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1 Professional definitions
2 Notable examples
3 See also
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links

Topics in Journalism
Professional Journalism Issues

News • Writing style • Ethics • Objectivity • Values • Attribution • Defamation • Editorial independence • Education • Other topics

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Genres

Advocacy • Citizen • Civic • Collaborative • Community • Database • Gonzo • Investigative • Literary • Muckraker • Narrative • New • Opinion • Special Interest^{[disambiguation needed]} • Peace • Visual • Watchdog

Social impact

Fourth Estate • Freedom of the press • Infotainment • Media bias • Public relations • Yellow journalism

News media

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Roles
Journalist •

Reporter • Editor • Columnist • Copy editor • Commentator • Photographer • Presenter • Meteorologist •

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Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, often involving crime, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years researching and preparing a report. Most investigative journalism is done by newspapers, wire services and freelance journalists. Practitioners sometimes use the terms "watchdog journalism" or "accountability reporting."

As part of an investigation, journalists make use of:

analysis of documents, such lawsuits and other legal documents, tax records, government reports, regulatory reports and corporate financial filings.
investigation of technical issues, including scrutiny of equipment and its performance
research into social and legal issues
subscription research sources such as LexisNexis
numerous interviews with on-the-record sources as well as, in some instances, interviews with anonymous sources (for example whistleblowers)
federal or state Freedom of Information Acts to get documents and data from government agencies.

Professional definitions

In The Reporter's Handbook: An Investigator's Guide to Documents and Techniques, Steve Weinberg defined investigative journalism as: Reporting, through one's own initiative and work product, matters of importance to readers, viewers or listeners. In many cases, the subjects of the reporting wish the matters under scrutiny to remain undisclosed. There are currently university departments for teaching investigative journalism. Conferences are conducted presenting peer reviewed research into investigative journalism.

De Burgh (2000) states that: "An investigative journalist is a man or woman whose profession it is to discover the truth and to identify lapses from it in whatever media may be available. The act of doing this generally is called investigative journalism and is distinct from apparently similar work done by police, lawyers, auditors and regulatory bodies in that it is not limited as to target, not legally founded and closely connected to publicity."