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Online investigative journalism
Democracy is founded on a number of principles, including theaccountability of elected representatives and civil servants to thepeople. Ideally, a host of mechanisms should guarantee this, but eventhe best systems may be abused. Experience shows that whenwrongdoing does take place, investigative journalists are among thosebest placed to expose it and ensure that justice is done.
The international anti censorship organisation Article XIX (Article 19:2000) Daily reporters are deluged with transitory events which sometimes obscure the larger issues; the gaffes, media releases, staged photo opportunties and hot house intrigues of parliamentary politics. Pressed by deadlines, hemmed by the size of the news hole and isolated from research facilities, daily journalists are frequently forced to ignore the stories behind the news. In doing so, journalists can be seen to fail to make Journalism could be said to be non fiction writing (news) which relies on identifiable sources. Investigative Journalism might be defined as finding important news someone does not want the public to know. Journalists, as Article 19 suggested, have professional and ethical responsibilities to look beyond what they have been told by those in authority. Investigative Journalists can as a result be seen as custodians of the public conscience. According to Ettema and Glasser, this does not mean that investigative journalists should decide how everyone else should behave: They are not the guardians of some superior moral knowledge. Ratherthese journalists have the means to report and disseminate stories thatcan engage the public's sense of right and wrong. These journalistsare, in other words, custodians of exactly what we imagine ourconsciences to be: a morally engaged voice.(Ettema/Glasser: 1998. P4) Investigative journalism combines basic journalism reporting skills with more advanced research methods. Original research was seen as the distinguishing feature It is not a summary or piecing together of others' findings and data,but original research carried out by reporters using often the rawest ofmaterial. It can be extensive interviewing, or matching and comparingfacts and figures. In many cases, the fruits, and originality, come indiscovering patterns and connections in the information that no onehas observed before. (Randall: 1996. pp78/79) Randall wrote that investigative reports often resulted from a "suspicion of wrongdoing". An investigative reporter would be required to engage in a prolonged inquiry, compiling a research dossier, from which a story or stories might be written.
Such inquiries would require reporters and editors to manage time and resources, so that results might be maximised, he said.
Investigative reporting on the net
Interviews, documents, surveillance and surveys are the tools of theinvestigative reporter. The reporter learns which to use at a certaintime, like a golfer who knows which club to use under differentconditions as he or she progresses through a course. The bestinvestigators during the course of their investigation may draw on allof the tools at one time or another. (Gaines : 1998. p17) The Internet offers investigative journalists new tools for reporting; qualified access to global communities of interests which may provide alternate sources to those in authority. In doing so, it presents opportunities and problems for investigative reporters. Meanwhile, it impacts on production processes with radio, television and text journalism practices converging through digitisation on the internet; towards a new hybrid profession, ejournalism. With faster computers, newer compressed programs and wider band widths, internet publications will rapidly offer more sophisticated, interactive variants of the older media.
Such investigative reporting need not be expensive or beyond the reach or ordinary journalists. But it does require greater commitment than daily journalism. Daily news reporting can be relatively quick, clean and have clear objectives. Investigative journalists must transmit complex information to a very wide public; applying illustrations, audio grabs, computer generated graphics, and library footage appropriate to their selected medium.
The Internet has become a new source for investigative reporters. It allows non linear alternatives in journalism style. It offers opportunities for independent publishing.
But in doing so it eclipses earlier notions that journalists can be defined as merely those employed by mainstream mass media.
