Investigative approaches

Students’ picks:

Thoughts arising from discussion

Think about the human sources who can help you

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. Whistleblowers are very important for investigative journalists. BuzzFeed’s WWF investigation involved a lot of reporting, but at the core of it were internal documents and emails, almost certainly provided by a current or former insider, which revealed the organization’s complicity in human rights abuses.

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, freed from the constraints of “party line,” can be very good sources. The former chief scientist of the American Diabetes Association, for instance, was clearly a crucial source for the Science story on prediabetes.

It’s very important to remember that your sources are people, who should be treated with care and respect. That’s particularly important when dealing with ordinary people who have had bad experiences that you’re highlighting. This will have been a key consideration in the reporting for many these stories, especially those about suicide, gun and maternal deaths, and sexual harrasment.

Most people don’t necessarily understand how journalism works. So take time to explain the process, for example so that they realize that seeking corroboration of their accounts is a necessary part of your reporting, and doesn’t mean that you view them with suspicion. You may also need to prepare sources for the nastiness that can erupt in comments sections and on social media, and offer them some emotional support if and when that happens.

It’s also important to remember that the targets of an investigation are people, too. You should treat them fairly: Many news organizations have “no surprises” policies which mean that every key fact or allegation in a story must be explained to the person involved before publication, and they must be given opportunity to comment.

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 must 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!

Personal narratives have enormous power

People will help you find the story. They may also be the story, or at least provide its narrative arc.

I’m a strong advocate of using data and analysis in journalism, so that you’re telling stories that reflect real trends, not isolated anecdotes. But most readers don’t relate to numbers in the same way that they relate to visceral personal narratives. There’s a general lesson, here: “Show, don’t tell.”

The sweet spot for this type of journalism is when you have the data and documents that make your story watertight, but can you tell it through compelling personal narratives.

Public records: File early and often, and think creatively

Public records requests are quick and easy to file, once you know how. They can be key sources for major investigations, as in the case of the New Zeland suicide story. But get used to filing them as a matter of course for regular beat reporting, and think creatively about how any person or organization you are interested in may interact with any public body that is subject to federal or state public records laws.

As science reporters, it’s especially useful to remember that public universities are subject to state public records laws. This story that revealed how the career of Cornell food scientist Brian Wansink was a case study in p-hacking is another interesting example. Cornell is a private school, so my colleague Stephanie Lee couldn’t get his emails from there. But one of his most frequent collaborators worked at New Mexico State University, and that institution provided a trove of email correspondence.

When it comes to public records, take inspiration from my colleague Jason Leopold, aka the “FOIA terrorist”:

Responses to all of the #FOIA requests I filed in 2016 and 2017 (still waiting for the documents).

— Jason Leopold (@JasonLeopold) December 29, 2017

Jason’s backstory is interesting, a case of personal redemption through FOIA.

Tax records for non-profits/SEC filings for publicly traded companies

Even if a US nonprofit 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. As we discussed, these forms usually lacking in information on donors, however, so that probably wasn’t how Charles Piller found out how much pharmaceutical companies had given to the American Diabetes Association. But many nonprofits reveal and thank major donors in annual reports and other documents. You can also just ask them, although they are under no obligation to tell you.

Companies that are publicly traded must file annual reports and other documentsto the Securities and Exchange Commission. These can reveal information that is impossible/hard to obtain elswhere. This is where financial information on the company PolyMedix, in the superbugs story, will have come from.

We will look at backgrounding companies and nonprofits in a future class.

Enterprise data reporting

Government or other databases can be put to good journalistic uses, and most of the time, this need not involve sophisticated statistical analysis. Powerful stories, such as the Intercept’s investigation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s responses to air pollution in two cities with very different racial demographics, can come from joining datasets, in their case the EPA’s National Air Toxics Assessment and Census Bureau demographic data, by Census tract. As we discussed, the Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey provides a regularly updated picture of localities for a host of socioeconomic and demographic variables, and is a very useful resource. (We also mentioned CalEnviroScreen, which provides a detailed analysis of pollution burden and socioeconomic by Census tract for the entire state. In most other states, you would need to join the data by tract yourself.)

Reporting with data and documents often goes hand-in-hand, and can lead you to people who have individual stories to tell. Notice how the ProPublica story on black mothers used their data analysis to identify problem hospitals. Then the reporters presumably looked at coroners/medical examiners records of maternal deaths in those hosptials, to find the people behind the individual stories they told.

Public accountability versus personal privacy

This often creates tensions in public-service journalism. We discussed HIPAA and the confidentiality of medical records. Other documents, such as death certificates and coroners/medical examiners reports, are public.

