Investigative Reporting From Premise To Publication

This book gives readers the confidence they need to handle any investigative reporting assignment and to produce demonstrated results. Its step-by-step progression covering the entire investigative process will help them stay on track to complete stories of any size. The book answers relevant questions such as "Where can I find a story?" "What do I do when a source won't talk?" "How can I find the right documents to support my story?" "How can I present this story online?" and "How can a spreadsheet keep it all from falling apart?" Investigative Reporting contains full stories and timely examples from both professional and student reporters. Each chapter concludes with sequential "Big Story" assignments to help readers research, write and publish their own investigative stories. Web links to online resources (including public records information, computer-assisted reporting techniques and interactive investigative story examples) will help readers move smoothly and successfully through an investigative story or team reporting project, whether for print, broadcast or the Web.

Investigative Reporting provides a step-by-step approach for tackling any investigative story, teaching reporters the skills they need to overcome common obstacles during investigative work. Experienced reporter and instructor, Marcy Burstiner offers readers guidance on how to identify story ideas, craft a premise, seek out human sources and documents, file public records requests, and analyze data. Including tips and advice from student and professional reporters, this comprehensive textbook also offers strategies for conducting interviews and for organizing information into a compelling story or series of stories that engage the reader through multimedia storytelling. Highlights of the new edition include: Updated examples and anatomies of news stories. Extensive discussion of data reporting and analysis for investigative projects. Guidance on how to request public records using state public records acts and how to appeal denials of public records requests. Instruction on the use of free, collaborative tools for organizing, sharing and analyzing information. A new chapter on creating a fact-checking system. A section on careers in investigative journalism. Interviews with student investigative reporters from colleges across the country, with professional investigative reporters from non-profit news organizations, emerging journalistic outlets and advocacy publications, and with staff and freelance reporters who produce stories for mainstream radio, television, print and online news organizations.

Responding to mounting calls to decenter and decolonize journalism, The Routledge Companion to Journalism in the Global South examines not only the deep-seated challenges associated with the historical imposition of Western journalism standards on constituencies of the Global South but also the opportunities presented to journalists and journalism educators if they choose to partake in international collaboration and education. This collection returns to fundamental questions around the meaning, value, and practices of journalism from alternative methodological, theoretical, and epistemological perspectives. These questions include: What really is journalism? Who gets to, and who is qualified to, define it? What role do ethics play? What are the current trends, challenges, and opportunities for journalism in the Global South? How is news covered, reported, written, and edited in non-Western settings? What can journalism players living and working in industrialized markets learn from their non-Western colleagues and counterparts, and vice versa? Contributors challenge accepted "universal" ethical standards while showing the relevance of customs, traditions, and cultures in defining and shaping local and regional journalism. Showcasing some of the most important research on journalism in the Global South and by journalists based in the Global South, this companion is key reading for anyone researching the principles and practices of journalism from a de-essentialized perspective.

The Student Newspaper Survival Guide has been extensively updated to cover recent developments in online publishing, social media, mobile journalism, and multimedia storytelling; at the same time, it continues to serve as an essential reference on all aspects of producing a student publication. Updated and expanded to discuss many of the changes in the field of journalism and in college newspapers, with two new chapters to enhance the focus on online journalism and technology Emphasis on Web-first publishing and covering breaking news as it happens, including a new section on mobile journalism Guides student journalists through the intricate, multi-step process of producing a student newspaper including the challenges of reporting, writing, editing, designing, and publishing campus newspapers and websites Chapters include discussion questions, exercises, sample projects, checklists, tips from professionals, sample forms, story ideas, and scenarios for discussion Fresh, new, full color examples from award winning college newspapers around North America Essential reading for student reporters, editors, page designers, photographers, webmasters, and advertising sales representatives

Patterson provides an insight into what happens when an investigative project is undertaken and what roles editors, publishers, and newspapers themselves play. Analyzing six recent, widely-acclaimed investigative stories, the book answers the questions: How did the idea for the story originate? How was the information found? How were the stories written and edited? And, what were the results of the investigation? The author considers ethical dilemmas as well, such as the unattributed sources, the use of deception and misrepresentation, and how reporters must keep personal feelings from interfering with their work. This story of investigative reporting is told through interviews with reporters, editors, and publishers involved in these award-winning series. ISBN 0-3231-06058-0: $28.50.

This important book defines what investigative reporting is and what qualities it requires. Drawing on the experience of many well-known journalists in the field, the author identifies the skills, common factors and special circumstances involved in a wide variety of investigations. It examines how opportunities for investigations can be found and pursued, how informants can be persuaded to yield needed information and how and where this information can be checked. It also stresses the dangers and legal constraints that have to be contended with and shows real life examples such as the Cook Report formula, the Jonathan Aitken investigation and the Birmingham Six story. David Spark, himself a freelance writer of wide experience, examines how opportunities for investigations can be found and pursued, how informants can be persuaded to yield needed information and how and where this information can be checked. He also stresses the dangers and legal constraints that have to be contended with and shows investigators at work in two classic inquiries: · The mysterious weekend spent in Paris by Jonathan Aitken, then Minister of Defence Procurement · The career of masterspy Kim Philby Investigative Reporting looks at such fields for inquiry as company frauds (including those of Robert Maxwell), consumer complaints, crime, police malpractice, the intelligence services, local government and corruption in Parliament and in overseas and international bodies. The author believes that the conclusions that emerge from this far-reaching survey are of value not only in investigative journalism, but to practitioners in all branches of reporting.