Ejournalism: Communications
In 1870, the famous London Times correspondent, William Russell found his essays on the Franco Prussian war scooped by less well known competitors who cabled the In the past, only news 'flashes' had been transmitted by wire. Now anarmy of pushing, vulgar, uncouth and alarmingly effective Americancorrespondents had taken the field, who regarded the mails as a toolof the stone age, and relied almost exclusively upon the telegraph tofile their despatches. (Hastings: 1995. xxiv) Internet delivered Email, voice and video links allow contemporary reporters to maintain global links with their editors and participate in editorial conferences where stories are discussed. Text, vision and audio items are created in digitised files which may be easily transmitted to base by telephone, satellite link or radio broadcast. The huge and cumbrous portable live broadcast facilities used by CNN to cover the Gulf war are already being replaced by laptops, modems and satellite phones. During the Hong Kong handover in 1997, photographers were filing from the China border even There was a Swedish guy who had a very tight deadline who wasusing a sat [satellite] phone to send his material directly back [toSweden]. He plugged his digital camera into his laptop, added thecaptions and then dialled his newspaper direct. (Tatlow:1997) Ejournalism : Production
Modern news writing devolved from a clipped pyramidal style developed for economic transmission of stories from remote locations via the telegraph. That style influenced the choice journalists made when they constructed stories; eg. The quote sought in interviews, the illustrations selected and the headlines. These usually unstated production requirements became a learned part of a pervasive newsroom Journalists have been quick to adopt new communications technology but may be slower to abandon old practices. Early radio news reports consisted of an announcer reading newspaper stories on air. Early television bulletins seemed to be little more than radio with pictures. New styles evolved to meet the potentials of the newer media. Agence France Press Webmaster, David Sharp said the internet was already affecting the way AFP journalists wrote their stories: The worldwide web creates the possibility for hyper linking thereforethere is a possibility to create much richer story structures which initself can also create problems because it's very easy to buildstructures which are too complicated for people to follow. But forgeneral reading of stories there is definitely a trend towards brevitybecause it's well known for example that the average person readingtext from a screen will read about 25% slower than the same personreading the same information from a printed page. People generallydo not want to scroll so there's another reason for brevity. There tendsto be a trend towards using more subtitles as in bulleted lists, gettinguse to the idea that on the Internet people can and do begin reading astory at any point. Therefore you need to structure stories in such away that different parts of it are comprehensible in themselves. So Ithink it is changing the way people write.1 1 Sharp, David. Personal Interview. Sydney. November 1999.
Ejournalism transcends and incorporates the one dimensional stories of earlier media.
Stories on the Internet will be multi-faceted and the journalists who produce them will need to be multiskilled: able to create logical and clear textual accounts, link information, gather audios and take videos and photo images. They will be able to incorporate them all on a single or series of websites. Linear concepts of news can as a result be expected to transform into multi layered reports reflecting the wider choice Ejournalism : Distribution:
The Internet allows the polished digitised product to be published globally; wherever computers are linked to the telecommunications grid. Deadlines can become meaningless as material can be filed quickly and maintained on the web indefinitely.
Censorship has been made more difficult as web publishers proliferate. Journalist organisations such as the British based Association of Investigative Journalists established websites to create an outlet for reports mainstream conventional media The decline in investigative journalism, and individual outlets forsuch serious reporting, is a pernicious form of implied censorship; thepresence of light entertainment or consumer journalism in place of,say, a programme such as World in Action means that the issues thatwould otherwise have been presented to the public in suchprogramming are effectively barred from public consumption. Part ofour task is to challenge such censorship in all its forms.
(http://www.aij-uk.com/policy.html) However wider distribution can be at the cost of easy validation, undercutting notions of news as authenticated and credible versions of events. According to newsagency Internet editor, Sharp, journalists have an expanded role, bringing meaning to the People are getting used to the notion now that if they have a questionthey can find the answer to it very quickly and if they don't there'ssomething wrong. Whereas in the past the consumer basically had toaccept what they got out of the print newspaper which was a limited amount of news. The concept of an infinite news hole which the webprovides, is a very attractive concept. But it is also a very dangerousone, because human beings can only absorb no more than a givenamount of information at any given time. Therefore the problem thatarises with the Web is no longer a problem of accessing informationbut the problem of having too much information. Therefore it has tobe organised, structured, and made meaningful in ways that weren'tnecessary before. (Sharp: 1999) In short, the web provides a continuing role for journalists acting as mediators of information; professional writers who assemble identifiable cultural packages for Ejournalism : Interaction
Communications were revolutionised in 1876, when Alexander Graham Bell received a patent for the telephone. With this new medium, two way, immediate communication over long distances was possible for the first time.
The telephone changed the way people conducted business, relayedimportant information, and, as the technology became moreaffordable, socialised with one another. As teenagers once aggravatedtheir parents by hours talking on the telephone, today they can fulfilthe same urges on the Internet -in chat rooms and on the Net.
(Moschovitis et al:1999 p 6) The net offers audiences more variable interactions than those previously offered by edited newspapers' letter pages or the theatrical radio talk back programs. Moderated bulletin boards or email discussion groups can allow informed interaction with an informed audience. Foreign correspondents regularly participate in lists including H- Asia (historians, researchers, Orientalists) and Listserv SEASIA (journalists, Asia scholars). Such lists can provide contact with identified, credible sources with access to significant background material. In recent years, issues including Taiwan's elections, Nato's bombing of a Chinese embassy and the Asian economic downturn have all been the subject of erudite discussion on these lists.
