Journalism: New Challenges Karen Fowler-Watt and Stuart Allan (eds) Journalism: New Challenges Edited by: Karen Fowler-Watt and Stuart Allan Published by: Centre for Journalism & Communication Research Bournemouth University BIC Subject Classification Codes: GTC Communication Studies JFD Media Studies KNTD Radio and television industry KNTJ Press and journalism JNM Higher and further education, tertiary education First published 2013, this version 1.02 ISBN: 978-1-910042-01-4 [paperback] ISBN: 978-1-910042-00-7 [ebook-PDF] ISBN: 978-1-910042-02-1 [ebook-epub] http://microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk/cjcr/ Copyright © 2013 Acknowledgements Our first thank you is to the contributors who made Journalism: New Challenges possible, not least for so generously sharing their expertise, insights and enthusiasm for this approach to academic e-publishing. This endeavour was supported by the Centre for Journalism and Communication Research (CJCR), here in the Media School at Bournemouth University, UK. With regard to the production and distribution of this book, we are grateful to Einar Thorsen and Ann Luce for their stellar efforts. They would like to thank, in turn, Carrie Ka Mok for setting its design and layout, and Ana Alania for contributing ideas for the cover. Many thanks as well to Mary Evans, Emma Scattergood and Chindu Sreedharan for their helpful sugges- tions on how to develop this publishing venture. Karen Fowler-Watt and Stuart Allan, editors Table of contents Introduction i Karen Fowler-Watt and Stuart Allan Section One: New Directions in Journalism 1 A Perfect Storm 1 Stephen Jukes 2 The Future of Newspapers in a Digital Age 19 Shelley Thompson 3 International News Agencies: Global Eyes 35 that Never Blink Phil MacGregor 4 Impartiality in the News 64 Sue Wallace 5 Current Affairs Radio: Realigning News and 79 Comment Hugh Chignell 6 Radio Interviews: A Changing Art 98 Ceri Thomas 7 The Changing Landscape of Magazine 114 Journalism Emma Scattergood 8 Live Blogging and Social Media Curation 123 Einar Thorsen 9 Online News Audiences: The Challenges 146 of Web Metrics An Nguyen ii Table of contents 10 The Camera as Witness: The Changing 162 Nature of Photojournalism Caitlin Patrick and Stuart Allan Section Two: The Changing Nature of News Reporting 11 Truth and the Tabloids 185 Adam Lee – Potter 12 Irreverence and Independence? The Press 194 post–Leveson Sandra Laville 13 Editorial Leadership in the Newsroom 203 Karen Fowler-Watt and Andrew Wilson 14 Investigative Journalism: Secrets, Salience 222 and Storytelling Kevin Marsh 15 Journalists and their Sources: The Twin 242 Challenges of Diversity and Verification Jamie Matthews 16 News and Public Relations: A Dangerous 259 Relationship Kevin Moloney, Dan Jackson and David McQueen 17 Political Reporting: Enlightening Citizens 282 or Undermining Democracy? Darren G. Lilleker and Mick Temple 18 Social Media and Sports Journalism 303 Louise Matthews and Daniel Anwar 19 Journalism as a Profession: Careers and 323 Expectations Vanessa Edwards Table of contents iii 20 Entrepreneurial Journalism 338 Mary Evans Section Three: Debates and Controversies in Journalism 21 News and Free Speech 349 Barry Richards 22 Navigating the Stars: The Challenges and 367 Opportunities of Celebrity Journalism Nathan Farrell 23 News, Documentary and Advocacy 384 Journalism Mathew Charles 24 Moral Panics: Reconsidering Journalism’s 393 Responsibilities Ann Luce 25 The Trauma Factor: Reporting on Violence 409 and Tragedy Gavin Rees 26 News Storytelling in a Digital Landscape 435 Vin Ray 27 You Talking to Me? Journalists and the 444 Big Conversation Liisa Rohumaa 28 War and Peace Journalism 457 Chindu Sreedharan 29 Global News, Global Challenges 476 Roman Gerodimos Introduction Karen Fowler-Watt and Stuart Allan These are challenging times for journalism. This is one point that everyone is likely to concede before proceeding to de- clare their personal views on what must be done to set matters right. In the UK, journalists and their critics continue to think through the implications of Lord Justice Leveson’s report on the ‘culture, practices and ethics of the press,’ with little sight of consensus breaking out anytime soon. As this debate over how best to rein in the scandalous ex- cesses of certain newspapers has unfolded, it is interesting to note how often the press’s perceived role as a ‘fourth estate’ has surfaced as a point of contention. Over the years, this idealised role has routinely served as a form of shorthand to register the conviction that the citizen’s right to freedom of speech is best protected by a market-driven, advertising-supported media system. Its advocates tend to be rather passionate in their belief that journalism is charged with a noble mission of providing members of the public with a diverse ‘market place of ideas’ to both inform and sustain their sense of the world around them. This responsibility places the news media at the centre of pub- lic life, namely because they facilitate the formation of public opinion regarding the pressing issues of the day – and thereby make democratic control