Austin Kleber

Danielle Ohl
ENGL297
Ethnography Final Draft

A Study of an Investigative Journalist and Professor at the University of Maryland

Introduction:
Credibility, reliability and accuracy are standards every journalist seeks to reach, but the
most important pillar might just be accuracy. Without it, anything a journalist writes could be
compromised or questioned. To ensure thoroughness and accuracy, a journalist must conduct
days, weeks and even months of investigation and research, commit to detailed, clean writing
and extensively edit. Objectivity is also paramount to maintaining a journalists credibility, and
ensuring articles are as informative as possible. Any display of a bias during the research,
interview or writing process harms a journalists reputation so it is important reporters learn how
to communicate effectively during each phase.
Perhaps more than any other class of journalist, investigative reporters must adhere to
these principles. They manage an extensive network of sensitive sources, take detailed field
notes from reporting and observing and keep track of a slew of documents. Investigative
journalists need to be experts not only in collecting data through interviews, site visits and
documents, but also in distilling their findings in a way the general public can understand. In a
way, investigative journalists are the ultimate technical writers.
For this reason, and because we are both journalism majors, we chose to examine an
investigative reporter and professor at the journalism school, Dana Priest. Dana is a Pulitzer
Prize winning journalist who works for The Washington Post. She is known nationwide for her
work on the intelligence community, including her Pulitzer winning article about secret CIA
prisons. Danas job requires an incredible amount of diligence, research and excellent
communication skills. Through our ethnography, we sought to learn the tactics that produce the
important, impactful journalism Dana has become famous for. Our research goals included the
following: to learn effective reporting; to assess interviewing tactics for sensitive sources; to
examine organizational methods; and to observe communication between an experienced
journalist and journalism students in the classroom setting.

Data collection methods:

Dana Priest is a journalist, but also a professor, so we thought it best to make our
observations in her office in Knight Hall, where her two journalistic professions intersect; Dana
keeps some mementos from her reporting endeavors in her office, but also interacts with students
during office hours and advises them based on her experience. We spent about one hour with
Dana in her office on Monday, Nov. 14 and observed her engaging with two students, one a
graduate student working on an investigative article and an undergraduate student curious about
a course Dana teaches at least once every year. We also asked her questions about teaching
methods, including: How do you instruct students who might have never written an in-depth
story before? What reporting tactics do you teach them? These questions helped us to target the
writing strategies Dana finds most effective, as theyre the ones shes chosen to pass on to young
journalists.
We conducted another interview with Dana on Monday, Dec. 5 to discuss her reporting
more specifically. We asked how she goes about sourcing difficult topics, how she persuades
sources to give her sensitive or secret information, how she organizes her data and how she
begins her writing process after spending months investigating. We also asked her to describe
her interactions with her editors and other reporters and the revision process for an in-depth
investigative story. These questions aimed to discover what journalists value in the reporting and
writing process, and how journalists interact after the reporter has completed a story.
We gathered physical descriptions of Danas workspace and office during both visits, which give
us insight to Danas work life, priorities, engagement with journalism and comfortability with
students.
We took detailed notes of Danas conversations with the students to gain better insight
into the how she communicates her work as a writer and reporter to the next generation of
journalists. This was one of the most important elements of data collection, as it allowed us to
examine a different facet of being a journalist. Dana doesnt just report and communicate
information on the publics behalf, she makes sure she transfers her methods and expertise to
younger, budding journalists so they can continue the line of work she is at the forefront of.
We attended a session of her class JOUR328F National Security and Press Freedom
Reporting, and have obtained syllabi from previous sections of Danas classes that give insight
into her methods for reporting and teaching. We will examine our notes from the class, as well as
the syllabi and writing and reporting guides Dana uses to detail her own methods.
We have also read through some of Danas landmark works including her 2005 reporting
on the Central Intelligence Agencys black site prisons, where the U.S. government detained
and questioned key al Qaeda operatives in secret. Reading Danas investigative works, as well as
interviewing her on her process and examining the resources she provides to students, gave us a
robust picture of the detailed, painstaking process she undergoes to ensure her writing does the
most good for the public she purports to serve.

