including scrutiny of government and business practices and their effects
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 obtain documents and data from government agencies
Contents [hide]
1 Professional definitions
2 Examples
3 Notable examples
3.1 Notable investigative reporters
3.2 Awards and organizations
3.3 Bureaus, centers, and institutes for investigations
3.4 Television programs
4 See also
5 References
6 Further reading
7 External links
Professional definitions[edit]
University of Missouri journalism professor Steve Weinberg defined investigative journalism as: "Reporting, through one's own initiative and work product, matters of importance to readers, viewers, or listeners."[1] 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.

British media theorist Hugo 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."[2]

Examples[edit]
Julius Chambers of the New York Tribune had himself committed to the Bloomingdale Asylum in 1872, and his account led to the release of twelve patients who were not mentally ill, a reorganization of the staff and administration, and, eventually, to a change in the lunacy laws;[3] this later led to the publication of the book A Mad World and Its Inhabitants (1876)
Bill Dedman's 1988 investigation, The Color of Money,[4] for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on racial discrimination by mortgage lenders in middle-income neighborhoods, received the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting and was an influential early example of computer-assisted reporting or database journalism
Brian Deer's British press award-winning investigation for The Sunday Times of London into the worldwide MMR vaccine controversy which revealed that research, published by The Lancet, associating the children's vaccine with autism was fraudulent.[5][6][7]
Notable examples[edit]
Main category: Investigative journalism
Notable investigative reporters[edit]
Anas Aremeyaw Anas
Donald Barlett and James B. Steele
David Barstow
Lowell Bergman
Carl Bernstein
Nellie Bly
Walt Bogdanich
Sarah Cohen
Bill Dedman
Seymour Hersh
Jorge Lanata
Jane Mayer
James Risen
Gary Webb
Bob Woodward
Ida B. Wells
Awards and organizations[edit]
Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting
Investigative Reporters and Editors Award
Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting
George Polk Awards
Worth Bingham Prize for investigative reporting
Bureaus, centers, and institutes for investigations[edit]
Italian Association on Investigative Journalism
Bureau of Investigative Journalism
California Watch
Center for Investigative Reporting – Berkeley, California, USA
Center for Investigative Reporting - Bosnia-Herzegovina
Centre for Investigative Journalism
Center for Public Integrity
Investigative News Network
Investigative Reporting Workshop
Investigative Reporters and Editors
New England Center for Investigative Reporting
Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism
ProPublica
Global South Development Magazine
Television programs[edit]
Exposé: America's Investigative Reports (PBS documentary series)
The growth of media conglomerates in the U.S. since the 1980s has been accompanied by massive cuts in the budgets for investigative journalism; a 2002 study concluded "that investigative journalism has all but disappeared from the nation's commercial airwaves";[8] the empirical evidence for this is consistent with the conflicts of interest between the revenue sources for the media conglomerates and the mythology of an unbiased, dispassionate media: advertisers have reduced their spending with media that reported too many unfavorable details; the major media conglomerates have found ways to retain their audience without the risks of offending advertisers inherent in investigative journalism
See also[edit]
Freedom of information legislation
Muckraker
Rodolfo Walsh
Watchdog journalism