4 ms·

"This is the same in every country, including the US where entire agencies will just stop talking to you if you piss them off" They only stop talking to you th

"This is the same in every country, including the US where entire agencies will just stop talking to you if you piss them off" They only stop talking to you through official channels. There will always be leakers, disgruntled employees and others willing to talk to you anonymously or unofficially. Not to mention that you can talk to people and ask questions without announcing that you're a reporter. This used to be called investigative journalism.

dmurray 4y ago
Investigative journalism is at an all time low at the moment: it's simply too expensive. Rephrased press releases from corporations, government bodies and celebrities sell just as well and the PR firms take full advantage of that.
- Clubber 4y ago
  >Investigative journalism is at an all time low at the moment: it's simply too expensive. I would just say it's not as profitable. Many independent journalists seem to do investigative journalism on the cheap. Wikileaks comes to mind. Saying it' too expensive, to me, denotes that they are unable to do it and be a sustainable enterprise, which is probably not accurate.
watwut 4y ago
It is not that frequent and it is difficult/expensive to verify those stories. Plus, anonymous/unofficial source is not much. To large extend, it amounts to gossip and a lot of it is basically unuseable.
trs8080 4y ago
Beat reporting and investigative journalism are very different "genres" of journalism. > They only stop talking to you through official channels. There will always be leakers, disgruntled employees and others willing to talk to you anonymously or unofficially. You cannot sustain beat reporting by relying on leakers and disgruntled employees. Furthermore, anonymous sources are not credible (ie, the news-consuming public largely does not trust them). Most of the time, simple facts need to be reported and the only way to do that is by talking to credible sources that have been developed over time. Not all journalism is investigative - what happens when you want to report on a new housing development but you've burned all your sources because you only talk to leakers and disgruntled employees? Or you're reporting on a crime and need to talk to some cops? > Not to mention that you can talk to people and ask questions without announcing that you're a reporter. City officials are pretty well trained to know when the person on the other end of the line is a reporter. Not to mention how incredibly unethical this is (won't even start on the legal issues here).

dmurray 4y ago

Investigative journalism is at an all time low at the moment: it's simply too expensive. Rephrased press releases from corporations, government bodies and celebrities sell just as well and the PR firms take full advantage of that.

Clubber 4y ago
>Investigative journalism is at an all time low at the moment: it's simply too expensive. I would just say it's not as profitable. Many independent journalists seem to do investigative journalism on the cheap. Wikileaks comes to mind. Saying it' too expensive, to me, denotes that they are unable to do it and be a sustainable enterprise, which is probably not accurate.

watwut 4y ago

It is not that frequent and it is difficult/expensive to verify those stories. Plus, anonymous/unofficial source is not much. To large extend, it amounts to gossip and a lot of it is basically unuseable.

trs8080 4y ago

Beat reporting and investigative journalism are very different "genres" of journalism. > They only stop talking to you through official channels. There will always be leakers, disgruntled employees and others willing to talk to you anonymously or unofficially. You cannot sustain beat reporting by relying on leakers and disgruntled employees. Furthermore, anonymous sources are not credible (ie, the news-consuming public largely does not trust them). Most of the time, simple facts need to be reported and the only way to do that is by talking to credible sources that have been developed over time. Not all journalism is investigative - what happens when you want to report on a new housing development but you've burned all your sources because you only talk to leakers and disgruntled employees? Or you're reporting on a crime and need to talk to some cops? > Not to mention that you can talk to people and ask questions without announcing that you're a reporter. City officials are pretty well trained to know when the person on the other end of the line is a reporter. Not to mention how incredibly unethical this is (won't even start on the legal issues here).