Lecture Eleven

"(Investigative journalism is)... what somebody somewhere wants to suppress; all the rest is just advertising." 

Lord Northcliffe, owner of The Times and The Daily Mail

The topic of this lecture was investigative journalism. This is a journalist deeply investigates a topic, usually to expose something and usually involving power, corruption, money or sex.

Investigative journalism needs to be:
- Intelligent - needs to be well thought out
- Informed - need to know all the facts
- Intuitive - rely on your gut, is it dangerous?
- Inside - need trust of your sources
- Invest - time, money and health can be affected

It's less risky if you are involved with a media outlet for the investigative piece because they can offer you more protection, funding, lawyers etc.

"An investigative journalist is ... to discover the truth and to identify lapses from it in whatever media may be available." Hugh de Burgh, 2000, British media theorist 

Investigative journalism played a big role in the Fitzgerald Inquiry regarding corruption in Queensland. Here are some links with more information about it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fitzgerald_Inquiry
http://www.cmc.qld.gov.au/about-us/our-organisation/our-background/fitzgerald-inquiry

Investigative journalism is important for keeping an eye on those in power. It can also create social change, a historical example of this being W.T. Stead's exposure of the child trafficking in the 1800s, which resulted in the age of consent being raised to sixteen in the UK and Commonwealth. The Watergate Scandal is of course another very famous example of investigative journalism:
http://watergate.info/

"Newspapers clearly have a function beyond mere reporting and recording - a function of probing behind the straight news, or interpreting and explaining and sometimes of exposing ... The process lives by disclosure."Sir Theodore Bray, editor-in-chief of the Courier Mail (1965)

"Isn't all journalism meant to involve questioning investigation of facts and opinions presented to us?"

Ross Coulthart, Australian investigative journalist

We were told to always check every fact, don't assume anything, and to expect whistleblowers to be paranoid and act a bit crazily. You can't get all your information second hand and stay sitting behind you desk the whole time.

Types of investigation interaction:

- Interviews

- Observations

- Documents

- Briefings

- Leaks

- Trespass? (Old-fashioned and your boss won't approve)

- Theft

Nowadays with online news there is less money, meaning less journalists and less time. Therefore there is also less investigative journalism because of how much you have to invest into it. However, The Age does have a good investigative section, see here:

http://www.theage.com.au/investigations

I was interested in, but not very knowledgeable about investigative journalism before this lecture so I really enjoyed it. Since I like finding things out it sounds like an appealing area of journalism, as long as it doesn't get dangerous. It's a shame that online news threatens investigative journalism, because it's a very valuable thing. Just look at some of the past examples mentioned above and imagine if those things hadn't been exposed.