Issues in Journalism

Chapter 6: Monitor Power and Offer Voice to the Voiceless

ISSUES IN JOURNALISM

Investigative reporting  Coverage of

the Watergate scandal reinforced the need for investigative reporting as a necessary and critical tool to monitor power.

Watchdog role  Journalists must serve and an independent

monitor to power  Investigative reporting as a tool  But isn’t all good reporting investigative?  Overuse, pandering to audiences, (ratings)“faux watchdogism”  Public service role threatened by (page 141)

conglomeration/technology

Being a watchdog  “Today journalists continue to see the

watchdog role as central to their work.” (page 143)  …”keeps political leaders from doing things they shouldn’t do.”  Informing the public  Watchdog role is unique from other types of communication

Watchdog role  “Comfort the afflicted and afflict the

comfortable”  Connotations of liberal bias  It’s more complicated. Not just a watchdog of government, but of institutions, corporations, people and the process of power that influences daily life.  Gauging success and failures of the powerful

Three types of Investigative reporting

 Original investigative reporting uncovers

facts/activities unknown to the public.  Interpretative investigative reporting takes an approach that is analytical and thoughtful. Taking data and interpreting it to provide insight. Sometimes criticized as advocacy journalism.  Reporting on investigations involves taking government/academic/corporate studies and reporting the information.

Watchdog role weakened  Investigative reporting

changing from monitoring the powerful elite to more everyday issues.  Cult of personality (60 Minutes, Dateline)  Local TV news or newspapers purporting to be watchdogs but the real intent are rating/audience building.

Watchdog role  “The watchdog is unlike any other role” in journalism. (page 159)  Special skills, expensive, time-consuming enterprise  Efforts meet push back from the powerful  Is it worth it?

 Demands accuracy. Demands trained and dedicated journalists.  New investigative units (non-profit) cropping up

The rise of nonprofit watchdog journalism

The WikiLeaks controversy 

The release of hundreds of thousands of secret U.S. State Department cables and U.S. military communications by the website WikiLeaks.

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WikiLeaks shocks the world with the April 2010 release of U.S. Army helicopter attack on its website

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http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2010/04/video -wikileaks-obtains-footage-of-2007-us-armyhelicopter-attack-on-reuters-employees-children

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The New York Times account of the initial helicopter attack using information provided by the U.S. military.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/13/world/middleeas t/13iraq.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagew anted=prin

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The New York Times account after WikiLeaks went public

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/06/world/middleea st/06baghdad.html

Using WikiLeaks to 

http:// video. nytim es.co m/vid eo/201 1/01/2 6/mag azine/ 12480 69587 816/wi kileak s-thebackstory. html

monitor power

Pot-calling-kettle-black Department  Judith Miller’s

take on WikiLeaks 

http://crooksandliars.com/scarce/judi th-miller-criticizes-julian-assangenot

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For comparison’s sake, here’s what Miller once told Michael Massing in defense of her reporting (courtesy of Crooks and Liars):

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“[M]y job isn’t to assess the government’s information and be an independent intelligence analyst myself. My job is to tell readers of The New York Times what the government thought about Iraq’s arsenal.”