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Categories of investigative journalism

Investigative journalism acts as a watchdog in the public interest in areas such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. This type of journalism is important as it unmasks potential abuses of power that can significantly impact on the society. What’s more is that investigative journalism roots out facts many people want to hide, while re-establishing fairness. This resource provides an overview of the categories of investigative journalism along with some of the advantages and disadvantages that comes with this territory

There are three types of investigative journalism and these categories may overlap.

  1. Uncover scandals that are aimed at detecting violations of laws, rules or norms of decency, by organisations or individuals.
  2. Review policies or functioning of government, businesses and other organisations.
  3. Draw attention to social, economic, political and cultural trends, which are aimed at detecting changes in society.

Examples of investigative stories:

ACM - Infographic - Pros Cons Diagram-04

In this video Egyptian journalist Reem Magued talks about the pros and cons of being an investigative journalist.

Mageed’s popularity dramatically increased due to her critical coverage of political events since the 2011 Egyptian revolution, as well as her hosting of individuals on her show that are critical of the military Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, or SCAF. She has been described as Egypt’s best and arguably most vocal [female voice] in delivering the true happenings to the country on a nightly basis. Reem Maged has been off the air since mid 2013.