Could Citizen Journalists Have Saved These Lives?

I couldn't help but think about citizen journalists' potential role as tipsters, after hearing a fascinating talk over at Columbia Journalism School by David Barstow, the NY Times investigative reporter, about his 2004 Pulitzer Prize-winning series on workplace safety at McWane Industries, a iron pipe maker labeled by the paper as one of the most dangerous employers in America.

One thing that jumped out at me in the remarkable discussion on how the series came about, and the varied and impressive range of techniques Barstow used to report it, was this –- despite the company’s deliberate indifference to worker safety, Barstow said no local papers near various McWane plants had ever touched the larger story. The weak quality of the local news organizations, Barstow argued, was further hampered by a mentality that left beyond question anything that seemed to contribute to the local economy.

Is it possible citizen journalism could have made a difference in this case?

If any of these locales had had an engaged web citizen journalism community, would some of the company’s safety violations have been exposed before people had to needlessly die or suffer terrible injuries? Would the company’s local reputation have filtered onto these open forums and perhaps encouraged other journalism enterprises to track down these workplaces' hellish realities? Or could citizen journalists have forced local authorities to respond aggressively, rather than do little or nothing to stop the frequent and egregious violations?

Granted, no citizen journalist could be expected to mount the Herculean effort that Barstow and his team did over months of deep investigative reporting, interviewing, document collecting and analysis, etc. The intelligence and sheer hard work that went into Barstow’s work is truly outstanding, and no doubt the masterful series deserves its Pulitzer. (Read especially the first piece in the series about McWane's Tyler Pipe plant in Texas).

Granted, the workers on the line at Tyler Pipe, who included recruits from nearby prisons, would not likely have had the resources or capacity to unearth what the parent company was doing in plants across the country, as the Times did. All I’m wondering is, could this journalistic enterprise have been informed, fueled by the kinds of tips and insight that might have come from local folks who knew the score about Tyler Pipe and other McWane companies.

And it makes me wonder how many other McWane’s are out there, hiding out from a journalism industry under pressure and little able to put together such a Times-ean examination. How many others are out there, flying under the radar, risking people’s health and safety for a better bottom line? And how many are out there that an enterprising, courageous local citizen journalist could help uncover?

UPDATE: Check out this timely item, via Mediabistro, that just goes to prove the point that citizen journalists could play a key role as tipsters:

CITIZEN JOURNALISTS NAB SUSPECTED PEDOPHILE (FREE TIMES)
An upstart community paper run by volunteers not only had the story first but led the police to it. Detective Phil Moran of Rocky River, Ohio says the alleged crimes would not have come to light—at least not so quickly—without the grassroots, ear-on-the-ground work of the Lakewood Observer.
http://www.freetimes.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=2980
http://www.lakewoodobserver.com/home.php

Comments

[Amy Gahran]

Adam, great piece

I also think this represents an opportunity for professional news organizations to collaborate with citizen journalists, or at least offer direct guidance.

Of course, especially in rural areas the news venues often are wary about rocking the boat too much with major local employers -- a conflict of interest, but it happens.

In that case, I'd like to see ways for citizen journalists in those regions get mentoring from professional journalists, editors, or journalism educators.

There the "E Myth" which says that entrepreneurs are supposed to do everything on their own. I think there's a corrollary for citizen journalism: The "CJ Myth" -- that citizen journalists are magically supposed to know how to do the job they want to do, and which often desperately needs to be done.

IMHO, of course.

- Amy Gahran
I, Reporter
- Amy Gahran

[Adam Glenn]

Along the lines of Amy's excellent point about the "CJ Myth" here are a few resources for citizen journalists out there who'd like to do a little investigative reporting of their own. Got other tips or resources? Please share them.

Here's a page from the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting that provides links for making effective use of the Internet, finding and cultivating sources, the public's right to records, investigating business and government, etc. -- http://www.ire.org/training/nettour/

Here are two pages on the Freedom of Information Act, a vital, if threatened tool:
Freedom of Information Act fundamentals --
http://www.sej.org/foia/index2.htm
A citizen's guide put together by Congress --
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/z?cp106:hr50.106:

And some more links:

Investigative Reporting: What It Takes --
http://poynter.org/content/content_view.asp?id=80183

Tips and Guides: Investigative Reporting --
http://www.iwmf.org/training/investigative.php

Guide to Latest Investigative Work --
http://www.ire.org/extraextra/