British Journalism Review recent issues

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

Editorial: British Journalism Review Trivia pursuit

2008-04-03

'One of Nick Davies's informants for his book, Flat Earth News, is a trainee reporter on a regional daily tabloid, and he or she provides a diary of one 45�-hour working week. During it the reporter produced 48 stories of varying lengths and importance on the basis of only 26 conversations with informants, only four of whom were met face-to-face. Indeed, the reporter spent only three hours away from his desk, telephone and computer terminal, and most of the time was occupied in answering demands from the news desk to fill specific holes in the typical 24 pages of local news scheduled in each day's paper. The account suggests that much of this material is trivial and formulaic, to use no stronger terms...

What does the future hold if newspapers and broadcasters do not encourage young journalists by allowing them to exercise their skills by using their minds to ask questions and assess the answers sceptically, intelligently and knowledgeably? Poorly trained and with little news judgement, the executives of tomorrow will produce anodyne newspapers and bulletins because that is all they know. And as the paying public wake up to the realisation that the traditional media are turning into mere processors of pseudo-news, they will surely abandon them, happy to find the truth by weighing up for themselves the mixture of fact, opinion and craziness that compete with each other in the free-for-all of cyberspace. If Davies's trainee is a harbinger of the end of news journalism as we know it, the coroner's verdict can be nothing other than suicide.'

Time to climb out of the sewer

Leigh, D. — 2008-04-03

Award-winning Guardian reporter Leigh draws upon Nick Davies' new book, Flat Earth News, is examining the state of investigative journalism today and concluding: "The waters of British investigative journalism in 2008 certainly appear to be heavily polluted. But nonetheless, along with the tide of dead dogs, used condoms and toxic waste, there do seem to be nutritious public interest fish still to be caught. Liberty is indivisible, as the saying goes. And a free press is better than any of the alternatives."

The myth about Panorama

Gaber, I. — 2008-04-03

Gaber looks at Panorama - the self-described "world's longest-running investigative TV show" - past and present, and writes: "This is a problematic way for a programme to brand itself. "The world's longest running..." has a slight feel of hubris about it and is almost impossible to prove. The line is also problematic because it describes Panorama as a "show" - it's a word that is probably indicative of the new style and philosophy of what, for most people interested in serious journalism, has always been, not a show, but a programme. But it's the bit in the middle, "investigative TV", that begs the biggest questions: is it, and was it ever?"

People power

Greenslade, R. — 2008-04-03

Media commentator Greenslade examines the investigative history of The People - now down on its luck but once the greatest investigative popular paper of them all. And former head of investigations at the paper, Laurie Manifold recalls some of the great investigations of the past, while former reporter Fred Harrison sadly states that the culture of the paper changed and the tradition of investigatory journalism gradually vanished.

Quotes of the Quarter

2008-04-03

Ethnic Balance: Race against the tide

Harker, J. — 2008-04-03

Harker, assistant comment editor at The Guardian, argues that progress towards proper ethnic diversified staffs within the media - the press, especially - has been slow. The number of racial minorities in editing positions across all Fleet Street is tiny, he claims, and most of the main desks on the nationals - home, foreign, city, features, sports - are run by entirely white teams. Harker concludes: 'As newspapers face more and more intense competition, both in print and online, surely they can't afford to ignore Britain's growing minority population. The assumption that things can continue as they always have, with a wealthy well-connected elite handing down news from above, expecting their underlings to try to imitate them, just doesn't fit our 21st century profile. Ultimately, what surely we all want is for all sections of society to feel they are properly represented in the range, variety and balance of stories written about them... But how many newspaper organisations will genuinely commit themselves to reaching that goal?'

The Way We Were: From the British Journalism Review of ten years ago (vol. 9, issue no 1, 1998)

2008-04-03

Travel Journalism: The road to nowhere

Moss, C. — 2008-04-03

Travel specialist Moss reveals the home truths about travel journalism: how it has become swamped by celebrities and freeloading staff members and pays specialist writers poorly. Moss writes: "More overpaid amateur-celebrity stories and the grim proliferation of under-valued professional material through random media is worst of all worlds. The very best travel stories are a model of journalism. They entertain, they educate, (occasionally) they illuminate. The main contemporary issues - the environment, the cultural impact of travel, the economics of the tourist dollar, the horrors of globetrotting and the terror of airport and airplanes - should all command space among the upbeat copy on boutique hotels, delicious food, beautiful landscapes and unique cultures. This, I reckon, could be the model for television, too, and then there would be no more...celebrity pointlessness. Travel is, after defence, the second biggest industry on the planet. Does it really have to be the smallest kind of journalism?"

