From the words itself, you can notice and get the general difference between investigative journalism and regular journalism. Investigative journalism is not as easy as regular journalism. The journalist or the whole team has to spend months and sometimes years to research on a single topic. But regular journalism, on the other hand, is inspired by the materials supplied by the government, NGOs, and different agencies.
Investigative journalism requires a whole lot of research work, a journalist needs to study the topic precisely and get in-depth knowledge about the same. The topic should be of public interest. By the word, ‘Public Interest’ means that the topic should be beneficial for society. The topic should be informational and if it is not conveyed people are disadvantaged. It happens that the topic is beneficial for one society and disadvantaged for the other. But overall it benefits the nation, thus it should be conveyed.
Regular journalism is the one where reporters get the content after attending a press conference, or interviewing some political party and so on. There is a very thin line between investigative journalism and regular journalism. People often consider them the same, but it’s not the case. The daily news reporting is a regular journalism based on the facts and figures received from some person, and not the result of in-depth research.
Regular journalist reports the news and ideas conveyed to them. They report that news which will be beneficial to their interest, they do not initiate story ideas. On the other hand, investigative reporters do not just report the information that has been received out of others, may it be government, politicians, or companies. It relies totally on the journalist’s own enterprise and initiative. They reveal the wrongdoing by individuals and institutions. The powerful group and individuals hide or keep away the facts from the general public. This is why investigative journalism requires digging up the secret and get the idea of right and wrong.
A journalist spends days to bring forth the correct information by scribbling notes, compiling new information from the compelling stories. For many Canadians journalists like Adrienne Arsenault and Eric Malling personifies the uncompromising truth-teller, even today, more than 20 years after his untimely passing in 1998 at age 52. In 1968 Eric Malling began work for the Toronto Star and in 1974, he started doing interviews on Canada AM for CTV.
Investigative reporting involves the use of multi resources. Reporters use both human and documentary information. They verify each information minutely to paint a picture of wrongdoing or abuse. They even cross verify the information collected from reliable authorities, they don’t a single chance. Reporting done on a single resource cant be considered as investigative journalism.
Investigative journalism is occasionally done on the private life of a person, but it is done when the person is a renowned one, and whose information and wrongdoing are of great benefit to society. If such reports are not published it may adversely hamper the innocent public. Investigative journalism is done after rigorous research.
