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Investigative reporter |
| Topics in journalism |
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| Professional issues |
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News • Reportage • Writing • Ethics • Objectivity • Values • Attribution • Defamation • Editorial independence • Education • Other topics |
| Fields |
| Arts • Business • Entertainment • Environment • Fashion • Politics • Science • Sports • Tech • Trade • Traffic • Weather |
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Advocacy journalism |
| Social impact |
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Fourth Estate |
| News media |
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Newspapers |
| Roles |
| Journalist • Reporter • Editor • Columnist • Commentator • Photographer • News presenter • Production Manager • Intern |
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (August 2008) |
Investigative journalism is a type of reporting in which reporters deeply investigate a topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or some other scandal.
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".
An investigative journalist may spend a considerable period researching and preparing a report, sometimes months or years, whereas a typical daily or weekly news reporter writes items concerning immediately available news. Most investigative journalism is done by newspapers, wire services and freelance journalists. An investigative journalist's final report may take the form of an exposé.
There is no more important contribution that we can make to society than strong, publicly-spirited investigative journalism.
– Tony Burman, editor-in-chief of CBC News
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The investigation will often require an extensive number of interviews and travel; other instances might call for the reporter to make use of activities such as surveillance techniques, analysis of documents, investigations of the performance of any kind of equipment involved in an accident, patent medicine, scientific analysis, social and legal issues, and the like.
Investigative journalism requires the scrutiny of details, fact-finding, and physical effort. An investigative journalist must have an analytical and incisive mind with strong self-motivation to carry on when all doors are closed, when facts are being covered up or falsified and so on.
Some of the means reporters can use for their fact-finding:
Investigative journalism can be contrasted with analytical reporting. According to De Burgh (2000) analytical journalism takes the data available and reconfigures it, helping us to ask questions about the situation or statement or see it in a different way, whereas investigative journalists go further and also want to know whether the situation presented to us is the reality.
Some of the potential consequences for the subjects of successful investigative journalism include:
Consequences for society as a whole include:
In The Reporter's Handbook: An Investigator's Guide to Documents and Techniques, Steve Weinberg defined investigative journalism as:
Investigative Reporting: A Study in Technique (Journalism Media Manual), by David Spark, (paperback) 1999.
Tell Me No Lies: Investigative Journalism That Changed the World, John Pilger, ed.
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