Journalism is committed to the truth and the public and, often, this ends up having more strength than the vehicle in which each journalist works. This is where the central point of collaborative journalism comes into being: journalists producing and investigating news together with a focus on the information that will be transmitted. 

Remember when you got together with other schoolmates to hand in an assignment? The dynamics here are very similar, after all, they are professionals who come together to deliver news. These are often matters that emerge after much investigation and some even require the creation of a database and analysis. 

Operation “Vaza Jato”

A very famous case of collaborative and investigative journalism, published in 2019 by The Intercept Brasil. The work was carried out with the participation of six other media outlets, namely: Agência Pública , Folha de S. Paulo, Buzzfeed, Veja, Uol, El País and Reinaldo Azevedo's Blog.

The operation, as it was called, gathered data obtained by The Intercept Brasil and was published in the seven vehicles, exposing and calling into question the methods that the Federal Public Ministry (MPF) and judge Sérgio Moro used to investigate cases of corruption in Brazil . 

“The Panama Papers”

The work of 370 journalists from 76 countries resulted in the publication of a list with the names of 107 offshores (companies opened abroad in tax havens). More than 11 million documents were analyzed to identify the names of companies and people linked to the Petrobrás corruption case in 2016.

The investigation helped reveal an entire industry involving the names of heads of state, ministers, parliamentarians and large construction companies in several countries. The list was published worldwide by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).

“The Implant Files”

Also mobilized by ICIJ, in 2018 a group of 250 journalists from 58 outlets came together to create Implant Files. A database with information about medical devices that have some type of defect or that pose a danger to patients' health. Piauí magazine and Agência Pública were the Brazilian outlets that participated in investigating the report.

Public participation

The internet has enabled greater interaction, which has changed the way the public receives news. The reader stopped being a passive agent and saw the internet as a universe suitable for research and validation of news. For example, a news item was published with a wrongly spelled name, with a comment the reader can alert the outlet of the error which can then be edited.
All of this turns the public into much more than a passive receiver, as stated in the hypodermic needle theory. And now it becomes a participatory element that can also contribute to the investigation and elaboration of an agenda/text in a communication vehicle, which can also be read as a work of collaborative journalism.