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Home , Advocacy journalism, Broadcast journalism, Churnalism, Daily Sketch, Edward Behr (journalist), Evening Post (London)

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one where, who, what, and how? when, why tion to an introduc journalism Harcup-CH-01:Harcup(2e) Template 1/13/2009 5:52 PM Page 2 Harcup-CH-01:Harcup(2e) Template 1/13/2009 5:52 PM Page 3

key terms

Communication; Journalism; Churnalism; Journalism education; Public sphere; Fourth estate; Free press; Ideology; Agency; Ethics

Journalism or churnalism? Communication

“Journalism is a chaotic form of earning, ragged at The basic questions of journalism highlighted in the title the edges, full of snakes, con artists and even the of this chapter – Who? What? Where? When? Why? How? – are echoed in an early model of the mass occasional misunderstood martyr,” writes Andrew communication process, formulated by Harold Lasswell Marr in his book My Trade . “Outside organised in 1948. For Lasswell, analysis of the media begins with crime, it is the most powerful and enjoyable of the the question: “Who says what to whom, through what anti-professions” (Marr, 2005: 3). So journalism is channel and with what effect?” (McQuail, 2000: 52–53). a trade, or a craft, rather than a “proper” profession This has been termed a “transmission” model of such as medicine or the law. But what is communication, because it is essentially one-way, from journalism for ? To pay the mortgage, if you ask sender to receiver. This and later versions of the trans - many hacks. But journalism is about more than mission model have been challenged in recent decades as too simplistic, too linear, too mono-directional to that. It is a form of communication based explain the complexities of communication. It has been on asking, and answering, the questions Who? argued that an “active audience” can filter messages What? Where? When? Why? How? Of course, through our own experiences and understandings, journalism is a job, journalists do need to feed sometimes producing readings “against the grain”, or their kids or pay off stud ent loans, and they have even suggesting multiple meanings. Increasingly, too, been known to refer to their workplaces as “word audiences are contributing to journalism directly via the factories”. Yet being a journalist is not the same as phenomenon of user-generated content. working in other types of factory because journalists play a social role that goes beyond the production of Journalism commodities to sell in the marketplace. Journalism informs society about itself and makes public that Journalists may indeed inform society about itself, and which would otherwise be privat e. much journalism may be concerned with making public that which would otherwise be private, as suggested in Rather an important job, you might think. But this chapter. But such a formulation falls far short of an public opinion polls relentlessly remind journalists adequate definition. For a start, journalists also supply that we vie for bottom place with politicians and information, comment and amplification on matters estate agents in the league table of trustworthiness. that are already in the public domain. A typical poll of more than 2,000 adults in 2006 Journalism is defined by Denis McQuail as “paid found just 19 per cent saying they trusted journal - writing (and the audiovisual equivalent) for public media ists to tell the truth – we were the least trusted with reference to actual and ongoing events of public relevance” (McQuail, 2000: 340). Like all such defini - occupation – whereas 92 per cent said they trusted tions, this raises many questions – Can journalism doctors, who topped the poll of trustworthiness never be unpaid? Can media be other than public? Who despite the best efforts of serial killer Dr Harold decides what is of public relevance? – but it remains a Shipman (Hall, 2006). A YouGov poll for British reasonable starting point for any analysis of the princi - Journalism Review in 2008 found that public trust ples and practices of journalism. McQuail goes on to

