Investigative Reporters: Friend or Foe?

 Investigative reporters help to keep the public informed and are the reason that some rules and regulations are changed. By bringing more public awareness to wrongful doings investigative reporters are almost a vital resource to media outlets.

Investigative editor for the Sarasota Herald Tribune, Matt Doig, spoke with my Public Affairs class at USF today. He, along with a small team of reporters for the Herald Tribune may investigate a story for months until they gather all the necessary data to report the story to the public.

When asked about his interview style, Doig has a simple, yet effective response: find a common ground. His advice caught my attention because I currently work for an automobile insurance company and a key technique supervisor would like us to utilize is finding a “common ground" with every customer we talk to. My job is based over the phone so we are taught to listen to the background listen for a dog or ask how that particular customer's day is going. Doig says interviewing is the best part of his job and people tend to open up to him because he uses the technique of finding a common ground with those he interviews.

An important part of investigative reporting is using public record to uncover the truth. Investigators at The Herald pulled every real estate transaction in the state’s book for the past decade during an investigation of real estate fraud. Using a database, they were able to connect 55,000 cases of potential real estate fraud. Due to their willingness to dig deep into public record to come up with irrefutable proof, the Feds has names Florida as the number one state for housing fraud in the country. Reporting this type of information to the public helps people not fall victim to fraud by knowing what warning signs to look for.

The investigative team at the Sarasota Herald knows firsthand the power that can come out of database reporting. As I continue in my Public Affairs I hope to also understand how to use public records to build powerful stories that keeps the public informed.