BRIEF 8 INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM

Investigative Journalism : BuzzFeed

First off, investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist's work is very difficult because he/she may spend moths or even years researching and preparing a report. Basically, investigative journalism is a primary source of information. It is mostly conducted by newspapers, wire services, and freelance journalists. The term "accountability reporting" is mainly used by the practitioners. There are numerous ways to conduct an investigative journalism. Some of the ways are as follow:

• The documents such as lawsuits and other legal documents, tax records, government reports, regulatory reports, and corporate financial fillings should all be thoroughly analyzed. 
• The databases of the public records should be managed properly. 
• Deep research into social and legal issues must be done as those are very sensitive issues.
• Interviews should be rapidly conducted especially with anonymous sources such as whistle blowers.

BuzzFeed

BuzzFeed is one of the major examples of Investigative Reporting outlets to follow. BuzzFeed has a growing investigative team and body of work worth attention, which makes us the readers gain knowledge on what is going around us and why is it happening that way. BuzzFeed is an American internet media company based in New York City. The firm describes itself as a "social news and entertainment company". Its main focus is on digital media and digital technology in order to provide most shareable breaking news, original reporting, entertainment, and videos. BuzzFeed was founded in 2006 by Jonah Peretti and John S. Johnson III. 

Trump dossier

This has been one of the biggest example of investigative journalism reported by BuzzFeed. In simple words, this news has tried to explain that on the existence of classified documents that claimed Russia had compromising personal and financial information about President-elect Donald Trump. Both Trump and President Obama had been briefed on the content of the dossier, or any specific details of the dossier, as they could not be verified. Later the same day, BuzzFeed published a 35 page dossier in full. BuzzFeed said that the dossier was unverified and "includes some clear errors". The dossier had been read widely by political and media figures in Washington, and previously been sent to multiple journalists who had declined to publish it as unsubstantiated.

https://www.buzzfeed.com/kenbensinger/these-reports-allege-trump-has-deep-ties-to-russia?utm_term=.ypzjVbaoq#.sfLgQYap3

 

My view

According to me, Trump dossier has to be one important investigative journalism's example of BuzzFeed as it is clear in the article that it has been a major issue whatsoever. It is definitely not a recent issue but is has been very hyped which is why I chose this topic. I think BuzzFeed does a good job when it comes to posting something that is related to investigative journalism. It is very important for the readers to understand the main idea of investigative journalism and how it is conduct. BuzzFeed makes sure that it is done properly and in a clear manner.