We discussed how both the gun deaths and black mothers stories used autopsy reports to find the families they needed to talk to, while using anonymized hospital discarge records as the main source for their data analyses.

People who are willing to talk about their experiences can also be found through patient advocacy groups or lawsuits. They may be willing to forgo their privacy rights and share confidential records with you.

Rigor and transparency in reporting using data and documents

The stories we looked at varied in the amount of detail provided on their methods. Propublica’s black mothers story had the most explicit explanation. Notice how they used methods previously used by expert researchers. This is good practice, as is getting expert advice and informal peer review on any analysis. In journalism, you’re on much safer ground using well established methodologies, rather than inventing a “bespoke” analysis that will be harder to defend. ProPublica has been involved in controversies over its bespoke analyses, in the past, see here and here.

We discussed my concerns about the justaposition by the Tampa Bay Tumes of the charts on gun sales (actually proxy measurements of this) and gun deaths, under the header “More guns, more injuries and deaths.” Bookmark this website and look at it each time you’re tempted to draw similar conclusions from data like this. (I also was concerned about the use of the word “spike” to describe a gradual rise in gun deaths.)

Some news organizations, including the Los Angeles Times and BuzzFeed News, have taken transparency further, routinely publising the data and analysis code behind their stories.

Similarly, documents supporting reporting can be published and annotated using DocumentCloud, as was the case for several of the stories we discussed.

Court documents

These can be a treasure trove of information if the documents are not sealed from public view by the court. The investigation of Johnson & Johnson’s baby powder, because possible when Reuters gained access to previously sealed court documents.

Search for federal court 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, you may actually need to visit the courthouse. Martha will cover courts in subsequent weeks.

Legislation and regulations

We discussed the importance of understanding changes in laws and regulations. The latter are issued subsequently, are subject to change, and determine how laws are implemented. You can review federal law here. Proposed regulations are published in the Federal Register and at Regulations.gov. Individual states will have their own documentation of legislation and regulations.

Good sources of reports etc

Some of the stories we discussed mentioned reports from government agencies, think tanks, or other bodies. Here are some sources of reports that I find most useful:

Bear in mind that some think tanks, such as the Pew Research Center (which describes itself as a “fact tank”) are nonpartisan. Others may describe themselves as nonpartisan, but have pronounced idealogical biases. So do some background research into their funding and how they are viewed by other stakeholders.

Financial disclosures/following the money/Conflicts of Interest

Financial disclosures can be very revealing, and are required in many circumstances. We discussed the Open Payments database, in which payments to doctors from drug and medical device manufacturers are declared.

When reporting on scientists, remember that they may be required to make financial disclosures. Here, here and here, for example, are some links on financial disclosure policy for University of California faculty.

Don’t forget the scientific literature

As science reporters, you should be well placed to gather all the published studies that are going to be relevant to your study. Several of the stories we discussed, notably the superbugs story, made extensive use of the scientific literature.

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.

Build on the work of others

It’s perfectly OK to build on the work of other journalists. Of course, if you use their work as a starting point for your own, you should be careful to attribute these sources. We discussed how BuzzFeed News wasn’t the first to report on the allegations against Gopal Balakrishnan, but cited earlier reporting by the Chronicle of Higher Education, after deciding to explore the “vigilante justice” aspect of the story at greater depth.

Even if your story is local, don’t think parochially

Always look for context and comparisons. Compare to the rest of the state, nationally, or internationally. Notice how the New Zealand suicide story compared its suicide rates to those in other countries. If you need to make comparisons between nations, the World Bank often 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. I’d recommend signing up for the Local Matters newsletter, a roundup of local investigative/watchdog journalism, to get ideas.

Trade/industry data

Some trade bodies collate information on their industries, and other organizations earn their living by collecting and analyzing industry data. We mentioned QuintilesIMS, recently renamed as IQVIA, which collates data on drug sales, used in the prediabetes story. It sometimes provides data to journalists without charge.

Other sources/issues we didn’t discuss explicitly

Meeting transcripts

If there was an official meeting, there will probably be minutes or a full transcript. These can be very useful documents.

Professional accreditation/licensing

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. Here is California’s license search site, where you will find doctors and many other licensed professionals.

Permits

Many activities require permits from federal, state, or local governments, and these should be public documents.

Budgets/contracts

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.

Enforcement/inspection records

Agencies charged with enforcing laws or regulations will create a trail of documents that you can follow.

Use your own expert knowledge

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.”

And finally, remember why we do this work

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!