Project Outline

Project Proposal (outline)

Investigative Journalism as a Catalyst for Justice: Unveiling Hidden Truths in Crime Cases

Request for Proposal

Olivia Burd

February 9, 2025

Abstract

The combination of investigative journalism and the media has created the perfect recipe for aiding in solving criminal cases. This proposal describes and explains how the website prototype details more about the profession of investigative journalism. The website being discussed focuses on defining what investigative journalism is, how it has helped solve crime and what well known criminal cases it played a major role in solving. This information is crucial to anyone who is considering a job as an investigative journalist, but it is also of interest to anyone who has interest in true crime cases.

Project Overview

The main goal for this project is to simply educate readers. The focus is on investigative journalism, why it’s important and the effects that it’s had on the world of true crime. After a reader has explored and read the information on the website they’ll have a thorough understanding of these concepts. The target audience and the individuals that would benefit most from this would be those who are interested in being an investigative journalist. With that in mind, it’s important that I share what the job entails, real cases that have successfully used investigative journalism (to show the impact), and lastly is the rate of success of investigative journalism in criminal cases.. Since the focus of this project is on the impact it’s had on true crime, the main portion of the website will be discussing the actual cases that have been solved through investigative journalism. Though all of the concepts that I just mentioned have previously been researched separately, having them all put together will be helpful for the target audience.

Project Approach

The first thing I researched was the cases where investigative journalism aided in solving a criminal case. Since this is the main focus of the project I needed to make sure that there was a substantial amount of information. Investigative journalism in all forms have made a difference in solving true crime for quite a while now. I have found a lot of my information from reporters who have long covered the most well known cases and I have also gathered information from state and county police force websites. On the police websites, most of the information involves cold cases but nonetheless, they are still solved through investigative journalism. If I need more information, I intend to also include the podcast form of investigative journalism, however, I don’t want that to be the majority of my information. This part of the website is simply titled “Real World Examples”, so that it is straight-forward and easy for the reader to find and navigate to.

The next topic of research is the importance/history of investigative journalism. This information will tell the reader the different forms of investigative journalism and when they began or became relevant to true crime. In this section I will also mention the other ways that investigative journalism is impactful. Lastly, there will be research showing how it has helped other stages of investigation and not just the end result. This section of the website is titled “The History” again, making it simple to navigate to.

Lastly, I want to focus on the success rate. In terms of true crime, I want the reader to know how often investigative journalism has helped solve a criminal case. For this section the statistics will be solely based on the viral, most covered cases. This seems like the easiest, most straightforward way to get accurate results and data. Some examples of these viral cases include Gabby Petito, Bryan Kohberger, The Delphi Murders, etc. This page will show that this job is important and it’s crucial that we continue to have individuals interested in being an investigative journalist. This page of the website is titled “Success Rate”.

Scope of Work/Timeline

• Project Outline: Feb. 9
• Final Proposal: May 9

User Personas & Scenarios

Ideally this project will be beneficial to a wide variety of individuals. The goal is for the website to be thoroughly educational, so anyone who is interested in what investigative journalism is all about. The website has been created with those interested in becoming investigative journalists in mind, which means its curated to teach these people what it is, the history of it, it’s impact, and then real life examples. That being said, it would also be an interesting website to explore for individuals that are just fascinated with true crime. That is why I chose to have a whole section of the website focusing on real examples and well-known cases.

Site Overview

• The History
  • Defining investigative journalism
  • When it gained popularity
  • When it began helping cases
• Real World Examples
  • Well known cases
  • What role it played in said cases
• Success Rate
  • How often it’s used
  • How often it plays a big role in solving
  • How often it plays a small role in solving
  • How often its incorrect/makes the case more challenging to solve