By Kevaughn Wilson
On Nov. 4, 2019 a national consortium produced “Tainted Water”, a series of stories from the country that exposed lead-laced drinking water in Canada. The year-long investigation included more than 120 journalists from nine different universities, 10 media organizations and research in 11 cities across Canada.
The results proved that out of the 12,000 water drinking tests done since 2014, 33 per cent of them exceeded the national safety guideline of 5 parts per billion of lead in the drinking water.
Investigative journalism takes a more comprehensive look into issues. Reporters go in-depth to investigate a single story that may uncover corruption, review government policies or draw attention to social, economic, political or cultural trends. According to the Investigative Journalism Manual, the work of an investigative journalist involves spending months or years researching a single topic. Unlike conventional reporting, where reporters rely on materials supplied by the government, NGOs and other agencies, investigative reporting depends on material gathered through the reporter’s own initiative. The practice aims at exposing public matters that are otherwise concealed, either deliberately or accidentally.
With this in mind, Concordia University’s Department of Journalism launched the Institute for Investigative Journalism, led by former journalist-in-residence Patti Sonntag.
The objective is to provide collaborative educational experiences that combine skills and research among multiple institutions and provinces to report on public interest stories. It is the host for the National Student Investigative Reporting Network (NSIRN), which also connects major media outlets with journalism students and faculty from across Canada to do large-scale investigative journalism projects.
Sonntag says that this consortium makes it possible for stories to have more reach and be told more in-depth. “The most rewarding part of this is that hundreds of people are coming together in public service,” Sonntag says. “There is nothing more rewarding than that, most rewarding life experience.”
This organization is unlike any other be- cause it has rival media groups working together in order to achieve the ultimate goal, to effect change. “This consortium creates a national perspective so everybody knows how to work together,” she says. “We don’t impose on anybody, we learn from each other’s reporting.”
Students either take part through investigative courses offered at their schools and gain course credit for it or work in their spare time in order to meet and share information they have found. They are allotted eight hours of work time per week, and large investigations will take place over two semesters in order to give students the necessary time for research and production. Global News, The National Observer and The Toronto Star are partners on the current projects. These partnerships are expected to grow for future projects, even expanding across borders.
Humber stands as the only college among the universities that participated in the Tainted Water project, joining in 2018. Former Humber student and NSIRN reporter, Kit Kolbegger says they were excited for the opportunity to showcase their skills. “I’m really bad at saying no to opportunities,” Kolbegger says. “I’m very interested in investigative journalism and this was huge a opportunity to work on an investigation that you don’t normally get to do.”
Former Humber student and part of the NSIRN’s first Humber team, Michelle Rowe, says her curiosity made NSIRN irresistible to her. “It was during the summer when Professor Lara King came to Kit and I with this opportunity to work on this top-secret assignment and we obviously jumped at the chance,” she says. “It sounded like journalism without the training wheels and we were always excited to do that kind of stuff.”
Rowe says though this investigation was tedious and sometimes exhausting, the attention the piece received was fulfilling. “For me, getting to the nitty-gritty parts of the details were fun. I read board meetings that Thunder Bay had and it was so rewarding when I found those eureka moments,” she says. “I’d say the most challenging, was being flexible. When we went to Thunder Bay, we already had a story in mind. But after more research, we found out that the city was broke. It’s hard to let go of the story you wanted to tell and being flexible with the story that it became.”
Working as a part of this investigative team gives students something to be proud of. It is an opportunity to step into the world of journalism and implement actual change. That alone is why they would promote the opportunity Kolbegger says to interested parties. “It’s so rewarding seeing the impact of the story,” she says. “We are seeing actual policy changes coming out of this and just seeing people discuss that is great.”