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Behind Flat Earth News
Mike Jempson, Director, The MediaWise Trust
On 1 February, one of the campaign's associated groups, MediaWise, released online the Cardiff University research report that underpins Nick Davies' devastating critique of British journalism, Flat Earth News, previewed in the current issue of Private Eye and this week's edition of Press Gazette
DATELINE: 5/2/08The quality and independence of British journalism has been severely damaged since the Wapping Dispute in 1986, when Rupert Murdoch challenged the power of the print unions. Over the last 20 years, the research shows, profits have doubled and pagination has trebled, across the industry, while the number of jobs is about the same and productivity, in terms of the number of stories produced by journalists, has trebled.
Many journalists now have to feed a 24-hour news operation, producing copy for a variety of media - print, online, television and radio. Increasingly deskbound, they have no time to go out and find or properly research stories. Our report suggests that less than 1 in 5 stories is now independently sourced. As a result the public relations industry exerts an unduly powerful influence over the news agenda. And with each medium feeding off the content of its rivals, the public has no way of knowing which news items may have originated in an unchallenged press release.
Profits may be up but there has been no corresponding investment in the actual business of journalism. This is one of the complaints of striking journalists at the Milton Keynes Citizen, who have queried their management's commitment to quality journalism. Johnston Press, now has 18 daily newspapers, 291 weekly newspapers and 317 local websites, acquired and developed over recent years.
Take-overs, merged titles and shared newsrooms and overheads have improved balance sheets across the industry to the detriment of journalistic integrity. Yet few members of the public can be expected to appreciate the complex mesh of media ownership that controls the flow of information they receive, and may indeed influence news content.
They may be familiar with News Corporation and Rupert Murdoch's massive global interests in media production, but what about Newsquest, the UK end of the US publishing giant Gannett? It owns 17 regional dailies, some 300 local weeklies and 180 local websites. The Daily Mail General Trust includes 50 companies with more than 100 local newspapers, 28 local websites, as well as radio, TV, teletext outlets and its national titles. Their influence over public discourse is immense, so it is not surprising that Daily Mail executives were among the first to try and rubbish Nick Davies' book and the Cardiff research.
Funded by the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, our report is a major contribution to the debate MediaWise initiated in 2004 on Journalism and Public Trust. We were pleased to assist Nick Davies, since those who object to criticism of journalism standards constantly demand hard evidence. Cardiff's research contains evidence in abundance. Its closing section, 'The View from the Newsroom', offers perhaps the most dispiriting evidence - a collapse in confidence among even then most experienced of journalists.
Only last weekend (26 Jan 08) former Independent on Sunday Editor Peter Wilby reflected this mood, when he told the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom conference on 'New Threats to Media Freedom' that marketing managers are now taken more seriously than Editors.
"Is it any wonder that public trust in journalists is declining?" responded Jeremy Dear, General Secretary of the National Union of Journalists. The situation is not peculiar to the UK. A poll in the US has revealed that fewer than one in five Americans is willing to trust the accuracy of news reporting, and four out of five are convinced that the media seek to manipulate public opinion. One third of Americans believe the media is biased and unfair, according to research by Sacred Heart University in Connecticut.
The House of Lords Communications Committee members need to read the Cardiff research and Nick Davies' book before they complete their current deliberations on Media Ownership and the News. We shall also be submitting it to the Secretary of State for Culture, Media & Sport, and renewing our call for a Fourth Royal Commission into the state of the UK media.
For more information or interviews, contact 07968 031 531
Flat Earth News by Nick Davies (Chatto & Windus) to be published on 7 February 2008 - for more information visit www.flatearthnews.net
LINKSFlat Earth News
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About DMGT
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Last modified: Tuesday, February 12, 2008
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Events & Announcements
World Press Freedom Day
More reporters are currently imprisoned in Turkey than in any other country in the world. Only a matter of weeks ago lawyers failed to persuade a Turkish court to release a 76-year-old journalist from a Turkish internet news station.
World Press Freedom Day on Friday May 3, 2013 is being marked in Britain by a rally to highlight the dangers facing journalists in Turkey and in this podcast, Nicholas Jones speaks to Barry White, Organiser at the Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom, and Sam Bamford, the TUC's policy officer for Eastern Europe and Africa about the importance of a campaign to highlight international press freedom.
The World Press Freedom Day rally is being staged by the National Union of Journalists at the NUJ head office, Gray’s Inn Road, London WC1 on Thursday May 2, 6pm-8pm.
DATELINE: 27/4/13
UK launch of EU media campaign
DATELINE: 13/3/13
The UK launch of a 'European Citizens' Initiative' calling for EU rules against concentration of media power will take place on Thursday March 21 from 11:00am – 12:30pm in Committee Room 4A at the House of Lords, London. Guest speakers will include actor and activist Hugh Grant (pictured), media consultant Claire Enders, Professor Steven Barnett, Barry McCall (President of the NUJ) and Marc Gruber (Director of the European Federation of Journalists).
A European Citizens' Initiative is an official petition, like a Downing Street petition. If it succeeds in gathering a million signatures across the EU, the Commission is obliged to respond.
This petition calls for the EU to act to protect media pluralism and press freedom.
CPBF Annual General Meeting
DATELINE: 1/3/13
Make a note in your diary
Saturday 13 July 2013 from 10.00am
NUJ HQ, 308/312 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1.
Leveson, media ownership, CPBF future work.
DOWNLOAD FREEPRESS NOW
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Download Freepress in PDF, ePub or mobi format. Issue 194 now available.
MEDIA FOR ALL CONFERENCE
DATELINE: 26/3/10
Papers from the Media for All Conference
MEDIA MANIFESTO
DATELINE: 26/3/10
The media’s job is to inform and entertain us but we rely on them too to tell us what our rulers and representatives are up to. In the run-up to the Iraq war the government used spin and disinformation in the media to create panic and mislead people. The truth is coming out now, but we need stronger, more independent media to be able to scrutinise governments and make informed choices.
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Previous stories
Journalism Theory & Practice
New threats to media freedom
Countdown to media freedom conference with Alan Johnston
Lords hear case for journalism
Regulation under the spotlight
Paul Foot award 2007
Does Islamophobia exist?
Beyond the veil
Orwell in Tribune: "As I Please" and other writings 1943-7
Are we moving from their media to ours?
What We Stand For
Text Size
Journalism gets younger and cheaper
The Angry Buzz: This Week and Current Affairs Television
Text Size
A Voice for Media Freedom
Media literacy reviews from Ofcom