Tony Hall: Fighter pilot, enter stage left

Hagerty, B. — 2008-04-03

Interviewed by the editor, the former Head of News at the BBC and now executive director of the Royal Opera House, Tony Hall, talks for the first time about the events that led to Andrew Gilligan, Gavyn Davies and Greg Dyke leaving the Corporation and says that crises in television "have helped concentrate minds wonderfully" but that broadcasters must work overtime regain public trust. And as a non-executive director of Channel 4, he comments: "I believe that as a public service broadcaster we can do something that will really have an impact on people's lives. We can stand for something and I think that is really important. The debate about Channel 4 now is actually about public service provision, and about plurality of public service provision. I think it is inevitable, inevitable, that the licence fee will be contested - part of it will be contested - and that in the next five or six years Channel 4 will have a pitch at the licence fee [to obtain a share of it]. The notion that there should be competition in the provision of public service broadcasting is absolutely fundamental - Channel 4 is there to add perspectives and an edge and to support new talent and new companies in a way that the BBC doesn't."

Not guilty -- but who's to know?

Sutcliffe, K. — 2008-04-03

Media rivals swooped when Channel 4 faced another fakery scandal. How come they vanished when Dispatches was exonerated by Ofcom? asks the deputy Head of News and Current Affairs at Channel Four. Sutcliffe traces the history of the Channel's Dispatches programme "Undercover Mosque", shortly after the transmission of which West Midlands Police announced it was to investigate the extreme views and comments made in the film. Sutcliffe recalls how the police then decided to focus on potential offences that may have been committed by the programme makers. He comments: "Nine months after "Undercover Mosque" was broadcast, four months since the programme was the subject of a police ambush, Ofcom threw out the case put by the country's second largest police force... [But] 'Undercover Mosque' may have been given a ringing endorsement from Ofcom, Channel 4 and the producers at Hardcash may no longer have stood accused of being fakers and twisters, but we were no longer news... There was some pick-up but nowhere near the intensity of the interest when it looked as if we were in trouble. I felt the lukewarm press response to our victory had failed to dissipate the stench of fakery. The allegations lingered just off stage."

Rogue elephant

Whitwell, T. — 2008-04-03

A new breed of editors has emerged with the development of web journalism. Tom Whitwell, communities editor of Times Online, is one of them and here describes life in the fast lane of the information super highway. He writes: "Traditional [media] power structures are unlikely to last for very much longer. I've never been a staff newspaper journalist, but I've always understood it to be a hierarchical, politically charged operation, where questions of right and wrong are answered by seniority. The online world is still as political as any office, but there's an elephant in the room that can't be ignored for long: In print, you often have no real idea what sells your newspaper. Online, you know exactly what's selling your site, live, 24 hours a day. So the editor can certainly pay his old school chum to write a jolly column about nothing much in particular. But it will be immediately obvious if nobody much in particular is reading it. Similarly, a youngster toiling in an unfashionable backwater who works hard and promotes his or her stuff online can find an audience. It doesn't matter that it's never promoted on the homepage, because traffic can be found elsewhere - from blogs or news aggregators or Google searches."

The devil wears Primark

Bravo, L. — 2008-04-03

The 20-year-old university student explains why, despite the problems of the industry, young people are still attracted to a career in newspaper journalism. She writes: "The truth is that my generation, more so than any before it, thrives on communication. The media - the big, official one where Jon Snow works and everyone wears sensible shoes - is becoming less of a distinct entity. Instead, each social group creates and maintains their own little media industry, distributing its information and ideas through blogging, social networking sites, communal texting, fanzines, flyering and occasionally wearing sandwich boards in the street. The end doesn't appear to be nigh for this kind of gossip circulation, and I think we can partly attribute the growing graduate interest in journalism to the tell-all communication culture. We are egotistical exhibitionists."