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in journalists had declined since the same question differentiate between different types of journalism: was asked five years earlier; this was for every sector “prestige” (or quality) journalism, tabloid journalism, of journalism except the redtop tabloids, where local journalism, specialist journalism, “new” (personal and committed) journalism, civic journalism, develop - trust was already so low it could hardly decline any ment journalism, investigative journalism, journalism of further (Barnett, 2008). Mistrust of the fourth record, advocacy journalism, alternative journalism, and estate starts early, it seems. When 11 to 21-year-olds gossip journalism (McQuail, 2000: 340). were asked how much they trusted journalists, just Such differentiation is rejected by David Randall, one per cent said “a lot”, 19 per cent “a little”, and a who recognises only the division between good and whopping 77 per cent replied “I do not trust them” bad journalism: (Observer , 2002). The bad is practised by those who rush faster to judge - Such attitudes have become all too familiar to ment than they do to find out, indulge themselves rather online journalist Jemima Kiss, who told me that one than the reader, write between the lines rather than on of the disappointments in her short career to date them, write and think in the dead terms of the formula, stereotype and cliché, regard accuracy as a bonus and has been “some people’s assumptions and prejudices exaggeration as a tool and prefer vagueness to preci - about you if you say you are a journalist”. Such as? sion, comment to information and cynicism to ideals. The good is intelligent, entertaining, reliably informative, It has happened more times than I could count. It properly set in context, honest in intent and effect, expressed in fresh language and serves no cause but seems pretty much anyone outside the industry takes a the discernible truth. (Randall, 2000: viii) sharp intake of breath when you say you’re a journalist, which means I often feel the need to say, “I’m not that Whether it is as simple as that is a question we will kind of journalist.” The assumption is the cliche of a explore further in this and subsequent chapters. ruthless, doorstepping tabloid hack, I suspect, the type perpetuated in cheesy TV dramas. Fourth estate Yet despite this image problem, a never-ending stream of bright young and not-so-young people The notion of the press as a “fourth estate of the realm” – alongside the Lords Spiritual (clergy sitting in the are eager to become journalists. Why? Because it House of Lords), the Lords Temporal (other peers), can be one of the most exciting jobs around. You go and the House of Commons – appears to have first into work not necessarily knowing what you are been used by Edmund Burke in the 18th century. going to be doing that day. You get the chance to Recalling this usage in 1840 – believed to be the first meet powerful people, interesting people, inspiring time it had appeared in print – Thomas Carlyle had no people, heroes, villains and victims. You get the doubt of its meaning:

chance to ask stupid questions; to be one of the first Burke said there were three estates in parliament; but, to know something and to tell the world about it; in the reporters’ gallery yonder, there sat a fourth estate to indulge a passion for writing, maybe to travel, more important far than they all. It is not a figure of maybe to become an expert in a particular field; to speech, or a witty saying; it is a literal fact, very momen - tous to us in these times. Literature is our parliament seek truth and campaign for justice; or, if you must, too. Printing, which comes necessarily out of writing, I to hang out with celebrities. say often, is equivalent to democracy: invent writing, Then there’s the thrill of seeing your byline in a democracy is inevitable. (Carlyle, 1840: 194) newspaper, a magazine or on a website; the excite - Ideas about democracy and a free press have to a ment of seeing your footage on TV or online; and large extent grown alongside each other and come the odd experience of hearing your voice on the together in the concept of the fourth estate. Although radio or via a podcast. You can then do it all over initially referring specifically to the parliamentary press again. And again. Little wonder, perhaps, that so gallery, the term has become a more general label for

