For news hounds, trail hot as ever
If conference is any clue, future bright for investigative media
As the media business, thoroughly disrupted by the digital explosion, struggles to regain traction, it’s easy to get discouraged.
Cutbacks continue at legacy news operations, exciting new startups encounter daunting financial challenges and the search for answers remains a formidable task indeed.
But if you’re looking for a sure cure for the news blues, a visit to the annual convention of Investigative Reporters and Editors might be just the thing. That was particularly true of the 40th one, which wrapped up here Sunday.
It wasn’t so long ago that this organization was on the ropes. That was then. This year’s convention attracted a remarkable 1,800 attendees, a record number. And many of them were young journalists passionate about their craft, exceedingly hungry to elevate their games and eager to do work that benefits society.
IRE is not one of those conventions built on schmoozing and networking. It’s a place for learning. And many of the attendees told me that they loved it not for the big-name panels but for the sessions that taught them tricks of the trade.
The convention’s keynote speaker was James Risen, the New
York Times reporter who risked a stint in the slammer for refusing to give up a confidential source. He was clearly excited about what he encountered here.
“I didn’t know there were this many investigative reporters in America,” he told the attendees. “This is the most optimistic I’ve felt in years.”
Sam Smink, a reporter for WINK-TV in Fort Myers, Fla., was thrilled by the event. “What I learned from IRE was that the original goal of journalism, to hold people accountable, is not dead. In fact, it is more alive than ever,” she says.
The conference’s practical emphasis was what made it so worthwhile for Smink, 26. “I learned tricks and skills I had never even thought of before. The best part was how handson the conference was,” she says. “It wasn’t just a ‘come see how good my stories are’ opportunity, but a ‘this is how I made this happen and this is how you can’ learning experience.”
Lindsay Lazarski, a multimedia producer for WHYY, Philadelphia’s pre-eminent public media outlet, sums up the confab as “tools, tools and more tools!”
“But,” she adds, “the refreshing part is that for as many new tools as there is to try, I also heard about how nothing replaces on-the-ground reporting, about how to find trustworthy sources, how to factcheck and the basics of good storytelling. The tools don’t mean squat if you don’t have a good story to tell.”
Lazarski, 34 and a former teacher, bristles whenever she hears someone say, “This is a terrible time to be in journalism.” Lazarski, who says she felt “goosebumps” while listening to some of the panelists, found that “the amount and quality of work presented was stunning.”
The conference also provided a reminder of the new types of players that have made forays into investigative journalism as many legacy outfits have retreated, ranging from viral content maven BuzzFeed to The Marshall
Project, a non-profit headed by former New York Times executive editor Bill Keller that focuses on the criminal justice system.
But this is by no means the time to declare “mission accomplished.” The new ventures hardly make up for all of the reporting firepower jettisoned by traditional outlets.
And keynoter Risen directed a bright spotlight on the risky legal terrain in which reporters are now operating. While the Obama administration ultimately did not force him to choose between betraying a confidential source and going to jail, it pursued a legal battle that has clearly established that there’s no legal right under federal law for a journalist to protect a source. “If a federal prosecutor wants to find out who you talked to, there is nothing blocking him,” Risen says. Efforts to get Congress to enact a federal shield law for reporters have come to naught.
All journalists can do, Risen says, is “speak up forcefully and do more forceful investigative reporting ” on the Obama administrations and those that follow it.