What skills do you need for investigative journalism? Four of my lectures at the Higher School of Vocational Education in Wrocław.
I have been working for the Higher School of Vocational Education in Wroclaw since 2022. This is my second academic workplace. These are not traditional lectures, as the entire study takes place online. I prepare 1.5 hours of material, which is recorded in a studio in Wroclaw or at my home as a screencast. In addition, there is a mandatory outline, presentation and a test of 20 abc questions.
Image by DC Studio on FreepikWhat skills do you need for investigative journalism? Sources of journalistic information
I cannot present more details of my August lectures because I am bound by contract and copyright. But I can tell you a few words about what the studio recordings will be about this time. In total, I have prepared more than 50 lecture projects.
We will talk about investigative journalism. The first topic of the lecture is: Systematics of journalistic information sources. We will consider what a source is as a journalistic term. Further, what are the journalistic rules for sources. We will point out the division of information sources. First of all, we will distinguish what are found and evoked sources, formal and informal sources. Finally, we will deal with verification of information.
The second lecture topic is: The Internet as a source of information for journalists and its limitations. Here I will talk about journalistic information, its sources, but above all I will consider how the Internet has changed journalism. And what are its limitations as a source of information. I will also talk about the phenomenon of aggregation, that is, the collection of data from multiple extended digital sources. This is how I will end the first of two scheduled recording days, August 28, 2024.
Analysis of the most famous texts of investigative journalism in Poland and around the world
The second day of recordings, on August 29, will be closely related to the topic of investigative journalism. The third scheduled lecture is: Analysis of selected texts of investigative journalism. I will also talk about the method of analysis of journalistic texts. I have selected Polish examples of investigative journalism and the most important media scandals of the 21st century. These are: the Rywin affair of 2002 and the “skin-hunters” affair of 2002. Next: the 2014 wiretapping affair and the 2019 Pegasus affair. And the latest example: the Poland visa scandal of 2023.
The fourth lecture, the last of the scheduled ones, is: Working with an informant on the most famous examples from the history of world and Polish journalism. Here I will talk about who is an informant in investigative journalism? As well as, who is a whistleblower? The selected examples are probably familiar to you. I will talk about the 1972 Watergate affair, The Boston Globe (“Spotlight”) publications from 2001-2003, the WikiLeaks affair in 2010 and the Panama Papers in 2016. I will also give one Polish example: Jaroslaw Sokolowski, alias “Masa,” as a journalistic informant. He revealed many secrets of the Polish mafia.
