Risky Business

Risky Business

Investigative reporting; are you getting the whole story? Is the reporter in charge agenda setting? Or have you been put into a situation where you are actually stunting and not doing real investigative reporting? These are a few reasons why investigative reporting is risky business.

 You may not have to put your life on the line, or travel far from home to do it, but investigative reporting takes a lot of work. It’s important to be persistent in getting the entire picture, which is difficult when you’re reporting on something that’s not entirely yours. Agenda setting, which is “the theory that the mass-news media have a large influence on audiences by their choice of what stories to consider newsworthy and how much prominence and space to give them”, is easily done and can go straight over your head if you’re not careful. Investigative reporters must have an eye for what is important and should definitely always know what’s going on in the world. Stunting is publishing faux investigative reports designed to generate ratings, and it is called stunting for a reason, it’s not real investigative reporting. It is reporting to make the company happy, not the reader.

There are also a few pitfalls to be aware of when choosing to do investigative reporting. First is becoming biased. Because investigative reporting has to do with searching out a single subject, and delving deeply into that subject, it can be easy to form an opinion or sway to a specific side. This is especially true in the instances of crime, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing.

Investigative journalists have come to find that to be a balanced journalist they must provide sufficient room for alternative views. This is a good rule to write by since there is always going to be some kind of human bias, this rule however allows for that because even if you have that bias you make sure that you’re allowing for the article to contain alternative views. Computer Assisted Reporting has also become a large tool for investigative journalists allowing them to verify the information they get from other sources. Both of these tips allow for the “Risky Business” of investigative reporting to remain in check and headed toward their top most important technique, getting the actual documents.