ABSTRACT
This chapter explores geo-cultural, linguistic, economic and technological factors among those who adopt the title of ‘journalist’ and a range of their work roles. It is an ontological discussion at one end but an intensely pragmatic one at the other because normally there is money involved. For those who aspire to the more culturally elite job title ‘investigative journalist’, risk is also involved, derived mostly from the presence of money but also from the presence of power and that twenty-first-century creation, the social licence to operate. The journalist’s livelihood depends on the social licence to operate in at least two ways: asking questions (an investigative function) and publishing answers (a business function). But the extent to which where the questions are asked and published influences who may ask and publish is not yet sufficiently researched, even though it has become code for whether or not the people ‘asking’ and ‘publishing’ may adopt the title ‘journalists’ or indeed ‘investigative journalists’. And on that location question rests so much: audience acceptance of the journalism product, including social media; training and professional formation of the journalists, including linguistic issues such as question and response phrasing and turn-taking; political recognition of the editorial process; and financial viability of the participants and their organisations.
