For much of what follows, we’ll be exploring these sources and techniques further in subsequent classes.
In some of the articles we discussed, the reporters may have been tipped off to the initial story by an interested party — who may also have provided documents or data. Some, notably Reuters’ piece on unregulated child adoption, told the story largely through their experiences.
At this stage in your career, you probably won’t have whistleblowers eager to hand you a story to pursue. But there are still plenty of people who will be motivated to help you. Academics and non-governmental organizations with an interest in the issue can be very useful, as can attorneys representing a party in a lawsuit. Of course, you need to be aware that most interested parties have an agenda, which you must bear in mind. But the information they can provide may still be very useful.
Former employees of government agencies or companies, freed from the constraints of “party line” or official silence, can also be good sources. We discussed the value of LinkedIn Premium for finding and communicating with these people. This can be free for journalists.
When approaching a source who may not emerge in a good light from your reporting, always think: Why would this person want to speak to me? Often, they will at least want their side of the story to be told. So frame your interview request in terms of giving them that opportunity, remembering that this should be a sincere offer. Also, go into your interviews with an open mind, and you may find that your view of the situation may shift once you’ve spoken to all of the interested parties.
To stress what will become a refrain from me: Hitting the phones and talking to as many informed sources and people actually affected by the issue you are investigating as you can is crucial!
I’m a strong advocate of using data and analysis in journalism, but remember that most people don’t relate to numbers in the same way that they relate to visceral personal narratives. We had some stark contrasts in the articles discussed, with STAT’s piece on clinical trials reporting at one end, and USA Today’s child adoption story at the other. Which was more engaging to read?
The sweet spot for this type of journalism when you have the data and documents that make your story watertight, but can you tell it through compelling personal narratives.
Government or other databases can be put to good journalistic uses, and most of the time, this need not involve sophisticated statistical analysis. STAT’s clinical trials reporting story, for example, was based on simple counts, calculations of rates, and so on, from ClinicalTrials.gov. But the visualization of such data should be simple to follow, not confusing. STAT definitely failed on that front in this piece.
Note also that if you have a collection of documents, or online posts, it may be possible to systematically extract information from them to create your own datasets, as was done for the Reuters adoption story.
These can be a treasure trove of information if the documents are not sealed from public view by the court. Search for federal cases at PACER (you will need to sign up for an account and pay a modest sum for any documents you download). Some states have centralized searches for their courts but in many cases you will have to go to individual court websites to find the documents you need. In others, may also actually need to visit the courthouse.
Even if an organization has tax-exempt status as a non-profit/charity, it will still have to file an annual report to the Internal Revenue Service, known as a Form 990, which will contain lots of useful financial and other information.
Annual reports and other documents filed by companies to the Securities and Exchange Commission, as a legal requirement, can reveal information that is impossible/hards to obtain elswhere. That’s how USA Today knew that Stanislaw Burzynski had not filed a New Drug Application — the Food and Dreug Administration will not reveal this information.
Some of the stories we discussed mentioned reports from government agencies or other bodies. Here are some sources of reports that I find most useful:
Reports from the National Academies (Sciences, Medicine, and Engineering) can be great sources of information, and their authors can be very useful contacts. Search and browse them here. Acting as the National Research Council, the academies advise on government decision-making and public policy.
The Government Accountability Office is a watchdog agency that works for Congress, conducting investigations on a wide range of issues. The Congressional Budget Office provides non-partisan analysis of the budgetary implications of bills/policies.
Investigations and hearings conducted by Congressional committees can be very useful sources (e.g. here are recent hearings of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is involved with health, environment and energy), as can staffers working for these committees. But bear in mind that the work of Congressional committees will be influenced by political agendas, especially that of the majority party.
Federal government departments and agencies typically have an Inspector General (e.g. here for Health and Human Services, which covers NIH, FDA, CDC), which serves as an independent watchdog, investigating complaints, allegations of fraud/waste etc.
Agencies charged with enforcing laws or regulations will create a trail of documents that you can follow. Enforcement actions or even routine inspection reports are usually public documents that may be online and searchable, or can be obtained through public records requests. USA Today’s investigation of Stefan Burzynski relied in part on such documents.
