British Journalism Review current issue

British Journalism Review: Food for thought

2008-06-02

The new BJR survey on Trust and the Media shows that a large numbers of readers and viewers clearly don't care whether they are told the truth or not, and are satisfied with bubblegum publications and programming. Others may expect to be lied to: the low turnout at elections and general disaffection with politics give some support to that theory. Still others, it is clear from the survey, believe that they are being short-changed by cynical media and are ready to abandon their connection with them. And they are free to do so because, for the first time, there is an easily available alternative to the way news is diffused and received on paper and over the airwaves. Anyone with access to the internet can now see the raw material of news and construct his or her own version of events. It may be crude and misleading; it may lack the elegance of the well-crafted story; it may not have the wisdom gained from years of reporting experience; it may contain various kinds of lunacy, from paranoid racism to a fear of little green men. But if the news media cannot provide something nourishing and non-toxic to compete with the web, sales will continue to plunge- and so will reputations.

On the road to self-destruction

Barnett, S. — 2008-06-02

Professor Steven Barnett reports that a new BJR survey shows public confidence in journalism is still falling. "What ought to worry all journalists is the massive slide in trust, relative to other organisations or groups, since this question was first asked five years ago", he writes. The poll reveals that print journalism's performance is not quite as bad as the commercial broadcasters' but is on a par with the BBC. The trust figures for broadsheet journalists have declined 22 per cent over five years; those for local journalists are down 20 per cent and those for the mid-market titles down 18 per cent. This last group is the biggest loser in terms of the relative decline: while five years ago journalists on the mid-market titles were being ranked just below the middle of the table, their trust rating now languishes just above their red-top colleagues. The decline in trust extends beyond journalism to virtually every group in the list shown to those taking part in the survey, in particular public sector occupations such as police, teachers and NHS managers. Journalism's decline cannot, therefore, be seen in isolation from a more widespread phenomenon of declining faith. For an occupation that is supposed to deal in truth, however, and for which accuracy lies at the heart of the various codes of professional conduct, the scale and speed of the decline in trust is a serious issue.

Dangerous obsession

Monck, A. — 2008-06-02

In an extract from his new book, the head of journalism and publishing at City University, London, comments: "There are important issues about the way the media conducts itself, but they're not important because we need to build 'trust'. Trust is a shoddy yardstick. It doesn't gauge truth, it gauges what looks close to the truth: verisimilitude - not a word to use after a late night out. As journalists, we tend to sneer at intellectualism and value pragmatism. If broadcasters are going to take their editorial policies seriously, then they need to get over the current obsession with 'trust' and engage with the moral contradictions and intellectual problems at the heart of those policies. And that might require a little more philosophy and a little less marketing."

Knighthoods errant

McCrystal, C. — 2008-06-02

With the Queen's birthday honours imminent, a distinguished writer questions whether working journalists should accept such rewards. McCrystal writes: We cannot claim that our virtues blossom on our natures or our work as radiantly, unselfconsciously, and inevitably as the flower on the hawthorn bough. Those government and parliamentary people who claim otherwise by "honouring" certain journalists may be classified as a tribunal of mediocrity. And what does that make us? Should our sights be on a gong and its intimations of flunkeyism and hypocrisy, or on the morass of misery and sweated labour at the bottom of society; a morass sustaining an edifice of competitive commerce as greedy as it is merciless? And he concludes: I cannot see that a scrupulous effort to maintain distance between the journalist and the state should not be regarded as crucial to effective journalism and an easy conscience.

In a different league

Collins, P. — 2008-06-02

The fiftieth anniversary of the Munich air crash recalled journalist giants of the past. But today is a true golden age for football writers, claims a star columnist. Comparing the football writers of today with those of past decades, he writes: "The football specialist writers of today have a desperately difficult job. They are faced with the competition of wall-to-wall, forelock-tugging, blissfully uncritical satellite television coverage. Instead of living in the same streets as the people they cover, the football reporter barely exist on the same planet, since �5m a year buys a privileged place in a gated community or on a country estate. They have to contend with the concepts of product placement and copy approval, as well as the odious machinations of a platoon of grasping agents. By and large, they have little contact with the players unless they happen to write a major star's life story, which itself will be sanitised in the interests of commercial blandness. And yet, in this writer's opinion, they cope superbly; perhaps better than their predecessors could have imagined. Aware that television will inevitably set the tone, they work harder on difficult issues, they explore different avenues, they search for the reality behind the manufactured image."

