Investigative journalism can be compared to putting together an intricate puzzle. The pieces are scattered and eventually assemble into a single image.
Watchdog journalism is crucial to any democracy. It can call people to account as well as expose the abuses and corruption of power. From Upton Sinclair’s expose of the meatpacking industry to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein in exposing Watergate, this type of investigative journalism has had an enormous impact.
Fraudulent Academic Credentials
Millions of people around the world buy fake academic certificates. Fake diplomas come in a variety of forms, ranging from a single operator operating an office printer in New York City’s Chinatown until an online service that offers pre-designed certificates.
The degree mills, which were only a handful of operators who created certificates at their kitchen tables to sell on matching book covers are now high-tech using chat rooms, websites and edu suffixes on their domain names. They also employ pseudo-accrediting organizations that use rigid, but not set, standards. This billion-dollar enterprise lets you get a bachelor’s, master’s or doctorate without ever attending classes, taking tests or performing any other work.
It’s also possible to fake a college transcript in order to acquire one fake degrees. And if you get found guilty, it’s a white-collar crime that can result in prison time.
Marketplace and the former FBI agent Allen Ezell teamed up to purchase a fake degree from Almeda University. This online school offers the PhD in biblical counseling. By using an alias Lack was able to provide Almeda University with backstory over the phone. He then was able to qualify for the degree after providing some of his professional credentials.
Diploma Mills Investigation
Experts estimate that the business of fake diplomas is worth a billion dollars. Marketplace looked into one of the biggest players, a Pakistan-based diploma factory called Axact through analyzing business records, analyzing details about customers and cross-referencing with social media profiles. In the end, we discovered a lot of Canadians who could have bought degrees from this fake institution and visit this site https://lambang-toanquoc.com/.
There are laws that prevent the selling and misrepresentation of fraudulent certifications, it’s difficult to prosecute diploma-mills. This thorny issue has attracted the attention of UNESCO and federal prosecutors as well as the Department of Education and the Federal Trade Commission. It’s a daunting task for investigators, despite a increasing number of watchdog groups.
Furthermore, a lot of fake schools are branded with names that look eerily similar to those of legitimate institutions. As a result, it is often difficult to recognize these fake schools. Professional background screeners are like detectives, and they employ their experience to spot red flags in an applicant’s educational background.
Alongside a suspectly similar name, other clues to a potential fraud include an address that is not listed and a website that doesn’t provide the address of the university. University visits like those our reporters made at the New World Mission Dunamis International University, Cape Town, and Northern Ireland Institute of Business Technology, Belfast, are important steps in exposing diploma mills.
Integrity of qualifications for education
Investigative journalism is a skill that requires a lot of perseverance and a keen understanding of how to uncover patterns and anomalies. It requires a variety of abilities, including document analysis, interviewing on the record and anonymous sources as well as subscription-based research tools and much more. The work is often laborious and time-consuming, but it could reveal the truth, and make powerful individuals, politicians and criminals accountable.
Marketplace, for example, examined the largest mill at Axact and obtained business records. They also compared customer data to determine if customers were interested in buying fake degrees. The team also travelled to fake campuses such as New World Mission Dunamis International University in South Africa and Northern Ireland Institute of Business Technology in London to establish their authenticity and to see how they operate.
Gollin clarifies that diploma mills can have a double impact. They devalue the legitimate diplomas that students obtain after investing years and thousands pounds to achieve. They also expose the public to danger in the event that professionals such as doctors and engineers lack the right education.
Investigative journalism is crucial because of this. Whether it’s the Watergate scandal that rocked America as well as the most recent Nobel Peace Prize winners Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov for their fight for freedom of speech in Russia and Philippines and the Philippines, investigative journalism is able to expose corruption and make our world a safer one.
Counterfeit Degrees Exposed
The business of bogus degrees is growing rapidly worldwide, with the business generating an estimated $7 billion annually. In part, the phenomenal rise of this industry is due to the ease with which it is for people to acquire fake diplomas. The industry is also thriving due to the fact that people fake resumes in order to secure a job and make money.
The profit motive of degree mills is one of the primary reason why they continue to exist, even in the face of increasing government scrutiny. They are able to make thousands of fake degrees per year with relatively low overhead by using software and outsourcing the actual personnel. Some of these phony schools even advertise in legitimate publications and newspapers including the Economist USA Today, Forbes, Psychology Today, Discover, Investors Business Daily, and regional editions of Time and Newsweek.
Declan Walsh, the investigative journalist who uncovered Axact’s fake degree empire, has spoke to reporters from all over the globe, documents he had found during his investigation. These documents include scans of registration papers for the mailboxes of Belford High School and Belford University in Texas and California and an official letter from the fake International Accreditation Organization, and images of Axact’s internal publication. The BBC used several of these documents in the creation of the documentary File on 4: Deceptions Degrees that will air on Radio 4 this week.