Investigative journalism is being increasingly relied upon and celebrated, especially since it has covered some of the most important stories causing new movement of change like the Me Too Movement.
In Canada, the newspaper publication of The Standard’s expose on the hiring of the Niagara Region chief administrative officer triggered an independent investigation of the municipality and generated a lot of reader response.
Being nominated for several industry awards over the years, Grant LaFleche and the teams at The St. Catherines Standard, Niagara Falls Tribune, and the Welland Tribune realized that their audiences wanted to know how they were able to uncover these events and stories. So they decided to launch a new podcast series, called Inside the Newsroom, to give a closeup look at how their journalists do their work.
The first episode highlights the investigative journalism process behind LaFleche’s regional CAO story, the investigative profile of Robert Megna, and the series of stories on the All Canadian’s Kitchen scam. It also looks at how tools such as encrypted emails are becoming important in gaining access to sources and information to how an initial customer service call, requesting Karena Walter to investigate into complaints on Canada Kitchens lead to a series of stories that ultimately resulted in a fraud case being opened.
Similar podcasts have also been produced outside of Canada, like The Tip Off in the UK, which focuses on a different story, speaking to investigative journalists who explain the twists and turns, dead ends and tip-offs that landed them their biggest scoops.
Many stories are complex and often take long periods of time to piece together and get the critical mass and recognition they deserve, which is why podcast series like Inside The Newsroom assist in providing industry insider information that otherwise their audiences don’t see take place daily.
Ultimately, as LaFleche credits Bob Woodward, saying that everyone has their own versions of the truth, but there are facts and this is the reality, and, getting at those facts and that reality is what newspapering is all about. For State of Digital Publishing, this applies to all forms of publishing and journalism.
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Listen to Episode 1 of Inside The Newsroom now on Soundcloud.
