Chapter 18: Investigative Reporting
I think this chapter would have been very helpful had it been assigned before watching the McWane video. I was absolutely amazed with how much work went into that case and how PBS put everything they used online. I have seen many things like it before but I had never watched them from a journalistic perspective.

I thought it was good that this chapter mentioned that investigative reporting doesn't always involve crime and corruption. The public service aspect is often brushed over and forgotten about.

The chapter stresses the use of technology in investigative reporting many times. The amount of data that comes from technology is immense. You can find almost any data you need on the Internet today. And if it's not right there you can find where to get it elsewhere.

I think it's good that it says that you should be open to disproof to your hypothesis. I'm sure it's hard for many journalists to see that what they've been trying to prove is in fact not true. They may go for ways to make it seem true but this isn't right. The reporting is not a waste and if the reporter is good enough they can come up with another story from what they have uncovered.

"Many reporters take a kind of perverse pride in their illegible notebooks and cluttered desks."

This is great and it describes me very well. Last night I went on my ride along and wrote all my notes in the dark for the most part. I can still read everything I wrote but the words are all over the place. And my desk...wow. At the moment, my desk has approximately two post-it sized empty areas on it. The rest of the three-foot long desk is cluttered with life necessities. These life necessities include a large bottle of ibuprofen, an empty box of Snowcaps, a reporter’s notepad, a headband with leopard ears, a plastic margarita glass filled with bobby pins, my cable bill, two deodorants (one empty), two Halloween cards, a Nalgene water bottle with two bumper stickers, a TV remote, nail strengthener, and a hermit crab cage with two, hopefully living, hermit crabs.

It would suck to do great reporting and then have it be poorly written. "The best reporting in the world is wasted unless it is read." So true, and so upsetting.

The description of sources was helpful, but at the same time self-explanatory.

Lastly, there's a typo on page 390. Last time I checked "un1derstanding" was not a word. I give the textbook an F for misspelling.


http://www.ire.org/extraextra/
This is fun. Lots of stories. I liked this one: "Investigation finds animal corpses in Colorado Humane Society trash." Everyone loves dead animals, no?


http://www.ire.org/inthenews_archive/
More stories! I really don't know what to say about them in my blog though.


http://www.ire.org/resourcecenter/initial-search-beat.html
Even more stories...again, I don't know what to right about. Reading all of these is terrifying though. I feel as though I may die in mere seconds due to a volcano eruption or my room catching on fire.