Investigative journalism has helped bring down governments, imprison politicians, trigger legislation, reveal miscarriages of justice and shame corporations. While the results of investigate journalism are widely acknowledged, explanations of it are various. Investigative Journalism is a critical and reflective introduction to the traditions and practices of investigative journalism. Beginning with a historical survey, the authors explain how investigative journalism should be understood with in the framework of the mass media, how it relates to the legal system, the place of ethics in investigations and the influence of new technologies and the Internet on journalistic practices. Combining interviews with journalists, researchers, editors and television producers, with an analysis of investigative journalism from the national and local press such as the Sunday Times and the Leicester Mercury , national and regional radio and television such as File on Four, Rough Justice and Dispatches, the authors defend the practice of exposure and investigation and consider the future for this form of journalism.