ABSTRACT
There is no singular definition of investigative reporting. Additionally different expressions are used to talk about investigative reporting such as ‘muckraking’, ‘accountability reporting’, ‘exposure journalism’, ‘detective reporting’, and so forth. Chapter 2 explores the definitional question to answer what is meant by these varied terms. The aim of the chapter is to advance a working definition of investigative journalism. This is done through a review of investigative reporting’s past and draws on the work of scholars who have researched this question to date, such as British academic Hugo de Burgh; Australian academics Rodney Tiffen and Julianne Schultz; and US scholars James Ettema, Theodore Glasser, Sheila Coronel, and Brant Houston (Knight Foundation Chair in Investigative and Enterprise Reporting at the University of Illinois). The chapter maps key elements of investigative reporting and combines these with findings from original interviews with investigative reporters from different countries to arrive at an original working definition that is based on nine traits, including five essential elements. In doing so, it contests the view that all reporting is investigative. Rather, in this book I argue investigative journalism is a distinct reporting genre, although general news reporters do practice it. Concepts such as ‘public interest’, morality, objectivity, and journalistic ethics are brought into focus to further probe contemporary understandings of what is investigative journalism.
