JOUR 485 — Opening Blog Post

I am excited for this semester in JOUR 485 — Investigative Reporting — for a number of reasons. The type of skills I anticipate we will learn in this course will be valuable when directly applied to journalistic tasks, but also in general life.

It is vital to look beneath the surface when facing a conflict or questioning anything in life — to look at all sides of a story and pursue the truth. Skills that can be applied as an investigative journalist can also be used in a number of other fields.

I came to Liberty as a Journalism major set on entering the political field — expecting to either study law to be a JAG in the army after graduation or pursue a career as a political analyst. Investigative skills are vital to both of those paths in a direct way.

As an attorney, it is your job to search for the truth however you are able to in order to best represent your client — or in the case of a JAG, the military. As a journalist in the political field investigative skills are especially pertinent as the media is (ideally) responsible to hold the government accountable.

I have explored my interests over the past year and have realized that I would love to potentially explore the more creative side of storytelling — film or documentary writing and production in the future would be a dream, specifically relating to historical events.

Investigative skills are also extremely important in those careers as well, especially when you are trying to tell a true story. You are responsible for representing those facts and characters, and could do serious damage to someones reputation if they are portrayed in an inaccurate light. It is vital to get to the bottom of all possible sides of a story in order to tell it in the most accurate way.

In this class, I would like to learn what questions to ask sources to lead to answers or other valuable sources when I am trying to find new information or develop a story. I would also like to learn to be more confident when approaching contraversial issues, and use that confidence to ask harder questions. I am looking forward to developing my skills as an investigator and as a reporter, and learning how to marry those skills in JOUR 485.