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PRACTICE PRINCIPLES many people are prepared to make sacrifices for a journalism, locating journalists in the quasi-constitutional career in journalism. Sacrifices such as paying for role of “watchdog” on the workings of government. This your own training before even being considered is central to the liberal concept of press freedom, as Tom O’Malley notes: for a job, unless you are either extremely lucky or are the offspring of an editor; then being paid less At the centre of this theory was the idea that the than many of the people whose own complaints press played a central, if unofficial, role in the consti - about low pay might make news stories. tution. A diverse press helped to inform the public of issues. It could, through the articu - Almost a century ago journalists staged lation of public opinion, guide, and the first strike in the history of the I always tell them start-off act as a check on, government… ‘pay is abysmal and if they National Union of Journalists, when they The press could only fulfil this are lucky it will move on to function if it were free from pre- walked out of the York Herald in 1911 to disgraceful after a year, and by publication censorship and were protest against working hours and condi - the end of the training it will be only just short of appalling. independent of the government. tions that were described as like (O’Malley, 1997: 127) – Sean Dooley, ’ something from Nicholas Nickleby by former Northcliffe editor. Charles Dickens (Mansfield, 1943: 159; Gopsill and Neale, 2007: 84–85). Then, 97 years later in May 2008, journalists on the same Public sphere newspaper’s current incarnation as the Press walked out in protest at low pay. The Press is now The idea of the public sphere rests on the existence of a space in which informed citizens can engage with one part of the Newsquest group, which in turn is another in debate and critical reflection; hence its owned by Gannett, a US-based giant that made relevance to discussions of the media. Jürgen Habermas more than $1 billion profit in 2007 from a traces the rise of the public sphere in Europe in the late turnover of $7.4 billion. A group of strikers wore 17th and early 18th centuries and argues that increasing Edwardian costumes borrowed from York commercialisation led subsequently to the decline of Theatre Royal to help draw parallels with their the public sphere and the press as a space that enabled 1911 predecessors and, in a very 21st century “the people to reflect critically upon itself and on the practices of the state” (Stevenson, 2002: 49). Today, touch, they also set up a group on the social according to this analysis, such reasoned public discus - networking site Facebook as well as their own sion has been replaced by “the progressive privatisation blog. One explained their grievance: “We often of the citizenry and the trivialisation … of questions of feel as if we are still working in Dickensian condi - public concern” (Stevenson, 2002: 50). But, in turn, tions, our pay is certainly something which is Habermas has been accused of idealising “a bygone stuck in the past. Trainee journalists start on just and elitist form of political life” (McQuail, 2000: 158). £13,500 a year” (http://nujyork.blogspot.com). The pay of most journalists, particularly those just starting out and particularly those working in Free press the local or regional media, is shameful. As one Editors and owners alike are often heard extolling the trainee reporter put it: virtues of a “free press”, a liberal model based on the idea that everyone is free to publish a newspaper without Young people with a strong enough passion for writing having to be licensed by those in power. Although publish - will suffer low wages for the chance to work in journal - ers must act within the constraints of the law, they do not ism. But it is a disgrace to the industry as a whole that have to submit to censorship in advance. Newspapers are they should have to. The industry cynically manipulates said to be in the business of truth-telling and serving only our ambition. (Quoted in Journalism Training Forum, their readers. Thus, through the democracy of the free 2002: 57) market, we get the press we both desire and deserve.