Findings and Observations:

When we met with Dana on Nov. 14, we saw her interact with students. What was meant
to be an interview about herself as a writer quickly turned into an observation of these
interactions. Observing Dana's conversations with students allowed us to see what she values as
a journalist and how she communicates with those she hopes to instruct. This was extremely
helpful for us in identifying the qualities that make a successful reporter she told a student to
take her class so they could learn better interviewing tactics, how to write effective in-depth
analysis and how to report a complicated topic. This student dropped by with an interest in
taking Danas capstone class about imprisoned journalists around the world. Dana told the
prospective student that each person in her class has to write a profile on one imprisoned
journalist. By doing so, she said students learn how to get people in Washington D.C. to talk and
how to find foreign sources overseas. Dana knew the practical advantages to taking this class
without taking even a second to think, indicating how dedicated she is to passing her craft onto
interested students. Though we did not get to observe this class, we did get a small peek into the
curricula as she explained the class to the prospective student. I teach you "how to get people to
talk to you," she told the student, indicating solid interview methods are one of the most vitally
important parts of investigative journalism. She also discussed her use of social media as a
reporting tool and how she teaches students to engage with foreign media to bolster their
knowledge base. Both these things are key to investigative reporting, she said. She likened the
reporting process to "peeling an onion," or unearthing layer after layer. "It's very fun to watch" as
students learn these methods, she said, because they're so important.
We met with Dana again on Monday, Dec. 5 to get a better idea of how she personally
approaches her writing. What emerged was a sort of variation on the field-writing structure laid
out in chapter two of FieldWorking, Writing Self, Writing Cultures: Understanding
FieldWriting. Dana talked about the first thing she does when she starts writing a story. She
reviews all her notes, which oftentimes span months of reporting. For example, her investigation
into secret CIA prisons took an entire year. Dana has devised her own organizational system
where she numbers all the pages of her documents and transcripts and cross references them with
thematic sections. She said writing parts of the story in sections helps her make sense of the
chaos of all her reporting and parse it down into manageable chunks. Shes, in the past, used
index cards to organize all her documents and transcripts. Dana said she often has to, year after
year, re-dedicate herself to being organized. Shes recently tried to use digital software to
organize her notes, but found herself migrating back to traditional analog methods. She uses
plastic binders and a traditional three-hole punch to contain all her reporting and she keeps it.
Dana stressed the importance of keeping records and referring back to them for context.
Interestingly, Dana doesnt record interviews. Her sources are often too sensitive to record in
such a permanent way, so shes become an expert note-taker. She mentioned that the quotes are
not necessarily the most important part of the story, and that its better to capture the essence of
what is being said than regurgitating quotes verbatim. She discussed her interviewing tactics.
Dana often talks to high-ranking officials about things theyre not supposed to be sharing with
the press. She said its important to try to be sympathetic to who they are, try to soak in the
personality. Its important journalists approach sources as human beings with lives and
concerns, not just sources to be used and disposed of, she said. She does this by getting to know
the sources, asking about their families and their personal lives. When she covered national
security for The Washington Post, she spent a lot of time with military members, who often view
outsiders with suspicion. She endeared herself to them by learning their acronyms, adapting to
their culture and being open. She made herself seem like an insider, though she wasnt a part of
that world.
Once she compiles all of her information, she starts to write. Dana said its very hard to
take all of the intricacies and boil it down for a general audience to understand, so when she
begins writing, she always asks herself what the story is about. Sometimes, very hard for her to
answer that question so she will ask an editor and tell them what she thinks. The editors will
think the story is about something different, and usually she goes along with their ideas, because
editors always have better ideas, she said. Once she has the first two paragraphs her story
written, known as the lede and the nut graf, she starts writing in sections. For her, that part is
easy because she already knows what those sections are. She said that when you treat each
section as its own rich story, its easier to make the entire story a better read for the audience.
Despite her record of success as a writer, Dana is quick to point out what she struggles with,
noting that she is really bad at ending a story or a section. She even said that in her stories, her
endings are a noticeables weakness. She also struggles with structuring. The investigative article
she wrote about the Walter Reed Medical Center neglect was a longer and more in-depth piece,
and so she worked very closely with editors and went through many rewrites. When she was
younger, it was harder for her to accept changes from editors, and she has become much more
accepting as shes grown, but she still will fight certain edits. She has found that type of editors
that she prefers best is editors who point out an issue, hand it back to her and ask her to rewrite
it, as opposed to the editor rewriting it his or herself.