Last of the long goodbyes

Knight, J. — 2008-04-03

With the break-up of Fleet Street, national newspapermen and women now rarely meet and the memorial services, when "The Street" blazes briefly back to life, have become almost like reunions for many old hacks, believes veteran columnist and executive Knight. But now even the camaraderie resumed at memorial/thanksgiving services and over the bottomless glasses afterwards is under threat: "These events are usually to honour veterans who have spent a lifetime in Fleet Street and often died while still working. The congregations are primarily composed of professional friends who have served and drunk with them. Apart from a respectable and, as time goes by, diminishing gaggle of young admirers, it's a dying breed." After the recent memorial service for five-times editor Richard Stott, a friend said to the author: "That's the last great piss up we're going to see in Fleet Street." Comments Knight: "I hope he was wrong."

The Cudlipp Award

2008-04-03

Book Review: Untamed, unbowed, undone: Public Service Television: World in Action 1963-98, by Peter Goddard, John Corner and Kay Richardson (Manchester University Press, pp240, {pound}15.99)

Macdonald, G. — 2008-04-03

Book Review: Shock and awful: Reporting Iraq, edited by Mike Hoyt, John Palattella and the staff of the Columbia Journalism Review (Melville House Publishing, pp189, $21.95)

Johnson, J. — 2008-04-03

Book Review: Mind over matter: Guardian Style, by David Marsh (Guardian Books, pp362, {pound}14.99)

Berry, D. — 2008-04-03

Book Review: Women's warrior: Selective Memory, by Katharine Whitehorn (Virago, pp269, {pound}18.99)

Langdon, J. — 2008-04-03

Book Review: Channel for flair

Snow, J. — 2008-04-03

Book Review: Lamb's tales: Small Wars Permitting: Dispatches from Foreign Lands, by Christina Lamb (Harper Press, pp390, {pound}8.99)

Leapman, M. — 2008-04-03

Book Review: Power players: The Life and Death of the Press Barons, by Piers Brendon (Secker and Warburg 1982, pp288, {pound}12.50)

Delano, A. — 2008-04-03

Lord help us

2007-12-12

The current Director-General, Mark Thompson, and the BBC Trust may have had little room for manoeuvre after a licence-fee settlement that was less than expected, other than, as detailed in his "Delivering Creative Future" speech, of large-scale staff cuts, property sales and – crucially for BBC journalism – the integration of the news division. Yet, despite the title, the emphasis of the speech was managerial rather than creative... Behind the turmoil at the BBC is the unspoken menace of potential privatisation: there must be some managers who have an ambition, without admitting the fact to themselves or each other, to take the BBC brand into the stock market. Now, before it is too late, is the time to insist that the BBC is a public service corporation, its purpose to enrich the minds and lives of the nation.

How to survive Rupert Murdoch

Dunn, M. — 2007-12-12

Former Murdoch stable editor Dunn, now editor-in-chief of the New York Daily News, sets out the ground rules to be heeded by those at Murdoch’s newly-acquired prize, the Wall Street Journal. Major changes are coming, warns Dunn: "Launching new sections for the Journal, introducing deeper and better coverage in key areas and improving the political coverage will only be part of it. What will be more interesting is his involvement on the business side of the Journal. At many of his publications around the world he knows that winning the editorial war is only part of the battle... Murdoch understands the war is waged on all fronts...Will the Journal succumb to such pressures? Will it maintain its independence and dignity in the face of being part of a global empire with so many interlocking and interdependent pieces? How the Wall Street Journal survives Rupert Murdoch will be one of the great media stories of the next decade."

Clean-up in spin city

Oborne, P. — 2007-12-12

The Daily Mail political columnist argues that new Prime Minister Gordon Brown has already restored some honesty to the political process. "He has (and deserves more credit for this than has so far been awarded) voluntarily relinquished some of his own ability to control the press by making newspapers less dependent on the Downing Street machine," he writes. "As a result reporting from Westminster feels cleaner. Stories can get written up for what they are worth, not fine-tuned to suit party political allegiances... Life is better. Spin is diminishing. Honest, unadulterated political reporting is making a reappearance... Maybe it can really last. With the coming of peace at the end of World War Two the great Daily Mirror cartoonist Philip Zec produced a famous drawing with the message: Don’t Lose it Again. Exactly the same can be said of Fleet Street at the end of the era of Blair."