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Some wannabe journalists are put off when they However, this concept of a press selflessly serving discover the awful truth about pay. Others become the public does not go unchallenged. Colin Sparks, for disillusioned by work experience in newsrooms, example, points to increasing concentration of owner - ship and to economic barriers on entry, keeping out observing that too many journalists seem to be competitors. He argues: chained to their desks in a culture of “presenteeism”, processing copy and checking things out – if at all – on Newspapers in Britain are first and foremost businesses. the telephone or the internet. Waseem Zakir, a They do not exist to report the news, to act as watch - dogs for the public, to be a check on the doings of business journalist with BBC Scotland, came up with government, to defend the ordinary citizen against the word “churnalism” to describe too much of today’s abuses of power, to unearth scandals or to do any of the newsroom activity. He told me what he meant: other fine and noble things that are sometimes claimed for the press. They exist to make money, just as any other business does. To the extent that they discharge Ten or 15 years ago you would go out and find your own any of their public functions, they do so in order to stories and it was proactive journalism. It’s become succeed as businesses. (Sparks, 1999: 45–46) reactive now. You get copy coming in on the wires and reporters churn it out, processing stuff and maybe For Sparks, a truly free press – presenting objective adding the odd local quote. It’s affecting every newsroom information and a range of informed opinions while in the country and reporters are becoming churnalists. acting as a public forum – is “an impossibility in a free market” (Sparks, 1999: 59). An ever-increasing workload may reduce the chances of doing the very things that made journal - ism seem so attractive in the first place. On top of all Ideology that, young journalists have to listen to more experi - By ideology is meant “some organised belief system or enced hacks grumbling that “it wasn’t like this in my set of values that is disseminated or reinforced by day”. The old-timers may have a point, but even the communication” (McQuail, 2000: 497). Marxists believe journalists of 100 years ago looked back fondly on a that a ruling-class ideology is propagated throughout supposed “golden age” of journalism circa 1870 western, capitalist societies with the help of the media. (Tunstall, 2002: 238). Ideology may be slippery and contested, but it is argued Even when disabused of romantic illusions that the principle remains essentially as expounded about travelling the world on huge expense by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels more than 160 years ago: accounts, pausing between drinks to jot down the occasional note, large numbers of people are The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the attracted by the fact that journalism remains an ruling ideas: ie, the class which is the ruling material occupation in which no two days are exactly the force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material same and where the big story may be only a phone production at its disposal, has control at the same time call away. And by the fact that journalism matters . over the means of mental production, so that thereby, If it didn’t matter, why would there be so many generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the laws restricting how journalists can do their jobs? means of mental production are subject to it. The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the Why would government and opposition alike spend dominant material relationships, the dominant material so much time courting the media? Why would Shiv relationships grasped as ideas; hence of the relation - Malik, Bill Goodwin and others have been threat - ships which make the one class the ruling one, there - ened with jail for protecting their sources? As we fore, the ideas of its dominance. (Marx and Engels, [1846] 1965: 61) shall see in the next chapter, many journalists around the world pay with their lives precisely Ideological power has been described as “the power because journalism matters. to signify events in a particular way”, although ideology

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PRACTICE PRINCIPLES Explanations of how and why journalism is also “a site of struggle” between matters depend, like so many things, on competing definitions (Hall, 1982: who is speaking. Journalism is variously said The business of the press 69–70). To illustrate the point, Stuart ‘ is disclosure. to be the fourth estate of the realm, to be Hall refers to media coverage of – John Thaddeus D’elane, industrial action in the UK public part of a public sphere , to support a free 19th-century editor of the Times. press or to inculcate us with the ideology sector in the late 1970s: of the ruling class. The reality is that journal - [One] of the key turning-points in the ideological strug - ism is probably all those things and more because, as gle was the way the revolt of the lower-paid public- we shall see below, there is not one journalism. service workers against inflation, in the “Winter of Discontent” of 1978–9, was successfully signified, not as a defence of eroded living standards and differentials, but as a callous and inhuman exercise of overweening What’s in this book? “trade-union power”, directed against the defenceless sick, aged, dying and indeed the dead but unburied Individual journalists have their own tales to tell, “members of the ordinary public”.(Hall, 1982: 83) their own beliefs about what they do, their own Viewed from this perspective, the “news values” reasons for pursuing a career in whatever field of employed by journalists in the selection and construction journalism they work in. For this book I have of stories can be seen, not as the neutral expression of interviewed a range of journalists from different professional practice, but as ideologically loaded (Hall generations, different backgrounds and different et al., 1978: 54). Thus, for all the apparent diversity of the media; their comments are taken from these inter - media, and taking into account various exceptions, the routines and practices of journalists tend to privilege views unless otherwise indicated. Here are some the explanations of the powerful and to foreclose discus - of those you will meet in subsequent chapters: sion before it strays too far beyond the boundaries of the dominant ideology (Hall et al., 1978: 118). • Lindsay Eastwood, a reporter for ITV An emphasis on the ideological content of journalism is Yorkshire’s Calendar news programme since frequently challenged for downplaying the agency of 1998, began work on her local newspaper, the journalists and/or for failing to take account of the complex Craven Herald , straight from school. She ways in which audiences may actually “read” media texts. moved to the Watford Observer and worked shifts on the nationals before returning north to the Yorkshire Evening Post and then switch - Agency ing to broadcasting. In addition to reporting for Calendar she also makes TV documentaries. Within the study of journalism, agency means the • Paul Foot joined the Daily Mirro r in 1961 and extent to which individual journalists can make a difference to media practices and content: “To have worked on the Daily Record in Glasgow before agency is defined by the ability to be able to actively moving on to Private Eye and then Socialist intervene” (Stevenson, 2002: 226). To say that Worker . He left when he was offered his own journalists have agency is not to deny that journal - page in the Daily Mirror but eventually fell ists operate in a world of constraints (see Chapter foul of the post-Maxwell regime at the paper 2), nor to ignore the political and economic and returned to his spiritual home at Private pressures to replace journalism with churnalism; it Eye . When he was interviewed for this book he is to argue that structural forces do not totally deter - mine all the actions of individuals. Yet many was on the staff of Private Eye magazine, a academic critics of the media seem to allow little columnist for the Guardian newspaper, and a room for agency. Take Sparks’ explanation for the freelance contributor to a range of other publi - “lurid, sensational and sometimes offensive cations. He died in 2004. material” he finds in much of the media:

