Friday, August 3, 2012

Investigative Journalism and Web 2.0

Newspapers and magazines do live to a large extent of investigative journalism; that means somebody is going to a lot of trouble, talking to a lot of people, looking at a lot of things, visiting a lot of places etc. to find out the truth behind something he writes an article about later.


Today people get most of their information not from newspapers and magazines anymore but from forums, from the web 2.0 where interested people can comment and contribute.

Lately somebody did postings on internet media he probably dreams of as investigative journalism. But there might be just one thing he misunderstood: When investigating journalists seek the truth they do select, which sources they follow, which people they ask, what they ask etc. If one wants to do what he might call “investigative journalism” on the web by visiting and looking at websites he is confined to the information people allow to be exposed. Is that investigative journalism? Definitely not! It’s merely collecting info others put there for you to get it, just like the press department of a company gives out as the truth about the company. It’s filtered and modified information.

Guess that is something that the person dreaming that dream should consider. No, I won’t tell who I’m referring to. Let him search, and if he finds this posts, let him get the idea that he’s meant all by himself.