Online Journalism 101- Post #6: The SURVIVAL of investigative journalism

Investigative journalism is when a reporter investigates and focuses on a single topic of interest such as crimes, scandals, political corruptions and corporate wrongdoinggs. Investigative journalism make worth-while contribution to society by drawing attention to failures within society's systems of regulation and to the ways in which those systems can be circumvented by the rich, the powerful and the corrupt (Burgh, 2008).

But in Malaysia, the freedom of press or 'the fourth estate' merely existed as most of the media outlets are under strict control of the ruling party. However, some dare-devils braved themselves to expose some sizzling stories.

The second challenge in being a watchdog in Malaysia is the difficulty in getting detailed information to support your points as officials here are so afraid in exposing information to the media outlets be it positive or negative data and when nothing much can be retrived from the officials, journalists tend to dig information on-line. But really, how reliable are the words we are reading through our screens?

All in all, challenges facing investigative journalism in Malaysia come from outside and inside media organisation, where some are under their control like human resources, cost, and journalism skills while others like press freedom and media sustainability are betond their control.

Sometimes, the survival of investigative journalism in Malaysia is just like surviving in the Sahara with the deadly desert animals...


References:
1. Investigative journalism in Malaysia- The battle between outside & inside newsroom challenges
2. Investigative journalism despite the odds: watchdog reporting continues to decline
3. Investigative journlaism by Hugo de Burgh
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