over governing relations possible. The performance of this democratic imperative is contingent upon the realisation of press freedom as a guiding principle, one jealously safeguarded from any possible impediment asso- ciated with power and privilege. In contributing to the ‘system of checks and balances,’ the news media underwrite a consen- sual process of surveillance – watchdogs nipping at the heels of the elite – so as to ensure political and corporate interests are held responsive to the shifting dictates of public opinion. Flash-forward to today, however, and these laudable plati- tudes about media and civic empowerment – for that is how they resonate to some ears – risk seeming anachronistic. One may point to examples where the news media have succeeded ii Karen Fowler-Watt and Stuart Allan in afflicting the comfortable while comforting the afflicted, to borrow a dusty phrase, but in the main they tend to be found seriously wanting in their fourth estate obligations. Public crit- icisms of the deepening income gap between the wealthy few and the vast majority of citizens (the other 99%) have contin- ued to intensify as the global economic crisis grinds on, with state-imposed austerity measures producing severe hardship for many of society’s most vulnerable. Social antagonisms, typ- ically receiving scant media attention as concerns in their own right, are no longer hidden in plain sight – the 2011 summer ri- ots in several British cities being a case in point. Many of those declaring their pessimism about whether the fourth estate will ever halt, let alone reverse its slide toward irrelevance con- tend that corporate journalism is complicit in upholding the very power structures it ostensibly strives to interrogate and challenge. Lofty fourth estate rhetoric about steadfast commit- ments to fearless reporting notwithstanding, public trust will not be garnered when watchdogs seem content to behave like lapdogs much of the time. More optimistic appraisals suggest that hope for a reinvigor- ated fourth estate lies elsewhere, namely with ordinary citizens. More specifically, they point to the emergence of what some commentators are describing as a ‘fifth estate,’ namely a realm of citizen-centred newsmaking (often labelled ‘citizen journalism’) actively supplementing – and, in some instances, supplanting – the mainstream news media’s role in covering breaking news. Just as the British historian Thomas Macaulay observed in 1828 that ‘the gallery in which the reporters sit has become a fourth estate of the realm,’ it would appear that ordinary individuals and groups engaged in newsmaking are signalling the potential for a fifth estate to claim its purchase. Digitally-savvy citizens intent on fashioning alternative forms of reporting are actively rewriting the rules of corporate journalism as together they ca- jole, provoke and inspire news organisations to fulfil their public service commitments. Declarations that the fourth estate is on the brink of collapse are wide of the mark, some insist, when there is such remarkable potential for new, enriched types of collaborative news reporting to flourish in the digital age. The imperatives transforming what counts as journalism – and who can be a journalist – present opportunities for citizen-profes- sional partnerships based upon mutual-respect, quite possibly in Introduction iii ways that will succeed in democratising the dynamics of media power in the public interest. It is against this rapidly shifting backdrop, where the nor- mative tenets of the fourth estate ideal are being reimagined anew, that we welcome you to the pages of Journalism: New Challenges. Beginning in the next section, we will offer a brief snapshot of its chapters, highlighting the ways in which each strives to encourage a fresh appraisal of the challenges con- fronting journalism today – and, in so doing, contribute to cur- rent discussions about how we may best proceed to improve the quality of news reporting for tomorrow. Section One: New Directions in Journalism The hacking scandal and subsequent Leveson inquiry have cast a spotlight on many of the challenges facing the news industry. Chief amongst them, some argue, is the steady decline in tradi- tional newsgathering and original reporting over recent years. The combination of a technological revolution, uncertainty over business models, and global recession has created what may be aptly termed A Perfect Storm. In this chapter, Stephen Jukes considers how cost cutting and consolidation of own- ership are reducing the plurality of the news offering, poten- tially undermining the ability of journalists to hold authority to account. It is questionable whether the growing volume and diversity of ‘user-generated content’ can compensate for the deficit in traditional reporting; perhaps we are even approach- ing a watershed, whereby the very nature of journalism will be forever changed. Even if public confidence in the British media can be restored, it seems certain that the uneasy relationship between traditional and citizen media will continue to demand revised conceptions of news and journalism.