Podcasts Could Spark a New Golden Age of Investigative Journalism
Listeners are flocking to programs that go deep (and spend big) to expose wrongdoing
Investigative journalism exposes wrongdoers, wins awards, and inspires the next generation of idealistic j-school students. Columnists may have the most fans, but nobody ever made a blockbuster movie about a pundit’s sizzling hot take. Meanwhile, tales of muckrakers like Spotlight, All The President’s Men, and The Post have proven that filmgoers and critics alike are enthralled by the process of how journalists uncover scandal and corruption.
Unfortunately, investigative journalism is also expensive and difficult to produce. It can take a team of seasoned reporters months of digging through files, cultivating sources, tracking down leads, and fact-checking in order to produce a single story. If government agencies decide to stonewall reporters by refusing to release public records, the process can drag on for years. The high cost of funding investigative journalism is the main reason why so few outlets are currently producing it. If a city’s daily paper can barely afford to have a reporter covering city hall, how can they invest in a staff writer who might only produce a single scoop every few months?
On top of all these logistical challenges, the American public is so inundated with reports of high-level incompetence, influence-peddling, and outright criminal activity that the bar for generating enough indignation to make an impact is incredibly high. If a scandal drops in a forest of outrage, but nobody tweets about it, does it make a difference?
Amidst this challenging climate, podcasting is emerging as a promising medium for a new kind of investigative journalism. This American Life has interspersed muckraking exposés into its usual slice-of-life story format for years, but recently a growing number of audio journalists have gravitated toward the kinds of deep dives that were traditionally more associated with print projects. The best of these podcasts have managed to create an investigative hybrid that combines the most important elements of longform print reporting with the entertainment qualities that make podcasts so addictive.
Shocking, but not sensational
The most surprising example of this emerging genre is The City. When I read that USA Today would be releasing a series about a pile of construction debris that was dumped into a black Chicago neighborhood during the early 1990s, several things about that announcement left me bewildered. Deep coverage of environmental racism sounds more like the type of story you’d expect from Mother Jones rather than USA Today, plus, in an increasingly crowded market, a podcast about a pile of rubble seemed like an odd bet for reaching a wide audience. I subscribed with a bit of skepticism, but was hooked within minutes of my first listen. Each episode illuminates a different dark corner of Chicago’s pay-to-play political scene, and features a compelling cast of characters that includes endearing neighborhood activists, sketchy politicians, and a menacing mafioso.
Even though the podcast covers events that happened decades ago, the issues it explores are undeniably relevant. At its core, The City is about how the government — at the local, state and federal levels — is often unresponsive, if not outright hostile, to the needs of a low-income black community. The story of how the wealthy and connected are able to dump hazardous waste onto the poor illustrates this dynamic perfectly. Nevertheless, it’s difficult to imagine a national print publication devoting tens of thousands of words to an article about this. There’s no hook — the events transpired more than two decades ago and none of the people responsible for the mess are in positions to be held accountable, but that doesn’t stop host Robin Amer from digging deeper with each episode to explain how such an injustice was allowed to occur. The result is a mind-blowing (and evergreen) tale that’s ideally suited for the podcast medium.
Another example of a successful investigative podcast is the new season of Serial. Unlike the first two seasons, which each focused on minute details of a single crime, season three explores an entire criminal justice ecosystem. Although the setting is Cleveland, host Sarah Koenig has chosen to feature the kinds of common crimes that happen everywhere in order to make the lessons universal. A bar fight illustrates the arbitrary nature of power at every level from street cops to judges. A typical case of alleged police brutality shows how unfairly the deck is stacked against victims, regardless of the facts. As each episode exposes the failures and corruption of a city’s criminal justice system, Serial builds a convincing case against the very concept of American justice. And it does so without the kind of sensationalism that far too many true crime podcasts use to reel in listeners.
Podcasts for the public good
Although true crime and investigative journalism can overlap — most investigative projects are focused on exposing some kind of criminal activity — there are a few factors that differentiate these podcast genres. The tone of many true crime shows is often titillating, voyeuristic and occasionally exploitive. Investigative podcasts generally employ a more subtle, journalistic tone. True crime feels more like a thriller or a horror story, while investigative journalism is more documentary. The Peabody Award-winning “In the Dark” explored a notorious child abduction case in its first season, but instead of simply rehashing gruesome details and psychological trauma, it used the case to question accountability among law enforcement agencies and the effectiveness of America’s legal system in dealing with sex offenders.
“Does it serve the public good?” is the standard litmus test for differentiating investigative journalism from other longform pieces. This is clearly subjective and open to endless debate, but gets to the core of investigative journalism’s purpose. If a story’s main reason for existing is that it’s interesting or entertaining, it’s probably not investigative journalism. Good investigative journalism should be both, but those qualities are in service of the bigger picture: revealing wrongdoing.
While each season of Serial and In the Dark could easily become a longform print or digital article, the audio format facilitates the kind of emotional impact that’s difficult even for the best journalists to achieve with words on a page (or a screen). In addition to a host that can facilitate empathy, skilled audio producers also have a number of ways to immerse listeners deeper into the narrative. Sound design can ramp up the tension, archival audio (of a 911 call, for example) can create a sense of immediacy, and even something as simple as a long pause can convey heart-wrenching significance.
Of course, investigative podcasters face many of the same challenges as traditional investigative journalists. The format is expensive, time-consuming and difficult to make, regardless of medium. The team at Reply All undoubtedly spent far more resources producing their recent “Crime Machine” series, which tackles systemic failures within the New York Police Department, than the “Yes, Yes, No” episodes, in which the hosts spend 30 minutes deciphering inside jokes on Twitter. If each of these formats draws the same number of listeners, the logic of the market would dictate that Reply All stick to the formula that maximizes revenue for its parent company, Gimlet Media. This is a logic with which journalism is often at odds.
Even in the heyday of print media, muckraking publications often failed to turn a profit. However, this burgeoning hybrid of investigative journalism and podcasting (muck-casting? pod-raking?) offers a promising path forward for reporters who want to tell longform stories that make a difference — and attract a large enough audience to be sustainable. The success of podcasts like Reveal, in terms of their impact, could point to an exciting, new renaissance on the horizon. Although funding investigative projects requires a significant investment, if listeners continue to flock to this format, podcast networks, advertisers, and philanthropic supporters are likely to follow.
Liam O’Donoghue is the creator and host of the podcast East Bay Yesterday. He was recently named “the best journalist-turned-historian” by East Bay Express.
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