tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/the-guardian-4836/articlesThe Guardian – The Conversation2021-07-19T12:12:36Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1646172021-07-19T12:12:36Z2021-07-19T12:12:36ZWhy conservatorships like the one controlling Britney Spears can lead to abuse<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411739/original/file-20210717-19-1vdr81v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=155%2C26%2C1466%2C1155&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Britney Spears has continued to perform around the world and record albums even while under a strict conservatorship. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/Theater-BritneySpears/25e66c3812c249cf861cfc5a82fdf4ff/photo?Query=Britney%20AND%20spears&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1447&currentItemNo=117">AP Photo/Chiang Ying-ying</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>“I’m here to get rid of my dad and charge him with conservatorship abuse,” <a href="https://www.nbcnewyork.com/entertainment/entertainment-news/britney-spears-says-father-jamie-is-ruining-her-life-and-wants-him-charged-with-conservatorship-abuse/3155432/">Britney Spears told a California court</a> on July 14, 2021. She said that he was ruining her life, and in previous testimony she <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/24/arts/music/britney-spears-transcript.html">claimed that a team led by her father controlled her schedule</a>, prevented her from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/24/health/britney-spears-forced-IUD.html">having another baby</a> and bullied her. </p>
<p>She may soon get her wish after the judge in the case said she could hire her own lawyer, former prosecutor Mathew Rosengart, <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-the-writing-is-on-the-wall-that-britney-spears-conservatorship-will-come-to-an-end-lawyer-150954437.html">who plans to file paperwork soon to end the conservatorship</a> on her behalf. To <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/britney-spears-conservatorship-father-how-to-end/">terminate a conservatorship</a>, California law simply requires the filing of a petition demonstrating <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=1861.&lawCode=PROB">that it is no longer required</a>. No one has filed this paperwork yet, according to the latest media reports.</p>
<p>Spears’ case is unusual: Conservatorships <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/06/24/1009726455/britney-spears-conservatorship-how-thats-supposed-to-work">are typically not imposed</a> on someone who doesn’t have severe cognitive impairments, and <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/american-chronicles/britney-spears-conservatorship-nightmare">Spears has toured the world</a>, released four albums and earned US$131 million, all while deemed legally unfit to manage her finances or her own body. </p>
<p>But it does illustrate how easily conservatorships can be abused – which is one reason some members of Congress <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/15/us/politics/britney-spears.html">are considering ways to reform the state-run system</a>. </p>
<h2>What is a conservatorship?</h2>
<p>I teach about conservatorships in my course on aging and law and <a href="https://www.law.virginia.edu/faculty/profile/nrc8g/2915359">have written extensively</a> about the parent-child relationship. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/conservatorships-adult-guardianships-30063.html">Conservatorships are legal arrangements</a> that give a third party control over someone else. They can be imposed only by a court, and only a court can terminate them. The person put in charge of the person’s affairs is called the conservator, or the guardian in some states. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.smu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1090&context=law_faculty">Conservatorships have been around for centuries</a> and are critical legal mechanisms to help people – often <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nrneurol.2014.181">older persons with dementia or other neurocognitive disorders</a> – who are <a href="https://law.justia.com/codes/california/2019/code-prob/division-4/part-3/chapter-1/article-1/section-1801/">considered unable to care</a> for themselves or their finances. </p>
