Investigative Journalists and Disinformation in China

The next speaker in this IAMCR 2024 session is Lin Pan, whose interest is in investigative journalism in the social media age in China. She highlights the issue of mis- and disinformation on social media, which is a problem in China too, but notes that the impact of this problem on investigative reporting has yet to be fully understood.

This study therefore explored the impact of disinformation on Chinese investigative reporting. It drew on a hierarchy of influences model, where routine and organisational influences have stronger impacts on individuals than broader social and societal settings. The project conducted interviews with Chinese journalists who engaged in investigative reporting between 2014 and 2020 – a time when the role of social media in journalism grew, but before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Most participants suggested that they were not substantially influenced by disinformation; it wasted time and slowed down work to some extent, but was not seen as a significant issue for experienced journalists. The greatest perceived impact was on the organisation’s time and resources: not least also at a time when news organisations are generally having to do more with less. Journalists also perceived a growing role of editors in deciding what topics should or should not be covered.