Journ. 132: Prof. Craig: Investigative Reporting Project
Summary
The investigative reporting project counts for 20 percent of your course grade, and is due Tuesday, May 16. You will write an in-depth story of 1800-2500 words (roughly seven to eight double-spaced pages), not including any references, tables, or other additional material. The story should follow one of the following approaches:
- Expose wrongdoing within a company, organization or institution using your own primary research. Don't approach this from a one-sided point of view — speak to as many sources on different sides of the issue as possible to supplement your documentary research.
- Look into the ownership of a local news outlet, TV station or radio station, then find out what other companies are owned by this one or linked to it in some way. Look at audiences, boards of directors, advertisers, and anything else that might offer clues as to potential influence on the company's entertainment and/or news product.
- Explore the background of a prominent citizen and examine the positive and/or negative elements of that person's past that shed light upon his/her current status. This is often particularly effective with someone who has recently come to prominence and whose past is not well known, but you are not limited to such people.
- Examine an important company, organization or institution that does not have a high public profile despite its power or significance. Use your own research to shed light on the background, events and connections that have allowed that organization to achieve its position of importance.
If you have an idea for a project that doesn't conveniently fit into any of these formats, please feel free to check it out with me. In each case, use some of the resources we've examined in class to identify potential story topics, then to compile facts to lead your investigation to conclusions. Also, if you'd like to write a story and sidebar instead of one long story, that's fine, but the two should combine for 2000-3500 words. We'll discuss sidebar stories in more detail in the coming class meetings.
Background
The act of being a daily news reporter involves first the quick gathering and confirming of facts and quotes, then the assembling of that information into a story that gives readers the essential elements of an event. Journalists gather all the details — the traditional "who," "what," "when" and "where" — and crank them out into daily stories.But what about the big picture, the "how" and the "why" of an event, condition, issue or other topic? Beyond this, what about stories that aren't best explained through day-to-day fact gathering? While reporters always gather facts, they are often too busy to thoroughly research a topic over days, weeks or months. In short, while daily journalism lends itself to covering stories, it often does not allow time for truly investigating stories.
The Assignment
It is often said that what separates investigative reporting from daily reporting is actual research as opposed to simple fact gathering. As such, the investigative reporting project is as much about research as about writing. You will be expected to perform your own original research, not simply base the paper on someone else's work. This doesn't mean you can't cite a fact from another news article with proper attribution, just that the full report should represent your own work.Your story must include a list of sources, including names, e-mail addresses, phone numbers and/or other contact information. List these on a separate page at the end of your project. I will contact sources randomly to confirm their participation and evaluate your interview techniques. You must identify all sources in this assignment, even ones you don't want publicly known.
This assignment isn't necessarily about "digging dirt," but rather exposing something important or significant, informing readers about something they were likely not familiar with before.
Rules:
You will need to document all work thoroughly, keeping all original interview notes, audio recordings and/or files so you can produce them if necessary. Don't approach your work with your mind already made up about the outcome of the story — this is the sort of thing that leads to unbalanced, biased reporting, which will hurt you on this assignment and in the professional world. Research the topic as thoroughly as possible, and speak to as many people connected to the topic as possible.You are to turn in all elements of this assignment on time. Extensions will be granted only with an extremely good and well-documented reason (i.e. extreme emergency explained to Prof. Craig before the due date). Any unexcused papers turned in after class on the due date will not be accepted.
You are required to keep a copy of your assignment, either electronic or hard copy. You are also required to keep all your notes, research materials and rough drafts until the papers are returned. Both of these are to protect you in case of any question about plagiarism, duplication, fabrication or missing work. See the course syllabus supplement if you are unclear on what constitutes plagiarism and/or fabrication.
Most importantly, if you have any questions or problems whatsoever involving paper topics, research materials or methods, computer availability or anything else, please ask me before or after class or during office hours.
Investigative Journalism Websites:
These are some sites where you can see examples of investigative journalism and discussions of what it's all about.
- Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR)
- Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE)
- International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ)
- Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism
- Investigative Reporting Workshop (American University)
- The Pulitzer Prizes: Investigative Reporting
G O O D L U C K !