<p>Conservators are subject to court oversight and are typically required to submit annual reports to the court. And California law – which <a href="https://www.aarp.org/money/estate-planning/info-2007/2007_21_guardians.html">is similar to the rules in most states</a> – <a href="https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?sectionNum=1850.&nodeTreePath=5.3.2&lawCode=PROB">requires the court to monitor</a> each conservatorship to protect against abuse and ensure that the conservator is acting in the best interests of the subject. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A bespectacled man who is representing Britney Spears as her new lawyer speaks to reporters as a black-and-white photo of Spears hovers in background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411734/original/file-20210717-13-1jgtmib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411734/original/file-20210717-13-1jgtmib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411734/original/file-20210717-13-1jgtmib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411734/original/file-20210717-13-1jgtmib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=385&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411734/original/file-20210717-13-1jgtmib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411734/original/file-20210717-13-1jgtmib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411734/original/file-20210717-13-1jgtmib.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=484&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Britney Spears’ new lawyer, Mathew Rosengart, has demanded her father step down as her conservator.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/PeopleBritneySpears/4a20b6bb931d4b66961eaa4d6d95193e/photo?Query=Britney%20AND%20spears&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1447&currentItemNo=1">AP Photo/Chris Pizzello</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Conservators often have broad powers</h2>
<p>Jamie Spears has been a conservator for his daughter since <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/britney-spears-conservatorship-updates/">he was appointed to this role by a California court in 2008</a> and has reportedly received <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-much-has-13-years-under-conservatorship-cost-britney-spears-11624654464">at least $5 million in fees</a>.</p>
<p>On Aug. 12, 2021, he filed paperwork that indicated his <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/08/12/1027223521/jamie-spears-steps-down-britney-spears-conservatorship">willingness to step aside</a>. Spears has not provided, however, any timeline for ending his role. He is also <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/britney-spears-conservatorship-jamie-exit-legal-expert">demanding about $2 million</a> in new compensation from his daughter’s estate for legal and public relations costs, which could delay this transition.</p>
<p>Britney Spears’ father has served as both the “conservator of the person” – able to make decisions about his daughter’s personal needs, including medical decisions – as well as that of her estate – able to make financial decisions for her. Currently, he <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/07/14/1015674045/britney-spears-conservatorship-is-back-in-court-whos-who-and-what-they-want">serves only in the second role</a>, while Jodi Montgomery, a licensed personal fiduciary and care professional, is Britney Spears’ conservator of the person. </p>
<p>In late July 2021, Spears’ new lawyer requested that the court appoint accountant <a href="https://www.cosmopolitan.com/uk/reports/a37141991/britney-jason-rubin/">Jason Rubin</a> as the new conservator of the estate. A hearing on that request is <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/07/26/1020857734/britney-spears-lawyer-files-request-for-new-conservator-of-her-money">scheduled for Dec. 13, 2021</a>.</p>
<p>While the standard in many states is to impose the <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/law_aging/06-23-2018-lra-chart-final.pdf">fewest restrictions</a> so the person retains the most rights possible, the powers of a conservator can be broad. And the person subject to one may lose the right to marry, make a will, vote or consent to medical treatment. </p>
<p>And imposing a conservatorship is not supposed to be easy. California <a href="https://codes.findlaw.com/ca/probate-code/prob-sect-1823.html">requires “clear and convincing evidence”</a> that one is necessary. The law also states that the individual has the right to be represented. The one imposed on Spears, however, <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/american-chronicles/britney-spears-conservatorship-nightmare">was done quickly</a>.</p>
<h2>Conservatorship abuse and ‘anemic’ oversight</h2>
<p>Broad powers and <a href="https://www.aging.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/SCA_Kohn_04_18_18.pdf">“anemic” oversight</a> make conservatorships subject to multiple forms of abuse, ranging from the imposition of unnecessary restrictions on the individual to financial mismanagement. Nothing can be done if no one finds out about the abuse. </p>
<p>A 2010 U.S. government report <a href="https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-10-1046">identified hundreds of allegations of physical abuse, neglect and financial impropriety</a> by conservators. Most of them related to financial exploitation, and that, in turn, often meant that the victim’s family was affected, losing not just expected inheritances but also contact with the person subject to the conservatorship.</p>
