This research examines investigative journalism performed in a post-authoritarian period, under a neoliberal society, in the Global South, and it traces some changes over 25 years. In particular, the dissertation characterizes muckraking as a sub-field of the journalistic field, discusses its boundaries, as well as its main players and their agendas when producing investigative journalism. The study weighs the influence of political and economic elements in shaping investigative reporting.
The first part of this dissertation examines the boundaries promoting and, at the same time, constraining investigative journalism. Indeed, it shows the specific historical roots of current basic principles organizing, fostering, or hindering an adversarial journalistic performance by analyzing the constitutional foundations of freedom of expression, a negative freedom approach, and the legal status of media. The research also shows the main features of the subfield through its mechanisms of recognition and the capital appreciated and mobilized by its players, both organizations and individuals. Through analyzing the performance of muckraking on television since the 1990s and through the mid-2010s, this research critically reviews rationality as the core principle of public service’s journalism. In doing so, I introduce nuances to better understand watchdog-style journalism when intertwined with visual languages in a Latin American journalistic culture.
The research design mixes different methodological techniques (like interviews, archival work, and analysis of agenda) and material (such as administrative records, visual material, and datasets specially designed and collected for the purposes of this research)
