The Shop Talk panelists talk about investigative and enterprise reporting -- the type of journalism that broke the news about the case against Larry Nassar.
Panelist Jasmine Crighton said she discussed the case with one of her classes and found the students knew quite a bit about the story. She thinks audiences will respond to quality, in-depth reporting and this is another example of that.
Crighton said we don’t see enough investigative reporting, especially in small markets that have small newsrooms.
Panelist Will Buss said he worked for a newspaper that encouraged its reporters to regularly file Freedom of Information Act requests. And he said investigative reporting is not always done to expose wrongdoing – sometimes it’s done to delve into issues that should be of interest to the community.
That said, Buss added the newspaper had a group of reporters who focused primarily on investigative journalism. He said one of their investigations exposed the systemic abuse and neglect of foster children in Illinois.
Panelist Rich Egger said many newspapers and broadcast newsrooms face deadline pressures that are exacerbated by small staff sizes. He suggested online news organizations could really make a difference with investigative reporting because they don’t face daily or hourly deadlines.
Jasmine Crighton is News Director of NEWS3 at Western Illinois University and Will Buss is the Director of Student Publications at WIU.