<p>A 2017 New Yorker article on abusive guardians <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/10/09/how-the-elderly-lose-their-rights">highlighted the case of April Parks</a>, who was sentenced to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/248799d4fd254fdfa6df2e6c2db4dfcb">up to 40 years</a> in prison for financial conduct related to numerous conservatorships she handled. She was also ordered to pay more than half a million dollars to her victims.</p>
<p>But beyond these anecdotes, no one even knows the magnitude of the problem. That’s because conservatorships are subject to state law, and each state handles the imposition of them as well as data collection differently. And a 2018 Senate report found that <a href="https://www.aging.senate.gov/hearings/ensuring-trust-strengthening-state-efforts-to-overhaul-the-guardianship-process-and-protect-older-americans%20report%20here:%20%20https://www.aging.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Guardianship_Report_2018_gloss_compress.pdf">most states are unable to</a> report accurate data on conservatorships.</p>
<p>The National Center for State Courts estimated in 2016 that <a href="https://int.nyt.com/data/documenttools/warren-spears-letter/54dfe78a81eb7135/full.pdf">1.3 million adults</a> in the U.S. are subject to some kind of conservatorship – representing about $50 billion in assets – but a previous report <a href="https://ncsc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/ctadmin/id/1846">suggested the number of cases could be more than double that</a>. </p>
<p>There’s virtually no data on how often conservators misuse their power or when a conservatorship has been improperly imposed.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Fans of Britney Spears hold up signs with such messages as 'Free Britney' at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411735/original/file-20210717-15-1n59dba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/411735/original/file-20210717-15-1n59dba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411735/original/file-20210717-15-1n59dba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411735/original/file-20210717-15-1n59dba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411735/original/file-20210717-15-1n59dba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411735/original/file-20210717-15-1n59dba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/411735/original/file-20210717-15-1n59dba.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ‘Free Britney’ movement has played a big role in bringing the issue of Spears’ conservatorship to national attention.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/FreeBritneyRally/4943c6cad23d4eac90ca00e7620a6f94/photo?Query=Britney%20AND%20spears&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=1447&currentItemNo=19">AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>‘Free Britney’ may lead to reforms</h2>
<p>However, this may begin to change, thanks to growing publicity of the issue.</p>
<p>Last year’s Netflix movie “<a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/81350429">I Care a Lot</a>” told the story of a fictionalized abusive guardian played by Rosamund Pike, who won best actress at the Golden Globe for the role. And a 2020 episode of the investigative series “Dirty Money” profiled what it alleged was guardian abuse by several lawyers, including one who <a href="https://www.milforddailynews.com/story/news/courts/2020/09/27/defamation-lawsuit-against-netflix-linked-to-dirty-money-episode-guardians-inc-which-has-massachuset/42697355">subsequently filed a lawsuit claiming defamation</a>. </p>
<p>And in February 2021, The New York Times aired “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/framing-britney-spears.html">Framing Britney Spears</a>,” which documented her “yearslong struggle under” the conservatorship. Times reporters also <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/22/arts/music/britney-spears-conservatorship.html">exposed confidential court records</a> that showed Britney Spears has been unhappy with her father since at least 2014. A court investigator in 2016, for example, wrote that the conservatorship “had become an oppressive and controlling tool against her.”</p>
<p>Now, members of Congress as ideologically opposed as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/15/us/politics/britney-spears.html">have joined the “Free Britney” cause</a> and are pushing for conservatorship reforms and more data on the legal arrangements. </p>
<p>[<em>Over 100,000 readers rely on The Conversation’s newsletter to understand the world.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=100Ksignup">Sign up today</a>.]</p>
<p>While <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/groups/law_aging/resources/wings-court-stakeholder-partnerships0/guardianship-reform-wings-background/">states have made some improvements</a>, such as urging <a href="https://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/law_aging/2017_SDM_%20Resolution_Final.pdf">more autonomy for conservatees</a> and less restrictive alternatives to conservatorships, <a href="https://www.aging.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/SCA_Kohn_04_18_18.pdf">reform advocates such as Syracuse law professor Nina Kohn</a> say more is needed to protect the rights of individuals and prevent abuse, including stronger oversight. </p>
