The third edition of the ‘Investigative Journalism’, published by Routledge, was launched on Thursday 1st April 2021, courtesy of City, University of London. The third edition has been edited by Professor Hugo de Burgh and Dr Paul Lashmar.
Panellists and chapter authors were Rachel Oldroyd (Bureau of Investigative Journalism), Hamish Boland-Rudder (International Consortium of Investigative Journalism) and Clare Rewcastle Brown (Sarawak Report). Student investigative journalist contributor was Isabelle Stanley and the Master of ceremonies was Richard Danbury, programme director of City’s MA Investigative Journalism.
This third edition maps the new world of investigative journalism, where technology and globalisation have connected and energised journalists, whistle-blowers and the latest players, with far-reaching consequences for politics and business worldwide.
In this new edition, expert contributors demonstrate how crowdsourcing, big data, globalisation of information, and changes in media ownership and funding have escalated the impact of investigative journalists. The book includes case studies of investigative journalism from around the world, including the exposure of EU corruption, the destruction of the Malaysian environment, and investigations in China, Poland and Turkey. From Ibero-America to Nigeria, India to the Arab world, investigative journalists intensify their countries’ evolution by inquisition and revelation.
This new edition reveals how investigative journalism has gone digital and global. Investigative Journalism is essential for all those intending to master global politics, international relations, media and justice in the 21st century.
China and the Digital Era
The chapter on China is by journalists turned academics who have experience of working in China’s media and studying in Europe. In China and the Digital Era Wang Haiyan & Fan Jichen start by reassuring us that there is an indigenous tradition of investigative journalism in their country. As elsewhere, digitalisation and the Internet have profoundly affected journalists since the Millennium and, indeed, so has politics. China is going through one of its periods of ideological intensification, though, to the benefit of ordinary Chinese people as to the benefit of the rest of humankind, the ideology in question is not Marxist-Leninist but a neo-Confucianism, of the kind that underpins other East Asian societies.
Nevertheless, this means that investigative journalism in legacy media has been more constrained out of fear of upsetting the authorities, accelerating the shift to social media and the burgeoning influence of ‘we media’. Wang and Fan give examples of stories that originated with netizens, are picked up by sites both legacy and New Media and have put pressure on the authorities.
There are two major developments revealed in this chapter. Underlying them is another which, though not a necessary aspect of this chapter, is nevertheless deserving of mention: The emergence of the philosophy of constructive journalism. Asian journalists have long regarded Anglophone media as irresponsible, subversive (of their own societies) and dishonest in claiming themselves to be impartial when they are, in other eyes, carriers of propaganda. Chinese journalists are working to theorise what they consider to be a fairer approach to subjects and events and one which recoils from stimulating hatred or violence.
Book can be purchased from Routledge: https://www.routledge.com/Investigative-Journalism/Burgh-Lashmar/p/book/9780367182489
Reviews
‘This 3rd edition of Investigative Journalism confronts a profoundly changed media landscape. Reports of the death of investigative journalism as watchdog and custodian of conscience are way premature, as this book reveals. Essential.’
Dominic Ziegler, The Economist
‘Investigative journalism makes crucial contributions to the development of society and the improvement of institutions all over the world. This 3rd edition of Investigative Journalism is a much-needed guide to investigative journalism in a new era of global uncertainty and upheaval.’
Zhang Lifen, Professor of Journalism, Fudan University
‘This new edition, rich with case studies and best practice, illustrates a fresh encouraging wave of investigative journalism around the globe. Essential reading for students, academics and journalists who believe in holding the powerful to account.’
Richard Sambrook, Professor of Journalism, Cardiff University and Former Director, BBC News
‘Investigative journalism is seeing a huge transformation and this book tells you about the most important developments – from the growing power of international collaboration over the new importance of open source investigations to the emerging role played by NGOs. It turns an eye not only to the countries of the English-speaking world but also to Asia, Africa and Latin America.’
Hans-Martin Tillack, Stern
‘This book tracks the emergence of new tools and techniques for holding power to account and describes emerging models for cross-border collaboration and protection. The journalism of exposure can no longer be confined to nation-states. It has also become even more urgent and necessary.’
Sheila S. Coronel, Director, Stabile Center for Investigative Journalism, Columbia University
Editor(s)
Biography
Hugo de Burgh is Professor of Journalism at the University of Westminster, where he set up the China Media Centre in 2005. He is also Professor in the School of Media & Communications at Tsinghua University. Previously he worked for Scottish Television, the BBC and (the UK’s) Channel 4. Recent books include China’s Media Go Global (2018, with Daya Thussu and Shi Anbin) and China’s Media in the Emerging World Order, Second Edition (2020). Previous publications include Investigative Journalism (three editions); Democracy in England: Possible & Necessary; The Chinese Journalist; Making Journalists; China, Friend or Foe?; China’s Environment and Chinese Environment Journalists; China and Britain: The Potential Impact of China’s Development; Facing Western Media 应对西方媒体; The West You Really Don’t Know 你所不了解的西方故事 and Can the Prizes Still Glitter? The Future of British Universities in a Changing World.
Paul Lashmar is Head of the Department of Journalism at City University of London as well as Reader in the Department of Journalism. He has written extensively about the world of intelligence agencies for four decades. His research interests include investigative journalism, intelligence–media relations and organised crime. Lashmar has been an investigative journalist in television and print and on the staff of The Observer, Granada Television’s World in Action current affairs series and The Independent. Books authored or co-authored by him include Online Journalism: The Essential Guide (2014, with Steve Hill). Spies, Spin and the Fourth Estate was published in September 2020.
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