sap step step step Introduction Broaden the Definition of Investigative Reporting Tal How Systems Work or Fil: Look for Spstemtic Problems Build Institutional Support for Your Project Develop a Minium Stary; Bui a Nestor Systern Build and Maintain Sources (On and Off te Record: Teo fodependent Sours; Atibution ave Plagiarism. Educate Yourself About Your Subject Sourcing News Clips an the dntemet Look for Documents: There May Be More Available Than You Think. Get Out of the Office and Observe: Make Your Story Come Alive! Lenn to Be ant Observer; Use All Five Senses Assess, Assess, Assess velop 1 Miao Story to Fall Back On Verification and Confirmation ‘The Conffontatin tnteriew Tackling the Big Story: Organize Your Material ase Stes and Dramatic iaphies Investigative Reporting in Daily Journalism: Make the Time Bibliography Useful Web sites Acknowledgements page 6 puse7 pase 8 page 10 page 11 age 13 page 1 page 15 page 16 page 17 page 18 page 18 page 18porters in developing counties and emerging democracies face obstacles that are higher, deeper and more impenetrable than any faced by the average American reporter. In many vvays, everything these new journalists do is investigative reporting. There are usually no information access laws in place, nor libel pro- ly tectlons. They work on small staffs, under pressure to produce copy. Sometimes they face threats of violence. Often the pressure is psycho- logical, as they receive little support from thelr news organizations. While pioneering in a nev profession can be tiling its difficult and often lonely Many of these journalists ace working for new ‘organizations invented less than a decade ago, by colleagues whose only experience was with tate- supported party publications. tn a few short years, they have set up publishing systems with new technology, created advertising bases from scratch, and recruited eager, but untrained staffs Now they 1 setting out to break the kind of sto- res that were once only dreams. Just the fact of publication represents a triumph, ‘This brief publication does not pretend! to be a definitive text, Rather, itis designed to encourage reporters to use a new approach on stories of thele ‘own choosing, to dig deeper, andl aim higher “The biggest obstacles to first-rate in-depth jour- nalism are not aleays the result ofa repressive regime, of threats to personal security: Often the ‘obstacles are the more mundane but also dif cult tasks of trying to convince editors to spend money on stories, tying to carve time out of busy schedules and trying to summon the pet- sistence and energy needed for a complex story These problems plague journalists everywhere, including the United States, The message i: there are no shortcuts to ambitious reporting, but sto ries that take alot of time and etfor are abvays worthwhile ori Eo Lucinda S. Fleson