William Gaines, a two-time winner of the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting, uses a case history approach for easy understanding of simple and complex investigations. Gaines has created fictional reporters who are followed in each step of their investigations and their careers in newspapers and television. Utilizing instructional text, case histories, and analysis of important published investigative stories such as the Watergate investigation by the Washington Post, the book explains how reporters get story ideas and follow them through to production. The roles of government and business in society and their interrelationships are clearly defined and examined. Investigative stories include government waste, public and private fraud and corruption, and consumer problems.