@article{Birnbauer_2011, title={Student muckrakers: Applying lessons from non-profit investigative reporting in the US}, volume={17}, url={https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/article/view/370}, DOI={10.24135/pjr.v17i1.370}, abstractNote={<p>Drawing on the growth of non-profit investigative reporting centres in the United States, many of which are located in universities, this article proposes the creation of an Australia-New Zealand-Pacific network of university journalism students who collaborate to produce multi-media stories for a website. Tentatively called ‘UniMuckraker’, the project envisages that teaching with the ‘live ammunition’ of real journalism would provide an authentic, contextual and team-oriented approach to higher education learning experiences as well as producing quality journalistic content. In conceptualising the model, the article first examines contemporary trends in American investigative reporting with a focus on the increasing number and influence of non-profit centres that have been created following mass layoffs of journalists and closures in the established press. It finds a new willingness by mainstream media to collaborate with highly-specialised non-profit ‘factories’ that produce investigative stories but notes that the editor/publisher distinction is blurred further in the non-commercial model and that questions have been raised about the motives of the philanthropic funders of non-commercial investigative reporting.</p&gt;}, number={1}, journal={Pacific Journalism Review : Te Koakoa}, author={Birnbauer, Bill}, year={2011}, month={May}, pages={26-44} }