New Investigative Journalism Professor Featured on Television Series About Polygamists

The newest professor in Utah State University's Department of Journalism and Communication had an interesting start to his semester. 

On Monday morning, adjunct professor Nate Carlisle began teaching an investigative journalism class — the first course on that topic to be offered at Utah State in several years. Then, on Monday evening, Carlisle was prominently featured in the first episode of the highly anticipated "Secrets of Polygamy" program on A&E, a series focused on the polygamous groups across Utah and their impact on the people raised within those sects. 

Carlisle, a producer and reporter for FOX 13 in Salt Lake City, has been an investigative reporter in Utah for nearly 20 years, starting at The Salt Lake Tribune. That's where he first began investigating one of the sects at the heart of the A&E series, the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Carlisle will speak about the lessons he learned during those investigations — and many others — in the class he is teaching this semester, JCOM 4530: Investigative Reporting. Some spaces for the online, asynchronous course are still available. 

"Investigative reporting skills are needed by all journalists," Carlisle said. 

But beyond that, he said, the skills at the heart of his new class are vital for students going into any field in which the providence and accuracy of information is important. "Even if you don't want to be an investigative reporter," he said, "you need to know how to find information, interview sources, and check facts."

Fellow teachers in the department are excited about having Carlisle's expertise and experience available to their students.

"In the entire state of Utah, I'm not sure there's a reporter who is feared more by people in power — especially those who have something to hide," said Matthew LaPlante, who first met Carlisle when the two reporters were hired within a year of each other at The Tribune. "We're fortunate to have Professor Carlisle on our team, and our students have the opportunity to learn a lot from him."