Open chat programs and discussion groups can also sometimes be a source for stories.
Ejournalist, Matt Drudge, broke the news about President Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky with the help of tip offs from the net. Drudge saw his reporting as reporting stories ignored by the insider culture of the Washington press corps. The News Editor of Business Week magazine dismissed Drudge's often unsourced work as "suspect in the eyes of most journalists". But Drudge told the National Press Club in Washington that he received six million visitors a month to his website which began We have entered an era vibrating with the din of small voices. Everycitizen can be a reporter, can take on the powers that be. Thedifference between the Internet, television and radio, magazines,newspapers is the two-way communication. The Net gives as muchvoice to a 13-year-old computer geek like me as to a CEO or speakerof the House. We all become equal. And you would be amazed whatthe ordinary guy knows. (Drudge: 1998) However, not all information is created equally. Subsequent lawsuits against Drudge would indicate that tips gathered from chat groups or anonymous informants must be verified and investigated by journalists. Drudge's early success may be more attributed his daring to use to the power of publication on the internet, rather than the Truth seeking on the web
Investigative reporters, in one way or another, affirm theircommitment to the idea that they can and must find out what reallyhappened. But like historians and judges, they must rely ondocuments, records, artifacts, and memories in the effort to do so.
Under these conditions the process for establishing the truth cannotentail the examination of what really happened, followed by theproduction of the single correct account that corresponds to whatreally happened. Rather, the process must entail the location andexamination of existing accounts and the production of still anotheraccount that can be accepted as authoritative.
Ettema and Glasser in Custodians of Conscience (New York.
Columbia University Press. 1998. p137) Investigative journalism may seek to serve the public interest by telling stories of outrageous private misbehaviour by public officials. Journalists may not be secular saints. However, moral outrage should not justify questionable behaviour by reporters. There are sound practical reasons for this approach. If they are to have any credibility, journalists who seek to expose wrong doing must themselves be seen to understand ethics. Public relations practitioners may try to discredit reporters by diverting the debate to attacks on the way the story was produced. Politicians may use the privilege of parliament to defame their critics.
Clearly sourcing is critical to journalism which assumes to be investigative reporting.
Investigative stories are constructed on a series of sources. A misquotation can bring the whole structure down, leaving the journalist, editor and publisher vulnerable to legal action. Under these circumstances, sourcing must be accurate, contextual and systematic. The web offers thousands of accessible sources for journalists. Avenues Official Government Sources
Free political journalism is an essential part of democracy, a safeguardagainst totalitarianism. In every Parliament House, a paradox may beobserved: living side by side are politicians who try to keep much ofwhat they say and do, and political journalists whose aim is topenetrate the secrecy which and officials try to maintain. The outcomeof this constant struggle is a compromise. The politicians andofficialsare not able to suppress all that they wish to keep secret. Thejournalists are unable to discover all thatshould, in the public interest,be publicised.
Age Political reporter, John Bennets wrting in the 1965 cadetjournalists guide, The Journalists Craft (Sydney: Governments everywhere have gone online, and more data is being daily.
Government web sites include speeches, policy documents, briefing materials, department structures and responsibilities, telephone indexes and biographies.
Political statements can be crosse referenced and contextualised by computer.
Political reporters who still need to rely on media releases can down load them for confirmation and possible inclusion. Most media releases are also archived on the web, allowing statements and policies to be checked against earlier pronouncements.
The ABC's former chief political reporter, Matt Peacock said that computers made it easier to search for relevant documents, which might have otherwise ended "in the …A big difference now with the Web is that you can go back andpeople are much more on the record, particularly governments. Sothat you do a search on a particular subject and you'll be able tounearth the press releases that the Minister, or whoever else it is, saida year or two years or three years ago on that same subject. So they'rea little bit more accountable and it's a bit easier now to search for that.