Quotes of the Quarter

2008-06-02

Always on a Sunday

Preston, P. — 2008-06-02

Many newspaper analysts and media commentators have dismissed the national Sunday market as a disaster area beyond regeneration. Preston disagrees and points out that although circulations are falling in the Sunday market, the quality press is not faring badly: "In March 2008, quality Sunday sales were recorded as 2.04 per cent down on March 2007: better by far than mid-market and red-top Sundays (down 4.7 per cent and 3.81 per cent respectively) and better than quality dailies, down 2.51 per cent. It's not a dismaying result when you remember that Sundays are traditionally priced far higher than their Saturday in-house competitors." A brave proprietor wishing to launch a new newspaper should go for Sunday, perhaps with Saturday as an added extra, Preston argues. "Print perhaps only one set of magazines and add-ons to cover the weekend. And deal with the run of the week exactly how young readers in particular are tackling it: by logging on and surfing around the whole puzzle on paper for those with the time and inclination to think and brood... If you can marry the swiftness and cheapness on demand of the web with the relative permanency of print, then you have a total package."

Europe: media freedom in retreat

Horsley, W. — 2008-06-02

While some member states violently obstruct media freedom, European Union manipulation conceals truths. Horsley, media freedom representative of the Association of European Journalists and a former BBC foreign correspondent, unveils a disingenuous strategy. He writes: "The many-sided assaults on media freedom have compounded what was already a complex and daunting task to report Europe adequately and journalists still struggle to find the vocabulary to describe the unique hybrid nature of the European Union... It is time that national governments came clean about the realities of the EU, the fierce national rivalries that are still played out inside its meetings, and the limits of their own ability to manage its huge administrative and governmental machine. It is time, too, for the media to stop being embarrassed about Europe and to find new ways of telling a complex and vitally important story. For that, one of the first tasks must be to win back the media freedom and independence that has been dangerously eroded."

The way we were

2008-06-02

It's more fun on the `Dark Side'

McCrystal, D. — 2008-06-02

Journalism has historically belittled public relations as being profligate and soft. But life is better in PR-land says a business journalist who crossed over: "Certainly, my lifestyle and work in public relations is far more enjoyable than my last job in journalism, which became a bit of a battle not only over expenses but also time spent at my desk and words produced. In PR, these things are not issues. Results are the only measure of success and if you get good ones then no one gives a damn about how many hours you spend in the office." And he concludes: "Journalists who've used up their expense budgets and spent all their own meagre wages but need to entertain an important contact contact me from time to time. Would I mind joining in and picking up the tab to save the hack's embarrassment? Of course not. All part of the service. Do I want anything in return? Maybe, but nothing earth shattering. A little mention here, a non-mention there. Is that unethical? In the modern world, I don't think so."

Arwyr lleol: (That's Welsh for local heroes)

Hughes, G. M. — 2008-06-02

The papurau bro (Welsh language local newspapers) break all the rules in helping to keep the Welsh language alive - but is their revolution running out of steam? From a small seed sown in Cardiff in 1973, some 56 publications still exist, which implies they've earned their place in contemporary Wales. Yet they break every rule of design, of news values and competition. They rarely seek advertising and few have paid staff to produce the goods. They are furiously independent and regard the advent of "new" - for which read "relatively old" - technology with a perhaps not altogether healthy degree of scepticism... Yet the papers are being dragged slowly into the 21st century - some now have their own web presence. But even if, together, they form the largest single readership of anything published in the Welsh language, their future is not guaranteed. Research shows that 60 per cent of papers fear for their future. Their continued antipathy towards anything commercial and anything that might constitute a "scoop", plus that unbending independence, could spell doom for something that has been nothing short of a phenomenon.