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• Sarah Hartley is head of online editorial at None of these elements can be traced to the shortcom - MEN Media in Manchester, where she helps ings of individuals. Newspaper proprietors may be, in the main, bullying reactionary bigots who force their run a converged editorial operation that editors to print politically biased material. But even if includes print, TV, radio and the web; she is also they were self-denying liberal paragons, it would still an experienced blogger. She took her National make sense for editors to act in the same way, because Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) that is the best business model available to them. Again, editors and journalists may well be moral defectives with exams at Darlington, started out as a trainee on no sense of their responsibility to society and to the the weekly Leamington Spa Observer , and later people upon whose lives they so pruriently report. But became news editor of the Northern Echo even if they were saintly ascetics, it would still make newspaper. She switched to the Echo’s website sense for them to publish the same sorts of material, because that is what best secures the competitive in 1999 before moving to the website of the position of their newspapers. (Sparks, 1999: 59) Manchester Evening News two years later. • Jemima Kiss is the new media reporter for the Little sense there of the flesh-and-blood journalists we Guardian website, writing news stories for the will hear from in this book. Yet, if journalism matters – as is argued in this book – then the actions of individ - website’s media section plus occasional pieces for ual journalists must matter too. the media pages of the newspaper as well as maintaining a blog, all on the specialist area of media and technology. She did not train as a journalist but studied fine art at college before working at the Brighton Media Centre, where she helped develop the centre’s website. Jemima began writing freelance technology-based features for websites produced by a company based at the centre before becoming a full-time journalist for www.journalism.co.uk in 2003, writing about the digital publishing industry. She mostly learned on the job but was also sent on several short training courses about writing for the web and media law. She joined www.media - guardian.co.uk in 2006. • Jane Merrick became political editor of the Independent on Sunday in 2008, but she was interviewed for this book while she was a lobby correspondent for the Press Association . After completing a postgraduate training course in Leeds, she worked as a reporter for the Mercury news agency based in Liverpool and then for the Press Association both in the north and at Westminster. She moved from there to the Daily Mail , where her scoops included expos - ing an expenses scandal involving Tory MP Derek Conway: SNOUTS IN THE TROUGH (CONT.) and NICE WORK IF YOU CAN

