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Diversity of Journalisms. Proceedings of ECREA/CICOM Conference, Pamplona, 4-5 July 2011
Investigative journalism and transparency. Three cases of study.
Manfredi Sánchez, Juan Luis
IE University, Segovia, Spain
The good journalism is not a question related to the channel, i.e, people can find
excellent stories in printed, audiovisual o digital media. The key question is the
definition of these stories based on the public interest and the journalistic truth
(Rosenstiel and Kovach, 1997). In order to do a good job, journalists need access to
the main sources without the intervention of the intermediaries. Indeed, the
multiplication of public relations advisers, the rise of political marketing and events
killed news stories and, consequently, the credibility of contemporary journalism. By
definition, we know that power will not share information when it could jeopardize its
integrity (e.g. Foucault or recently Manuel Castells). The power interest may be driven
by political, economic or another own concern (public opinion?).
The challenge of investigative journalism is to break this monopoly of the main
sources and to create again stories based on public interest. In recent years,
technology has fostered the liberalization of data and public sources of information
that allow the creation of such stories.
The paper aims to analyze different cases of success, which has improved the
credibility of the media and their profitability. Top Secret Research America (The
Washington Post), the ProPublica business model or the impact of Wikileaks on
elpais.com are some examples of the new possibilities of investigative journalism.
Media and journalists in Twitter: Corporatizing the personal and personalizing
the professional
López-Hermida Russo, Alberto; Claro Montes, Cecilia
Facultad de Comunicación, Universidad de los Andes (Chile), Santiago, Chile
Social Networks like Twitter have turned into platforms that people – as well as
corporations – use to approach a universe of people that a decade ago, seemed
unimaginable. Journalism has also been affected by this phenomena and journalists,
as well as media corporations, make use of these social networks.
Media and journalists existence in platforms as Twitter inevitably generates a wide
variety of ways to present themselves to society. While media faces the challenge to
upkeep their informational end, journalists have to find a balance between their
personal and professional profile.
A comparative usability analysis between media and journalists Twitter accounts
makes this an evident problem that will allow studying the phenomena and proposing
certain guidelines for action.
Questions emerge rapidly: Can a media corporatize a social tool that is essentially
personal? Must a journalist inform, give his/her opinion as a common citizen in an
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