Investigative Reporters

Mark Feldstein

Investigative reporters are journalists who gather facts to expose wrongdoing by powerful individuals and institutions. These journalists have also been called advocacy, adversarial, crusading, and public service reporters, or muckrakers. Like enterprise reporters, investigative journalists require more time than daily news reporters to produce their stories. But unlike enterprise journalists, the specific mission of investigative reporters is to uncover misconduct by those in authority—political, governmental, corporate, or religious. Investigative reporters work in all forms of media: newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and online. They conduct research using interviews, documents, and personal observation, sometimes going “undercover” to witness events firsthand themselves. Because their crusading brand of journalism can be expensive to produce and often generates costly lawsuits or angers powerful authorities from governments to advertisers, investigative reporters are relatively few in number. Yet they tend to be high-profile figures, often working in dangerous circumstances. Many investigative reporters around the world have been ...

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