Great politicians rise above ridicule

Baker, K. — 2007-12-12

Lord Baker, vice-chairman of The Cartoon Museum and an expert in the field, traces the history of political lampooning from Robert Walpole to Gordon Brown and concludes that the best politicians take both criticism and praise with more than one pinch of sale: "Prime Ministers and politicians can be hurt by cartoons, but they should remember the cartoonist’s role is not to couch favour or approval. They should ignore the ones that flatter and resist wincing at the ones that ridicule. If, at times, the attack does strike home, they should never let it show. The reputations of the real political giants have not been impaired by the images created by the cartoonists. Great politicians rise above the invective, no doubt sufficiently confident of their own reputation to allow their achievements to be judged by history, rather than by cartoons."

Children and the media quicksand

Melville-Brown, A. — 2007-12-12

"With a missing child dominating the headlines this summer, and reports that due to obesity our children may not outlive their parents, the question of protecting the next generation is high on the news agenda," writes media lawyer Melville-Brown. "But it is not just the physical health and well-being of children that is at stake in our modern society. The public’s appetite for news – serious or gossip – and photographic evidence of both, together with the media’s preparedness to feed this hunger, is putting our children at risk of media over-exposure." So who, she asks, is looking after the children: parents, courts, government or the media? And concludes: "For their own very different reasons, they all must."

The crime beat is hard labour now

Brunt, M. — 2007-12-12

The Sky News crime correspondent insists that the good old days of crime reporting are gone forever. "For years our staple diet of murder, rape and armed robbery was occasionally supplemented by terror," he writes." Now terror overshadows everything and I’m forever waiting for another attack, more arrests, a next court appearance or the latest trial opening. Keeping on top of all that requires contacts beyond the police... The glut of terror stories has sometimes put a strain on our relationship with police. Scotland Yard’s counter-terror chief, Peter Clarke, used a speech this year to hit out over leaks that he said were endangering lives... There’s a big difference of opinion among people I talk to: those who insist it’s vital to keep terror plot details secret to avoid prejudicing the trial and those who believe the public has a right to know, as soon as possible, what atrocities are being planned against them."

War watchdogs or lapdogs?

Moorcraft, P., Taylor, P. M. — 2007-12-12

Academics Moorcraft and Taylor argue that it does not matter if journalists rarely have the political impact some of them think they possess, especially in war zones: "Let them believe that if it helps it keeps them to keep going. They can still be witnesses, recording the first draft of history with all its flaws. Taking a long view, there will always be friction in wartime between the media and the military. It is in every democratic citizen’s interest that this is so." The role of the war correspondent has changed radically over the years, but is still a vital one, they claim: "The BBC’s Alan Little was more pessimistic on the role of journalist as moral witness: ‘A lot of us, especially in Bosnia, thought that the effect of our being there and bearing witness would have a beneficial effect, would in fact change things. In fact, it didn’t change anything.’ But journalists were there to record what happened in some places some of the time. Some of the horrors were recorded. That is the prime directive of the craft. Until the very last days of the Second World War, no foreign journalist recorded Auschwitz for the outside world. At least the concentration camps in Bosnia were filmed early in the Balkan wars. No-one could say, "We didn’t know."

Fifty years on, God's still smiling

Meara, D. — 2007-12-12

Interviewed by the editor, the rector of St Bride’s, Fleet Street, reflects on the turbulent history of the church as it celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of its rededication after suffering massive bomb damage in the Second World War. And he observes of the sometimes flimsy relationship between the newspaper industry and religion: "You might ask what this secular, sometimes pretty disreputable trade got to do with the Christian faith, but people working in the industry and working under pressure are stressed in their working lives and sometimes in their private lives sometimes. They need a spiritual anchor point. They need a place where they feel they can be absolutely themselves whatever else is going on and where they can come and feel understood, because I think although people see the public role of newspapers, they don’t understand all the internal pressures...they don’t always realise the cost of the end product in terms of stress and emotion. So newspapermen and women sometimes feel quite isolated. I feel the industry hugely values somewhere where they feel they belong, where they are understood and welcomed just as they are. And where God looks down on them with a smile. And on St Bride’s, too."

Quotes of the Quarter

2007-12-12

Breaking eggs in Iran

Smyth, G. — 2007-12-12

The writer spend four years in Iran working as a foreign correspondent for the Financial Times and here reports that "Western readers and listeners are unaware of the constraints under which their information on Iran has been produced. While the number of resident reporters in the country is low and falling, many outlets retain the dateline by sending visiting hacks who hire quasi-official minders through Ershad. Even the resident reporter finds it hard to gain access to anyone or any place remotely near a real story, although to admit this to editors is dangerous when they are desperate to know what is going on in the ‘axis of evil’." He concludes: "Hard facts have a way, sometimes, of confounding both propaganda and inaccurate and malicious reporting. Lessons can be learned, and the truth can be recognised. But one thing is clear. If it comes to a U.S. or U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran, Western readers and listeners are likely to be even worse prepared than they were for the invasion of Iraq."

