Lecture 12: The Grand Finale

This is it. Our final lecture for the JOUR1111 course. I feel I have learnt so much about the field of journalism through this course; but, of course there was one last topic to ‘investigate’. 

This week for our JOUR1111 lecture, Bruce decided to slightly change the topic from ‘Political Economy’ to Investigative Journalism, which I was excited to hear about. Each form of journalism is different and investigative journalism has always seemed to me to be very intense and often risky. So, it was interesting to hear about the profession from the viewpoint of journalists themselves such as Ross Coulthart who said: 

“Isn’t all journalism meant to involve questioning investigation of facts and opinions presented to us?”

Ross Coulthart

Image sourced from: http://au.news.yahoo.com/sunday-night/people/article/-/5289027/ross-coulthart/

 

Bruce introduced us to the theory surrounding Investigative Journalism and the words which put the ‘in’ in Investigative. These words described Investigative Journalism as ‘Intelligent’, ‘Informed’, ‘Intuitive’, ‘Inside’ and ‘Invest’. We also thought about the importance of this style of journalism and why it is relevant in our world today. An interesting avenue which was looked into during the lecture was whether Wikileaks could be considered a form of journalism. 

 Julian Assange

 Image sourced from: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2010/jul/14/julian-assange-whistleblower-wikileaks

Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, has become a somewhat household name; but I did find myself wondering whether he could in fact be considered a journalist. Obviously, being an aspiring journalist, I would like to think that all journalists work for the good of the people whose stories they are privileged to be telling. So, having to consider whether such a controversial figure is, in fact, a journalist I found quite difficult. 

  Image sourced from: http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/n/news_room.asp

 

At the end of this lecture, like any other, we were taught about the threats which Investigative Journalism faces. Again, we were warned about the possible threat placed on Investigative Journalism from online news. These threats included the fact that online news is leading to less money which means, less journalists and, in turn, less investigative journalism. Another threat includes the growth of PR and how that, consequentially, shrinks the possibilities of journalism. As a final note, before we were dismissed for the last time from JOUR1111, Bruce explained the future of Investigative Journalism and how YouTube is contributing by creating a channel specifically for Investigative Journalism related videos.  

Throughout the duration of this course, I have learnt fundamental skills and information which will help me in further journalism studies and into the workforce.