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PRACTICE PRACTICE GET IT! ( Daily Mail , January 29 and 30 Other journalists featured in this book include Trevor 2008). Gibbons, who was interviewed while working for • Kevin Peachey, as the consumer affairs corre - BBC online websites (he has since moved to radio) spondent of the Nottingham Evening Post , has and David Helliwell, who was interviewed while won a range of awards for his campaigning assistant editor of the Yorkshire Evening Post (later journalism on behalf of the paper’s readers, becoming editor of the Gazette in Blackpool) including Campaign of the Year in the 2005 Another presence felt throughout this book will Regional Press Awards. He trained to be a be that of the author. As a journalist for upwards of journalist on a postgraduate course in Preston. three decades now, I have first-hand experience of • Abul Taher has been a reporter for the Sunday working for a range of media large and small, Times since 2004. After gaining an MA in mainstream and alternative. As a long-standing Journalism Studies from Sheffield, he worked member of the National Union of Journalists, I have as news editor of Eastern Eye newspaper. He engaged with the ethics and social role of journalism has also freelanced for the Daily Mail , the as well as the industrial issues that impact upon the London Evening Standard and Metro . working conditions of journalists, including staffing • Deborah Wain works as a reporter for the and pay. As someone who now teaches on Doncaster Free Press which, despite its title, is vocational courses accredited by the NCTJ along a paid-for weekly newspaper (plus website, of with the Broadcast Journalism Training Council course). She went into journalism straight (BJTC) and the Periodicals Training Council (PTC), from school, taking NCTJ exams at a local I have first-hand experience of practical journalism college and starting out on the Matlock training. And as someone who has tried my hand at Mercury . After a stint on the Derby Evening research, I am aware of the insights that can be Telegraph she went to university to achieved by academic scholar -

study drama and fine arts, and she now Journalism largely ship about, critical engagement combines journalism with script consi‘sts in saying “Lord Jones with, and reflection upon the writing. In 2007 she was joint winner Dead” to people who never principles and practices of knew that Lord Jones of the Paul Foot Award for investiga - was alive. journalism. tive journalism. – GK Cheste’rton. However, I am also aware of • Martin Wainwright, northern editor of the the gap of understanding that Guardian , on which he has worked since too often separates those who 1976, having previously been on the Evening study media from those who produce media. In Standard and local newspapers in Bath and Bradford. the UK, as Richard Keeble (2006: 260) notes He is a frequent broadcaster and is a regular contrib - with regret, “mutual suspicion persists between utor to the Guardian’s online presence with written, the press and academia. … Scepticism about the audio and even video contributions. value of theoretical studies for aspiring reporters • Brian Whittle started on the weekly Harrogate remains widespread”. Similarly, in the USA, Herald at the age of 17 and went on to work Barbie Zelizer highlights this disconnection: for the Bradford Telegraph and Argus , the Northern Echo , the Sun , the Daily Sketch , the As a former journalist who gradually made her way Sunday People , the National Enquirer and the from wire-service reporting to the academy, I am Daily Sta r before launching his successful continually wrestling with how best to approach Cavendish Press news agency in Manchester. journalism from a scholarly point of view. When I He died in 2005. arrived at the university – “freshly expert” from the

