J-Topics

In his July 2009 editor's letter, Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter gives newspapers everyone a little advice:

"My suggestion to newspapers everywhere is to give the public a reason to read them again. So here’s an idea: get on a big story with widespread public appeal, devote your best resources to it, say a quiet prayer, and swing for the fences."

In the column, Carter illustrates his point with an example...

April 17 was a pretty good day for the St. Petersburg Times in Florida.

It won two Pulitzer Prizes, it began publishing a major investigative series, and it won recognition from a grand jury that its work was crucial in providing evidence of alleged wrongdoing by a former House Speaker.

Other media outlets should pay attention to how it does it.

Whenever I conduct seminars in enterprise reporting, I provide examples of what I call the "journalism of reminder." It's a simple but often ignored aspect of journalism. It reminds the reader or viewer or listener of key historical facts about a story, but it does so at a time when that context is crucial. For instance, when the US was threatening to topple Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, in part because he used chemical weapons on his own people, it was important for journalists to remember that the US government knew about such practices two decades earlier, when Iraq was a strong ally. Similarly, whenever a politician announces a new policy or initiative, it's important to remember what that same politician said about the issue in the past.

I was thinking about the journalism of reminder when I read Toxic Legacy, an impressive investigation by journalism students at the University of King's College in Halifax.

Last month, the Fund for Investigative Journalism in the US awarded grants totaling $57,000 to 15 journalists for investigative reporting projects.

The idea is to kick-start investigative work in a variety of fields, often providing funding that isn't available anywhere else.

It's a formula the fund has used with great success since its founding 40 years ago.