If there was an official meeting, there will probably be minutes or a full transcript. These can be very useful documents, as the Seattle Times investigation of methadone showed.
If you need to find out how much a public project cost the information will usually be in government budgets or in contracts awarded. USASpending.gov can be a good starting point for federal grants and contracts.
This often creates tensions in public-service journalism. We discussed HIPAA and the confidentiality of medical records, and the fact that records involving children are usually not public. In some cases, personally identifying information may be redacted from public records. Other documents, such as death certificates, are public. People who are willing to talk about their experiences can often be found through patient advocacy groups, lawsuits etc. They may also be willing to forgo their privacy and share confidential records with you. The methadone investigation relied on both public and private records, the latter shared by families who wanted their loved ones’ stories to be told.
As science reporters, you should be well placed to gather all the published studies that are going to be relevant to your study. So as you explore other sources of data and documents, don’t forget to do scientific literature searches. Scientific papers can also be used in other ways, such as to determine sources of researchers’ funding from the acknowledgments section and conflict-of-interest statements.
As you gain experience, you will become an “expert” on the beats you cover. Use this expertise, and combine it with a critical journalistic sense to start doing a little digging if things “don’t smell right,” or seem “too good to be true.” That’s how STAT’s investigation of Proove started — their reporter’s skepticism about the science in an earlier story triggered whistleblowers to get in contact.
With proper attribution, it’s perfectly OK to build on the work of other journalists — which the Mother Jones story on Lynda and Stewart Resnick did extensively. Other journalists’ FOIA requests or databases that they have compiled can be the starting point for your own stories. ProPublica, for instance, has encouraged reporters to work with its Dollars for Docs database and other data.
Always look for context and comparisons. Compare to the rest of the state, nationally, internationally, as appropriate, as the Seattle Times did with states’ preferred drug lists. If you need to make comparisons between nations, the World Bank probably has what you need, its catalog containing data for more than 7,000 different measures, compiled by the bank and other agencies.
It is also often possible to transpose an approach done in one jurisdiction to another — the Seattle Times investigation of methadone in Washington State owed a big debt to earlier reporting in West Virginia by the Charleston Gazette.
Many professions are accredited or licensed by state government agencies. Doctors and state medical boards are the most obvious example, but there are many others. These records will usually be searchable online, and may include disciplinary actions — used by USA Today for the Burzynski investigation. Here is California’s license search site, where you will find doctors and many other licensed professionals.
The Mother Jones piece on “Dr Orange” was a good example of this, relying in part on an interview in the USDA archives. We also discussed how STAT used the statements of Proove CEO Brian Meshkin from his own website.
Web pages come and go, and can be changed at a moment’s notice. So if showing what a web page said may be crucial to your story, save it. I usually save as a PDF, using the Print options available in Firefox or Chrome.
Even when web pages have disappeared, they may not be gone forever. Check out Google’s cache for the most recent version of a page crawled by its robots. Search here (replacing <Website URL> with the target page) or here.
The Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine is a great resource for finding old web pages, and looking at how sites have changed over time. It also has a “Save Page Now” option, which you can also use to save snapshots of pages directly to the archive.
Some trade bodies collate information on their industries, and other organizations earn their living by collecting and analyzing industry data.
Financial disclosures can be very revealing, and are required in many circumstances. Here, here and here, for example, are some links on financial disclosure policy for University of California faculty.
Campaign finance records can also be very useful, especially when investigating people and organizations with political influence.
Many activities require permits from federal, state, or local governments, and these should be public documents.
If you find an interested scientist, and the work isn’t enormously time-consuming or expensive to perform, this approach can be worth considering.
You may also be able to structure your interviews so that, in effect, you perform your own survey with limited scope. But proper methodology is crucial, and seek expert advice. This book from Philip Meyer is a very good resource.
Investigative journalism should serve the public. Its job is to hold those in positions of power or influence to account, to give voice to the voiceless, and to challenge and correct injustices. Journalism prizes and the admiration of colleagues are nice to have, but they should not be our primary motivators!