Watchdog Conference

In the US, the biggest constraint on watchdog reporting is diminished resources brought about by declining advertising and circulation revenues. This panel will look at successful models of news organizations that have pursued watchdog journalism despite shrinking budgets. The first speaker will be an editor from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, which continues to support investigative or projects teams even with reduced resources. The paper’s watchdog unit recently won the AP Innovators Award. The paper’s watchdog editor, Mark Katches, will talk about civic responsibility and also how watchdog journalism has an audience. WNYC, New York’s public broadcasting radio network, has pioneered crowd-sourcing – getting listeners to help in research and reporting – as a way of getting community involvement in investigations. At the same time, investigative reporting is going global. In China, a new generation of investigative reporters has braved the restrictions of the Chinese Communist Party to report on level corrup