This week we spoke about investigative journalism, which – according to Lord Northcliffe – is all about discovering the truth. There are 5 INs to investigative journalism:
Intelligence – the piece must be intelligent and ask intelligent questions
Informed – the story must be factual and informative
Intuitive – the journalist must use initiative to capture the story
Inside – there must be some inside information
Invest – the journalist must invest time and effort; they must wear out their “shoe leather”
Investigative journalists also have a duty to be critical and thorough so as to assume roles as “custodians of conscience” and expose the truth to their audience. By providing this truth, journalists offer a voice for the voiceless and hold the powerful to account, as a Fourth Estate (Fourth Branch of Govt/ Watchdog).
After this explanation, were five examples of “trailblazers” whose investigative journalism have – at the risk of sounding cliché – changed the world. These are listed below:
1. Edward Smith Hall’s column in The Sydney Monitor” in the early 19th century criticized the existing form of government. It stood for trial by jury and a popular legislature, and it condemned the oppression of convicts, public immorality on the part of officers, and even the conduct of the governor himself.
2. “The Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon” Campaign. Printed in the Pall Mall Gazette in July, 1885, the "Maiden Tribute of Modern Babylon" was Stead's highly scandalous expose of child prostitution. Its publication led to the age of consent being raised from 12 to 16.
3. Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s “Watergate” pieces led to the arrest of five burglars who broke into Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate office building. The investigation led to the resignation (1974) of US President Nixon as he was charged with obstruction of justice, abuse of presidential powers, and trying to impede the impeachment process by defying committee subpoenas.
I found this case especially interesting - you can read more about in The Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/watergate/
4. More recently and locally, Chris Masters, Phil Dickie and Shaun Hoyt’s work on “The Moonlight State” story led to the Fitzgerald inquiry. The inquiry was established in response to a series of articles on high-level police corruption in The Courier-Mail, followed by a Four Corners television report. Both pieces highlighted prostitution, gambling and possible police corruption in Brisbane. The inquiry resulted in the deposition of a premier, two by-elections, the jailing of three former ministers and a police commissioner who was jailed and lost his knighthood.[1]
5. The Wikileaks pieces, headed by Julian Assange are still causing ripples in American politics (as well as in other nations)
These cases of investigative journalism show that there are several different types of investigation interaction:
· Interviews
· Observations
· Documents
· Briefings
· Leaks
· Trespass
· Theft
As well as different methods of investigation methods, including interviewing, observing and analysing document.
The main threat to investigative journalism is the lack of funding that comes with the so called “death of newspapers”. With less funding, there is less pay and thus less incentive for proper investigation. Also, a growth in PR is resulting in a decline of journalism. This is shown in the slide below:
We ended the lecture by talking about the future of investigative journalism – which seems to be quite difficult to predict. The only answer I have to the question “will pay walls lead to the rebirth of investigations and proper journalism?” is that only time will tell. However, I believe that we need to make people more aware of the legitimate need for informed and critical journalism, for it to grow and thrive.
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