‘Spotlight’ illuminates questions of investigative reporting in digital age

The movie dramatised the 2001-2002 investigation by the Boston Globe’s Spotlight unit into sex abuse by Catholic priests, which spurred a major shake-up of the Church’s supervision of clergy.

I was hoping that the wide-ranging publicity for the movie would revive interest among aspiring journalists to make use of social media and new technological tools to boost the role of investigative reporting.

For those old enough to remember the Watergate drama “All the President’s Men”, the production of “Spotlight” simply enhanced the conviction that, without the sustained practice of investigative journalism, the health of democracy would suffer badly.

Howie Severino of the Philippines’ GMA News said “Spotight” is a film about journalism that captures the reasons why its most ardent practitioners love their jobs, not least of all the thrill of the chase.

“What made the blood race for news dinosaurs like me is how accurately it mirrored the passions that drove sleep-deprived scribes from another era, before social media dispersed everyone’s attention and blurred the lines between journalists and witnesses with smartphones,” he wrote. 

He added: “One felt too the sensation of the reporters nailing the smoking gun and hearing their editor tell them matter-of-factly, ‘this is what we live for’.”

“Believe it or not, that’s what the best journos live for, not prizes, not fame, not money, but the private gratification of finding facts that make the powerful accountable,” the senior journalist said.

He said “Spotlight” refreshes the notion of journalism as public service, at a time when the time-consuming digging that so-called enterprise reporting demands is under threat from the dizzying pace of the online news cycle.

“The Academy Award it just won for best picture may fire up at least a few more bright millennials to try to change the world by speaking truth to power with a tidal wave of facts,” he added.

During our discussion after the movie, students asked how social media could really enhance investigative reporting. How does a reporter reconcile the obsession with speed and 30-second video clips on social media with long-form journalism as well as investigative reporting?

My response was: If they follow the mainstream trend, they would be swamped by information overload. Professional journalists have to be clever with the use of new tools to plunge into genuine investigative journalism.

I cited “crowdsourcing” as one of the many methods being used by investigative reporters to collect information and verify facts. Engaging with readers and viewers in this way helps expand journalists’ horizons.

Dan Gillmor, author of the book “We the Media”, told the Guardian recently: “After every good investigative story, the reporter usually gets calls saying: great story, but here is what you’ve missed.” New leads and tips from the “crowd” can help the reporter to break new paths in following up on the story in hand.

Can blogs, Twitter and Facebook play a big role in the process of investigative reporting?

I told the students about the experience of an outstanding investigative reporter, Paul Lewis, who was quoted in the same Guardian article:

“I wasn’t convinced about Twitter at first, but it quickly turned out to be quite useful for investigating. Twitter is not just a website and not micro-blogging. It’s an entirely different medium – like e-mail, fax or even newspapers. The way in which information travels on Twitter – the shape of it is different from anything that we’ve previously known.”

He said that back in 2010. Since then, all kinds of new technological tools (including fact-checking apps) have emerged to enhance in-depth journalism – and all sorts of previously unavailable documents are now online.

Then I told them: If there is any place filled with enough scandals that warrant investigative journalism on a daily basis, it’s right here in Thailand. That statement was followed by a prolonged silence and nods of agreement.