The Unmentioned

In The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect, Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel provide an explanation of investigative reporting and the three forms that it takes in modern journalism.

As a fledgeling journalist, I found this to be a helpful summary, and I was particularly interested in the second form of investigative reporting that they describe: interpretive.

Interpretive investigative reporting requires journalists to compile information collected by numerous sources and interpret or analyze it in order to appropriately deliver the information to the public in a news story.

When writing research papers for english literature classes, I love to do this kind of primary research -- the kind that asks me to observe the plain facts and come up with a conclusion that connects them as parts of a logical argument. It's somehow satisfying to write a research paper that does not depend solely on the power and credibility of others' ideas, to reach a conclusion via my own analytical and intuitive powers of investigation instead of simply throwing my own opinion to one side or the other of an argument.

Which is why I believe that interpretive investigative reporting may be a style of news reporting that I would like to practice in the future, perhaps as a way of integrating my critical thinking skills with my news writing skills. The more time I spend writing news articles for my journalism classes or for the school's student newspaper, the more I find myself wishing that the reporting challenged me to understand the information that I am presenting, rather than simply requiring me to know which facts to present, and in what order.