Investigative Journalism Organizations

Investigative journalism organizations include those that sponsor and do investigations and others that act as professional associations and train journalists in investigative techniques. Investigative journalism organizations are a relatively new phenomenon. The first one, Investigative Reporters and Editors, began in 1975, while the Center for Investigative Reporting, which does investigations itself, began in 1977. Both are nonprofit and nonpartisan institutions. Over the next three decades, associations and centers expanded in the United States and into other countries, increasing to more than three dozen. The advent of investigative journalism organizations signified the institutionalization of the practice as an integral part of everyday journalism.

The professional associations have thrived because they provide extensive training and a basis for dialogue among journalists that the news media do not. A 2002 study commissioned by the Knight Foundation found that the news media provided much less training to its employees than other businesses. Training in investigative journalism is especially necessary because it often calls for more intensive research and better interviewing, organizational, and presentation skills. The need for training increased even into the mid-1990s with creation of the World Wide Web and the need to analyze computerized databases in investigative reporting. At the same time, many investigative journalism organizations and centers produced stories filling gaps left by newspaper and broadcast newsrooms that did not have the interest, budget, or staff to carry out more substantial inquiries.

Charles Lewis, the founder of three nonprofit journalism organizations, said in a 2007 paper that the increase in investigative reporting centers is part of a larger trend toward nonprofit journalism. He argues that nonprofit centers that do public service stories or encourage investigative journalism by others are needed because market pressures are causing most news media organizations to reduce resources for investigative journalism.