Research On The Group Of Chinese Investigative Journalists About Last Two Decades

The number of investigative journalists is a small number of national journalists. But the value of the group of investigative journalists should not be underestimated, and they fully reflect the concept of journalism and professionalism. In the process of questioning the truth, they serve our salvation and they have thoughts and feelings of home and country, and adhere to professional standards. They advanced the concept of foreign journalism and professionalism, at the same time, combining with the local environment they do reflection and question. At this point, they are elites of industry news and they are the representative journalists. Because of the difference between western information system and ours, in China there is not the meaning of pure western investigative journalists. Then in this article, the journalists who do investigative journalism news are included as the research subjects.This paper is divided into three chapters, introducing separately the concept of investigative reporting, the features of investigative journalists, the course of development of investigative journalists, and the current difficult situation.At present, there are different tendency about the academic discussion of the concept of investigative reporting. The main focus of debate is whether the subject matter of investigative reporting is revealed, whether or not to use depth "investigation" means the reports are investigative reporting. Representative of the views are as follows:The first view is that the subject reported is a starting point for the concept of investigative reporting, and subject through the report summed up the meaning of investigative journalism, emphasizing on the characteristic of the exposure of investigative journalism. The second view is that taking the form of survey interview methods is called investigative reporting, not emphasizing on the "exposing" the core of the original meaning of investigative journalism. The third view recognizes that investigative reporting is a kind of depth reports to expose the truth, but what is the "truth" of exposure is different from other understandings, and non-exposed subjects are also covered within the scope of investigative report.Investigative reporting requests high participation of journalists, and also needs reporters a high degree of dependence. Stylistic features of investigative reporting lead to the features of investigative journalists: the courage of the difficulties, strong independence, and the spirit and sense of question.1989 is the starting point to this article, and study changes and characteristics of groups of investigative journalists since the early 1990's. Several groups of investigative journalists as the center of media communities have gradually formed since the 1990's. There are communities of central-level media, such as journalists from Xinhua News Agency, Zhu Yu, Chen Gang, Liang Juan etc. In the mid-90, CCTV launched Topics in News and News Probe two programs, pooling a large number of best TV reporter, for example Qu Changying, Liu Qingsheng, Wang Zhi, Chang Jiang, Dong Qian, Yang Chun, Chai Jing and so on. And Lu Yuegang, Liu Wanyong, and Liu Chang represents group of China Youth Daily journalists. Besides, investigative journalists, such as Cai Ping and Dong Yueling, gradually emerge from Freezing Point Weekly. And the group of investigative journalists from Southern Weekend includes Yu Liuwen, Yang Haipeng, Zhao Shilong, Zhen Qian, Li Yuxiao, Wu Xiaofeng, Zhai Minglei etc. In addition, there are many reporters from financial magazine.There is no a unified conclusion that whether the investigative journalists are recorders or influential person. Some journalists stress the responsibility of record, some journalists put emphasize on influencing and making progress in society. The author holds the opinion that the division about"reporting"and"influencing"is not absolute. After all, the purpose of recording is to influencing the society. No matter"to report"or"to influence", the investigative journalists can not go against the norms of professionalism. In other words, when the journalists exercise the powers conferred by the occupational and understand the role of their own, they can not beyond the scope of the conduct of journalists.Comparing to the 1980s, investigative journalists about last two decades have changed a lot. First of all, the media where investigative journalists work have changed. In 1980s, investigative journalists focused on central-level media, and after 1990s more and more investigative journalists emerged from market-oriented media. With the development of television media, there are many investigative journalists on investigation section TV media. Moreover, subjects reported, the power of investigative journalist, interview means and the challenge of investigative journalists are changing. Most importantly, ideological characteristics of investigative journalists occurred tremendous changes, which are closely related to the historical background and environment. The social climate of"Enlightenment"and"critical"in 1980s gave birth to the Enlightenment mission of some journalists, whose minds were full of a strong sense of crisis about social reform in all aspects. Compared with the journalists in the latest of 1980 years, the investigative journalists in today make great progress in establishing a more mature attitude of constructive, who"respect for the objective and neutral professional ethics."For example, the purpose of exposing the dark and criticizing the situation is to pursue light. This constructive attitude is valuable.Investigative journalists are currently facing many plights, such as releasing report difficult, press lawsuits, occupational hazards, bad treatment. The authors suggest two ways to solve. On the one hand, some Western countries have established many inter-regional organizations cooperating in investigative news reporting, which provide support for the investigative journalists. In the author's opinion, we can learn from the experience in those countries and attempt to establish the specialized cooperative organization in China to support investigative journalists. On the other hand, it is time to introduce a press law to protect the investigative journalists.To sum up, the group of Chinese investigative journalists about last two decades is analyzed from these points of view in this paper: the concept of investigative journalism, the characteristics of investigative journalists, the development process of investigative journalists, and the way out of the plight of investigative journalists.