With the modern age focusing on trying to get news, stories and publications out as quickly as possible, the intense rush leaves behind a core element that has been part of journalism.

Critical and thorough, investigative journalists are the ones behind exposing laws that are unjust or spreading awareness on an important subject matter through their own research. This kind of work dives much deeper than the journalism that publishes daily news articles. The more traditional side of journalism is known as passive due to its nature of collecting information from various sources and passing it onto its audience compared to investigative journalism which aims to learn the truth about a certain topic.

Nils Hanson, an investigative journalist in his field for over 20 years, found the slower, more thorough side of journalism to be his specialty.

“Of course we want to change the world for the better, but we do not say that,” said Hanson to Media4Change. “We are here to reveal things that otherwise wouldn’t be revealed.”

To get the truth out to the people, evidence, research and on-sight accounts all go into a well formulated article.

“Be out, talk to people, talk to the police, the psychiatrists, the social authorities, discover who is responsible, what do the rules and the law says,” said Hanson. “The public decides what is immoral, despite what is accepted by law.”

Opinions are hard to avoid on subjects, though when investigating a topic, sides cannot be picked.  

“It is very easy to become an activist, but then you only see one side of the story,” said Hanson. “As a journalist, you cannot neglect the other. Your job is to show the truth, not to support the people that we want to support.”