Investigative Journalism(COM278)
| Course Code | Course Name | Semester | Theory | Practice | Lab | Credit | ECTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| COM278 | Investigative Journalism | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
| Prerequisites | |
| Admission Requirements |
| Language of Instruction | English |
| Course Type | Elective |
| Course Level | Bachelor Degree |
| Course Instructor(s) | İdil ENGİNDENİZ iengindeniz@gsu.edu.tr (Email) |
| Assistant | |
| Objective | This course aims to provide students with a comprehensive theoretical and practical foundation in investigative journalism. It introduces the historical roots, core concepts, and ethical debates of investigative reporting in both Turkish and global contexts, while developing students’ ability to access public records, work with human and vulnerable sources, and use data as a reporting tool. Through hands-on research, interviewing, and storytelling exercises, the course seeks to equip students with the skills necessary to transform complex investigations into accurate, ethical, and compelling journalistic narratives, while navigating legal, political, and professional risks. |
| Content | This course offers a comprehensive introduction to investigative journalism by combining theoretical frameworks with hands-on reporting practice. It examines the historical development and core debates of investigative journalism in Turkish and global contexts, while training students to work with public records, freedom of information mechanisms, human and vulnerable sources, and data-driven reporting tools. Emphasis is placed on ethical decision-making, narrative strategies, and risk management, enabling students to transform rigorous research into compelling investigative stories and to produce an original final project grounded in public interest journalism. |
| Course Learning Outcomes |
By the end of this course, students will be able to: Explain the historical development, key concepts, and contested definitions of investigative journalism in local and global contexts. Identify, access, and strategically use public records, government documents, and freedom of information mechanisms for investigative reporting. Conduct ethical and effective interviews with both powerful actors and marginalized or vulnerable individuals, demonstrating sensitivity to trauma and community dynamics. Apply principles of journalism ethics to investigative reporting, particularly in cases involving risk, controversy, and public interest. Collect, analyze, and interpret data using spreadsheets and other digital tools, and integrate data findings into human-centered stories. Develop an investigative story from initial idea to hypothesis, research design, and narrative structure. Assess and manage legal and political hazards such as libel, harassment, and other threats faced by investigative journalists. Produce an original investigative project that demonstrates rigorous research, ethical judgment, and clear, impactful storytelling. |
| Teaching and Learning Methods |
Participatory conference. Participation of expert journalists. Field-based journalistic research. |
| References |
Week 1 - Reading/listening: Shapiro, Shaking the Foundations: 200 Years of Investigative Journalism in America (https://www.amazon.com/Shaking Foundations-Investigative-Journalism-America-ebook/dp/B001TH84YM/ref=sr_1_1? dchild=1&keywords=shaking+the+foundations+shapiro&qid=1622819178&sr=8-1) , Introduction: Striking Through The Mask Solnit, Break The Story (https://yale.instructure.com/courses/87756/files/7446829?wrap=1) Wallace, The End of Extractive Journalism (https://megaphone.link/CFQY7653566448) (podcast) Vardar, Uğur Mumcu: The Foundation Continuing the Legacy of an Assassinated Turkish Investigative Reporter Dağ, Counterfeit Cancer Drugs, Human Trafficking, and the Earthquake’s Toxic Aftermath: 2023’s Best Investigative Stories from Turkey Dağ, 2022’s Best Investigative Stories from Turkey Week 2 - Reading: Blaskey, Sarah et al, “Covid Cruises” (https://www.miamiherald.com/article241640166.html) (Miami Herald, 2020) Eldridge, Taylor, “Why Prisons Get the Doctors No One Else Wants” (https://www.typeinvestigations.org/investigation/2019/11/08/why prisoners-get-the-doctors-no-one-else-wants/) (Type Investigations, 2019) Ford, Andrew, “Five Ways to Hold Police Departments Accountable (https://www.propublica.org/article/i-cover-cops-as-an investigative-reporter-here-are-five-ways-you-can-start-holding-your-department-accountable) ” (ProPublica, 2020) Reference: Fish, William, Connecticut Open Information Guide (https://www.rcfp.org/open-government-guide/connecticut/) (Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, 2021) “FOIA and Finding