To protect journalism we must call out those who seek to undermine it
Our industry is under attack, says Ian Murray, executive director of the Society of Editors, but #JournalismMatters week can help people understand the value local journalism brings to their lives
Imagine a world where journalism doesn’t exist.
As John Lennon might have sung, it isn’t that hard to do. We have, after all, been there before.
Journalism, true journalism based on solid research carried out by trained journalists adhering to exacting standards and whose work will be professionally scrutinised and edited, has only existed in reality for the last one hundred years. Before then, often what passed for journalism was little more than vivid imagination.
Today’s British public, in line with many other nations, are better informed, better served by its media and able to scrutinise those who act in their name more than any generation that has gone before. And yet, the media finds itself in constant need of defending its actions and at odds with politicians and those in positions of power who undermine its credibility.
It is a strange world then where the public have so many trusted sources of news and information they can rely on — from their local newspaper to the largest of national publishers and broadcasters — yet they are still apparently swayed by the voices of doubt arrayed against us.
This isn’t so surprising. The rise of social media has led inevitably to a noise wall of opinion that many find can only be combatted by remaining tight within their own confirmation news bubble. Much easier to simply discount news that you don’t like or doesn’t fit your world view than to trust the facts being provided.
So how to combat such a challenge?
The first method is to expose and challenge those who would do us harm. For every claim of ‘fake news’ there should be the remedy of the provision of well-researched facts. Hammer home the validity of our news gathering methods to expose the simple truth that the misinformation comes from those seeking to undermine the messenger.
The second step should be to remind our readers wherever plausible of the dire alternatives that would exist in a world where true journalism had left the field. This is even more vital as an increasing number of bodies, public and private, attempt to convince us that any and all information we need can be found online without any need for journalists.
A seductive message, but does anyone truly believe that the edited columns of their local paper or website could be replaced by press releases distributed on social media by local authorities, police, health and other public bodies?
Will the council send its own press team to stand outside that important meeting to challenge councillors with those awkward questions? Will bald statements issued after court cases ever truly reflect the hearing in a way that ensures open justice? Come to that, can a robot ever capture the drama, passion and sheer excitement of that local football match?
The current national crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has few upticks, but one small silver lining to a very dark cloud has been the groundswell of opinion that the public has turned to mainstream journalism in ever greater numbers. At a local level in particular, communities have relied on their local news providers — brands they have known and trusted in many cases for decades — to cut through the fog of confusion and provide solid, fact-based and, yes, trusted news and information.
Local papers and their websites have and continue to challenge politicians, the police, the health sector to deliver news their communities rely on.
And their journalists have led from the front, campaigning for and on behalf of their readers to provide everything from food banks to PPE to arranging grocery deliveries to elderly customers in lockdown.
Journalism isn’t just about holding the powerful to account, important as that is. It is just as much about binding communities together.
In #JournalismMatters Week we need to remind as many people as possible of those facts.
The final words on the subject should be left to American founding father Thomas Jefferson:
“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
To find out more about the work of the Society of Editors, visit https://www.societyofeditors.org
To learn more about the Journalism Matters initiative, visit http://journalismmatters.co/
