Investigative Journalism Education Consortium (https://ijec.org/tag/research/)
The Global Investigative Journalism Conference, scheduled for September 19-22, 2023 in Gothenberg, Sweden, will again feature an academic research track. Journalism professors and researchers worldwide are invited to submit research paper abstracts highlighting trends, challenges, teaching methodologies, new developments and best practices in investigative and data journalism.
The Northeastern University School of Journalism and Comm Studies Dept is hiring an investigative/ data-oriented faculty member. The position is open rank, which means anywhere on the tenure-track to tenured spectrum.
Many practitioners date the beginning of computer-assisted reporting and data journalism to 1952 when the CBS network in the United States tried to use experts with a mainframe computer to predict the outcome of the presidential election.
That’s a bit of a stretch, or perhaps it was a false beginning because they never used the data for the story. It really wasn’t until 1967 that data analysis started to catch on.
While the U.S. journalism and its media community have been shocked by the murders of the newsroom staff of the Capital-Gazette in Annapolis, Maryland, the attacks were the latest manifestation of the growing violence, harassment and hostility toward U.S. and international journalists.
This research tracks the studies, causes and commentary on the prevalence and rise of the threats, and the connections to social media and the current political environment.
We are pleased to present this collection of research papers submitted for the sessions of the academic track at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference 2017 in Johannesburg. Except for two papers, all research was presented at the conference by the authors and you can find additional material for some of their presentation at the conference’s Tipsheet Page.
This is a research paper that was presented at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference 2017 Academic Track, which IJEC organized and covered.
Paulette Desormeaux Parra discusses TPA, a teaching method she developed in Chile based on her own experience as a reporter and what she learned at the academic track of the 2015 Global Investigative Journalism Conference.
“This article examines an innovative method that has proved to be consistently successful at teaching investigative journalism to undergraduates in Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. With a practical approach to knowledge and learning, this method of teaching has enabled students to systematically produce relevant investigative journalism stories, focusing on data, access to open sources and Freedom of Information Act requests.”
This is a research paper that was accepted for but not presented at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference 2017 Academic Track, which IJEC organized and covered.
Twange Kasoma of Radford University and Greg Pitts of Middle Tennessee State explain the complex political situation of Zambian media and the challenges this creates for investigative reporting.
“Raphael (2005) is blunt when noting that, “Investigative journalism will not survive without sustaining the web of relationships with government that ensures that this more important kind of news for democracy is funded, distributed, and protected from extinction…” (2015, p. 245). This paper examines the state of investigative reporting in Zambia through a series of in-depth interviews with working journalists and editors.”
This is a research paper that was accepted but not presented at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference 2017 Academic Track, which IJEC organized and covered.
Anastasia Valeeva from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford researched the culture of data reporting in Russian investigative outlets through interviews, case studies and qualitative content analysis.
“In this study, I wanted to show how open data is used for investigative storytelling in Russia, and what are the barriers that prevent journalists from embracing it. To answer these questions, the study draws on a combination of semi-structured interviews with investigative journalists and open data experts, case studies, and qualitative content analysis. In the final section, I discuss the existing barriers and provide guidelines on how to make investigative data journalism stronger in Russia.”
This is a research paper that was presented at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference 2017 Academic Track, which IJEC organized and covered.
Guided by the media watchdog theory of Lichtenberg, George Mwita analyses the challenges investigative journalism faces in Tanzania and proposes solutions.
“This research paper aims to identify and document the challenges – ‘Sharks’ facing investigative journalists in Tanzania and probable mitigation strategies ‘Ways to swim with the sharks’ as we focus in conducting journalism that involves not just relaying information but entails an in-depth research, using impact-driven approach in order to reach accurate conclusions that are unbiased and untainted by the beliefs or views of the investigative reporter.”
This is a research paper that was presented at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference 2017 Academic Track, which IJEC organized and covered.
In this paper, M. C. Rasmin, Director of the Sri Lanka Development Journalist Forum; Dr. S. Raguram, University of Jaffna; and Mohamed Azad, Country Manager, IWPR, Sri Lanka provide an overview of investigative journalism in Sri Lanka. As a case study they look at a community-centered video investigative project.
“Investigative journalism in its true sense plays a key role in maintaining accountability and transparency on issues affecting people in general. The recent studies conducted by International Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR, 2017), International Research Exchange Board (IREX, 2017,) International Media Support (IMS, 2017) and Free Media Movement (FMM) observed that investigative journalism in Sri Lanka is growing slowly while facing a systemic challenge, as a result of weak media pluralism, lack of editorial independence, political and commercial orientation of media ownership, insecurity, impunity and a lack of enabling policy environment etc.”