Investigative reporting involves uncovering of information not before gathered by other in order to inform the public of events or circumstances that might affect their lives, it therefore mean that such information is necessary and indispensable in shaping the progress in a society.
Such information uncovered through investigative reporting could give a reasonable leading to unravel the evil perpetrated by individuals which has hitherto impacted the society negatively.
A case in point was the investigation carried out by Congolese Eric Mwamba a freelance journalist and his colleagues, some of whom worked for Le Rebond newspaper who were distressed by what they saw as the hypocrisy of their government, which came to power denouncing the corruption of the previous regime, but rapidly became embroiled in scandals of its own. This investigation was carried out by these crops of investigative journalist by trailing an ongoing rumor and the need to clarify the duplicity in the political discourse of their country’s leaders who are perceived to be corrupt and could not keep to their electoral promises.
This investigation helped in reshaping the political structure and a change in the voting patterns with the emergence of elites who took great pain to denounce corruption, electoral fraud, bad governance, political assassinations and the force-feeding official ideology.
Such information uncovered through investigative reporting could give a reasonable leading to unravel the evil perpetrated by individuals which has hitherto impacted the society negatively.
A case in point was the investigation carried out by Congolese Eric Mwamba a freelance journalist and his colleagues, some of whom worked for Le Rebond newspaper who were distressed by what they saw as the hypocrisy of their government, which came to power denouncing the corruption of the previous regime, but rapidly became embroiled in scandals of its own. This investigation was carried out by these crops of investigative journalist by trailing an ongoing rumor and the need to clarify the duplicity in the political discourse of their country’s leaders who are perceived to be corrupt and could not keep to their electoral promises.
This investigation helped in reshaping the political structure and a change in the voting patterns with the emergence of elites who took great pain to denounce corruption, electoral fraud, bad governance, political assassinations and the force-feeding official ideology.
Erics story provides us with an example of an investigative project that fits most people’s idea of what investigative reporting is all about as an indispensable tool in a society that is graving for a change.
A similar case is the editorials on the jumbo pay by our legislators in Nigeria, though this created awareness and even causes the government to cut some of the unnecessary budgetary allocation but due to the fact that an in-depth or further investigation was not carried out it ends like all other rumor without its desired impact.
Thus the indispensably of a report varies from society and it is dependent on the social cultural environment and how sensitive the response of the larger society is to the information derived from such report, a docile society where all are naturally poor and impoverished will exists as group of individuals only surviving by elking to earn a living as it is witnessed in the middle east and Arab world now, the root of which is through investigative reports on the like of Huseni Mubarak of Egypt, Muammar Gadaffi of Libyan sheiks in Saudi Arabia to mention a few here the response of the masses is instructive and the role played by the media is commendable this will to a large extent impact the society and help reshape the polity of the nations involved.
A similar case is the editorials on the jumbo pay by our legislators in Nigeria, though this created awareness and even causes the government to cut some of the unnecessary budgetary allocation but due to the fact that an in-depth or further investigation was not carried out it ends like all other rumor without its desired impact.
Thus the indispensably of a report varies from society and it is dependent on the social cultural environment and how sensitive the response of the larger society is to the information derived from such report, a docile society where all are naturally poor and impoverished will exists as group of individuals only surviving by elking to earn a living as it is witnessed in the middle east and Arab world now, the root of which is through investigative reports on the like of Huseni Mubarak of Egypt, Muammar Gadaffi of Libyan sheiks in Saudi Arabia to mention a few here the response of the masses is instructive and the role played by the media is commendable this will to a large extent impact the society and help reshape the polity of the nations involved.
It is instructive for this write up to note that all journalism belongs to one community and field of endeavour. So there is no wall between community journalist, environmental journalist and investigative journalist ,any journalist becomes an investigative journalist when their story grow in scope and depth beyond a routine report of happening in their immediate environment or society
Investigative reporting as a tool for shaping a society desirous of a change is also visible in the water gate scandal journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Berntein ,that the idea of the investigative journalist took root when Woodward and Bernstein followed up a tip to uncover and painstakingly prove large scale illegal activities by then US President Richard Nixon and his agent, Nixon was forced to step down, this sort of reshape the electoral law and practice in US and more also it sensitise and enlighten the general public in America and the world at large.
But since the water gate scandals other investigative stories have made similar impact in America. Seymour M.Hersh of New York Times help uncover the massacre at My Lai during the Vietnam War and has recently contributed to the debate over the US occupation of Iraq by exposing the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib detention centre.
For investigative reporting to be an indisputable tool in a society desirous of progress, the issue or topic must ne of public interest, this mean that either a community will be disadvantaged by not knowing this information or will benefit [either] materially or through informed decision-making by knowing it. Sometimes what benefit one community may disadvantage the other.
In Nigeria as it is common with other developing Nations with particular reference to African nations the level of influence of investigative reporting is at its lowest elb, this is not so because investigation is not being carried out, but for the fact that the investigation just end up being news as. Most investigation are not interpreted for the predominantly larger populace who are rural based and are illiterates thus there is not a noticeable appreciable reliance on such report to influence the decision of the Government in terms of policy formulation
While it is important to investigate there is also the need for enlightenment on the part of the media to educate the masses about their right and civil responsibilities if this is done with special reference to the developing nations then investigative reporting could or world. Bean indispensable tool in our society as it is appreciably noticeable in developed nations.
Investigative reporting as a tool for shaping a society desirous of a change is also visible in the water gate scandal journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Berntein ,that the idea of the investigative journalist took root when Woodward and Bernstein followed up a tip to uncover and painstakingly prove large scale illegal activities by then US President Richard Nixon and his agent, Nixon was forced to step down, this sort of reshape the electoral law and practice in US and more also it sensitise and enlighten the general public in America and the world at large.
But since the water gate scandals other investigative stories have made similar impact in America. Seymour M.Hersh of New York Times help uncover the massacre at My Lai during the Vietnam War and has recently contributed to the debate over the US occupation of Iraq by exposing the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib detention centre.
For investigative reporting to be an indisputable tool in a society desirous of progress, the issue or topic must ne of public interest, this mean that either a community will be disadvantaged by not knowing this information or will benefit [either] materially or through informed decision-making by knowing it. Sometimes what benefit one community may disadvantage the other.
In Nigeria as it is common with other developing Nations with particular reference to African nations the level of influence of investigative reporting is at its lowest elb, this is not so because investigation is not being carried out, but for the fact that the investigation just end up being news as. Most investigation are not interpreted for the predominantly larger populace who are rural based and are illiterates thus there is not a noticeable appreciable reliance on such report to influence the decision of the Government in terms of policy formulation
While it is important to investigate there is also the need for enlightenment on the part of the media to educate the masses about their right and civil responsibilities if this is done with special reference to the developing nations then investigative reporting could or world. Bean indispensable tool in our society as it is appreciably noticeable in developed nations.
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