What Is Investigative Journalism? - David E. Kaplan

[Music] at the global investigative journalism conference we asked some of the world's leading experts for their top tips when investigating stories we also asked for investigative journalism itself to be defined what it is and what it isn't investigative reporting has different names some people call it depth reporting some call it Enterprise reporting others project reporting but all these are are loosely grouped under the rubric of investigative journalism what is investigative journalism you can get a lot of definitions from from different people but the journalists themselves who practice investigative reporting pretty much agree on a set

of characteristics that that describe the field the first definition if you look at an english-language dictionary if the word investigation it means systematic inquiry it means that you're taking your time and you're going about things in a systematic way to analyze what is really going on in the world now to this we would add that the work you're doing is original as well as in-depth so systematic in-depth and original reporting is investigative journalism our second definition of investigative reporting is about forming a hypothesis good investigative reporters tend to think like an honest public prosecutor or

a good police detective they form a hypothesis about what's going on they use in effect the scientific method you form a theory and then you test it you go out there and you find the facts that will either support or not support your thesis it's one of the hardest things that investigative reporting if you facts don't support your theory you have to abandon it but that's what we do the third definition of investigative journalism is about using lots of public records and public data investigative reporters often talk about following trails trails of people trails of

money trails of institutions trails of accountability and they do this through paper trails and end data trails they collect as much as they can that's on the public record they get documents leaked to them and data leaked to them and then they analyze that and follow the trails to find out what's really going on as famously said in the movie all the President's Men if you want to know what's going on follow the money how do you follow the money data and documents our port definition of investigative journalism is about making public things that are

secret or hidden investigative reporters are often dealing with secret information with with things that that people particularly in power don't want to come out because it's embarrassing or it shows that they've abused their position or our power in society part of our job is is burying those things and showing them to the public so that that people really know what's going on sometimes it's not deliberate sometimes the the facts of a given situation are just hidden behind a maze of circumstances and in situations and it's the job of a good investigative reporter to put those

together so in the end two plus two may actually equal five our 5th definition of investigative journalism is about its focus on social justice and accountability if you go back to the beginnings of modern investigative journalism say to the the old muckrakers of America's Progressive Era more than a hundred years ago these were crusading journalists who believed in righting wrongs they believed in protecting the little guy and and and and those most vulnerable in our societies they went after big city corruption medical malpractice the biggest corporations abusing their workers and and the environment there's always

been this calling in the profession to social accountability and it's really woven in to the practice around the world it's investigative reporting is sometimes been called the the journalism of outrage and and for good reason investigative reporters believe in righting wrongs now that we talked about what investigative journalism is let's take a minute and talk about what it isn't investigative reporting is not what we call leak journalism just because you get a leak document or leak data doesn't mean that you're doing an investigation doesn't mean you've done a systematic inquiry if you look at some

of the great projects of massive leak data in recent years they've used the leak as the beginning of the investigation not the end of it they use it to generate leads and then they do the systematic kind of investigating that we've been talking about investigative reporting is also not simply about crime and corruption covering crime and corruption is a beat and investigations could be about any topic they could be about health or education or human rights the mere fact that you're writing about illegal acts doesn't mean that you're doing an investigative report so what is

investigative journalism from talking to reporters all around the world we can come up with a strong consensus definition investigative journalism is the in-depth systematic use of original research and reporting it often uses large amounts of data and documents it uses public records to find out what is going on it also involves frequently the bearing of Secrets it makes information that before it had been hidden into the public domain finally it has a strong emphasis on social justice and accountability so all these ingredients together make up what has really become the the modern practice of professional

investigative journalism what do we mean by systematic investigation well let's take the most common kind of beat reporting say covering a fire if your editor sends a reporter out to cover a fire you asked your basic who what where why when how okay you want to know how many fire engines responded where was anybody injured how much damage was done how long did the fire burn for but let's say you're covering the fire and you notice that the fire hoses don't work very well and that the the firefighters are complaining about the quality of their

equipment so you go to City Hall and you pull the records for that contract and you find out that the guy who signed it is a friend of the mayors and there's a sweetheart deal involving the provision of fire equipment to all the city's fire departments that's a systematic inquiry [Music]