Dana told us that she began teaching because she felt satisfied with her career and
didnt want to burden herself to outdo everything she had accomplished thus far. Dana was also
concerned about the next generation of journalists, so she felt could make the biggest impact by
teaching people. She loves seeing her students get excited about a story, but she has a hard time
getting students to talk to sources. Two of her students called the U.S. Embassy in Egypt from
her office after she roleplayed with those students how to get through from the operator to the
public affairs officer and it went almost exactly like they practiced. Dana laughed remembering
how excited those students were when they came back into her class thrilled. She said that seeing
students learn so much from what she teaches them and getting excited about it is one of the
most rewarding experiences when it comes to teaching.
When we observed Danas class on Monday, Nov. 28, we got an in-depth look at how
Dana instills lessons shes learned from her career as an investigative journalist onto her
students. Her class, National Security and Press Freedom Reporting, requires her students to
choose an imprisoned foreign journalist and write a story about them. In order to write the story,
her students must be able to communicate with foreign diplomats and people within the state
department. In her class for this semester, she has eight students, most of whom are graduate
students in the Philip Merrill College of Journalism. The class meets for two and a half hours and
toward the end of the semester, much of that class time is dedicated to reporting.
At the beginning of the class, Dana, who sat in front of the projector screen and faced all
of her students, asked students how they meet with sources and how they build trust with those
sources. One student detailed how they had coffee with a source and Dana used this an example.
Danas teaching style is very informal, instead of telling her students only what they should or
shouldnt do, she explains why and uses examples from her career to give the argument more
weight. She explained to students that they need to be friendly when they talk to sources so the
sources will loosen up and tell them the information they need to know.. She detailed a time
when a source told her, I thought youd be a bitch, because the source was caught off guard
when she asked about his kids and made small talk. She said that doing this is so important
because you may need to go back to a source later for a different story. She told her students, I
got nowhere until I created relationships, I called them my assets, who would go and get
information somewhere for me that I couldnt get or they would vouch for me. Getting people to
vouch for you and to get your foot in the door for you is so important.
Because she is such an accomplished journalist, her advice seemed to carry more weight
than anything students could learn from a textbook. She let the flow of the class carry on
naturally, instead of following her lesson plan exactly. Her lesson plans were written on a piece
of notebook paper that filled out the page. She only looked down at the notes on occasion, even
though the pages were filled with blue ink.
Dana also teaches another class about the impact of 9/11 on journalism, secrecy and
public debate. We obtained the syllabus for the class and learned how closely this applies to
articles that Dana his written in the past where she uncovered secret CIA prisons in Eastern
Europe. The class focuses on how the post-9/11 government is much more secretive in an effort
to teach students how to think more critically and further their understanding of national security
agencies. The class is very intensive and is treated like its an actual job at a newspaper. A lot of
guest speakers come to the class and their identities could be off the record or they could tell
students information that is viewed as off the record, meaning it is not to be reported in any
way. These are called ground rules. To avoid this, the syllabus clearly states, Anyone who
breaks a speakers ground rules automatically fails the class (as you would be fired from your
journalism job). It is clear Dana tries to teach her students how to conduct themselves as
professional journalists by expecting them to do so in her class.
In her own reporting, Dana relies on a diversity of sources, evidenced in her references to
U.S. and foreign officials with whom she has built enough trust to gain the very sensitive and
mostly classified information her reporting relies upon. She conducted interviews with multiple
senior intelligence officer[s], White House representatives and former CIA officials. This
careful sourcing indicates the hallmark of a good professional writer, who carefully seeks out the
experts that would be able to give the best testimony on a subject or working environment (in
this case the CIA) and produce an astoundingly clear picture of something that was previously
undetected or unexplored.
She also notes classified White House, CIA, Justice Department and congressional
documents which she obtained through records requests and careful sourcing. Dana relied on
several artifacts to tell this vitally important story. The artifacts, these classified documents,
enabled her to not only get a clearer picture of the covert government operation, but of the people
involved in the operation.
One passage of her article reads:
It could not be determined whether Bush approved a separate finding for the black-sites
program, but the consensus among current and former intelligence and other government
officials interviewed for this article is that he did not have to.
It refers to a presidential finding, which is a directive given by the executive branch based
on some intelligence. It often influences policy or decrees the beginning of some sort of
program. Based on her extensive research, Dana was able to come to conclusions not only from
what she could find but from what she could not, such as the finding.

