What is Investigative Journalism?
Investigative Journalism is all about unearthing the truth. The sole purpose of investigative journalism is to provide the truth to the people about illegal deals, scams, murders and secrets. They are responsible for exposing the people involved in it so they can be held accountable. It is a risky and tricky job that is time consuming and expensive. Most of the newspapers and channels depend on investigative agencies to create stories for them and a few have their own investigative wing. It may take years or months to the truth and involves unconventional reporting.
Key Factors That Makes An Investigative Journalist
Investigative journalism involves original reporting of an issue in a systematic way that delves deeper into the subject. The journalist takes his time to understand the real issue and how it has affected others. They need to have the ability to think like a detective or a police officer and form hypotheses. They need to find proofs to substantiate the theory formed around the issue. It is a scientific way of dealing with investigative journalism and this is the toughest part of investigative journalism.
Find Out More About : Investigative Journalism
An investigative journalist needs to follow the trails. They need to create a trail of people involved in it, the kind of money involved, places, institutions and accountability. To help them with this job, they need to collect data through public records. They should create paper trails and document them to analyse and arrive at a result. Once they are sure of the truth they have found, they need to make it public. Now, that is the hardest part. It involves showing people who are responsible. Things that people involved do not want others to see or hear about. It gets really risky here.
Accountable and Responsible Journalism
Investigative Journalism needs to be responsible and accountable journalism. The focus should be on social justice. An investigative journalist must not just hold the parties involved responsible but substantiate with proofs and facts to make them accountable for their wrong doings. Investigative reporting should be for a good cause. They need to believe in setting things right by identifying the wrong and showing it to the public. It is the responsibility of the reporter to find what is wrong in the society and portray that irrespective of the power or position in the society. They must believe in what is right.
