Reporters share investigative-journalism tips

Local journalists Don Dare and Scott Barker shared a few tricks of their trade with UT students and faculty Thursday night at the forum, “Tools for Investigative Journalists.”

“Investigative journalism is a story that takes a long time to research,” Dare, reporter for WATE-TV Channel 6, said. “It reveals new information — not the result of somebody else’s reporting.”

Five years ago in a series called “Playing the Ponies,” Dare used surveillance videos and interviews to reveal that the then-mayor of Campbell County spent his Thursday afternoons gambling in Kentucky.

“The elements in that story were the video footage, the reaction from politicians and the ordinary person and his (the mayor’s) reaction,” Dare said.

A WATE-TV cameraman followed the mayor into the off-track betting parlor he regularly visited to gamble, Dare said.

After Dare and his crew secured footage, he talked to the mayor’s colleagues and ordinary people in the community about how they would feel if they knew a public official was gambling during work hours.

“I got a nice political story, but I needed one more segment — going to interview regular people, the human element,” Dare said.

Dare returned to the importance of the “human element” in investigative journalism as he and Barker, reporter for the Knoxville News Sentinel, discussed the pitfalls fledgling journalists often fall into.

An investigative piece begins and ends with the human element.

“More often than not, the best stories come from tips — outraged citizens, employees that don’t think their bosses are doing things right,” Barker said.

Barker has spent the last year tackling the circumstances surrounding the Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash spill near Kingston, Tenn., last December. Many residents were uprooted by the 1.1 billion gallons of water and ash that burst from a Kingston fossil plant retention pond, the News Sentinel reported.

News coverage of the ash spill has kept the health and safety repercussions on the community’s agenda.

While the families’ reactions to the spill have infused reports with a human element, most of Barker’s work is paper shuffling.

“The real work begins inside the filing cabinet,” Barker said. “Documents don’t forget. They don’t forget dates. They don’t get amnesia because the boss is breathing down their neck.”

Barker looks for direction in public records before beginning the interview process, much as Dare obtained video surveillance before talking to people.

Both journalists start the interview stage with people who have the least information about what they are reporting, ordinary citizens, and work their way toward the people with intimate knowledge of the issue. Think of a bull’s-eye target, Barker suggested.

“When it comes to confronting someone like the mayor, you want to be prepared because you’re only going to have one shot at someone like that,” Dare said.

When a journalist finally has all the components to an investigation, the last step is putting it together into an interesting story.

“Have the editor look at the hard copy first, then put it all together,” Dare said. “Ask yourself: Does the visual part match the script? Does it work? Is it compelling?”

Although investigative stories help give newspapers and TV news stations an edge, Barker said he is concerned that scalebacks at news organizations will mean scaling back investigative journalism.

“These stories really get beneath the surface and provide a service to the community,” Barker said.