Analysis and Results:

The Journalist As a Communicator

From our observations, we learned from Dana how a journalist can professionally
develop herself as a technical communicator and helps others benefit from their expertise.
Because a professional journalist must have a complete understanding of the profession, they can
begin teaching the next generation of journalists, which is paramount for ensuring the profession
stays healthy. As a teacher and communicator, a journalist must indicate each set of
competencies that a co-worker or student might need. Among those are the primary
competencies, which Solving Problems in Technical Communication lists as the ability to
collaborate, write clearly, assess and learn technology, take initiative and evaluate their own and
others work, (page 103). Through Dana, weve learned that teaching others, or communicating
how to do something to others, requires a complex knowledge of the subject because thats the
only way to be able to simplify a complicated or multi-faceted topic. Dana gained this
knowledge from reporting for over 30 years, which is why she commonly draws back on her
own experiences when she teaches. When Dana speaks to students, she is casual because she
already knows the intricacies of the business of journalism that she doesnt need to rehearse her
lesson plans. While not all of us have so much experience, it is good to note how Dana relies on
personal knowledge rather than learned knowledge, as this is what is valued in journalism. We
also learned journalists are typically informal because they share a culture and respect the
knowledge-base of veterans. This communication culture transfers to the workplace. When Dana
collaborates with editors or writers, there is mutual understanding that everyone working on a
story shares a common goal. Thus, it is important for journalists to remain open but respectful, so
when there is a disagreement on how a sentence is phrased or how a story is structured, the
criticism doesnt seem personal. We learned that willingness to accept edits doesnt necessarily
indicate a bad job or a shoddy reporting, rather a common purpose to produce the best work
possible. Journalists value communication as an educational experience because whether with
a student or with a co-worker sharing tips, tools and critiques is the only way to further hone
their craft.

Investigative Journalism in Action

Through our observations and interviews with Dana Priest, we were able to identify a sort
of heuristic for reporting on tough, sensitive subjects and ensuring efficacy while reporting. This
mimics the method set out in Writing Self, Writing Culture, but has slight variations that speak
to the demanding, nuanced nature of a reporters work. Danas whole job, in essence, is to be an
ethnographer. She must choose a subject, map out her method of reporting and take copious,
detailed fieldnotes. She must manage new technologies, integrate into new working
environments and consult various sources before a clear picture emerges. Like Joan Didion and
her notebooks of scraps of paper and factual records, Dana keeps binders of documents,
transcripts and personal notes that, together, tell a complete story. From her, we learned that a
journalist must be vigilant and well informed while on the hunt for ideas. She monitors social
media and keeps up with foreign press, indicating a commitment to news that informs her
reporting and helps her become aware of interesting subcultures, problems or places that require
further investigation. Danas demeanor is relaxed and friendly, and as we conducted the
ethnography, she was open, honest and even curious about our lives. Even on the other side of an
interview, her amicable but intelligent nature indicated how skilled Dana has become at being in
an interview environment. And while Dana does not map or freewrite before taking on a big
project, she does consider her sources as a kind of audience, conducting considerable research
and immersing herself in her subjects culture. Throughout the ethnographic research, it became
abundantly clear that multiple, well-executed interviews are the key to great journalism. In order
to enjoy this level of success, journalists must come into interviews thoroughly prepared and
with a keen sense of who their source is as a person. Organizational methods come next in the
hierarchy. Danas own personal struggles with staying organized emphasize the complex nature
of a journalists reporting and the vitality of creating an organizational method. Her method of
labeling documents, writing in numbered sections and referring back and forth between the two
underscore the need to stay focused and on-message to ensure clear, concise copy. Finally, a
journalist must always consider their audience and be clear and concise in their writing and
organize the writing itself to convey concrete themes. Dana indicated she spends a lot of time on
the beginning and the end of a story, showing just how important those are for audience impact.
At the end of the day, journalism is about the audience it purports to serve, not the journalist
themself. This ethnography has made clear that all of the painstaking steps that go into an article
are really a consideration of the audience, because journalists like Dana value accuracy and truth
above all. The reporting, interviewing and writing processes are a dedication to these principles
and to the product that can have real influence on real lives.

Conclusion:

This ethnography outlines what a journalist needs to accomplish to succeed. This includes
extensive research, careful organization, accuracy and clear, effective writing. Prior to
conducting this research, we thought that the writing process was an arduous, seemingly
impossible task. Now, we realize, it is actually the research process that poses the biggest
challenge when writing a large-scale investigative article. Ultimately, we learned journalists take
cues from each other, respect experience and are open to criticism. In their own reporting, they
take painstaking measures to ensure the accuracy and efficacy in their writing. In future research,
we would like to look into how journalists remain objective while choosing their sources while
reporting in order to further the work we have done here.