In light of recent high-profile journalistic failures such as Rolling Stone’s now-retracted coverage of a rape case at the University of Virginia, Associate Professor of Film and Media Studies Jeffrey Ruoff questions the state of investigative journalism today in a Pacific Standard opinion piece.
“Like a snake devouring its own tail, much mainstream investigative journalism today chronicles the shortcomings of its colleagues to follow minimal procedures of reporting,” Ruoff writes.
He poses a question: “As reliable investigative journalism seems to be fading into non-existence, with sometimes catastrophic consequences, what is to be done?”
Stepping into the breach are “documentary filmmakers, themselves equipped with new digital tools, on budgets often as small as the cameras with which they shoot and the computers on which they edit,” Ruoff writes.
Read the full opinion piece, published 4/23/15 by Pacific Standard.
