ISSUE

Spring 2008

21st Century Muckrakers

Watchdog reporting resides at the core of what journalism does. Its roots dig deeply into the common ground uniting the muckrakers’ unearthing of public and private scandals a century ago with what investigative reporters are illuminating today. Though reporting and distribution of this news is very different in the digital era, unfortunately the human conditions requiring press scrutiny are not. These include patterns of corruption and malfeasance among those holding powerful positions of public and private trust.

Articles

Features

Transparency Increases Credibility

A Web site and television show reveal how investigative journalists do their jobs.

Features

Fund for Investigative Journalism: Practices and Policies

As a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, the fund operates frugally so it can give out as many grants as possible. Its 12-member board of directors, composed of distinguished working journalists who…

Features

When a Few Dollars Make a Big Difference

In 1969, as the Vietnam War raged on, a dogged young reporter named Seymour Hersh thought he was onto something. He had learned that there might have been a massacre…

Features

Universities and Investigative Journalism

RELATED ARTICLES“Seeking New Ways to Nurture the Capacity to Report” – Charles Lewis“Watchdog Reporting: Exploring Its Myth”– Florence Graves“Squeezing Substance…

Features

Selling the Iraq War: Unearthing False Advertising

For the first time, five years after the start of the Iraq War, journalists and citizens can view what the most prominent Bush administration officials said publicly, juxtaposed against what…

Features

Seeking New Ways to Nurture the Capacity to Report

‘Without an independent news media, there is no credibly informed citizenry.’

Features

Good Journalism Can Be Good Business

‘Let’s not pull the plug on for-profit journalism just yet.’

Technology

Reporting Is Only Part of the Investigative Story

‘In “Billions Over Baghdad,” we knew that simply reporting the costs of the Iraq War in mind-numbing billions wasn’t good enough.’

Donald L. Barlett

Technology

Reporting With the Tools of Social Science

‘We had put the social scientists on notice that journalists increasingly would be competitors in their field.’

Stephen K. Doig

Technology

Revealing the Disinformation Industry

RELATED ARTICLE“Digital Journalism: Will It Work for Investigative Journalism?”– Barry SussmanWith complicated stories, a problem for reporters and editors always has been to wade through mounds of disinformation to get…

21st Century Muckrakers

Letter to the Editor

Journalist’s Trade

Publisher, Editor and Reporter

Looking back to the early 1900’s—to Ida Tarbell and S.S. McClure—offers valuable lessons for watchdog journalism in the 21st century.

Watchdog

The Press and the Presidency

‘President Bush was obsessed from the beginning of his administration with what he regarded as unjustified intrusions by the press.’

21st Century Muckrakers

Publisher, Editor and Reporter: The Investigative Formula

Looking back to the early 1900’s—to Ida Tarbell and S.S. McClure—offers valuable lessons for watchdog journalism in the 21st century.

21st Century Muckrakers

Watchdog Photo Gallery

Our visual journey moves from the late 19th and early 20th century muckraking era to the Watergate coverage of the early 1970’s, which swept into newsrooms a wave of young…

Watchdog

The Press and the Presidency: Silencing the Watchdog

‘President Bush was obsessed from the beginning of his administration with what he regarded as unjustified intrusions by the press.’

Journalist’s Trade

Redefining a Newspaper’s Watchdog Approach

On a soggy December morning, a hillside above a busy Oregon highway gave way, and a torrent of mud, rock and trees buried the road, destroyed homes, and smashed cars.…

Journalist’s Trade

Instilling a Watchdog Culture in the Newsroom

‘Watchdog work is not just about projects; it’s about an approach to beat coverage that should be reflected in daily and longer-form work.’

Features

Going Online With Watchdog Journalism

‘… investigative reporting itself is also on the cusp of major transformation ….’

Paul E. Steiger

Watchdog

Digital Records Reveal Corruption on Capitol Hill

The 2006 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting was awarded to the staffs of The San Diego Union-Tribune and Copley News Service, “with notable work by Marcus Stern and Jerry Kammer,”…

Watchdog

Determining the Reliability of a Key CIA Source

After his newspaper story exposed the CIA’s reliance on a con man to determine if Iraq had WMD, a journalist dug deeper to unravel the mystery.

Watchdog

Democracy Can Complicate the Job of Journalists

When a decade of conflict ended, ‘what many Nepali journalists did not anticipate was that the worst had yet to come.’

Dharma Adhikari

Watchdog

Decision-Making: A Visual Journey Inside the Iraq War

‘… it remains the job of journalists to do more than report the “stuff” that happens or bring to the public the “first rough draft of history.”’

Watchdog

Confronting Pressure From Donors

The following words are reprinted from a Nieman Reports article written by Aung Zaw, editor of The Irrawaddy, a magazine about Burma and Southeast Asian affairs located in Chiang Mai,…

Watchdog

Classified Documents: Secrecy vs. Citizenship

In the digital age, there is an appetite ‘for direct access to source documents.’

Steven Aftergood

Technology

Building a Toolbox for Precision Journalism

Want to add social science methods to your toolbox of investigative reporting skills? What follows are some ways to consider doing this:Read “Precision Journalism: A Reporter’s Introduction to Social Science…

Stephen K. Doig

Technology

When Video Is King

For local TV news, a difficulty will come in figuring out how to make watchdog reporting stand out in a digital world.

Watchdog

Strengthening Global Investigative Journalism

In 2007, David Kaplan, who for many years was the chief investigative correspondent at U.S. News & World Report, studied the condition of global investigative journalism. Part of his mission…

Features

Watchdog Reporting: Exploring Its Myth

‘The myth of journalists doggedly uncovering all the facts is both important—and dangerous.’