Truth and nothing like the truth

Davis, R. — 2007-12-12

The term "Hawthorne Effect" is now widely accepted by social scientists, and is defined by the Oxford Dictionary of Sociology as "The behaviour modifying effect of being the subject of social investigation", and the writer suggests that this is something journalists need to be aware of, because it threatens to undermine one of our primary tools: the interview. Is the process of interviewing itself altering the answers we receive in interviews? If the Hawthorne Effect is distorting the information we relay to the public in some way, it is our business to know about it. "We must acknowledge the existence of the Hawthorne Effect and integrate the term into our journalistic discourses, debates and training programmes," she writes. "We must realise that part of what it means to be a good journalist is to be able to understand the Hawthorne Effect, to learn how to employ it when it enriches our journalism and safeguard against it when it threatens to undermine our work."

The way we were

2007-12-12

Journey's end

Deedes, W.F. — 2007-12-12

Bill Deedes, reporter, editor, columnist, Cabinet minister and decorated war hero, died on August 17 at the age of 94. In tribute to a journalistic icon, the British Journalism Review recalls Lord Deedes’ own memories of lifetime love affair with newspapers by publishing an extract from his 1997 memoir, Dear Bill (Macmillan). The extract concludes: "We go this way only once, and there seems so little time in which to explore the world and its wonders, to find out more about the human tragedy – or, as I more often find it, the human comedy – of which we are part. ‘Never forget,’ the Austrian poet Rilke said to his wife as he lay dying, ‘life is magnificent,’ and that is right. I believe there is a future life, but I do not let that discourage me from trying to get the most out of this one."

Paul Foot Award/ Michael Rowntree obituary

2007-12-12

Book Review: Sport journalism: a funny old game: Sports Journalism: A Multimedia Primer, by Rob Steen (Routledge, pp202, {pound}70 hardback, {pound}21.99 paperback, {pound}21.99 + VAT e-book)

Engel, M. — 2007-12-12

Book Review: Course language: The Language of the News, by Martin Conboy (Routledge, pp213, {pound}60 hardback, {pound}17.99 paperback)

Humphrys, J. — 2007-12-12

Book Review: Bear facts: The Universal Journalist, by David Randall (Pluto Press, pp245, {pound}15.99)

Leslie, A. — 2007-12-12

Book Review: Swamp fever: Wicked Whispers: Confessions of a 3am Gossip Queen, byJessica Callan (Michael Joseph, pp352, {pound}16.99)

Reed, J. — 2007-12-12

Book Review: Radio 4's wars: Life on Air: A History of Radio 4, by David Hendy (Oxford University Press, pp518, {pound}25)

Maddox, B. — 2007-12-12

Book Review: Sleeping partners: The Triumph of the Political Class, by Peter Oborne (Simon & Schuster, pp390, {pound}18.99)

Routledge, P. — 2007-12-12

Wintour wonderland: Pressures on the Press: An Editor Looks at Fleet Street, by Charles Wintour (1972 Andre Deutsch, pp276, {pound}3.50)

Berry, D. — 2007-12-12

Letters

Jones, F. J. — 2007-12-12

British Journalism Review: Trust or bust

2007-12-11

Following the recent series of problems that have assaulted the television industry – including faked phone-ins and the misinformation concerning Annie Leibowitz’s photographic session with the Queen – an uphill task faces practitioners who want to earn renewed trust from the public. There are also issues of governance. The House of Lords Communications Select Committee hit a nail on the head at the beginning of August by pointing out that it is no longer clear who is ultimately responsible for the BBC, or what the role of the chairman of the BBC Trust is. He has regulatory responsibilities towards the Corporation while also being expected to act as its chairman, and the new Charter says that "Chairman of the BBC" is only an honorary title. British television is in a mess and needs quickly to put its house in order if it is ever to regain respect.

