Ackerman, X. (2014). Muckrakers will not Die. Solutions 5(6): 34-37. https://thesolutionsjournal.com/article/muckrakers-will-not-die/
Perspectives Muckrakers will not Die by Xanthe Ackerman
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hen Diana Jean Schemo co-founded 100Reporters, a news organization dedicated to fighting corruption through investigative reporting, she wanted to give citizens a way to leak material confidentially, knowing it would be reviewed by trusted journalists. Even before Schemo launched her news site in 2011, she invested in Whistleblower Alley,1 a secure, digital exchange and communication point that allows anyone, anywhere to transmit information. Schemo built on the Wikileaks model, which uses sophisticated encryption technology to protect sources. But unlike Wikileaks, which makes information available publically or to the press, Whistleblower Alley is used only by 100Reporters. This guarantees a secure review process by journalists committed to reporting on corruption issues for a global audience. Schemo is now revamping Whistleblower Alley so that it can handle large volumes of data. Investigative journalists like Schemo, once called muckrakers, play a critical role in uncovering abuses by corporations, governments, and other power holders. Despite the benefit to society, major news publications across the country have slashed their investigative capacity. Now, journalist and social entrepreneur Schemo has a vision for how watchdog reporting will not only survive the digital news age but also transcend it. Investigative journalism budgets have telescoped over the past 25 years, first because of pressure for high profit margins, and then as the byproduct of digitization. Eric Newton, Senior
Sharaf
Whistleblower Alley is a secure, digital exchange that uses encryption technology to protect sources. What makes it unique is that information transmitted is only reviewed by 100Reporters, making it an even safer outlet for sources aiming to reveal corruption.
Advisor at the Knight Foundation, says that the migration of classified ads to the web and mobile devices, where earned income is lower, was devastating because, “the U.S. has news that is 85 percent supported by advertising, higher than any country in the world.” Newton says these changes hurt investigative reporting disproportionately: “investigative reporters are the ones who work on more difficult stories, stories that other people don’t want revealed. It takes longer, it’s more expensive, and it doesn’t always work out.”
Rushing the Digital Age By 2008, Schemo had worked at The New York Times for 17 years, staffing almost every desk and serving as bureau chief in Rio de Janeiro. In those years, fear was in the atmosphere at the Gray Lady. Schemo says, “there
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was a threat from Wall Street that was pushing the paper to cut manpower and costs on the editorial side… People were afraid of their jobs.” Yet even as the old order was crumbling, the digital age offered opportunities, and Schemo wanted to rush to it. In parallel to cuts at traditional newspapers, the nonprofit sector grew and diversified. Now, there are four types of nonprofit institutions producing investigative journalism. National digitally native news outlets, such as The Center for Public Integrity,2 have been producing high quality investigative reporting for over 25 years. Regional or local digital news outlets are growing quickly in number, consolidating and replacing to some degree the lost capacity at smaller papers. Public broadcasting, such as the television program Frontline,3