Reflection

Journalism is the world through text and vision. This can be through a tweet, a Vine 60 second clip or through an interactive tablet app. Without journalism, the world would be a far smaller place. Advances in technology, from the printing press to the tablet device, have enabled the world to come to us, allowing us to experience stories “right in your hands, right underneath your fingertips”. (Steve Jobs, iPad Introduction, January 2010).

In this reflective essay, I will seek to posit my Journalism experience within the wider remit of the Journalism industry.

To begin, I will outline some examples of journalism practice within the context of my degree course.

As Wynford Hicks says in his book “English for Journalists” “Reporting speech accurately and clearly is an essential journalistic skill” (Wynford Hicks, 2007) Reporting of speech has been done numerous times during my degree course. Such times include the interviews I have conducted with local councillors. I would like to highlight one such time. During February of 2012, I interviewed Cllr John Mutton, the leader of Coventry City Council. As James Morrison outlines in his book “Essential Public Affairs For Journalists”, “the decisions they make on behalf of those whose interests they represent are subject to increasing scrutiny” Morrison, J (2009) This period of time being no different. In this meeting, I interviewed Mr Mutton in regards to Coventry and the ways in which the city represented and played it’s part in the 2012 Olympic games. The city did so through it’s hosting of olympic football at the Ricoh Arena or “The City Of Coventry Stadium” as it known throughout the olympic period.

The interview as a concept can be defined, as Emery Kelen, US journalist outlines in her book “Broadcast Journalism” “an intimate conversation between journalist and politician wherein the journalist seeks to take advantage of the garrulity of the politician and the politician of the credulity of the journalist” (Morrison, J 2009, 123) Through this, I sought to understand the city and through it’s council, the stories. This was the purpose and reasoning behind all of my interviews, from Cllr Roger Bailey and the fate of the former Jaguar car factory at Browns Lane, to Cllr McNicholas and the city’s new hospital bus route.

In Mr Mutton’s interview, the Cllr spoke of wanting to create “a legacy for Coventry people”, not just through sports but also through redevelopment of the city as a whole, outlining changes such as Broadgate which at the time of interview.

But of course, Journalism goes far beyond the interview. The way that news is presented to it’s readers needs to be taken into consideration also. Presentation of news is paramount. One way that news is presented is through news programs. As Andrew Boyd outlines in his book Broadcast Journalism “news programs aim to provide a broader view of the days news, summarizing the best stories off the day instead of the hour” (Boyd, A 2008, 138) Examples of this include BBC News at One, Six and Ten and ITV News in Britain and 60 Minutes and ABC News in the United States. The way that these programs are structured, seek to outline the importance of the stories within the programs. For example, Channel 4 News’ top story on Tuesday 16th April 2013 was the Boston bombing, which appeared at the top, top signifying the beginning of, the program. In fact, if one looks at the running time of news reports within Channel 4 News, the total adds up to just over 20 minutes. The concept of verite can be seen in this example, which as Andrew Boyd once again outlines “the intention is to produce a purer piece of journalism, closer to reality for being untainted by the preconceptions of the reporter” Through the use of satellite imagery software, such as Google Earth, as well as eyewitness videos from mobile phones, the reports therein seek to paint a picture as to what happened on this tragic day. To once again quote Andrew Boyd “where it succeeds, verite paints a picture that is closer to the subject and more intimate” (Boyd, A 2008, 139). Additional examples, along with what I’ve already described, include mobile phone camera footage from “on the ground”, that is from the area of carnage itself, the quality of the footage helps to outline this. But whatever the quality of the footage, it does not matter. The reality behind the footage is what helps to bring the viewer or indeed the reader, in.

At this time, I have spoke of the way in which visual apparatus is presented, but I have not spoken of the written word. This I will seek to outline.

Newspapers have existed for centuries. The first such sighting of a newspaper was in 59BC in Rome, with the publication of Acta Diurna (about.com) In modern times, there has been a plethora of newspapers titles, from The Daily Mirror, to The Independent, to the Guardian, not forgetting Rupert Murdoch’s titles, The Sun and The Times. In all titles, the intention is to “report” on the events of the day. To quote John Simpson in his book Unreliable Sources “Reporting is an art form which has sometimes been mistaken for science”. Furthermore and more importantly, he adds “People who read the news in the paper or on a website, who listen to a radio bulletin or who watch television news, usually imagine they are getting something approaching the truth. Instead, they are merely getting a version of what has happened” (Simpson, J 2011, 9)

To further add to the above, each newspaper title has a editorial slant, which influences how they report the news. Let’s take The Independent and The Sun as an example, two completely different publications in both format and style and let’s look at how each reported the 2013 Budget. The Independent has a story on the scrapping of the fuel duty rise and outlines that the measure will cost over £1b this year (2013), but also outlines that the Chancellor hopes this will ease the burden on struggling small business (The Independent, 2013, 20 March) When reading the article one can sense a balance and neutrality in informing the reader. Additionally, the story also includes a case study of a managing director of a haulage company, whom would have been affected by the rise, with an opinion from him. This helps to tell the story but also provide a real-world example of how the scrap will affect people in the real world.

