I don’t, no. Obviously it could stretch almost arbitrarily high, but I expect there are competent people who would tackle it for $50-$100/hour, for example. It’s also pretty common for journalists who take interest in a topic to pursue it of their own initiative, but they have their own incentives and work (indeed, must work) towards different goals than the people who tip them off to things.
The broader reading is hard to answer because people vary wildly in their skills, interests, and resources. If I were advising myself, for example, I would say “Start poking around and see what pops up,” because that’s what I’ve always done. If I were advising someone with lots of money but little time, I would say “Spend your money to find someone with more time,” because that seems like a pretty universal problem-solver. If I were advising someone with a large public presence, I would say “Call in a few favors from people you know,” because reputation is power.
Let’s go for the purest case, though: a random community member with little experience, money, or presence. The most important thing is finding somebody credible who has those. You can try tipping leads to trustworthy journalists (yeah yeah, I know) who operate close to that area, sharing concerns in private with more influential members of your community to see if any of them can lead things off, or simply saying whatever you have hard evidence of in a public forum and seeing where it leads. The ultimate goal is, I’d say, always to find someone with the time and capacity to look into things in depth and with balance, as much as is realistic given the situation. That can be a pretty constrained group, which is why large organizations usually end up having dedicated positions for that sort of thing, but that’s the ideal.
I don’t, no. Obviously it could stretch almost arbitrarily high, but I expect there are competent people who would tackle it for $50-$100/hour, for example. It’s also pretty common for journalists who take interest in a topic to pursue it of their own initiative, but they have their own incentives and work (indeed, must work) towards different goals than the people who tip them off to things.
The broader reading is hard to answer because people vary wildly in their skills, interests, and resources. If I were advising myself, for example, I would say “Start poking around and see what pops up,” because that’s what I’ve always done. If I were advising someone with lots of money but little time, I would say “Spend your money to find someone with more time,” because that seems like a pretty universal problem-solver. If I were advising someone with a large public presence, I would say “Call in a few favors from people you know,” because reputation is power.
Let’s go for the purest case, though: a random community member with little experience, money, or presence. The most important thing is finding somebody credible who has those. You can try tipping leads to trustworthy journalists (yeah yeah, I know) who operate close to that area, sharing concerns in private with more influential members of your community to see if any of them can lead things off, or simply saying whatever you have hard evidence of in a public forum and seeing where it leads. The ultimate goal is, I’d say, always to find someone with the time and capacity to look into things in depth and with balance, as much as is realistic given the situation. That can be a pretty constrained group, which is why large organizations usually end up having dedicated positions for that sort of thing, but that’s the ideal.