Innovation in Investigative Journalism

Project Information

SCOOP

Grant agreement ID: 746899

DOI

10.3030/746899

Project closed

EC signature date 27 March 2017

Start date 1 October 2017

End date 30 September 2019

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 195 454,80

EU contribution

€ 195 454,80

Coordinated by

CARDIFF UNIVERSITY
United Kingdom

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - SCOOP (Innovation in Investigative Journalism)

Reporting period: 2017-10-01 to 2019-09-30

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

This project has contributed unique insights into various aspects of the practice of investigative journalism, which is presently in flux, and also emphasized the impact of new technology upon cross-institutional collaboration, cross-border collaboration, and the pooling of editorial and journalistic resources. Through its purposeful presence in international newsrooms in both legacy and digital-only news organizations while decision-making was underway, the project has shed light on the ways in which reporters are adapting to new funding models in the field of journalism through pooling resources and cultivating projects across organizations and between both traditional and very non-traditional journalists. Raising the awareness on how watchdog journalism can improve in order to hold all type of power to account, is important in a time with an increase of ´fake news´ on the rise. The focus of this project remains rare within media studies, which continues to highlight news production, the increasing problems with funding journalism, and the declining quality of the media’s product.

The main objective has been to study the impact of innovative digital tools and platforms, new funding mechanisms, and new or unfamiliar actors upon the roles and practices that define investigative journalism and, by extension, journalism in general. It has done so in four ways: (1) by looking at both local and national journalistic start-ups in the UK with international resonance for their work; (2) by comparing alternative organizations such as non-profits or citizen-journalist co-ops with legacy and commercially driven media organizations; (3) by analyzing emerging roles in the practice of watchdog journalism, looking at how they are established and how they take their final shape through negotiations in a new media ecology now forced to accommodate both traditional reporters and editors alongside activists, hackers, designers, community coordinators, and so on; and (4) by generating new knowledge that will supply comparative datasets for similar studies of journalistic transformation in other places and times. The project has addressed the following objects:

1. It has mapped and generated knowledge concerning how investigative journalists fulfil their roles as watchdogs in democratic societies.
2. Conducted ethnographic analyses which generate new knowledge about how reporters adapt to changing technologies and organizational structures.
3. The project has mapped, analyzed, and reported on how digital media and new technologies are changing working practices.
4. And it has mapped how investigative journalism has adapted to new business models, particularly via a comparison between entrepreneurial media organizations and legacy media organizations.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

This project has gained great insight from its fieldwork at innovative start-ups and local/national organizations such as the cooperative Bristol Cable and the Bureau for Investigative Journalism/the Bureau Local, as well as its access to the global technology company BuzzFeed and the legacy global media organization The Guardian.

• Data demonstrates how investigative journalists organize themselves and use technology in relation to collaborative practice, while working across organizations, across borders, or in an interdisciplinary manner. While some non-profit organizations prioritize the ways in which new technology can impact effective investigative journalism, others try to engage citizens themselves in this work. The tech company BuzzFeed prioritizes the search for sources who can share information directly. The Guardian, a British legacy media company that has transitioned to global media success, uses digital technology in tandem with investigative journalism. SCOOP empirical articles investigating Bristol Cable, the Bureau Local, the Guardian and BuzzFeed address the academic research gap concerning how start-up organizations, aiming to do investigative journalism and hold power to account, can adjust their practice and actors to capitalize upon collaboration.

• Data demonstrates how the traditional role of the investigative journalist has grown to encompass other roles, including data journalist, web developer, community strategist, and social media engager. While investigative reporting remains the very essence of journalism, the digital era has brought with it the need for extensive and purposeful interdisciplinary collaboration. When organized crime, for example, is networked via encrypted platforms around the globe, journalists must keep up with this technological change by enlisting web developers, data journalists, bloggers, and others to their investigative cause. In this way, journalism has moved into an experimental and entrepreneurial phase of its development. These findings address the academic research gaps concerning new and emerging roles within watchdog journalism, collaborations between journalists and actors who are non-professional journalists, and the new ecosystem’s possibilities for local, national, and global impact.


All publications resulting from the project have been published in open access (2 in green and 2 in gold open access). The fifth publication is about to be submitted (February 2020) “Cross-Border Investigative Collaboration on the Surviving Stories» will be available in green access. The first gold open access publications has been accepted for publication in Journal of Media and Innovation which is a gold open access journal. The Journal of Media Innovations “provides immediate open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge.” The second one has been published in Journal for Media and Communication which is also a gold open access journal (https://www.cogitatiopress.com/mediaandcommunication/article/view/2401/0 ).

The publications and other dissemination of results acknowledge the funding received from the Marie Sklodowska-Curie programme under Horizon 2020. All future publications will also comply with these obligations.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Academic Impact: The project has raised the awareness of the potential of investigative journalism, including how this potential can be formed and shaped by both professional journalists and non-professional journalists/emerging actors, and how it can develop new forms of local, national, and global collaboration.

Political Impact: As news turns into clickbait online, topical research and reports worry that democracy itself might be undermined. When it is effective, investigative journalism exposes corruption, organized crime, illicit work, trafficking, and so on. The internet has enabled propaganda and lies to utterly infiltrate facts, and better collaboration on investigative journalism projects must combat this trend.

Practical Impact: Interviews and data show that journalists and participating actors have deterministic views of technology and organization—that is, they believe that they have little or no impact on how something is organized and how it evolves. Media studies, books, blogs, and discussion raise awareness not only in UK but internationally of the ability of practitioners to shape how they are organized, what technology they use, who they involve, and how they proceed to innovate in terms of their own futures.

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