7 Journalistic Investigation

For quite a long time, the concept of “journalistic investigation” in the domestic press and in the science of journalism was perceived as a synonym for journalistic research of reality. And in this regard, it meant collecting material related to the analysis of various problems of public life, the preparation of speeches primarily in the genres of an analytical article, essay, feuilleton. And only with the beginning of the restructuring of society, the understanding of investigative journalism, which in the West already signified a certain genre of journalistic publications, came into use in domestic journalism.

Comparing the modern journalistic investigation with the publication of some other genre, for example, with an article, correspondence, essay, etc., it is possible to find features in it that are related to these genres. Still, a full-blooded journalistic investigation is difficult to confuse with some other genre. The peculiarity of the journalistic investigation as a special genre is determined by the qualities arising from the influence of the subject, the purpose, the methods of obtaining information, the characteristics of the presentation of the material received.

The subject of a journalistic investigation is usually the most “screaming” negative phenomenon, which is impossible not to notice (these are, first of all, various crimes, “out of the ordinary cases”, events that capture the attention of society). If such negative phenomena are the result of certain actions of some people or their incompetence, negligence, etc., then these people, as a rule, take all the necessary measures to hide the roots, the causes of what is happening.

The purpose of investigative journalism, first of all, is to identify these roots, the causes, to discover hidden springs that triggered a mechanism that gave rise to a very specific result. The main question asked by an investigative journalist is: why? Equally important for this genre is another question: how? Moreover, the answer to the second question in the investigation usually takes the lion's share of time (during the investigation) and place (in the publication itself).

Since the circumstances of all kinds of crimes or secret actions are often carefully hidden, this, of course, makes the investigation very difficult. Because of this, a journalist may resort to methods of obtaining information that are related to him, on the one hand, with the investigator, the inspector of criminal investigation, and on the other, with the research scientist, if we are talking about historical investigations connected with loud cases of days gone by. This relationship is manifested primarily in the scrupulousness of studying the connection of phenomena, when attention is paid to every little thing that can shed light on what is happening, to bring the journalist to the right track.

Following this trail, he often leads the reader, the listener, the viewer. However, unlike a literary and artistic detective story, in which, as the investigator unwinds a tangled tangle of events, new characters appear on the surface, in the journalistic investigation people with whom the journalist, who gave him information, are often not even mentioned. For obvious reasons, the confidentiality of information sources becomes very often unavoidable, while in publications of other genres the need to keep information sources secret does not usually have a special meaning.

An indispensable feature of a number of investigative journalism is often the presence of the author himself in the series of characters in the stories they are talking about in publications. Talking about how the investigation went, what obstacles stood in the way, what discoveries, actions, emotions it accompanied, the author thereby makes the investigation process vivid, impressive, which clearly distinguishes this genre from other genres, for example, articles. it is necessary to take care of the evidence of the “evidence” on which he builds his speech. It is known that the most valuable are reliable information obtained from circles close to the subject of the investigation (from ex-wives, friends, employees).

A journalist can get some of the necessary initial information from open sources - newspapers, magazines, television and radio programs, libraries, computer databases, the Internet. In any case, the initial information may be useful, for example, it may tell you where to look for government and other documents (in which ministry, department, institution). But, of course, the bulk of specific information directly related to the subject of research can be obtained as a result of complex and painstaking work with existing sources of information included in the situation under study.

In the course of the investigation, the journalist resorts to a variety of data acquisition methods - observations, interviews, document analysis, etc. One of the most productive methods is “change of profession”. Of course, collecting the most serious, most carefully hidden information can be fully only law enforcement. The investigation thus involves close contact of the journalist with these bodies or with their individual employees. How it will be, formal or personal, depends on the circumstances in which the investigation is conducted. As a rule, the police, the prosecutor's office are not interested in disclosing the information received, since this may adversely affect the detection of the crime. In addition, there may be other reasons for the plan, for example, the reluctance of the authorities to “share fame” with journalists or the interest of officials in a certain outcome of an investigation, in some cases - corruption of law enforcement agencies.

“A quick guide to investigative journalism” by American journalist Michael Berlin: “No stolen documents. No charge for information. No illegal entry into private territory, except in cases where the journalist is willing to bear judicial responsibility for it. And the most important thing is not to disclose the source of information. ”

The latter circumstance assumes that the journalist will keep all the documents received by him (letters, magnetic records, photographs, etc.) in very safe places. Under no circumstances should they be handed over to the authorities, unless this is obtained from the people who have placed these documents at the disposal of the journalist.

When conducting an investigation, a journalist may receive a sufficient number of bright negative facts concerning the person whose criminal activity interested him. These facts may be the most diverse, significantly deviating from the main direction that underlay the investigation.

Investigating the corrupt ties of a government official, a journalist can learn that he is lying, drinking, beating his wife and children or using drugs. Such facts should not affect the content of the investigation. The author should tell the audience about the main thing - about the corruption links of the official. It is they who are the subject of his speech, they must be thoroughly considered and proved. As for the other unsightly facts, they can be the subject of a completely different speech of a journalist (perhaps a completely different author).

An investigative journalist should always be prepared for the fact that the persons he talks about in his publication will be defended, including through court. It is therefore very good if the author of the investigation has in stock, besides those already published, other facts, documents, evidence confirming the correctness of his conclusions and statements.