Data,” (https://www.journaliststoolbox.org/2021/06/04/public_records_1/) SPJ Journalists’ Toolbox (2021) Week 3 - Reading/Listening: Meek, Miki et al. “Our Town” (audio, This American Life, 2017) Nalder, Eric "Loosening Lips: A Guide to Interviewing" (2009) Philadelphia Inquirer, An Apology To Our Readers and Inquirer Employees (https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-inquirer-black lives-matter-headline-apology-20200603.html) Philadelphia Inquirer, Diversity and Inclusion Audit 2020 (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MJB8IaP4MC_kpP47ZGsVo5y1cAR3VByR/view) Picturing Black Deaths: A Conversation with Emily Bernard and Jelani Cobb (https://dartcenter.org/events/2020/07/picturing-black deaths-conversation-jelani-cobb-and-emily-bernard) , Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, July 2020 Week 4 - Reading: Anas, “Name, Shame and Jail” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8cRuyNHVmA) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8cRuyNHVmA Bruder, Jessica and Dale Maharidge, Snowden's Box (https://yale.instructure.com/courses/87756/files/7446828?wrap=1) Chiquita Secrets Revealed Casebook (%24CANVAS_COURSE_REFERENCE%24/file_ref/g3798ecffc797a1b128f9a3a86eb27e9e?wrap=1) Week 5 - Reading/listening: Bernstein, Andrea, “Trump Inc.” (https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/trumpinc/episodes/trump-inc-corruption-profiteers) (podcast episode 1, 2020) Walker, Marina et al. “The Panama Papers” (International Center for Investigative Journalism, 2016) Week 6 - Readings: Gillers, Stephen, from Journalism Under Fire: Protecting the Future of Investigative Reporting (Columbia University Press, 2018) Lovato, Roberto, from Unforgetting: A Memoir of Family, Migration, Gangs and Revolution in the Americas Stillman, Sarah, “When Deportation is a Death Sentence” (https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/01/15/when-deportation-is-a death-sentence) (The New Yorker, 2018) Walter, Shoshana et al, American Rehab (https://revealnews.org/american-rehab/) (Reveal Podcast) References: Adornato, Anthony, Mobile and Social Media Journalism: A Practical Guide (Ithaca Univ Press, 2018) Alexievitch, Svetalana, Voices from Chernobyl (Dalkey Archive Press, 2015) Arendt, Hannah from Eichmann in Jerusalem (Penguin, 1963) Armstrong, Ken and Miller, T. Christian. “An Unbelievable Story of Rape” (The Marshall Project, 2015) Blaskey, Sarah et al, “Covid Cruises” (Miami Herald, 2020) Coll, Steve and Coronel, Sheila, “A Failure That was Avoidable” (Columbia Journalism Review, 2015) Eldridge, Taylor, “Why Prisons Get the Doctors No One Else Wants” (Type Investigations, 2019) Erdley, Sabrina “A Rape on Campus” (Rolling Stone, 2014) Houston, Brant and Mark Horvit, Investigative Reporters' Handbook: A Guide to Documents, Databases and Techniques (Sixth Edition, 2020) Investigative Reporting Ethics case study: Cincinatti Enquirer and Chiquita (online archive) Gillers, Stephen, Journalism Under Fire: Protecting the Future of Investigative Reporting (Columbia University Press, 2018) Hannah-Jones, Nikole, “Worlds Apart” (The New York Times Magazine, 2016) MacGillis, Alec, “Jared Kushner’s Other Real Estate Empire,” The New York Times Magazine, 4/28/18 Meek, Miki et al. “Our Town” (audio, This American Life, 2017) Nalder, Eric "Loosening Lips: A Guide to Interviewing" (2009) Philadelphia Inquirer, An Apology To Our Readers and Inquirer Employees (https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-inquirer-black lives-matter-headline-apology-20200603.html) Philadelphia Inquirer, Diversity and Inclusion Audit 2020 (https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MJB8IaP4MC_kpP47ZGsVo5y1cAR3VByR/view) Philips, Dave, “Other Than Honorable” (Colorado Springs Gazette, 2014) Roosevelt, Theodore, "The Man With the Muck-rake"(1906) Shapiro, Bruce, Shaking The Foundations: 200 Years of Investigative Journalism in America (Nation Books/Thunders Mouth Press, 2003) Sigal, Leon, "Sources Make the News" (1986) Solnit. Rebecca, “Break the Story” (2016) Smyth, Frank and Hight, Joe, "Tragedies and Journalists" (Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, 2003) Steffens, Lincoln, "The Shame of Minneapolis" from McClure's (1903) Stillman, Sarah “The Throwaways” (The New Yorker, 2014) and “When Deportation is a Death Sentence” (The New Yorker, 2018) Stone, I.F., from I.F. Stone's Weekly (1967) Tarbell, Ida,"The History of Standard Oil" from McClure's (1903) Walker, Marina et al. “The Panama Papers” (International Center for Investigative Journalism, 2016) Weber, Max, "Power and Authority" and "The Position of the Official" Wells, Ida, "A Red Record" Woodward and Bernstein, from the Washington Post (1973) “The End of Extractive Journalism” (Links to an external site.) (https://megaphone.link/CFQY7653566448) from The View From Somewhere Podcast (Lewis Raven Wallace) The View from Everywhere (https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/episodes/on-the-media-view-from-everywhere) , On the Media, April 2 2021 Picturing Black Deaths: A Conversation with Emily Bernard and Jelani Cobb (https://dartcenter.org/events/2020/07/picturing-black deaths-conversation-jelani-cobb-and-emily-bernard) , Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, July 2020 Anas, “Name, Shame and Jail” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8cRuyNHVmA) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8cRuyNHVmA) https://ijec.