ABSTRACT
This chapter applies the book’s definition of watchdog reporting to prestigious journalism awards in three countries to see how investigative journalism has changed this century. Content analyses of award-winning watchdog reporting in the United States, Britain, and Australia find that cross-media collaborations are increasing in number and winning awards. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalism’s (ICIJ) transnational collaborations that reported the Panama and Paradise Papers are one of several examples of watchdog reporting that have had an impact on society by redressing government laws and practices. The chapter includes interviews with investigative journalists from leading outlets such as the Boston Globe, ProPublica, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Guardian, the ICIJ, and Australia’s ABC and Fairfax Media to understand the societal outcomes of collaborative investigative journalism. The chapter concludes that data journalism is becoming more prevalent and that traditional media outlets continue to play a vital role in producing investigative journalism that delivers democratic accountability. However, there are also big challenges, like the rise in fake news and falling public trust in media in this century. This chapter argues that traditional media’s evidence-based reporting provides a crucial counterexample to the virulent spread of fake news that might help restore lost public confidence in the news media.