Myth, Jung and the McC women

Anslow, J. — 2008-06-02

The Express group libelled the McCann family. The media vilified Heather McCartney. To explain why, a student in psychiatry visits Carl Jung's couch: "The print barrange against both women was unmatched in its prolonged intensity even by the intermittent coverage of jailed (now dead) Moors murderer Myra Hindley. Why? What is it about the portrayal of these two women by the news media that elicits such a powerful, pervasive and usually negative response?" Anslow continues: "These resilient and recurring patterns were identified by the influential but controversial Swiss psychologist and thinker Carl Jung (1875-1961) and labelled 'archetypes'. In his Collected Works, Jung writes: 'There are types of situations and types of figures that repeat themselves endlessly and have a corresponding meaning'... Jungians would claim that consumers of news reports respond to the same collectively unconscious contents as the journalists who gather, edit and present the stories. Thus, unconsciously, they expect shared, archetypal, embedded patterns to assert themselves in the reportage."

Dangermen

Brennan, M. — 2008-06-02

Is a picture worth a thousand words? Is the power of the photograph overlooked by many writers? In two articles, the BJR celebrates the roll of the photojournalist. Accomplished photographer Brennan writes: "Looking now at old news pictures and newsreels, I cannot believe my work and that of my now my equally ageing colleagues has become archive material. There was much criticism in the 70s and 80s of voyeurism, because of the harrowing images of war, particularly those from Vietnam from... many great, brave, photojournalists. That debate appears to have gone away. Now we are bombarded with images so graphic and instant that the pictures from that earlier time appear almost benevolent... And technology has allowed anyone to be a 'citizen journalist'. Pictures from news events, sometimes taken from cell-phone cameras and usually of poor quality, fetch top dollar with major news organizations. Everyone is a 'news' photographer, triggering an influx by opportunist and mostly untalented snappers that some believe has sounded the death knell for great news photography. I don't believe that's the case. Technology has only enhanced the skills of the new breed of serious photojournalists."

Blame it on Blow Up

Davis, V. — 2008-06-02

The veteran journalist and author recalls the highs and lows of working with newspaper photographers in the past, and concludes: "The staff photographers of today don't sing or joke much. They are an endangered species in a world teeming with civilians wielding digital cameras and celebrity-chasing amateurs looking for a big score. Breaking news pictures are increasingly the work of passers-by while the reduced staff teams are edged off the prime pages. There's a growing tendency to print the by-lines of those who do get their pictures published vertically, which I daresay is all right if you're Japanese. It's sad. I fear the parade's gone by and the only ones left cheering are the bean counters who grubstaked all those years of riotous assembly."

Book Review: All in the line of duty: The Remarkable Lives of Bill Deedes, by Stephen Robinson (Little, Brown, {pound}20, pp480)

Ryan, S. — 2008-06-02

Book Review: Visual overkill: Reuters: Our World Now (Thames & Hudson, pp352, {pound}10)

Jacobson, C. — 2008-06-02

Book Review: Chinese treacle: Rupert's Adventure in China: How Murdoch lost a fortune and found a wife, byBruce Dover (Mainstream Publishing, 302 pp, {pound}18.99)

Fenby, J. — 2008-06-02

Book Review: Skiddy row: Forgive Us Our Press Passes, by Ian Skidmore (Revel Barker Publishing, pp222, {pound}9.95)

Jameson, D. — 2008-06-02

Book Review: Echo warrior: The Age of the Warrior: Selected Writings, by Robert Fisk (4th Estate, pp320, 14.99)

Aaronovitch, D. — 2008-06-02

Street scenes: Fleet Street -- the inside story of journalism, edited by Vivian Brodzky (Macdonald, 1966, pp219, original price unknown)

Hagerty, B. — 2008-06-02

Cudlipp Award winner

2008-06-02

Letters

2008-06-02

Entries invited for Paul Foot Award

2008-06-02