Marcus Butler
28 May 2015: One of the world's most respected investigative journalists, The Guardian's Nick Davies, shared his experience and techniques with a lucky group of journalism students at the University of Canberra yesterday.
Mr Davies was the journalist who broke the infamous News of the World phone hacking scandal, which exposed incidents of reporters hacking the private phones of people including a murdered schoolgirl and members of the British royal family.
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Investigative journalist Nick Davies delivering a masterclass at UC. Photo: Michelle McAulay
Mr Davies's investigative journalism masterclass saw him share his experiences on examining one of the world's largest and most influential media organisations: News International.
He told the masterclass, which included University of the Third Age students and undergraduates, that journalism is a quest for the truth.
"Really all journalism is investigative, but how I define this specialisation is where there is a focus on covering stories where another party or parties are trying to hide the truth," Mr Davies said.
The phone hacking scandal, his experience with Wikileaks and his ongoing work in covering issues of child sexual abuse, were of interest to the class and generated most of the questions over the space of almost two hours.
The discussion provided insights on building journalist/source relationships as well as Mr Davies views on the decline of printed newspapers in the wake of the continuing growth of online media reporting.
The masterclass was hosted by the University of Canberra's News and Media Research Centre and professor of journalism Matthew Ricketson.
Mr Davies also took the time to sign copies of his new book about the 'News of the World scandal'- Hack Attack: How the Truth Caught Up with Rupert Murdoch.