But certainly the key to what could be called investigative journalismbut could also be called just good, professional journalism, is havingtime. (Peacock:2000) Individuals
There are two questions that investigative researchers should askthemselves before conducting research on an individual: first is therea substantial case for undertaking research on that particularindividual, or is the research motivated by nothing more than merecuriosity? And the second question should be: is this the rightindividual to be researching, or is there another individual (or others)relevant to this piece of investigative research who should bescrutinised? David Northmore in Lifting the Lid (London. Wellington House.
1996.pp 77) Individuals provide colour and context of investigative stories. Electoral rolls, digitised telephone indexes professional associations and even university records can add to the public knowledge of individuals' private activities. Information can be drawn from hotlinked sites or any of the many professional information gathering EG Profnet Global (http://www.profnet.com/america.html) can supply reporters queries about individuals with information from universities, corporations, government agencies, NGO's and PR agencies. The group also maintains an international "experts" data base.
Email interviews can be directed through lists such as the Address Directory of Politicians of the world which claims addresses for the monarchs, presidents and prime ministers of 196 countries. (http://www.trytel.com/~aberdeen/) Businesses
Businesses play a critical yet sometimes unreported role in the political process.
Business writer, Brian Toohey, said that corporate assumptions had infiltrated government and opposition policies. Understanding business interests was critical to understanding many government decisions. (Toohey: 2000) Why investigate business? According to Steve Weinberg businesses enjoy a First, private businesses are beneficiaries of government assistance,including industrial development bonds, tax forgiveness or deferral,research grants, depreciation allowances and direct subsidies. As aresult, taxpayers everywhere have a monetary interest. Second,taxpayers' lives are influenced when they buy or the government buysgoods and services of shoddy quality or at inflated prices. Third, manycitizens and governments invest in corporate stocks and bonds, givingthem a stake in management performance. Fourth, businesses, throughlobbying and campaign contributions, influence legislative andexecutive branch policymaking, often behind closed doors.
Steve Weinberg in The Reporter's Handbook: An investigators'sGuide to Documents and Techniques. (New York: St Martin's Press.
1996. pp279.
Corporate sites flourish on the web. Company records, annual reports, major transactions and share releases were frequently available in government agency sites (EG:the Australian Investment and Securities Commission). Major Stock exchanges such as those in London, Hong Kong, New York and Sydney offered information and Bloombergs, which aims to be the "definitive business news service" claims that "there is no better way to understand perceptions of politics, policy, business and finance than by visiting the markets every day". (Winkler and Wilson: 1998 p 76).
Bloombergs operate a PC based, international, interactive business news service delivered in text , audio and television.
Databases
Data bases are now used in several ways by most US dailies. Formost, the old paper "morgue" of clipped stories has been replaced by acomputerised library in which the paper's own stories are stocked.
Second, commerical data bases are routinely searched by reportersseeking various kinds of background information. Third, somenewspapers construct their own databases on specialisedtopics.Finally the analysis of the computerised records ofgovernment agencies has become increasingly common.
Margaret De Fleur. Computer Assisted Investigative Reporting. 1997.
Erlbaum Associates. New Jersey. p41.
Database analysis, or Computer Assisted Reporting, can provide statistics an overview to background a story, indicating how important it might be in the general state of things. The challenge for investigative reporters is to find accurate and appropriate data and use it in ways that a general audience can understand and relate Computer Assisted Reporting takes records from government agencies, making use of federal or state versions of freedom of information legislation, deciphering coding documentation, transferring compactly stored data into software (spreadsheets or statistical packages) and using statistical procedures to analyze the information to CAR usually requires training in spreadsheet construction and journalists applying this technique frequently need the support of specialist researchers and librarians.
CAR works on deadline if you remember computers don't have todrive the story. Computers can enhance the story. View the computeras another tool --one that help you find information or do quickanalysis on deadline. (Roberts: 1999) Conclusion
Journalists are presumed to play a critical role in the democratic process. Yet politics can become a scripted event where spectacle can overwhelm substance. Spin merchants may seek to create a series of television friendly vignettes, where critical questions are discouraged and performances are enhanced. Journalists can then become seen as minor players in the same unfolding drama they are attempting to This blurring of such roles is evident both in domestic political reporting and the coverage of international events. During the Hong Kong handover, more than five thousand members of the international press were screened by government public relations controllers, security checked, balloted to even enter events, and mostly denied the opportunity to ask questions; giving them little alternative to a “press release reality”. A former news editor of the Far Eastern Economic Review suggested that such reporters might as well have been in South America when it came to the quality of eye witness coverage of the handover.(Knight/Nakano: 1999. p162.) But should this process necessarily reduce reporters to being little more than reviewers? Should journalism practitioners explore new methods of news gathering; ones which are beyond the reach of the spin merchants seeking to dominate The Internet may provide alternatives here for pressed reporters. The computers and modems which they increasingly use to file their stories from field, might just as easily be used for news gathering. Online investigative reporting could then offer a more substantial solution to contrived press release realities.
