Key findings of the research into local news consumption and democracy conducted by Plum Consulting for the Department of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport:
Importance of journalism: "Local journalism has a key role to play in civil society. The decline of the local newspaper industry and resulting negative impacts on journalism reduce scrutiny of democratic functions. This situation is unlikely to change without intervention."
Correlations between news provision, news consumption and local democracy: "Local newspaper provision and consumption has a positive effect on local democratic participation over time. Further erosion of local newspaper consumption is likely to damage this effect."
Brad Bender, Google's vice president of product management for news, quoted by CNN Business on plans by the digital giant to pay publishers more than $1 billion over the next three years for licensing news: "It's clear that the newspaper industry has long faced economic challenges. I think a number of us in the ecosystem want to step up and enable a better future for news. This is a very big investment, our biggest investment today, but it really does build on our 20 years of efforts with the industry."
The Times [£] obit on former Sunday Telegraph editor Sir Peregrine Worsthorne: "As a commentator he could be salty, moralistic, reactionary, contrary and even, on occasion, self-contradictory, but he was rarely, if ever, boring or predictable. On Desert Island Discs in 1992 he chose as his luxury item a lifetime supply of LSD. "
The Queen in a message of support highlighting the vital role played by newspapers during the coronavirus pandemic to News Media Association members for the Journalism Matters campaign: "The Covid-19 pandemic has once again demonstrated what an important public service the established news media provides, both nationally and regionally. As our world has changed dramatically, having trusted, reliable sources of information, particularly at a time when there are so many sources competing for our attention, is vital."
Bill Grueskin in the Columbia Journalism Review on covering Trump: "The President of the United States is acting like a drunk driver, and the press needs to cover him that way. He demonstrated last week a callous disregard for those around him—most critically, those who work for him and those who are assigned to protect him—and there is no benefit of the doubt that can justify his actions. Anything that journalists write or broadcast needs to reflect that reality."
Andrew Marr interviewed in the Guardian: “The Murdoch empire and others are trying to push us towards a world in which the BBC is pretty marginal and people are getting most of their news and their views from privately funded television companies, as in America. There is a drive on to destroy the BBC. They’ve clearly got supporters in the government, and it’s a very difficult moment for the new director general Tim Davie.”
David Yelland on Twitter: "Oh Jenni Murray. When WILL BBC talent and former executives realise they play with fire if they do deals with the print press which wishes to destroy the corporation. Grow up! Wise up!"
Nick Cohen in the Observer: "The BBC has become, for the British right, what the tabloid press was for the socialists of the 20th century: the cause of all their frustrations and an explanation for all their failures. When Conservatives ask why the young won’t vote for them, why Christianity is in decline, why Israel is regarded as a pariah state, why Trump is feared, why anything and everything they hate is happening, the BBC is at the root of the evil."
The Independent's Middle East Correspondent Patrick Cockburn in a statement to the Julian Assange extradition hearing, as reported by the Evening Standard, said the deaths of two Reuters journalists and unarmed civilians in Iraq by US forces was only confirmed by a classified video given to Wikileaks: “It was known that a film of the killing had been taken by the gun camera of the US Apache helicopter, but the Pentagon refused to give this up even under a Freedom of Information Act request...The information that was disclosed by Wikileaks was no secret to Iraqis or Afghans or foreign journalists, who all know very well about who had been killed and by whom. But this could never be confirmed in the face of official US silence or denial...Making such information public, as Assange and Wikileaks had done, weaponised freedom of expression. If disclosures of this kind went unpunished and became the norm, it would radically shift the balance of power between government and society – and especially the media – in favour of the latter.”
Press Gazette reports: "Investigative reporter John Ware is seeking £50,000 in damages over reports attempting to discredit his Panorama programme into anti-Semitism in the Labour party in a rare case of one journalist suing another. Paddy French, who edits the Press Gang website, published a 16-page pamphlet in December describing the “Is Labour Anti-Semitic?” Panorama that aired in July 2019 as 'a piece of rogue journalism'.”
Peter Jukes on Twitter: "I don’t care what the case is. I don’t care who’s doing it. Journalists should never sue journalists. Period. Reporting is hard enough (as Ware should know) under UK libel laws. Any journalist who then deploys them is effectively undermining the whole trade."
Daily Star editor Jon Clark, interviewed in the i, on making the Star more fun than the Sun: “I don’t want to get caught up in any hate; hate is not what we are about – we are about fun. I want us to make people joyous. I want to be the antidote to the really, really miserable news agenda that we are having to live with...I think we are more like they [the Sun] were 15-20 years ago in the glory days. They are the market leader and good for them but I think we have moved into the space that they vacated.”
[£]=paywall
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment