Viestintätieteiden laitos Heikki K

uuttiTeaching experiences of

investigative and datajournalism

University of Jyväskylä)

Viestintätieteiden laitos Heikki K

uuttiThe nature of

investigative journalisman investigation

by the journalist / editorial staff ---of socially significant matters ---that are sought to be hidden from public eye / are a cause of embarrassmentlat. ”reporto vestigium” (reporting of actions of the past by human beings, consequences of these actions to be seen at present)

Viestintätieteiden laitos Heikki K

uuttiContents of the IJ-coursethe importance and characters of investigative journalism, the role of an investigative reporterIJ working process: choosing the topic, starting the investigation, selecting and using the sources, analyzing the material, preparing and publishing a story, assessing the impact of a storylegal and ethical aspects of IJorganizing IJ in the media

Viestintätieteiden laitos Heikki K

uuttiWorking methods

lectures and discussionsvisits of Finnish “gurus” of investigative journalism: real-life examples and experiencesa research project: an investigative story and a research report based on the story (published in the traditional media or / and on the Internet)a seminar on completed projectsan essay about investigative journalism (upon a free choice topic)

Viestintätieteiden laitos Heikki K

uuttiResearch report

detailed description of a completed investigation: topic choice, information gathering, pitfalls and successes, solving the problemsto write down and analyze own working habits and choicesto repeat and exchange research experiences and learn of these in a common seminar with other students

Viestintätieteiden laitos Heikki K

uuttiMajor observations

It is important to ---adapt a critical attitude towards own journalistic professionproceed from theory to practice in IJdiscover “problematic” topics in societytest own courage and limits in (aggressive) information gathering and story preparingpublish the results (in order to take the investigation seriously)accept “the license to fail” in investigations (testing information gathering is the issue)

Viestintätieteiden laitos Heikki K

uuttiImportant requirementsopen and encouraging atmospheregeneral commitment to investigations (both students’ and teacher’s) teacher’s guidance during the research (angles in a topic, relevant sources)limitations on research projects (topic of a reasonable size, deadline for information gathering)teacher’s experience in journalism and knowledge of legal aspects (liability for publication consequences)size and duration of the course (small pieces of experience in course of time)

Viestintätieteiden laitos Heikki K

uuttiProblems

massiveness of research projects (lack of time at the end of the course)problems in locating and finding information and human sources (willing to talk)survival in a hostile environment (story targets who evade media publicity)preparing a story without sufficient amount of (reliable) informationthe original research topic coming to nothing

Viestintätieteiden laitos Heikki K

uutti

DJ as a journalism laboratory: testing, piloting of key importance problems in finding suitable data sets (“without data there is no data story”) know-how of data access and efficient data requests and negotiationsseveral story ideas were invalidated by lack of open data

DJ-course: experiences

Viestintätieteiden laitos Heikki K

uuttiDJ-course: experiencesdiscovering journalistic questions to be answered by dataknow-how of numbers, statistics know-how of selection of basic data tools utility of experts in (open) data and DJ sufficient amount of time reserved for continuous student assistance (social media help-desks via Facebook)co-operation with other schools and constantly sharing best practices (European wide next?)