Quotes of the Quarter

2007-12-11

Try a little tenderness

Hagerty, B. — 2007-12-11

Since walking away from presenting the lunchtime news on BBC1 some 15 months ago, she has watched with the concern of a caring mother for her offspring as the Corporation lurched from one calamity to another. She has monitored, too, what she sees as the increasing ageism of British television, the downward spiral of journalistic standards, and the shabby treatment of young professionals setting out along medialand’s streets of adventure. But she has kept such thoughts largely to herself. Now she has agreed to talk, highly articulately, and with what sounds like regret rather than anger, about the problems of an industry into which she first stumbled 33 years ago. "It used to be that people would give their eye-teeth to work for the BBC," she says. "And the standards were very high and the level of intelligence of the people who were commissioning editors or controllers of the channels was very high. And it wasn’t just intelligence – they cared about the people who worked for them. I think the managerial skills of these highly intelligent young people who run the BBC now are very poor. I can tell you there is an atmosphere of fear, based on the fact that people have very short contracts, and the youngsters are pushed and pushed and pushed. You no longer see people smiling when they work on news programmes." And she believes complaints about the "dumbing down" of British TV are justified – "I must sound very old fashioned when I use the word vulgarity, but we are constantly seeing people on screen who are of low intelligence and low education and whose views on everything seem to be made very important. As for ageism, everybody in our society should be presented on screen. How many presenters do you know on television who are over the age of 60? ...There are more than 16 million people in this country over the age of 55 and they are poorly represented... I don’t think the BBC is intent on making programmes for them."

Where are the new Carlton Greenes?

Forman, D. — 2007-12-11

The former chairman of Granada Television believes overall standards of television news journalism have slipped and writes: "With the 24-hour news channels, the volume and accessibility of news has increased enormously but, with just two exceptions, the Channel 4 News and Newsnight, standards have dropped. The main bulletins still cover major stories well – bomb plots, floods, high diplomacy – but for the rest there is too much trivia, too many soft features and little wit, for the whimsical little exchanges between presenters usually embarrass rather than amuse. Too much time is given to the reporting of routine crimes plus murders, rapes and kidnaps complete with the stolid police report and the sobbing parents. Sections of news bulletins sometimes resemble a police gazette. Alongside coverage of the war zones and the Middle East, Africa is given a lot of time, China and Russia little or none. Presenters are efficient, but with the notable exception of Jon Snow and Jeremy Paxman lack the charisma and the status of their predecessors." And Sir Denis concludes: "When we veterans venture an opinion on contemporary television we are told that our experience of television of the past is not relevant to the television of today. Of course the change is great, but there are principles of broadcasting that endure, and one such principle, and it is not always observed today, is this: the first priority of any broadcasting organisation is to give its programme people the best possible conditions for making programmes. Quick decisions, short lines of communication, proper funding, strong personal relationships, bold leadership. No committees, no bureaucracy, no focus groups and no interference from business management. For it is the directors, writers and producers who are the most important people in television – and if you want good programmes, their interests must come first."

The way we were

2007-12-11

Foodie? Or not foodie?

Spencer, C. — 2007-12-11

Following Sunday Times restaurant critic A A Gill’s strident attack on theatre reviewers, Charles Spencer, drama critic of The Daily Telegraph, hits back by examining the work of some of the many restaurant reviewers crowding the pages of the daily and Sunday national newspapers. He writes: "Restaurant reviewers tend to divide into those who might be described as the serious foodies, who fill you up with lots of hard facts and background info, and the ego-trippers, who use their notices largely as an excuse for personal rumination, slabs of autobiography and jokes... By and large restaurant reviewers are a bone-idle bunch. With the exception of Fay Maschler, in the London Evening Standard, who usually goes to three restaurants a week, they confine themselves to just one establishment. In contrast, theatre critics on daily newspapers are usually out four, five and sometimes six times a week, while Sunday reviewers will cover at least three shows and often more. The restaurant reviewers’ far from Stakhanovite approach to the task in hand increases my puritanical suspicion that restaurant writing isn’t an entirely serious form of journalism but just a jammy way of getting paid to eat posh grub for free."

