When my friend Katja asked me to speak on an investigative journalism panel for our local chapter of the Association of Health Care Journalists, my initial reaction was to do that sight gag where you dart your eyes around then point at yourself and mouth, Me?

For years, I thought investigative journalists were simply a different and superior species from mine, people with a very particular set of skills for sniffing out and taking down bad guys. They were more focused and bolder than I am, shrewder and tougher and better at paperwork and computers. They had to be, right?

Then, in 2019, I wrote a story about the Public Health Service (where I’d served) for a great science outlet called Undark. I don’t remember how many sources I talked to, but more than a handful who were still in the PHS asked not to be named. I only understood I’d written a piece of investigative journalism when the following year, my editor submitted it for an investigative journalism award. 

Turns out investigative journalism is just revealing something powerful people don’t want the public to know. The skills you use to get the story aren’t what puts it in this category. Hard skills — like hacking and digital analysis and forensic accounting — can produce great investigative stories. But so can soft skills like making people feel safe.

Alongside me on the panel were two local legends, Max Blau of ProPublica and Pamela Kirkland of GPB. During the audience Q&A near the end of the panel, someone asked: How do you decide what stories to pursue? How do you get started?

My answer is something I’ve been telling young journalists for years, because for me, it’s been the single best strategy for making meaningful work. And that is: Follow your rage.

Anger is an extraordinarily important signal for me that a story is worth covering. And it’s a good sign that the story will be interesting to other people — if it steams my biscuit, odds are high it pisses you off, too. Also, I do tend to stay mad, so starting a story angry usually means I’ll stay interested until I get it past the finish line. 

Whether you’re a working journalist or you’re just starting to try out your public voice, pay attention to your emotions as you take in the world around you. When something you hear spikes your blood pressure, file it away as a potential story idea. 

This advice really resonated with people. That’s not a huge surprise — most of us, myself included, are angry a lot these days. But once the panel was over, I realized my response was incomplete: Listening to your emotions tells you where to begin, but it doesn’t tell you where to go next.

While rage can point you to the starting line, it should not constitute the entire path from idea to final story. As early as possible in the reporting process, you need to frame-shift from anger to curiosity: Why is this thing this way? How did we get here? Who’s benefiting from this? Who’s losing? Are there better ways to do this? 

Asking lots of questions and interrogating everything (including your own anger!) is critical for getting off the starting block and into the work of getting the story right.

First, as you begin asking questions, you might find there are actually good reasons that an annoying thing is the way it is. Your story then becomes focused on explaining to your audience why, counterintuitively, something they hate actually makes sense. 

Second, it’s hard to report and create a story fairly if you stay in your anger throughout the entire process. And without staying really balanced in your reporting and questioning your own take the entire time, you’ll have a hard time creating something that will reach the people who don’t already agree with you. 

Maybe you’re okay with that. Preaching to the choir is, after all, making a ton of creators a ton of money these days. But that kind of coverage is poisonous to the world — we are not doing great out here! — and I hope you strive for something better.

Anyone can be mad, and anyone can ask questions. But the ability to do both, then tell a story that helps other people better understand the world we live in? That’s a very particular set of skills. 

Why did I write about starting from anger this week? In part, because of the results from my reader survey.

Half of the respondents so far are health professionals, and about two-thirds of those people said they want a public voice. Their biggest obstacle, according to them, is self-doubt.

In my experience, the fastest way through that is to find the thing that makes you angry enough to stop waiting for permission.

Thanks to the handful of readers who’ve responded to the survey so far! This one answer helped me choose what to write this week. If you haven’t filled it out, it’s still open and takes about 5 minutes.

Got a tip on any of the stories I’m covering? Email me at [email protected], fill out this form, or find me on Signal at kerenlandman.07.

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