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/2015-BC-syllabus-NEW.pdf https://elearning.aljazeera.net/en/courses/investigative-journalism https://www.gu.se/en/study-gothenburg/masters-programme-in-investigative-journalism-s2jou https://www.city.ac.uk/prospective-students/courses/postgraduate/investigative-journalism Yale Case studies https://gijn.org/topic/case-studies/ https://gijn.org/stories/how-the-financial-times-exposed-a-billion-dollar-fraud/ https://gijn.org/stories/academic-research-fraud-errors/ https://www.propublica.org/article/university-of-illinois-chicago-mani-pavuluri-3-million-research-breakdown |
Theory Topics
| Week | Weekly Contents |
|---|---|
| 1 | What is investigative journalism? Roots and historical background: Türkiye and global / Concepts of investigative journalism: Consensus and contention |
| 2 | Fundamentals: Public records and government documents 1. Public documents: Access and strategy 2. Freedom of Information law practice and global perspectives |
| 3 | Human Sources I: The theory and practice of interviewing 1. People with power 2. People without power |
| 4 | Human Sources II: Vulnerable sources, community and ethics 1. Interviewing and reporting on victims of trauma, violence and loss 2. Reporting on vulnerable communities and neighborhoods |
| 5 | Investigative Reporting and Journalism Ethics: Challenges and controversies |
| 6 | Data reporting: Technological innovation, reporting method and teaching spreadsheets to sing 1. What makes effective data reporting? 2. Turning Excel into a reporting tool 3. Connecting data to human stories |
| 7 | Getting real: From research to story 1. Developing the story: Idea to Hypothesis 2. Investigative narrative: strategies and ethics 3. Legal and Political Hazards: Libel, Harassment and other threats |
| 8 | Getting real: Final projects |
| 9 | Getting real: Final projects |
| 10 | Getting real: Final projects |
| 11 | Getting real: Final projects |
| 12 | Getting real: Final projects |
| 13 | Getting real: Final projects |
| 14 | Getting real: Final projects |
Practice Topics
| Week | Weekly Contents |
|---|
Contribution to Overall Grade
| Number | Contribution | |
|---|---|---|
| Contribution of in-term studies to overall grade | 1 | 40 |
| Contribution of final exam to overall grade | 1 | 60 |
| Toplam | 2 | 100 |
In-Term Studies
| Number | Contribution | |
|---|---|---|
| Assignments | 0 | 0 |
| Presentation | 0 | 0 |
| Midterm Examinations (including preparation) | 1 | 40 |
| Project | 0 | 0 |
| Laboratory | 0 | 0 |
| Other Applications | 0 | 0 |
| Quiz | 0 | 0 |
| Term Paper/ Project | 0 | 0 |
| Portfolio Study | 0 | 0 |
| Reports | 0 | 0 |
| Learning Diary | 0 | 0 |
| Thesis/ Project | 0 | 0 |
| Seminar | 0 | 0 |
| Other | 0 | 0 |
| Make-up | 0 | 0 |
| Toplam | 1 | 40 |
| No | Program Learning Outcomes | Contribution | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 1 | Will have effective written and oral communication skills in Turkish | |||||
| 2 | Will have a thorough knowledge of at least two foreign languages | X | ||||
| 3 | Will be informed about art and culture, human rights, social, professional and ethical values, law and legislation, quality standards, and will be aware of their responsibility on these subjects | X | ||||
| 4 | Will have sufficient knowledge about social sciences, professions and sectors in communication and media, innovative and entrepreneurial practices | X | ||||
| 5 | Will have the ability to use, in an effective and creative way, the techniques and tools and information technologies necessary for interactive and conventional media, in the context of health and safety in the workplace | |||||
| 6 | Will have the ability to develop documentary and fictional content related to their field for interactive and conventional media; also the ability to produce and manage this content in group | |||||
| 7 | Will have the theoretical knowledge and ability to carry out and share scientific work on communication environments and processes of interactive and conventional media and on the individual and social outcomes of the latter | X | ||||