The media as peacemakers

Neill, M. — 2007-12-11

Journalist and academic Neill argues that the media deserves great credit for assisting the peace process in Northern Ireland. During the Troubles, "reporters and analysts did their best to present an accurate account of events and a balance of opinions despite dirty tricks employed by all participants. Most of the journalists recognised they were prisoners of history and verifiable truth was a casualty of conflict. It was broadcasting which brought the truth about life under a Stormont regime to the attention of the world." The current situation is more problematical, he believes: "When Northern Ireland last had devolved government the Stormont press pack had diversity and hunger. Every major media company on both sides of the border, from the republican Irish Press to the unionist News Letter, employed experienced staff to report and analyse the decision-making. Today’s press pack is much smaller and runs the risk of becoming spoon-fed, greatly outnumbered as it is by Government press officers and party lobbyists. But, he concludes, "that is now and then was then and recognition of the contribution to peace made by the media and their journalists in Northern Ireland is long overdue. The most fitting tribute would be vigorous, daily reporting of the Assembly – if truth is the first casualty of war, proper scrutiny must not become the first casualty of peace."

Feral? Why Blair wasn't all wrong

Cole, J. — 2007-12-11

Former long-serving political editor of the BBC, Cole suggests that Blair’s attach on the British media – made in a speech as he prepared to vacate 10 Downing Street – was to a certain extent justified. "The recent burst of breast-beating about the loss of trust in the media has mostly been concentrated on broadcasting," writes Cole. "But when you consider how many newspaper ‘scoops’ are not followed up by other papers, or even by the originator of the story, how many are never heard of again, you wonder whether trust in the printed word is being similarly eroded. Much of the blame for all this is put down to ‘spin’. Certainly the public relations trade, in which I include focus groups and public opinion polls, and not only in politics, but in business, the entertainment industry, and even charities, has gained an unenviable reputation for perverting the truth on behalf of its clients. This is where Tony Blair’s criticism of media obsession with ‘impact’ rings bells. Non-governmental organisation, charities, university researchers have all learned that the first sentence of their press release must contain a story. Sometime it is hyped. When I was news editor and deputy editor of The Guardian, we were very reluctant to print a story that claimed a forthcoming cure for cancer, lest it raised false hopes in patients and their families. Nowadays, researchers seem to claim cures for everything down to in-growing toenails, and gain publicity for them... The media do not operate in a vacuum. If we wonder why life is more strident today, we must look at others, including politicians, but also at ourselves. We have some kind of duty to truth, so far as we can discover what the truth is. But are we taking on the malignant forces that impede the search for truth as often as we ought?"

Life and death in party city

Kingstone, H. — 2007-12-11

An experienced international correspondent, Kingstone returns from Afghanistan to report on the problems of the media there: "Neither the Government nor the public understands what freedom of the press means... The idea that it is the responsibility of the fledgling media to hold the Government accountable for its actions and also for the media to be held accountable for what it writes is unfathomable. Afghan journalists are intimidated and are vulnerable in ways that Western journalists can only imagine, so the independence, freedom and diversity are extremely fragile concepts." And she concludes: "If Afghanistan’s journalism is to flourish – and it’s a big if – among the issues it has to look at are convincing the police and other law enforcement bodies that the media is something to be protected, not muzzled or manipulated... The Government has to improve its strategic communications and resist the temptation to blame the messenger. A credible public broadcaster needs to emerge, the funding and manipulation of media from abroad decreased, and a solid advertising market to emerge on the back of a flourishing private sector. In an insecure situation, the media faces a similar challenge to almost anyone and anything else in this country – simply to survive."

Action replay

2007-12-11

Breaking News, an engrossing volume of facts, figures, anecdotes, historical trivia, high drama and compelling narrative, tracks the history of the great American agency, AP, from its birth in 1846. What was originally a groundbreaking telegraph-based news syndicate for the press has developed into a multimedia global digital network supplying outlets world wide with high-speed information. But it is as an advertisement for the trade of journalism that the book functions best, with many pictures of correspondents in action most surely that will fire the imagination of students everywhere. Randomly chosen for their composition and impact, the two photographs reproduced bridge the end of the Second World War and the mess that was developing in Vietnam towards the late 1960s. Photographer Henry Griffin is the cine cameraman at work in Berlin after the city was captured by the Soviet army in May 1945, and correspondent Kelly Smith, from the Agency’s Washington bureau, is shown aboard a Huey helicopter over the Central Highlands of Vietnam in August 1967.