The Sun, however leads on a totally different story, with the announcement that 6p was to be taken off the price of beer, as well as the beer duty escalator. The Sun in it’s headline calls it the “bitter sweet budget”, adding “6p joy on the beer….not much else to cheer”. The story includes very little information and the inclusion of the “whitehall source”, which does not tell the reader where in Whitehall this source is located. The story does highlight the cost to Whitehall, “about £70million” and champions the axe through it’s Sun Axe Beer Tax campaign, which seeks to outline that The Sun believes it has been their duty. (The Sun, 2013, 20 March)

When all is said and done however, journalism is about presenting the news as is. To quote Herbert Matthews of The New York Times in John Simpsons book, “a journalist who writes truthfully what he sees and knows on a given day is writing for posterity” (Simpson, J 2011, 9) This in essence is the reason that journalism exists. To inform, to report. To write truthfully and write “as-is” and not “as it is in your own opinion”, is what it takes to be a professional journalist

However, the Leveson Inquiry, which was set up by David Cameron to examine “the culture, standards and ethics of the press”, spoke that certain newspaper titles had “wrecked havoc in the lives of innocent people”.

Having outlined Journalism within the wider remit of the industry, I will now bring the focus back to the work I have done.

Throughout the year, Journalism and Media have helped NewsDays, which to quote Coventry University’s course description “enable us to test your skills in a live environment so you experience the excitement of news production” (Coventry University) One such time was when along with a team member, we were asked to create a newspaper and display the results, complete with sourced news stories, at the end of the day. For this, on the software side, we needed to use a variety of software packages, such Adobe InDesign in order to present our information. Following this exercise, we used the Adobe Digital Publishing Suite to create interactive versions of our newspapers.

In the wider context of interactivity, there is one publication that seeks to bring the news to it’s readers in a way that is simple and clean. This is Zite. This is a great example of the power of interactivity on a tablet device. Zite is a tablet app which allows it’s readers to tailor the news, to suit their own personal tastes or “curate”. Curate means to in the words of Adrian Hon, writer for The Telegraph online Technology column “to convey some view or message” (The Telegraph, 2011, 24 August) Being an avid user of this app, the ability to only display the news I am interested in is great. However, the “real” newspaper still appeals to me greatly. Which leads me on to the next point of the downsides of “curation”. In an article titled”How about the downsides of curation”, published on Citizen Marketer 2.1, journalist Aaron Strout wrote about how with the advent of being able to tailor news, the result is “only being served up news you may want to hear versus the news you need to hear” (Strout, 2011) . Indeed, I am in agreement with this view and despite using Zite, a curation app myself, I always go out of my way to read news outlets and research, as I wish to be neutral and have a balanced approach to the news process. To have only the news we choose, this limits our perspective, which is paramount in Journalism and the result of curating our news will always be that it presents content that seeks to re-enforce our own opinions and not expand them. The mind and brain was not designed to be stifled, it was designed to flourish and widen.

In terms of how my portfolio fits in demonstrates my profession, I have sought to interview as wide a range of people as possible. For example, I have interviewed 2 podcast producers on the topic of OCD, as well as interviewing Absolute Radio’s Hometime Show presenters Geoff Lloyd and Annabel Port. I have done so because I am interested in going “behind the scenes” as it were and finding out the stories of the people I am interviewing. I have a great dislike for what Jon Snow calls “sausage factory journalism”, which seeks to pump out news of uselessness, celebrity news being one source I dislike.

In terms of how it all fits in within my field of interest, I will outline thusly. Research is the best part of my work. I really do enjoy delving behind the words and finding out just what is happening rather than rely on television, radio and online. Indeed at this time, since the death of Margaret Thatcher, I have sought to research her time in power and have done so through a book I am currently reading, The Iron Lady: Margaret Thatcher: From Grocer’s Daughter to Iron Lady by John Campbell, which tells the story of the PM from the time of her birth to the very last at 10 Downing Street. It’s neutrality and balance, seeking to highlights the strengths and the weakness is the reason I love this book.

In conclusion, Journalism has the power to change lives and has given us the power to view the world from our homes. The tablet device, such as the iPad, has made the world portable and experience content in ways we never thought we could.

But in this complicated world in which we live, Journalism is paramount to ensure the world is reported in a way that people can see, listen and comment upon.

REFERENCES

Apple iPad Keynote, 2010

Hicks, W (2007) English for Journalists Third Edition, Routledge

Morrison, J (2009) Essential Public Affairs For Journalists, Oxford University Press

Kelen, E (2008) Broadcast Journalism: Techniques of Radio and Television News, Focul Press (Quote within chapter)

Boyd, A (2008) Broadcast Journalism: Techniques of Radio and Television News, Focul Press

about.com money inventors—– Timeline of the Newspaper Industry [online] available from <http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/printing_4.htm>

Simpson, J (2011) Unreliable Sources, Macmillan

Coventry University Journalism and Media Prospectus [online] available from <http://www.coventry.ac.uk/course-structure/2013/school-of-art-and-design/undergraduate-degree/journalism-and-media-ba-hons/?theme=main>

The Telegraph- Technology (2011) We used to curate objects. Now we’re using technology to curate our lives [online] available from <http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/technology/adrianhon/100006825/we-used-to-curate-objects-now-were-using-technology-to-curate-our-lives/> (24 August 2011)

Citizen Markater 2.1 (2011) Filters [online] available from <http://blog.stroutmeister.com/2011/05/filters/> (5 May, 2011)