As journalism continues to evolve and the quest to curating impactful stories relatively becoming scarce, there seems to be a hidden treasure that has the potential of unlocking and bridging the gap between conventional news reporting and investigative journalism,
Over the years, journalist have longed shied away from adding hardcore data to enrich their stories, which provides a much deeper perspective into the usual “he says” news story that appears to have lost touch with readers and news lovers alike.
The Panama papers leak of over 11.5million files from a Panama based law firm Mossack Fonseca paved the way for over 200 journalists worldwide to dig into the discrepancies in the data that was leaked.
The investigation which was spearheaded by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) in 2015, shone the spotlight unto how prominent Panamanian lawmakers and influential people evaded taxes, laundered, and stashed money in their offshore bank accounts away from the preying eyes of authorities.
The 2015 investigation marked a giant shift in data journalism leading to the resignations and prosecution of persons who were involved in these scandals. Since then, data journalism has proven to be one of the most indispensable factor investigative journalists lacked in crafting thought provoking and data-rich stories.
How data impact news stories
Speaking on the relevance of data in today’s journalistic practice, Technical Advisor at Corruption Watch Ghana, Mr. William Nyarko, who co-authored a book on investigative journalism which encapsulates data journalism, explained that, investigative journalism thrives on evidence and therefore data journalism provides that missing piece of information to give the story more depth. “Data journalism helps to accentuate that evidence. You use it [data journalism] to give credence to the fact that, there is corruption in the story” he noted
Mr. Nyarko explains that despite the huge potential that data present to investigative journalism, it is a daunting task to balance.
He adds that, “you will have to be mindful that in collecting data it is in accordance with the ethics of journalism profession and the GJA code of ethics, where you cannot use straight forward means to collect the data, you use undercover journalism to collect the data.”
Another challenge according to him is that people are unwilling to give information which has the tendency to aid in data gathering and better journalism.
Despite the challenges in accessing information, he says the Right to Information came in handy to fix the cumbersome processes that were involved in accessing information from government entities.
Speaking to Vaultz Media on the subject, Mr. Frederick Asiamah, a seasoned journalist with over two decades of experience, noted that others may see the hindrances in practicing investigative journalism as challenges. However, he believes they are a source of motivation that strengthens him to continue holding policymakers accountable for the stewardship entrusted to them by the electorate.
“They will sue you; some will come with physical threats. I have had many of them. People will call you on phone to threaten you, the threat of your phone calls being listened to by national security.”
Mr. Frederick Asiamah
According to Mr. Asiamah he is unfazed about the threats as they only confirm the fact that the right things is being done and therefore the challenges come as a motivation to keep going and not look back.
He further explained that, journalist needs to understand that, it is one thing to write very good stories but it is also another to have well researched and data enriched stories. He admonished that, there should be a deliberate attempt by media practitioners to understand how data works and how they could rely on data to tell better stories to their readers and audience alike.
That he believes will limit some of the unwarranted criticisms journalists face in their line of duty and for citizens to be better informed.
Even though some journalists go through several ways to get data to back their reportage, others also rely on conventional ways such as public documents as source of primary data, which is later refined to make meaning and give some weight to their stories.
Over the years some of these methods have come under intense criticisms from various sections of the Ghanaian public. Whilst some people including journalists and the public believe in the method of secret filming by Ace Investigative journalist Anas Aremeyaw Anas, he gets accused of entrapment.
The same applies to Manasseh Azure Awuni who appears to be changing the status quo of investigative journalism and data journalism. Though, some news lovers think Manasseh has an edge over Anas in the methods he employs in his quest to get data to back his stories, he equally comes under criticism following some of the stories he’s done over the years.
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