Florence Graves

Opinion

Secrets and the Press

‘Some secrets deserve to be kept, and even secrets uncovered might not merit being put in public print, on television or on the Internet.’

Opinion

Journalists as Storytellers

The only thing I have wanted to do in my life—and the only thing I have done somewhat well—is telling stories …. For me, stories are like toys, and making…

Guillermo Franco

Watchdog

Circumventing Censorship With Technology

When news stations in Georgia refused to broadcast an investigative report about a high government official’s actions, the news story found a home on the Internet.

Features

Understanding the Value of Investigative Reporting

A nonprofit director feels frustrated by how difficult it is to find ‘adequate resources for independent investigative reporting.’

Features

Seeking Support for Investigative Projects

These foundations and centers offer financial support for journalists.Alicia Patterson Foundationwww.aliciapatterson.orgThis Washington, D.C.-based fund provides six-month and one-year grants to working investigative reporters who want to pursue independent investigative projects.…

Watchdog

Investigative Reporting About Secrecy

‘With some noteworthy exceptions, secrecy is rarely tackled head-on in the press.’

From the Curator

Recognizing Excellence

Investigative reporting has always been central to the Nieman experience. Journalists specializing in investigative work continue to populate Nieman classes. Speakers address the topic at seminars and workshops. The Nieman…

Opinion

Valued Classroom Resources

RELATED ARTICLES“Teaching Multimedia Journalism”– Rebecca MacKinnon I haven’t found a comparable guide to Briggs’s book written with non-American journalists in mind. The “Introduction to Global Citizen Media,” published by Rising…

Rebecca MacKinnon

Opinion

Teaching Multimedia Journalism

News organizations throughout the world require journalists to report for multiple platforms, including the Web. In my role as a journalism professor at the University of Hong Kong and the…

Rebecca MacKinnon

Opinion

Intimidation and Convictions of Journalists

Journalist Robert Shelton told a 1950’s Senate subcommittee it was ‘engendering the fear that soon it will be looking into newsrooms all over the country.’

Opinion

Urgent Issues the Press Usually Ignore

A focus on smaller stories ‘too often fails to connect the proverbial dots and avoids too much digging into or interpreting the larger picture.’

Danny Schechter

Watchdog

The Investigative Journalist’s Digital Tool Kit

Working, as we do, in our digital, converged-media school of journalism at Kent State, we are learning to use the new technology to educate the next generation of journalists. When…

Watchdog

Squeezing Substance Into the ‘Sensational and Superficial’

Experiences in the Philippines taught a journalist that ‘the space for watchdog reporting must be created before new structures congeal.’

Sheila S. Coronel

Journalist’s Trade

A Vital Responsibility in Need of Support

‘… our industry, as a whole, cannot afford to abandon or cut back on investigative reporting, particularly on local and regional issues.’

Technology

Digital Journalism: Will It Work for Investigative Journalism?

The Nieman Watchdog Project’s editor explores what might be missing and what might be found as journalists turn to the Web to assist in reporting.

Journalist’s Trade

What Are Newspaper Journalists Investigating?

RELATED WEB LINK“Extra! Extra!”— ire.org/extraextraWhat follows are a few examples from the wide range of investigations being done by mainstream media outlets throughout the United States. The examples—grouped by general…

Technology

Letter to the Editor

21st Century Muckrakers

Politics and the New Media: An Introduction

When "Stories About Campaign Coverage: From BlackBerries and the Web to Images and Ideas" appeared in the Spring 2004 issue of Nieman Reports, its opening words belonged to Pittsburgh Post-Gazette…

Technology

Watson Replies to Vince Crunk’s Letter to the Editor

I think he has a point. I think television and streaming video can give citizens a window into public meetings and the sausage-making of governance. But gavel-to-gavel camera work is…

Features

New Sources of Funding, New Sources of Reporting

As nonprofit investigative models take shape, a journalist surveys emerging possibilities.

Gilbert Cranberg

Watchdog

Global Efforts at Investigative Reporting

A Brazilian journalist explores the benefits of collaboration and describes how and why watchdog reporting has changed in Latin America.

Fernando Rodrigues

Journalist’s Trade

Changing Equations in Investigative Reporting

An editor proposes that journalists seek new partners in their mission of monitoring those in power.

Watchdog

Beacons of Hope: Investigative Journalism Centers

Training and support for investigative journalists are increasing, and collaborative projects are happening worldwide.

Opinion

Journalism 2.0—And Then What?

A book introduces journalists to multimedia storytelling tools, and someone who has used it offers a guide to navigating its lessons.

Christine Gorman

Journalist’s Trade

Using Expertise From Outside the Newsroom

After ‘crowdsourcing’ worked to expand reporting, The News-Press reached out to nearby residents to form Team Watchdog.

Technology

Are Reporters Doomed?

Citizen journalism is here to stay. But in the rush to embrace new media we risk destroying the soul of traditional reporting.

Opinion

Loud Noises, Sharp Elbows, and Impolitic Questions

A former editorial writer examines why the inquisitive, argumentative and forceful voice of journalists is quieter these days.

Nieman Notes

Journalists Portray a Complex, Self-Destructive Texas Politician

Two reporters encounter roadblocks in telling the flamboyant story of Bob Bullock.

Journalist’s Trade

Summer 2004: Journalist’s Trade Introduction

Watchdog reporting resides at the core of what journalism does. Its roots dig deeply into the common ground uniting the muckrakers’ unearthing of public and private scandals a century ago…