Journalism.co.uk Editors' Blog » investigative journalism

Huffington Post: Early signs of success for citizen journalism investigation

Judith Townend — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 09:13:14 +0000

The Huffington Post claims that one of its first investigative projects shows evidence of a ‘new alliance between professional reporters and citizens who have a high interest or expertise in a particular topic’:

“Several weeks ago, as one of our first investigative projects, we set out to explore how insurance companies decide which claims to approve or deny. Regulators, lawmakers and policy makers seem to be in the dark about that important aspect of the health care system, since insurance companies generally are not required to disclose their rules, methods or records about claims. Investigative Fund reporter Danielle Ivory wrote about this lack of available data and invited citizen journalists to help us investigate. Hundreds of people volunteered. And they’ve already helped us extend and deepen our journalism. Many have volunteered personal tales about their dealings with insurers. Others are health professionals and insurance insiders with direct experience in the claims process.”

Full post at this link…

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#Tip of the day from Journalism.co.uk – mining the ‘hidden web’

Laura Oliver — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 09:00:11 +0000

Online research: Website Help Me Investigate has provided an information-packed guide on mining the 'hidden web' for research and ways to track court rulings in the UK. Tipster: Laura Oliver.

To submit a tip to Journalism.co.uk, use this link - we will pay a fiver for the best ones published.

Audio: Paul Foot Award winner Ian Cobain on investigative journalism

Laura Oliver — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:43:27 +0000

Last night Guardian senior reporter Ian Cobain took the 2009 Paul Foot Award for campaigning journalism for his investigation into Britain’s involvement in the torture of terror suspects detained overseas.

Speaking at the Private Eye and Guardian sponsored award, Eye editor Ian Hislop said investigative reporting had come under threat from both the recession and some key legal actions in the last year:

“[Investigative reporting] needs encouraging for obvious reasons, particularly in a recession: it’s difficult; it’s slow; it’s expensive; it’s risky. There’s no advertising. There are very few local newspapers. People are more interested in the death of the dinner party as a subject to fill a paper.”

Journalism.co.uk spoke to Cobain after the awards ceremony to find out his views on the future of investigative journalism:

And how he selects his subjects:

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Big Brother Watch: How an investigative journalist lost his job because of the UK’s libel system

Laura Oliver — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:16:41 +0000

Fascinating post from journalist Willard Foxton, until recently in charge of investigative title Chambers Report, on how the threat of libel caused him to lose his job.

Foxton ran a story on a Middle East branch of a British law firm, whose expansion had gone ‘catastrophically’ wrong. Despite countless interviews, multiple sources and an acceptance of truth from the firm, the title was still issued with a writ by the individual at the centre of the story – the only person Foxton had not asked if it was true (as part of the Reynolds defence) for fear of an injunction against publication.

“[I]n this case, the evidence was so strong (right down to senior people referring off the record to this individual as ‘the worst person we have ever hired’), I felt totally confident that we were safe,” writes Foxton.

“I was wrong. Really, really quite wrong.”

The cost of defending the legal action – and the potential cost of losing – were too much for the publisher: the magazine was closed and Foxton fired.

“It’s not just the publisher who could get sued either – because of the state of our libel laws, our distributors, our internet host, everyone even connected to us or the toxic-but-true article could be sued.

“He [my employer] sat me down in his office, told me he respected me as a journalist – respected me so much, in fact that he wants me to keep writing for his publishing firm – but said that libel scared him far too much to take risks.

“So there you go. A rich man in the emirates launches a libel writ against a UK publication for writing true things, and the publication gets shut down. I lost my job; the journalist who wrote the story received a written warning about his conduct. Why? Because we uncovered and exposed the truth.”

Full post at this link…

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#FollowJourn: @newsbrooke/investigative journalist

Judith Townend — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:03:37 +0000

#FollowJourn: Heather Brooke

Who? Investigative journalist and writer, best known for her campaigning work using Freedom of Information legislation.

What? Tirelessly campaigned for transparency over MPs’ expenses before it was a hot topic, and author of ‘Your Right To Know’.

Where? At her site, Your Right to Know or on Twitter.

Contact? Heather (at) yrtk.org.

Just as we like to supply you with fresh and innovative tips every day, we’re recommending journalists to follow online too. They might be from any sector of the industry: please send suggestions (you can nominate yourself) to judith or laura at journalism.co.uk; or to @journalismnews.

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voiceofsandiego.org: San Diego-Union editor launches non-profit investigative project

Laura Oliver — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:26:51 +0000

Lorie Hearn, a senior editor at the Union-Tribune, is leaving the title to oversee The Watchdog Institute, which will offer ‘data-driven investigative journalism’, according to this voiceofsandiego.org report.

The venture will be supported through donations and grants and will operate independently from the Union-Tribune.

Exclusive parties, such as the Union-Tribune, will have first access to stories generated by the institute, which will then be made available to other media organisations.

Full post at this link…

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Online Journalism Blog: Help Me Investigate update

Judith Townend — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 09:36:19 +0000

Following news that the Help Me Investigate (HMI) project will receive funding from 4iP and Screen West Midlands, Paul Bradshaw updates on the project.

The most important thing about the ‘platform for crowdsourcing investigative journalism’ is that it ‘enables users to mobilise support behind that question; and to pursue it,’ writes its founder.

“HMI attempts to address the biggest issue facing journalism: how do we save the good stuff? The persistent slow-brewed journalism that was previously subsidised (if you were lucky) by more commercially friendly instant journalism, but which stands to lose most as commercial content becomes disaggregated and reaggregated, and audiences and their activity measurable.”

Full post at this link…

Also see interview with Paul Bradshaw at this link.

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Reason Magazine: Can PRs take on investigative journalism?

Laura Oliver — Fri, 22 May 2009 07:41:01 +0000

As the number of investigative journalists and the resources to work on such projects reportedly dwindles, Tim Cavanaugh asks if this work can be supplemented by public relations professionals.

“[T]hough it’s considered wise to believe the contrary, these communications types are not constructing all these news items entirely (or even mostly) by lying. Flackery requires putting together credible narratives from pools of verifiable data. This activity is not categorically different from journalism. Nor is the teaching value that flackery provides entirely different from that of journalism: Most of the content you hear senators and congressmen reading on C-SPAN is stuff flacks provided to staffers,” writes Cavanaugh.

Full story at this link…

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MediaShift: “Collaboration the key to future of investigative journalism”

Judith Townend — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 10:33:00 +0000

Wonderfully comprehensive notes from MediaShift’s Mark Glaser, reporting on a panel about investigative journalism at the Logan Symposium at UC Berkley.

“The panel was lively, and included a lot of optimism for the future of investigative journalism despite the business cratering for newspapers and their investigative journos,” he says.

Check out his post for comments from host Lowell Bergman, and David Fanning of PBS Frontline, Esther Kaplan of the Nation Institute, Bill Keller of the NY Times, Chuck Lewis at American University, Robert Rosenthan of the Center for Investigative Reporting, and Buzz Woolley, chairman of the board and primary funder of Voice of San Diego.

Full story at this link…

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Metaprinter: Huffington Post launches non-profit investigative project

Laura Oliver — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 09:11:35 +0000

Huffington Post Investigative Fund will be funded by the HuffPo and The Atlantic Philanthropies with The American News Project folded into the initiative.

The fund will also involve City University of New York journalism students in investigative work.

Full post at this link…

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