The Internet is already shaping the ways journalists communicate, construct their stories, publish their material and interact with their audiences.
Time remains a critical factor in the creation of quality journalism. Reporters can be expected to continue to strive to beat deadlines and competitors, allowing little margin for reflection. The web however, presents journalists with new opportunities to offer more than mere reviews of official media releases. In Australia, political correspondents would if they chose to do so, be able to look beyond the in house intrigues seen to dominate national affairs. They might not find it necessary to bludgeon ignorant politicians in cock pit interviews. In Hong Kong, local reporters might find it more fruitful to abandon traditional door stops and staged interviews to investigate the businesses behind the leaders who control the former British colony.
Certainly, the international correspondents who visited the SAR for the handover to China in 1997, might have better served their publics by looking behind the carefully If they do so, they might choose alternatives to press release realities.
Bibliography
De Fleur, Margaret. Computer Assisted Investigative Reporting. 1997. Erlbaum Ettema, James, Glasser, Theodore. Custodians of Conscience: Investigative Journalism and Public Virtue. Columbia University Press. New York. 1998.
Gaines, William Investigative Reporting for Print and Broadcast Nelson-Hall Hastings, Max. "Introduction", Hudson, Roger. (ed) William Russell: Special Correspondent of The Times. Folio Society. London. 1995.
Kingston, Margot. Off the Rails: the Pauline Hanson trip. Allen&Unwin. Sydney, Knight, Alan and Nakano, Yoshiko, Reporting Hong Kong: the Foreign Press and the Handover. Curzon. London. 1999.
Moschovitis et al. A History of the Internet. ABC-CLO Books Santa Barbara. 1999.
Randall, David The Universal Journalist . Pluto Press. London. 1996.
Simons, Margaret. Fit to Print: Inside the Canberra Press Gallery. UNSW Press.
Walraff , Gunther. The Undesirable Journalist, Pluto Press, London, 1977.
Weinberg, Steve. The Reporter's Handbook: An investigators's Guide to Documents and Techniques. St Martin's Press. New York. 1996.
Winkler, Matthew and Wilson, David, The Bloomberg Way: a guide for reporters and editors. Bloomberg News. 1998.
Articles/Papers
Drudge, Matt. 2.6.1998."Anyone with a Modem can report on the world." National http://www.frontpagemag.com/archives/drudge/drudge.htm Hong Kong Journalists Association. "HKJA launches campaign for open Knight, Alan. "The Future of the Media in Hong Kong and China: the responsibilities of journalism educators under one country two systems" The East West Centre Conference for Journalists. Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents Club. 15.11.97.
Mitchell, Chris “Why the southern media got One Nation so wrong”, The Brisbane Roberts. J " Quick CAR; you can do it in an hour…if you are prepared" 1999 Freedom Forum Technology Conference for Educators. February 28. March 3, 1999.
Interviews
Hoyt, Shaun. Researcher, journalist, PR. Washington (email) May 2000.
Garret, Kirsten. Executive Producer, Background Briefing. Sydney. January 2000.
Sharp, David. Sydney. November 1999.
Toohey, Brian. Business writer and columnist. Sydney/Rockhampton. March 2000.
Peacock, Matthew. Poliitical reporter Sydney/Rockhampton. April 2000.
Wilkinson, Marian. Author, investigative journalist. Sydney/Rockhampton. March Websites:
Address Directory of Politicians of the World :http://www.trytel.com/~aberdeen/ Agence France Press: http://www.afp.com/english/ Association of Investigative Journalists: http://www.aij-uk.com/ Centre for Investigative Reporters: http://www.muckraker.org/ Dateline Hong Kong: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/2365/ Drudge Report: http://www.drudgereport.com/ International Consortium of Investigative Journalists: http://www.icij.org/ Investigative Reporters and Editors: http://www.ire.org Philippine Center [sic] for Investigative Journalism: http://www.pcij.org.ph/

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