<p>Spears may soon find herself free of her conservatorship. Regardless, her situation has already put a spotlight on the potential for abuse – and it may lead to a better system for those who genuinely need the assistance. </p>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This article was updated to include steps that Jamie Spears took in the first two weeks of August 2021 and Britney Spears’ request for a new conservator of the estate.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/164617/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Naomi Cahn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The case of Britney Spears, who is trying to end her father’s conservatorship, illustrates why the legal arrangement is rife for abuse.Naomi Cahn, Professor of Law, University of VirginiaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1614122021-06-03T03:31:33Z2021-06-03T03:31:33ZAustralia’s news media play an important role reminding the country that Black lives still matter<p><em>Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names of people who have passed away, and descriptions of these deaths.</em></p>
<p>One year has passed since George Floyd’s death under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer. Floyd’s name is imprinted upon our consciousness, as it should be. </p>
<p>However, in Australia we know less about the <a href="https://newsroom.unsw.edu.au/news/business-law/black-lives-matter-movement-australia-first-nations-perspectives">more than 474 Indigenous people who have died in police or prison custody</a> in the 30 years since the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.</p>
<p>While Floyd’s death and the Black Lives Matter movement sparked extensive media attention, Australian Indigenous deaths in custody have had a harder time attracting sustained coverage, particularly from mainstream news outlets. Media attention on the issue has been episodic and too often absent.</p>
<h2>The Great Australian Silence continues</h2>
<p>As Darumbal and South Sea Islander journalist Amy McQuire <a href="https://7ampodcast.com.au/episodes/black-witness-white-witness">says</a>, there is a national apathy in response to First Nations deaths in custody. McQuire, who consistently reports on deaths in custody as an independent journalist, says: “When Aboriginal people die in custody there is a national silence”. Some deaths in custody break through, but many more pass unnoticed.</p>
<p>The royal commission stated that to reduce Aboriginal deaths in custody it is critical to reduce imprisonment rates (which have <a href="https://www.ceda.com.au/NewsAndResources/Opinion/Indigenous-affairs/Costs,-consequences-and-alternatives-to-imprisonin">doubled</a> since 1991), and to improve the exercise of the duty of care owed to people in custody. </p>
<p>Two Indigenous deaths in custody, 20 years apart, demonstrate the failure to achieve both.</p>
<p>In 1994, 30-year-old Aboriginal woman <a href="https://communityyarns.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/The-girl-in-cell-4.pdf">Ms Beetson</a> died of treatable heart disease in Sydney’s Mulawa women’s prison. </p>
<p>She was admitted to prison unwell; previous open-heart surgery and other concerns were highlighted on her admittance form. She was given a cursory medical examination and her symptoms were put down to drug withdrawal. Over a week, she became weaker and sicker, received no effective medical attention and died alone in a cell.</p>
<p>In 2014, Yamatji woman Ms Dhu, 22, was arrested for unpaid fines, against royal commission recommendations. She was held in a South Hedland, WA, police watch house for three days in intense pain and growing sicker. </p>
<p>The usual assumptions were made about drug withdrawal and that she was “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/dec/16/ms-dhu-endured-inhumane-treatment-by-police-before-death-in-custody-coroner">faking it</a>”. She died of staphylococcal septicaemia and pneumonia.</p>
<p>Twenty years apart, the circumstances around Ms Beetson’s and Ms Dhu’s deaths reflect the same inadequate medical treatment, inhumanity, lack of professionalism and failures. Both medical conditions were treatable and both deaths preventable. </p>
<p>But the story of Ms Dhu’s case broke through, due to local and effective activism, and because the media landscape had started to change.</p>
<hr>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/not-criminals-or-passive-victims-media-need-to-reframe-their-representation-of-aboriginal-deaths-in-custody-158561">Not criminals or passive victims: media need to reframe their representation of Aboriginal deaths in custody</a>
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<p>The year before Ms Dhu’s death, The Guardian began publishing an online Australian edition. Guardian journalist <a href="https://www.walkleys.com/spotlight-on-calla-wahlquist-and-lorena-allam/">Calla Wahlquist</a> reported at least one story every day from the inquest into Ms Dhu’s death. </p>