Training: a matter of degrees

Bull, A. — 2007-12-11

Bull, a careers consultant and author of the NCTJ Essential Guide to Careers in Journalism, belies degrees in media studies not properly equip students for a career in journalism and observes: I should say that I have absolutely no problem with media studies degrees as long as it is made clear to those who embark on one that it will probably not lead to a job as a journalist. I have no problem with media studies, just as I would have no problem with an alternative course to medicine called medical studies, in which students learn all about medical history and models of health provision but don’t actually get to treat patients. Where I would have a problem is if a graduate of such a course assured me he could take my appendix out, or set my broken leg in plaster. I also have a problem with degrees that are labelled journalism but which are not vocational, and which do not equip graduates with a good chance of gaining a job in the trade." Bull continues: "There are those who will say I am being far too harsh on media studies degrees – that the best of them turn out graduates who go on to have sparkling careers in the media. I am sure this is true. Nevertheless, it is my experience that most editors do not trust such degrees and much prefer recruiting from industry-accredited courses."

News

2007-12-11

Sex, lies and audio tape

Mutch, T. — 2007-12-11

Commission to look into the trafficking of children out of orphanages and into sex work in Thailand for a radio programme, Thembi Mutch embarks on a hazardous adventure – a friend working with Keren refugees on the Thai-Burma border tells her, "The police are as much a part of the problem as the armed pimps who control the kids and the traffickers. You will be taking bodyguards, won’t you?" The story moves to Cambodia and she discovers, "Lying is huge issue. When I reach Phnom Penh I am lying more on a daily basis than I ever have in my life: about my name, my job, my hotel, my nationality and what I’m doing. This is for two reasons: Cambodia’s oral culture is steeped in suspicion, rumours, smoke and mirrors. The legacy of the Khmer Rouge and grassing people up has left deep residual scars: the preceding civil war and the subsequent war with Vietnam have done nothing to engender trust and a community spirit. It makes me realise I can’t afford to let even the hotel staff know what I am doing. The other reason for all my lying is that the few people who do know about my project have advised strongly against being open, particularly in Cambodia, where it costs only $50 to hire a hit man and get rid of troublemakers." Because of intimidation and the reluctance of those involved to tell the truth, the project ultimately fails – but Mutch is now hoping to develop the idea for television.

Media wars in Latin America

O'Shaughnessy, H. — 2007-12-11

South America veteran journalist O’Shaughnessy reports:" During the Cold War the opponents of reform throughout Latin America, fearing the loss of their privileges that any change in the status quo would bring about...set aside arguments that the fight against poverty would put money into the pockets of those who did not have any, expand the market and thus benefit local and international trade, allowing everyone to gain. And their self-seeking views were well received in Western capitals. Many in Washington and London favoured dictators who claimed to be fighting for what they called "Western Christian civilisation": Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua, Alfredo Stroessner in Paraguay, Augusto Pinochet in Chile, Leopoldo Galtieri in Argentina and the assorted generals in Brazil." And now "those opponents of change can no longer employ Cold War arguments and have had to find new ways of fighting the battle against reform. They have decided to try and deny the reformers legitimacy and strip them of their authority, using the media as frontline combat troops." The media that support the cause of reform are weak, he says, consisting as they do of few newspapers and even fewer television channels, and with continuing struggles about poverty, wealth and semantics in Latin America, there is no sign these media tensions will end any time soon.

Nightmare on Oxford Street

Davis, V. — 2007-12-11

Veteran reporter Davis recalls how a minor case of shoplifting in London’s Oxford Street, when a woman left a store without paying for five gaily-coloured hats, turned into a major story that tested Fleet Street’s finest. The accused was identified as Nina Ponomareva, aged 27, a teacher and mother of a two-year-old boy named Sasha – a white beret listed in the charge was meant for him. "So far, so routine... But, unfortunately for all, Nina was also one of the Soviet Union’s most famous women, a world-class athlete who at the 1952 summer Olympics in Helsinki had taken gold for discus throwing. Fondly nicknamed Miss Muscles, she was in London with almost 100 other Russian athletes to compete against the British in a two-day meeting at the White City, due to begin the next evening." Summoned to appear before magistrates and headlined ‘Nina of the Five Hats’, the discus genius’s non-appearance in court set off a chain of events that Involved the Russian charg� d’affaires, Lord Reading, minister of state at the Foreign Office, and the august British ambassador in Moscow, Sir William Hayter (Winchester and New College, Oxford), who "was infuriated to be summoned to the Kremlin to be harangued over this piddling business." Davis reveals the whole hilarious story.

Book Review: Campbell's vivid Pepys show

Haines, J. — 2007-12-11