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world of journalism – I felt like I’d entered a parallel rigour” because, “of the 480 endnote citations in the universe. Nothing I had read as a graduate student book, only six are either from academic books or reflected the working world I had just left. Partial, often from peer-reviewed articles”; the bulk of references uncompromisingly authoritative, and reflective far were to newspaper articles which, sniffed the more of the academic environments in which they’d reviewer, were “pretty dicey” as a source (Berenger, been tendered than the journalistic settings they 2007: 477). Contrast such fetishisation of peer- described, these views failed to capture the life I knew. … My discomfort was shared by many other journalists reviewed academia with the following letter that I knew, who felt uneasy with the journalism scholarship appeared in Press Gazette , prompted by an article that was fervently putting their world under a micro - concerning academic research into the small scope. (Zelizer, 2004: 2–3) number of sources cited in most local newspaper stories: “Haven’t the researchers got anything better Under a microscope is perhaps not the most to do? A few months in the newsroom of one of the comfortable place to be, which might explain why titles they criticise might knock a bit of reality into so many who earn their livings within the media in them” (Thom, 2007). As it happens, the researchers general and journalism in particular feel the need in question were both former journalists, one of to either ignore or attack those looking down the whom had spent years not months working in the lens. As David Walker (2000: 236–7) notes: “The very newsrooms under scrutiny; and even if they academic literature of sociology, media studies or had not worked as journalists themselves, would it cognate disciplines nowadays goes almost entirely automatically render their research useless? Yes in unread by journalists.” Many journalists seem the eyes of many, because the press “is fearful of happy to cover stories about the work of academic being dissected”, in the words of one national researchers on a vast range of subjects, from the newspaper reporter (Journalism Training Forum, health effects of drinking coffee to 2002: 46). Yet surely there are some the psychology of sexual attraction, insights to be gained from such dissection but when journalism itself comes ‘All human life is there. and from what has been described as “the under scrutiny, such academic – old News of the World mo’tto. melding of theory and practice in a study is suddenly deemed to be a judicious mix of skills and experience waste of time and money. “It’s diffi - along with scholarly study” (Errigo and cult to think of another field … in which practi - Franklin, 2004: 46)? tioners believe that the study of what they do is I believe there are, and I think that journalists and irrelevant to their practice,” observe Simon Frith academics alike have something useful to contribute and Peter Meech (2007: 141 and 144): “If journal - to the process of understanding; that is why I wrote ists look at university journalism courses and find this book. The aim is to help bridge the conceptual evidence that academics simply don’t understand divide between those journalists (practitioners) who the realities of journalism, so academics look at feel academics have little to teach them, and those journalists’ accounts of themselves and find academics whose focus on theory is in danger of evidence of a striking amount of myth-making.” denying journalists any degree of autonomy (or This mutual suspicion was emphasised one day in agency ). This book makes explicit some of these the autumn of 2007 when I happened to read the different ways of exploring the principles and academic journal Journalism: Theory, Practice and practices of journalism. In a dialogic approach, each Criticism and the journalists’ trade magazine Press chapter begins from a practitioner viewpoint but Gazette. The former included a review in which a includes a parallel analysis from a more academic book about news was derided for lacking “academic perspective. These two ways of seeing are not to be

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PRACTICE PRACTICE read in isolation, as each engages in dialogue anyone can cut and paste text with the other; they talk to each other, as do from the internet. Real reporting the best journalists and scholars. By journalism is to be requires something more. ‘understood, I suppose, The chapters can be read in a number of writing for pay about matters ways: by reading the practitioner section of which you are ignorant first, followed by the more theoretical – Leslie Stephen, father o’f Journalism Education section; by reversing the order; or by Virginia Woolf. flitting between the two, following the bold This book is designed to help words in the initial text to the relevant accompa - readers produce such reporting, with a necessary nying section – much in the way we follow hyper - emphasis on the basics. Therefore, many of the links on a website. As well as providing useful practices discussed here will be those that devel - practice in the journalistic art of keeping an eye oped within print journalism in general, and on a number of things at once, this should also newspapers in particular, because they remain a mean that the book will repay repeated visits. solid foundation for a career in journalism that This book does not attempt to go into too many today embraces online, television, radio, magazine of the specifics of, for example, being a foreign and other formats. The practical emphasis will be correspondent, a war correspondent, a sub, a sports on the core journalistic skills that will be part of reporter, a showbiz diarist, a motoring correspon - any good training course covering journalism in dent, or most of the other specialisms that all have any – or all – media. Such skills cannot be allowed their own rules and folklore; nor does it cover the to diminish in importance, even if too many ins and outs of that peculiar phenomenon, the media organisations have in recent years made David Beckham correspondent. Call me old- themselves dazed and confused by trying to leap fashioned, but I believe the fundamentals of aboard every passing technological bandwagon, journalism must be grasped before more specialised even before they have a clue where it might take roles can be either accomplished or understood. them. “There is no possibility of standing still,” The experience of Edward Behr rings a bell that argues media commentator Roy Greenslade echoes down the years. As a young reporter, Behr (2008), because “what is state-of-the-art today went to work for the Reuters agency in Paris: will be old hat by tomorrow.” This book goes beyond practical instruction to In London, Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondents encourage understanding of, and critical reflection rewrote Reuters’ copy, as fast as they could, and the upon, such values. It does so because skills alone are finished product ended up as part of the AFP news not enough. Media employers have been accused of service. In Paris we shamelessly rewrote Agence France- wanting cheap young journalists to be schooled in the Presse copy, serving it up as Reuters’ fare. All over the routines of work through “basic skills, relevant knowl - world lesser news agencies were writing up their versions of Reuters’ stories and serving them up as authentic edge and an unquestioning attitude”, unencumbered Indian, Spanish, or Brazilian news agency stories. by engagement with ideas from critical theory Somewhere, at the bottom of this inverted pyramid, (Curran, 2000: 42). This book is certainly aimed at someone was getting a story at first hand. But who was supporting students and trainee journalists in the he, and how did he set about it? (Behr, 1992: 72) acquisition and application of reporting and writing skills to complement the other necessary elements of He may not be a “he”, of course, but it is this reporter journalism training, such as shorthand, media law, and – the reporter who goes out and gets the story – who knowledge of public affairs. Yet, at the same time, it will be the focus throughout this book. Virtually will introduce and engage with some of the more

