Managing investigative reporting: Values and Processes

1. Managing investigative reporting: Values and Processes Dr. Mark Lee Hunter INSEAD/Université de Paris 2 VVOJ, Nov. 21 2008

2. Part One:Why IJ needs a business model • A business model is NOT: JUST a way to make money A revenue projection • A business model IS: What value do we create? (differentiation) For whom? (market, rewards) How? (processes)

3. The strategic issues The news industry is losing… • The battle for talent • The battle of branding (loss of trust) • The battle for a public

4. IJ is part of the response • Augments image of independence • Builds capabilities • Helps to retain talent • Builds circulation (Canard enchaîné) • Builds VA services (Economist)

5. The IJ model is changing • IJ is theorised as playing a civic role in which informed citizens make better decisions • BUT the public is not just citizens! • AND the public is now communities! • (Ex: ecologist, parent, consumer…)

6. THE VALUE OF IJ IS SERVICE! • Journalism is viewed by its makers as a PRODUCT… • But service means transforming the user! (cf The Experience Economy, Pine & Gilmore 1999)

7. Some services IJ performs… • For the industry: attractor, differentiator • For the reporter: teaches valuable and transferable skills • For the community: changes outcomes, creates leverage • For the individual: Empowerment!

8. WHERE’S THE VALUE OF A STORY? • What is UNIQUE about a given story? • Who does it speak to? • Will it improve our brand, skills base? • Can we have an impact? • Does it tell our readers/viewers… • Something that gives them great pleasure? • Or gives them more power over their lives? IF NOT… WHY ARE WE DOING IT?

9. Part Two: Emerging models of IJ

10. What they have in common: • Content: biased BUT accurate and unique • Style: reinforces content • Image: Independence! • Core public is a community

11. THE COMMUNITY IS THE CONTENT • Different folks want different info (cf Hamilton, “All the News That’s Fit to Sell”) • Communities perform self-policing of info • Communities distrust mainstream info • Global communities have similar concerns.

12. Communities aren’t “the public” • They create different value in: • Reputation (cf Open Source Movement) • Reach (narrower but deeper) • Influence (from “you decide” to “do it”) • They demand “embedded” journalists

13. HOW COMMUNITIES ARE CHANGING IJ • Environmental movement: NGOs = news network • Investors: Financial analysts beat the media • Media blogs: Clean polluted info environment Value added for IJ: Lifestyle support, reputation (access to ancillary revenues), advertising revenue, diversify audiences (plural!)

14. For the community,STYLE = AUTHENTICITY • “I’m not ashamed of what I am” • “I’m not scared to say what I say… and to be entertaining while I do it” • “I belong to the community and I’m proud of it”

15. The emerging media paradigm

16. Part Three: Managing the Process • IJ requires different approaches to: • Talent management • Process control (deliverables, budget, quality control) • Promotion • Partnership

17. Key issues for IJ managers • STRATEGIC CLARITY: What’s the story? Why are we doing it? 2) CHALLENGE: Is this the right story? • PROCESS CONTROL: Moving efficiently? • QUALITY CONTROL: Is it done right? 5) PROMOTION: Does anyone know we did it?

18. Key tool: Story-based inquiry • The principle: • Rather than treat each part of the investigative process as a separate step, create an integrated STORY-BASED process: • Begin with the STORY • Test, verify, refine • Publish, partner, defend

19. Strategic clarity: Frame investigation as a story from the beginning A story combines events and people into a narrative sequence with a beginning (when it started), middle (where we are now), and end (what comes next… or in journalism, might). It takes into account available facts, and exposes or reconciles contradictions.

20. Editor AND reporter…Are testing hypothetical stories • A good hypothesis: • Takes the best information we have into account. • Contains factual assertions (terms) that can be verified. • Can be written in three sentences or less.

21. Too often…. Reporters sell the boring facts. Make them sell the HYPOTHESIS. The ideal hypothesis is one that is a story if it is true, and a story if it isn’t true.

22. Challenge: Get the hypothesis right • DO require a hypothesis that: • Allows us to identify specific « facts » we need • Allows us to identify or seek specific sources • Allows us to estimate the time (and budget) needed to verify these facts • Refuse projects that: • Leave out known facts • Take the first hypothesis as final truth • Seek to « prove » it despite facts to the contrary

23. It doesn’t matter if the hypothesis is true…just if you can verify it! A true example: « Doctors are killing prematurely-born babies to stop them from growing up with handicaps. »

24. Challenge: Check the open doors Beginners want to find secrets. But there are so few… There are mainly facts we haven’t examined. Make reporters get the easy“open source data” FIRST… to see if there’s a story… THEN GUESS WHAT THE SECRET IS AND CONFIRM IT.

25. Parents Prosecutors Handicapped kids Doctors Insurance Hospitals Regulators Challenge: Map the human sources A source map is also a road map!

26. Challenge: Get the reporter to budget 1) Travel: How far, how often? Hotels or couches? 2) Meals: Fast food or fancy food for sources? 3) Communications: Phone, SMS, registered mail 4) Time: The reporter’s and yours! 5) Services: Illustration, photography, etc. Help reporters know their costs!

27. Process control: Request a chronology • Helps to keep track of data • Suggests relationships between data • Tells us what to look for next • Gives us the backbone when we write

28. Process control: From chronology to master file • Using timeline as basic frame, insert: • Source contact info (if not confidential) • Biographical data on characters • Site descriptions • Interview/doc extracts (with citation info) • Notes for ideas and questions….. Let the chronology keep it together!

29. Process control: Using the master file • In raw form: Data dump (for reporter) • In edited form: Story outline • In final form: Story AND reference file

30. WHAT ARE THE DELIVERABLES? A STORY? (HOW LONG? WHAT FORMAT?) A SERIES? (SAME AS ABOVE) SPINOFF PRODUCTS? (REPRINTS, BOOKS, SYNDICATION) THE REPORTER CAN SAY WHEN IT’S COMING!

31. Quality control • Master file should contain references for all facts. • Editor must now SEE: • Do references and facts match? • Have all actors been contacted? • Have alternate hypotheses been eliminated?

32. Promotion and Defense Principle: The verified hypothesis can be sold! • Contact concerned communities • Make reporter available to speak • Make key docs available to competing media • Partner with non-competing media • Post on open source media • Anticipate target response + document riposte

33. EXAMPLES TO PONDER • www.grist.org: Environmental smiles • www.enn.com: Aggregation + services • www.radins.com: Live cheap • www.ted.com: Inspirational ideas • www.courrierinternational.com: Global themes for global news

34. Thanks for listening. • http://markleehunter.free.fr • Mark.hunter@wanadoo.fr