Revealing hidden truths?

Great journalists, have always been investigators, and still are today. Once news media had grown much more established, larger, and more diversified Investigative 'desks' began to emerge as longer stores with more resources and skills. It wasn't until 1960s and 1970s, when the Watergate Investigation in the USA and journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, that the concept of 'Investigative Journalism' was created.

Investigative journalism is in-dept journalism of an issue that has public interest. Aretha Asakitikpi (2012) defines public interest as being something that "either a community will be disadvantaged by not knowing, or will benefit by knowing" (p. 23). Investigative journalism should involve a range of sources to expose almost every detail of a case or issue as well as teamwork and a reasonable allocation of time. Investigative journalism does two main things:

1. Looks beyond individuals to faulty systems and processes;
2. Uncovers both facts and formally defined as secret and issues nobody wants to talk about; and
3. Employs the toolkit of any good reporter, but at a very high stand. 

Within our tutorial classes this week, we discussed four different cases and had to identify whether it was investigative report and why/why not. The following paragraph was the most challenging example we examined. 

Case 4: A reporter comes back from an event at a casino resort with photographs that show a well-­‐known, married, industrialist kissing and cuddling with a woman who is not his wife. You check carefully, and establish from the hotel front desk and room staff that he and the woman were booked in as “Mr & Mrs” and spent three nights together. You manage to identify the woman, and discover that she too is married to someone else another highly-­placed tycoon. You are certain that your sources are reliable, and publish a story about the scandalous miss behaviour of public figures.

Answer: At first glance, this LOOKS like investigative reporting. You have checked all the details carefully, have both photographic and interview confirmation, and have accurately identified the people involved. But why are you doing it? There’s no public interest here. The only people concerned are the two lovers and their spouses. This isn’t investigative reporting,  just a  way  to try and sell papers using scandal about well-known names. Gossip, even if meticulously researched, is still only gossip

The following YouTube video is an example of Investigative Reporting.  

References

Asakitiikpi, A. (2012). What is investigative journalism? In B. Nwanne (Ed.), Investigative and Interpretative Reporting (pp. 13-30). Nigeria, Africa: National Open University of Nigeria.