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PRACTICE PRACTICE

academic analysis that aids our understanding of how ideas of right and wrong, good and bad (Harcup, journalism works. To this end, the book is aimed at 2002b and 2007), but you will not find a supporting journalism studies as well as separate chapter on ethics in this book. journalism training . Taken together, That is not an oversight. It stems from

the two elements can be said to Get it right. Get it fast. But a belief that a concern for ethical constitute journalism education ‘ get it right. issues is not something to be compart - (Bromley, 1997: 339). By asking Why – old Press Associa’tion motto. mentalised, a curriculum item to be journalists do certain things – as well ticked off and conveniently forgotten. as the Who, What, Where, When and Because ethical issues have implications How – it seems to me that the study of journalism for all aspects of journalistic practice, questions can offer insights that complement journalism train - about ethical issues will be raised at appropriate ing and encourage a questioning attitude and a more points throughout the text, just as ethical issues reflective practice. crop up throughout a journalist’s working life – Much of the material discussed in these pages often when least expected. may be seen as culturally and historically specific to Journalism is sometimes said to be a mirror the UK in the 21st century, but there will be many reflecting society; on occasions, a distorting mirror. points of wider relevance. Each chapter will raise But journalism is not a simple reflection of everyday questions that could form the basis of individual reality. As Walter Lippmann observed as long ago reflection and/or group discussion. Each chapter as 1922, reporting is not “the simple recovery of also suggests further readings that, together with the obvious facts”, because facts “do not spontaneously references listed in the extensive bibliography, will take a shape in which they can be known. They provide a wealth of stimulating must be given a shape by somebody” material to encourage further explo - (quoted in McNair, 2000: 71). That’s ration of the issues discussed here. Most of journalism, and all where journalists come in. Journalism is ‘of the interesting part, is a not simply fact-gathering. It involves disreputable, erratic business which, if properly conducted, dealing with sources, selecting informa - Ethical Journalism serves a reputable end. tion and opinion, and telling stories – all – Max Hastings. ’ within the framework of the constraints, There is a rapidly growing litera - routines, principles and practices ture on the ethics of journalism, informed by discussed in the following chapters.

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Summary Journalism is not simply another product but a process of communication, although not necessarily a one-way or lisnear process. Journalism is said to play a social role in inform - ing society about itself, yet there is a gap of knowledge and understanding between vocational journalism training and academic journalism study. This book will describe the practices of practitioners while engaging with the principles that inform both practice and analysis. A number of theoretical models or concepts are introduced in this chapter.

?uestions ? What role does journalism play in society?

Why are journalists apparently so mistrusted by the public?

What skills does a good journalist need?

Is a journalist a professional or a worker?

Why do media studies get such a bad press?