<p>The Guardian’s sustained deaths in custody reporting and its “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/series/deaths-inside">Deaths Inside</a>” database have made a difference to deaths in custody coverage.</p>
<h2>Australian media needs to keep addressing deaths in custody</h2>
<p>Media attention was important in helping to <a href="https://wendybacon.com/2021/Deaths">create the conditions</a> for the royal commission’s establishment. Among the more influential and agenda-setting stories were those by Western Australian freelance journalist <a href="https://www.icij.org/journalists/jan-mayman/">Jan Mayman</a> reporting on Roebourne teenager John Pat’s 1983 death for The Age, and a <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/4corners/black-death---1985/2835060">1985 Four Corners program</a> presented by David Marr.</p>
<p>In its report and <a href="https://theconversation.com/not-criminals-or-passive-victims-media-need-to-reframe-their-representation-of-aboriginal-deaths-in-custody-158561">recommendations</a>, the royal commission recognised the important role of the media as a form of “collective conscience”, contributing to the possibility of increased justice for Aboriginal people. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.naa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-02/research-guide-aboriginal-deaths-in-custody.pdf">release</a> of the royal commission’s final report was a Black-lives-just-could-matter moment in Australia. </p>
<p>Here was the blueprint for transforming the life chances of Aboriginal people, and the relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians. Implementing the report’s 339 recommendations could reduce imprisonment rates, deaths in custody, inequality and disadvantage.</p>
<p>When the <a href="http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/other/IndigLRes/rciadic/">report</a> was released, the media was again <a href="https://wendybacon.com/2021/Deaths">interested and engaged</a>. Aboriginal people’s points of view were heard, and Aboriginal deaths in custody became an important story that put individual deaths into context. However, this kind of reporting soon fell away.</p>
<p>Four years after the report, governments were claiming successful implementation of the royal commission’s recommendations. However, the <a href="https://www.aic.gov.au/publications/sr/sr21">Australian Institute of Criminology</a> was reporting deaths in prison at record levels. </p>
<p><a href="https://wendybacon.com/uploads/appendix-c_reportage-article.pdf">Research</a> by the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism found the media uncritically reported government implementation claims as if they were true.</p>
<h2>Non-Indigenous journalists need to step up</h2>
<p>While First Nations journalists, such as Amy McQuire, Gamilaraay and Yawalaraay woman <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/lorena-allam">Loreena Allam</a> and Muruwari man <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-28/covering-black-deaths-in-australia-led-me-to-a-breakdown/12390416">Allan Clarke</a>, are telling stories of injustice meted out to Aboriginal people, non-Indigenous journalists must also keep telling stories about the injustices caused by colonisation.</p>
<p>It took an event in the US to spark the Indigenous lives matter response across Australia. Journalists must continue to report on the chain of events that lead to Black deaths at the hands of the state. </p>
<p><strong>How we can do this:</strong></p>
<p>We can report the facts, for instance, Indigenous adult and youth apprehension and imprisonment rates, Aboriginal youth and adult suicide rates, coronial inquest findings and recommendations.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>We can interview witnesses, family members and representatives, police and prison officers, and other experts and report what they and other informed commentators say about the facts, consequences and causes of those deaths. </p></li>
<li><p>We can investigate and discern the patterns emerging from these deaths; the similar facts and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/jun/11/the-story-of-david-dungay-and-an-indigenous-death-in-custody">common factors</a>, the same systemic failures, the ongoing evidence of institutional racism.</p></li>
<li><p>Through our journalism we need to honour each person who has died, and try to bring some comfort to their affected families and communities.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>As investigative journalist Allan Clarke <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-06-28/covering-black-deaths-in-australia-led-me-to-a-breakdown/12390416">says</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Australia, we can do better and we must do better.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><em>See <a href="https://jeraa.org.au/listen-reporting-black-lives-matters/">here</a> for resources and guides for what we as journalists can do.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161412/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bonita Mason does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>George Floyd’s death and the US Black Lives Matter movement sparked extensive media attention. Why aren’t Australian Indigenous deaths in custody getting the same amount of media coverage?Bonita Mason, Senior Lecturer in Journalism, University of South AustraliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1429522020-07-20T11:39:29Z2020-07-20T11:39:29ZCutbacks at The Guardian: features are expensive but vital to journalism<p>There’s an old saying in journalism that readers might come for the news but they stay for the features.</p>