| 8 | Will have the knowledge of analysis and modelling techniques to analyse interactive and conventional media and the communication environments and processes | |||||
| 9 | Will have the ability to question and critically analyse developments and problems concerning interactive and conventional media and the communication environments and processes, will be aware of the public interest, social responsibility and the environment, will be sensitive to contemporary world’s and Turkey's current problems; will develop a libertarian, democratic, constructive and problem-solving approach | X | ||||
| 10 | They are familiar with the historical development processes of electronic, digital media and film; and the current developments in these fields | |||||
| 11 | They learn sociological, cultural and aesthetic approaches in electronic, digital media and film | |||||
| 12 | They learn the political economy of cultural industries, labour and production relations, analysis of marketing and consumption patterns. | |||||
| 13 | They learn at a first level how to use the equipment necessary for the production of audio-visual content for TV, radio and digital media and of films in different genres | |||||
| 14 | They gain experience in conducting creative activities in electronic, digital media and film; in producing and working in groups | |||||
| 15 | They acquire theoretical information in the fields of public relations, advertising, integrated marketing communication and organizational communication | |||||
| 16 | They are familiar with the research, planning, implementation and evaluation processes in public relations and advertising; they can create campaigns, present them effectively and write reports | |||||
| 17 | They have knowledge of organisational communication, crisis and risk communication, reputation management, media relations, media planning, digital media management, brand management and interpersonal communication. They are able to carry out activities in these areas | |||||
| 18 | They use public relations and advertising strategies and tactics appropriate to the specificities of conventional and new media | |||||
| 19 | They are aware of legal regulations, ethical codes in public relations and advertising, and they remain faithful to them | |||||
| 20 | They are familiar with the different theoretical approaches regarding the social place, role and functions of journalism as a social institution and phenomenon; they are familiar with the process of producing information for conventional and digital media | X | ||||
| 21 | They are familiar with the structural and technical specificities, management characteristics of conventional/mainstream media, as well as alternative media structures | |||||
| 22 | They are familiar with the new conceptual and theoretical discussions emerging from interactive/digital media in terms of social sciences and humanities | X | ||||
| 23 | They are familiar with the historical development of journalism in Turkey and in the world; they can analyse it in the context of social and political history | X | ||||
| 24 | They have the ability to effectively use information technology, printing and publishing techniques; to write a press article using data collected on the web and on social media, to visualize this data and to publish it | X | ||||
| Activities | Number | Period | Total Workload |
|---|---|---|---|
| Class Hours | 14 | 2 | 28 |
| Working Hours out of Class | 14 | 2 | 28 |
| Assignments | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Presentation | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Midterm Examinations (including preparation) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Project | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Laboratory | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Other Applications | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Final Examinations (including preparation) | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Quiz | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Term Paper/ Project | 1 | 24 | 24 |
| Portfolio Study | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Reports | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Learning Diary | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Thesis/ Project | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Seminar | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Other | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Make-up | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Yıl Sonu | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Hazırlık Yıl Sonu | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Hazırlık Bütünleme | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total Workload | 80 | ||
| Total Workload / 25 | 3.20 | ||
| Credits ECTS | 3 | ||