Our ideas about investigative journalism
The Dutch-Flamish association for investigative journalim VVOJ explicitly chose to found its association on a broad definition of investigative journalism. The VVOJ should not be an association of ‘fancy horses’: the few reporters that can spend all their time on larger projects. It had to become an association for all journalists involved in, or appreciating in depth journalism.
The definition of investigative journalism used by the VVOJ is:
- Investigative journalism is critical and in depth journalism.
- Critical means journalism that does not merely pass on news that is already there, but creates news that would not have been there without the journalist’s intervention. This may happen by creating new facts, but also by interpreting or connecting already known information in a new way. In depth means a substantial journalistic effort was made, either in a quantitative sense - e.g. time spent on research, number of sources consulted - or in a qualitative sense - e.g. sharp questions formulated, new approaches taken up - or a combination of both.
Referring to this definition, the association distinguishes three kinds of investigative journalism that, by the way, may overlap:
- Revealing scandals. Tracing infringements of laws, rules or morals by companies, organizations or persons.
- Assessing governments’, companies’ and other organisations’ policies or actions.
- Describing social, economic, political and cultural trends, to trace changes in society.