Investigative Research

Investigative research is a name given to a collection of research techniques and methods used by researchers (including journalists, social scientists and others). It is intended to unearth secret, hidden or obscure information that can build a more comprehensive picture of the issue under investigation.

Orientation

Jack Douglas advocated ‘investigative’ social research in his 1976 book. He sums up the approach as follows: ‘conflict is the reality of life, suspicion is the guiding principle’. Lee criticises this by noting the potential for the scepticism necessary to ‘harden into cynicism and a contempt for those studied’.

Access

Access to information is a major problem for all researchers, but is felt particularly by investigative researchers who are more likely to come up against refusals and to challenge them. Powerful organisations often attempt to limit access by a variety of techniques. These do not always involve threats of violence as in this example:

If you try and inspect them, I will personally break your legs (Chairman of the company publishing Burke’s Peerage to journalists investigating lack of company documentation submitted to company’s House)

The Royal Ulster Constabulary was a notoriously closed organisation for researchers and its policy on research issued after the 1994 IRA ceasefire made its instrumental view

We welcome requests... to conduct research which may prove to be of benefit to the force.

However, powerful organisations may allow social researchers access for a variety of reasons. Kevin Williams writes:

In spite of the difficulties - and these are many and real - the powerful can be more open and co-operative than many social scientists believe. They are often prepared to discuss matters and in many cases welcome the chance to place their views on the record. their motives are mixed. they can emanate from a desire to correct what they see as misconceptions of their role and work. ... Talking to a researcher appears to be one of the few channels of communication they have with the public. The powerful also talk to the researcher to counter challenges from other interests within their institution. Powerful institutions are not monolithic. a large number of interests exist inside institutions... which are in a state of flux and change. Such a situation can work in the researcher’s favour.

Covert methods

Gunter Walraff is a German investigative journalist who specialises in going undercover to reveal abuses of power. His work is excoriated by corporate lobby groups such as the West German Employers association:

When [Walraff] describes an industry on the basis of his ‘research’, his writing is characterised by a consistent scale of social values which could by fashioned only by a conscious ideologist of class struggle. Each of Walraff’s publications reaches us as a hatefilled social-political campaign aimed at strengthening the machinations of class struggle. His purpose is to arouse among workers by hand and brain a class-consciousness which they will ultimately use to destroy the social system. his methods of investigation and documentation must be categorically condemned; the logical consequence of his point of view is that the end justifies any means and that all sense of responsibility is lost.

Resources

Guidance on specific investigative techniques

• Colin Meek How to: use search engines for precision surfing Journalism.co.uk, Posted: 19/03/07
• Colin Meek How to: find contacts and information about people online Journalism.co.uk, Posted: 15/12/06
• Colin Meek Web 3.0: what it means for journalists (part 1) Posted: 23/10/08
• Colin Meek Web 3.0: what it means for journalists (part 2) Posted: 24/10/08
• Colin Meek Google’s advanced operators for journalists June 19, 2009.
• Colin Meek How to: search for information within social networking sites Posted: 30/05/08
• Australian Centerfor Investigative Journalism Investigative Research, University of Technology Sydney.
• BBC Investigative Research on the Net, BBC Training course.
• Dave Winer How investigative research happens in the blogosphere, Scripting News,Sunday, January 11, 2009.
• Zilliox, Jr., Larry (2006) The Opposition Research Handbook: A Guide to Political Investigations, 3rd Edition, ISBN: 0-9718740-1-8
• Investigative Research Specialists LLC The Opposition Research Training Blog: Tips and Resources for Opposition Researchers
• Investigative Research Specialists LLC Research Books For Professionals
• Department of Geography and Sociology, Investigative Research Strathclyde University.

Guidance on sources of information and tools

Press and Media databases

• Lexis Nexis http://www.lib.strath.ac.uk/lnnews.htm (requires login)
• BugMeNot. Lets you skip the registration process for many online news sites – although not those requesting paid subscriptions. http://www.bugmenot.com
• NewsMap Useful little site that tracks graphically what is making the headlines at any given time. http://www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/newsmap.cfm

Email services

Mailinator. Allows you to generate a free one-time only, incoming-only email address http://www.mailinator.com/mailinator/index.jsp

Archives (Scotland)

Glasgow University http://www.archives.gla.ac.uk/about/default.html HBoS http://www.hbosplc.com/abouthbos/history/group_archives.asp RBS http://www.rbs.com/about02.asp?id=ABOUT_US/OUR_HERITAGE/OUR_ARCHIVES National Archives of Scotland http://www.nas.gov.uk/about/default.asp Scottish Executive Consultations http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Consultations/Current Scottish Executive Publications http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/Recent Glasgow City Council Archives http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/en/Residents/Libraries/Collections/Localhistory/CityCouncilArchives/