<p>In other words, you may have grabbed ‘em with the headlines – the “shock and the amaze on every page” stuff – but you win their hearts with the detail. The stories. The emotion. The stuff that stayed with you, perhaps, long after your paper went in the recycling bin.</p>
<p>Because good journalism is not just, as the news writers would have you believe, the “what”, “where”, “who” and “when”. That’s important. Of course it is. But what stays with you is the “why” and the “how”. That’s the essence of good feature writing and we seem to be in danger, in a generation or so, of losing it in our national and regional press. At a time when we arguably need it most.</p>
<p>The problem is that the accountants – the people who my old dad used to say knew the bloody price of everything but the value of nothing – are coming for the features. This is a well-trodden path in the grim world of newspaper cutbacks. </p>
<p>Features desks at the regional press have already been decimated as publishers like <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Reach+PLC+cuts&rlz=1C5CHFA_enGB778GB783&oq=Reach+PLC+cuts+&aqs=chrome..69i57j33.5478j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8">Reach plc</a> (formerly Trinity Mirror), <a href="https://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2020/news/newsquest-job-cuts-plan-revealed/">Newsquest</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-40727424">Johnston Press</a> have slashed costs to survive. There are all sorts of reasons for this, including the economically crippling drift online, the loss of advertisers and an audience now accustomed to getting its news for free. </p>
<p>And now it’s happening at the nationals. The Guardian has announced it will <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/jul/15/guardian-announces-plans-to-cut-180-jobs">cut 180 jobs</a>, which is 12% of its workforce. The Saturday paper – The Guardian’s best selling of the week, brimming with brilliantly told features and opinion – will bear the lion’s share.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="InstagramEmbed" data-react-props="{"url":"https://www.instagram.com/p/CCv-a96ABbp","accessToken":"127105130696839|b4b75090c9688d81dfd245afe6052f20"}"></div></p>
<h2>It’s all about money</h2>
<p>Saturday is by far the <a href="https://pressgazette.co.uk/guardian-saturday-edition-set-to-bear-brunt-of-cost-cuts-despite-being-biggest-sale-of-the-week/">biggest day of the week for print sales</a> for The Guardian, with a circulation 130% higher than on weekdays. A spokesperson for the paper said there were “exciting plans” for a new Saturday supplement, which would cover features, culture, books and lifestyle journalism.</p>
<p>I wonder if there is a world where multi-million-pound budget cuts and job losses lead to a better product? I don’t know of one. It’s certainly not journalism. So why go for the features? Why go for a paper’s soul, its beating heart, what it is known and highly regarded for? </p>
<p>Because of the money. A feature is a longer piece of writing. It is the news behind the news, perhaps, a patchwork quilt of people and views and emotions that cuts through the long grass of an issue and presents the reader with a neatly bundled editorial package that provides genuine insight. The news gives you the information. The feature tells you why it matters. It’s the meat on the bones.</p>
<p>If you’re thinking, “Aw, I really liked those five-page long reads, The Guide, Weekend, Review, the stuff I could pore over …”, then stop right there. Take a step back and think about what it takes to make them.</p>
<p>Features take time to produce. Great features are more detailed – involving, at times, many long interviews. They demand more space on the page and more words. They sometimes require expensive photoshoots or artwork to illustrate them. </p>
<p>Take, for instance, the recent <a href="https://www.vulture.com/article/michaela-coel-i-may-destroy-you.html?utm_source=tw&utm_medium=s1&utm_campaign=nym">New York Magazine profile</a> of the writer of the hit BBC comedy drama I May Destroy You, Michaela Coel. The piece was shared across social media, and praised for its insight, the quality of the writing and its presentation of Coel. It took writer E Alex Jung and Coel 14 hours of interviews, disregarding the time it took to write and for the photos to be taken, to be produced. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1280573639902007296"}"></div></p>
