What is investigative journalism

Journalism is the practice of investigating and reporting events, issues and trends. The main intention of journalism is to provide the audience with reliable, accurate information. There are many different jobs in journalism but my main focus will be on investigative journalism.

                                                           Investigative journalism

A journalist will have to conduct a research and gather information on the topic before writing the actual article. The topic is usually one that someone else is trying to hide. You might say that journalists use three tools to gather information. They are; observation, interview and background check.

The goal of investigative journalism is to uphold a true and just democracy, to always tell the truth and hold those in power accountable.
You could say that investigative journalism includes these three things;

Uncover scandals. Aimed at detecting violations of laws, rules or norms of decency, by organisations or individuals.

Review of policies or functioning of government, businesses and other organisations.

Draw attention to social, economic, political and cultural trends. Aimed at detecting changes in society.

The most critical qualifications a investigative journalist can have is the urge to ask the question "why?" and the will to change the wrongs in today's society.

Margot Williams, a journalist at the National Public Radio in Washington DC, held a lecture on investigative journalism in Iceland on may 31st in 2012. Following the lecture she spread a document which contained numerous URLs that are useful on finding information about individuals and companies. You can click the link below to take a look at the document.

http://www.icij.is/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Vefsidur-Margot-Williams.pdf