ABSTRACT
The root of every investigation is information, and the job of every investigative reporter is to find information, evaluate and analyse it, and communicate it in a way that informs and interests a wide range of people. The problem is finding the right kind of information from the myriad of sources and distribution media-the traditional print form, broadcasting, the Internet and electronic data services. Moreover it has to be recognised that information is not neutral: it is ideological. That is to say, as Stuart Hall argues, that because meaning is not given but produced, different kinds of meaning can be attached to the same events. The way that certain information is recurrently ‘read’ or signified is an ideological force, and the dominant means of social signification in the modern world is the mass media (Hall 1982). Journalists obtain their information from sources that want their interpretation of events to be the accepted one, which is not to say that it is false, but that it is presented in a context that gives credibility and legitimacy to their interpretation, while marginalising or delegitimising alternative constructions. This explains the rise of spin-doctors whose job is to peddle information to journalists in a selective manner that emphasises the angle they want and downplays others.
