I don't even know if the joke in the title is funny... or even a joke. But this is the last blog of this semester so let's get into it and get it over with.
In journalism the news agenda is not set by the journalist; we do not decide what to write about. In investigative journalism though the point is that the story should not be on the agenda. For an example from WINOL look at a story from the start of my second year where Julie Cordier investigated how many Hampshire police officers had previous convictions. You can view the story on YouTube here but the important thing here is that police officers with convictions was not a topic on the agenda, it was just a story that Julie had basically made up and then used the system of FOI requests to back it up and get the information she needed to make the story work. Often, investigative journalism is close in form to gonzo or presenter led journalism. During the lecture, Chris gave us an example where this was the case with his book True Blue. It wasn't something on the news agenda that they went to investigate and it is presenter led or more likely gonzo. If you're still unsure about investigative journalism then it is important to remember the big things in the history of the form like Emile Zola's famous J'Accuse or the investigation into the convictions of the Birmingham Six. Miscarriages of justice are the things that journalists will most often look to investigate because the reasons behind them can often be very much in the public interest, a corrupt government, a conspiracy; all good journalism topics. It was good to have a lecture on this subject as it directly influenced my thoughts about my FYP which is on the Innocence Project. For people who haven't heard of it or if I haven't written about it before, the Innocence Project was started in America for prisoners on death row who were still pleading not guilty despite many trials and appeals. It eventually was transferred over here and now university courses (mainly in law) can take on cases from prisoners in the UK who are still imprisoned for crimes they claim they didn't commit.
Back to the lecture though and Chris then went on to talk about a lady who is a hero to journalists although you may not have heard of her. Before our newsroom got a revamp her picture was on the wall but her story is worth more than that. Veronica Guerin was a journalist in Ireland during 'the troubles' who began investigating the crime lords of Ireland when no one else would. It was when she began to investigate drug dealers that she began to receive several death threats; shots fired into her home, a gunman at the door, threats over the phone. Her murder was an attack on democracy and the real irony is that two days after her death she was due to speak at a conference in London where her topic was "Dying to Tell the Story: Journalists at Risk." It wasn't the first time a journalist had been killed while investigating a story and it won't be the last but Guerin's story is one that should inspire rather than deflate us. Her pioneering work almost certainly did more to highlight the issue of drug crime in Ireland and whilst it cost her her life, her work will never be forgotten.
FOI requests are not just for journalists and can be made by anybody, yes YOU unsuspecting reader who wasn't prepared for me to address them directly. Websites like whatdotheyknow.com allow you to browse and make your own requests which could be responded to if you ask in a particular way. The people on the end of those requests will do everything they can to avoid answering so you need to be specific and you need to be prepared for disappointment. Two reporters over the last semester of WINOL had a huge amount of FOI requests out, submitted over the summer and despite their hard work were unable to make any of them work and these are our best reporters. Sometimes you're not asking the right questions or the idea just isn't going to turn up anything interesting.
This might be my last blog for a while apart from the WINOL Critical Reflection which should be above so...
Until Next Time. Stay Classy Internet.
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