Can investigative reporting tell the truth? The modernity of journalism in Latin America

Abstract

This article analyses the relation between investigative journalism and truth, with specific focus on reports of wrongdoing in the Latin American press. Although some forms of popular journalism challenge the traditional distinction between truth and falsity, truth-telling continues to be the master narrative of modern journalism. Journalistic truth lies on facts, and facts are primarily constructed on the basis of official testimonies and documents. Dependence on official sources coupled with the difficulties in investigating wrongdoing, business and political pressures on reporting make journalism's relation to the truth problematic. Journalism can approach truth-telling in more modest terms, instead. Truth may not belong to journalism, or for that matter to any other institutional discourse, but to public conversation. However, the latter requires a permanent consensus rooted on moral and philosophical principles. The instability of consensus upon which truth can potentially be based also makes truth-telling elusive, not just for journalism, but also as a possible outcome of public debates.