<h2>A balanced diet</h2>
<p>I was a feature writer for nearly 20 years. I wrote for my local paper, the Leicester Mercury. I was a man of little ambition. I was happy to write for the paper where I lived, the paper my mum and dad always bought and the one I delivered as a lad.</p>
<p>I was made redundant in 2016. The editor who gave us the heave-ho said they no longer wanted stories of more than 500 words. I’d won <a href="https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/spiked-column-by-sacked-star-writer-on-the-leicester-mercury-railed-against-risible-standard-of-clickbait-online-journalism/">Feature Writer of the Year the week before</a>. The Mercury’s features department – one of the best in regional journalism – was razed to the ground in this brave new feature-less world. It’s a familiar story, told over and over again in most newsrooms.</p>
<p>But has it worked? I’m not sure it has. It’s saved them money, sure. But at what cost? And was it a price worth paying? </p>
<p>A diet of news alone is not enough to grapple with the complexities and nuances of what is happening around the world. There is real value in features. The figures for the Saturday Guardian show that. </p>
<p>I hope that journalism – for all of its obvious faults – can find a route through this morass, a solution that can preserve the future of long-form feature writing. Because it does have a future. Readers still want long-form, detailed, absorbing writing. They want features. They know their value.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142952/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lee Marlow has been a member of the National Union of Journalists for more than 10 years. </span></em></p>The leading voice of the UK centrist left has announced that it shall be cutting its Saturday supplements in a bid to cut costs.Lee Marlow, Journalism Lecturer, De Montfort UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1418082020-07-02T12:57:06Z2020-07-02T12:57:06ZCoronavirus: BBC emerges as the UK’s clear favourite information source in new audience survey<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345082/original/file-20200701-159824-15nxuju.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C7%2C5220%2C3430&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Getting the right information during the pandemic has been a matter of life and death.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">FivosVas via Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>News media have been especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic,
as good quality information has literally become “<a href="https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/coronavirus-covid-19-and-the-news-industry-everything-you-need-to-know/">a matter of life and death</a>”. </p>
<p>New Ofcom data confirms that we are <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/research-and-data/internet-and-on-demand-research/online-nation">increasingly reliant on the internet</a> and that it has become ever more important for accessing “news, information and civic processes”. But given this shift online, which news brands have been the go-to defaults during this period of government guidance, stark daily statistics and intensified scrutiny?</p>
<p>Between April 28 and May 5, we surveyed 1,268 people with a mix of demographics, including a wide range of age groups. This was part of a project by journalist <a href="https://uk.linkedin.com/in/shirish-kulkarni-9a56b751">Shirish Kulkarni</a> that is an element of <a href="https://clwstwr.org.uk/">Clwstwr</a>, a programme supporting innovation in news and screen in Wales supported by researchers from Cardiff and Swansea universities. The results of the survey have not been published in a peer-reviewed journal and should be taken as indicative.</p>
<p>Respondents were asked to name their three top news providers – and while COVID-19 was not mentioned specifically, the question was posed during a seven-day period when the number of UK COVID deaths <a href="https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/">increased from 25,319 to 28,446</a>. Where our respondents were getting their news about the pandemic will, we imagine, have influenced their responses. </p>
<p>Inevitably there were some vague answers such as “newspapers”, “TV”, “the internet” and so on – and all such responses were assigned as “other”. In all, these accounted for just over 4% of the 3,520 individual choices.</p>
<p>Variations on a theme were coded generically – for example, the Mail Online was coded as the “Daily Mail”, while Good Morning Britain was coded as “ITV”. Gateways to news brands – such as Facebook, Twitter or social media – were omitted from this part of our analysis, since we were more interested in who the main news providers were, rather than the route that consumers had followed to get to them.</p>
<p>We conclude that legacy news brands have remained extremely resilient across the crisis, even despite ongoing debates about the quality of their scrutiny of the government’s pandemic policies. The headline finding is that the BBC is the UK’s overwhelming news provider of choice. </p>