Resources on lobbying/corporate power

• Sourcewatch http://www.sourcewatch.org
• Corporate Watch UK http://www.corporatewatch.org
• Corporate Watch US http://www.corpwatch.org

• Open Secrets, guide to money in (US) politics: http://www.opensecrets.org/
• LobbyingInfo.org (part of Public Citizen) http://www.lobbyinginfo.org/
• Clean Up Washington (part of Public Citizen) http://www.cleanupwashington.org/
• White House for Sale (data on campaign finance in past US Presidential election) http://www.whitehouseforsale.org/

Freedom of Information

• Statewatch – FOI in Europe http://www.statewatch.org/foi.htm
• "Your right to know” Heather Brooke’s FOIA advice site. http://www.yrtk.org
• Campaign for Freedom of Information http://www.cfoi.org.uk/
• Open Secrets A blog about freedom of information by Martin Rosenbaum http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/opensecrets/
• nformation Commissioner’s Office (England and Wales) http://www.ico.gov.uk/
• Office of the Scottish Information Commissioner http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/
• Office of Public Sector Information http://www.opsi.gov.uk/

Government Offices, Official Sources

Departmental pages

• Scottish Executive FoI page: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/FOI
• House of Commons Publications http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmpubns.htm
• House of commons Archives

http://www.parliament.uk/publications/archives.cfm

• Scottish Parliament Official Report

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/index.htm

• National Assembly for Wales Record of Proceedings

http://www.wales.gov.uk/keypubrecordproceedings/index.htm

• National Statistics (formerly ONS) http://www.statistics.gov.uk/
• Official Journal of the European Union http://publications.europa.eu/general/oj_en.html
• European Commission Representations - Office in Scotland http://ec.europa.eu/unitedkingdom/about_us/office_in_scotland/index_en.htm
• Europe in the UK: Information Network http://www.europe.org.uk/info/
• European Union Documents http://europa.eu/documents/index_en.htm

Web research

• Web archive/Way back machine http://www.archive.org/index.php
• The New York Times Newsroom Navigator. This is the home page of all journalists on the NY Times http://tech.nytimes.com/top/news/technology/cybertimesnavigator/index.html/
• STD Code Reverse List. Discover which area a dialling code is in: http://www.ukphoneinfo.com/section/tci/locator.shtml
• Reverse List of US telephone area codes: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/bsy/www/area.html
• Royal Mail postcode/address finder http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/postcodefinder;jsessionid=BSED5FPVSVAQSFB2IGFENZQUHRAYWQ2K;jsessionid=BSED5FPVSVAQSFB2IGFENZQUHRAYWQ2K?catId=400145&gear=postcode

• How to find the owners of domain names http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp | http://www.whois.net/

|http://www.allwhois.com/ |http://www.whois.sc/ |http://www.whois-search.com/ |http://samspade.org/ |For .uk domains: http://www.nominet.org.uk/

• Reverse DNS (IP Address) lookup. http://remote.12dt.com/

• Statistical Information on the net. Useful database of Statistical Information – based in US. http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/stats.html

Corporate information

Companies House http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/

Further Reading

• Cohen, S. (1988) ‘The last seminar’ in Against Criminology, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction books.
• Lee, R. (1993) Doing Research on sensitive topics, London: Sage.
• Peter Phillips, August 14, 2003 'Inside Bohemian Grove US Elites Celebrate Patriarchy, Racism and Class Privilege', CounterPunch http://www.counterpunch.org/phillips08142003.html
• Phillips, P, A Relative Advantage: Sociology of the San Francisco Bohemian Club A Doctoral Dissertation (1994) http://libweb.sonoma.edu/regional/faculty/phillips/bohemianindex.html
• Scott, J. (1990) A matter of record, Cambridge: Polity.
• Simpson, C ‘Scholars Perfect Psychological Warfare Techniques’ Excerpt from Science of Coercion: Communication Research and Psychological Warfare, 1945-1960 by Christopher Simpson (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 48-51: http://www.cia-on-campus.org/social/simpson.html
• Walraff, G. (1978) Walraff: the Undesirable Journalist, London: Pluto.
• Williams, K. (1989). Researching the powerful: problems and possibilities of social research. Contemporary Crises, 13(3), 252-274.

See Also

• Power Structure Research | Social Network Analysis | Invisible Web