<p>Indeed, more generally during the COVID-19 crisis, viewing figures for television news <a href="http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/">have been boosted</a>, not least since the daily news conferences became central to the UK public’s understanding of the how the pandemic developed.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345062/original/file-20200701-37-qzas5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345062/original/file-20200701-37-qzas5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345062/original/file-20200701-37-qzas5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345062/original/file-20200701-37-qzas5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345062/original/file-20200701-37-qzas5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345062/original/file-20200701-37-qzas5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345062/original/file-20200701-37-qzas5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345062/original/file-20200701-37-qzas5l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">BBC the clear favourite among survey participants.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thomas et al</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While the BBC accounted for almost one-third of all selections, the next highest – the Guardian – was chosen by around one in seven, meaning that the corporation was the top selection by a significant margin.</p>
<p>Aside from discussions addressing the editorial positioning of these top two, this seems a considerable validation for journalism where – in theory at least – quality and public service are prioritised over profit.</p>
<p>The more extreme editorial approaches of the Daily Mail and The Sun are less popular within our sample, indicating perhaps, that in times of crisis, all ages might be drawn towards more moderate, considered journalism.</p>
<p>The BBC of course, is consistently cited by Ofcom as the UK’s <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0027/157914/uk-news-consumption-2019-report.pdf">most consumed news source</a>. But where our findings diverge from Ofcom’s research is that far from showing that younger audiences might be <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/features-and-news/bbc-risking-lost-generation">losing touch with the BBC</a>, we suggest that the corporation remains resolutely popular with the under-24s. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345063/original/file-20200701-159811-1hqrc1y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345063/original/file-20200701-159811-1hqrc1y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/345063/original/file-20200701-159811-1hqrc1y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345063/original/file-20200701-159811-1hqrc1y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345063/original/file-20200701-159811-1hqrc1y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=388&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345063/original/file-20200701-159811-1hqrc1y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345063/original/file-20200701-159811-1hqrc1y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/345063/original/file-20200701-159811-1hqrc1y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=487&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">No sign of younger viewers shunning the BBC.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Thomas et al</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Moreover, the report said, there was <a href="https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/features-and-news/bbc-risking-lost-generation">no evidence</a> that younger audiences were “increasingly using social media and services such as Apple News or Upday”. Indeed, the combined mentions of “social media”, “Twitter”, “Facebook”, “Instagram”, “Apple” and “Upday” account for only 5.5% of choices, around one-sixth of the number choosing the BBC. </p>
<p>The popularity of the BBC across all age groups is another reminder that the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, will need to tread carefully towards any <a href="https://inews.co.uk/news/politics/tv-licence-fee-bbc-boris-johnson-subscription-service-398815">licence fee reform</a>. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/bbc-licence-fee-culture-minister-hints-at-a-future-in-competition-with-netflix-for-uk-public-broadcaster-125469">BBC licence fee: culture minister hints at a future in competition with Netflix for UK public broadcaster</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Sky’s emergence as a clear second-choice broadcaster validates its transition – from the point of view of audiences at least – from previously dominant associations with “<a href="https://www.economist.com/blighty/2011/03/03/the-sky-and-the-limit">football, films and American dramas</a>”. </p>
<p>But while our findings spell good news for broadcasters, other news providers and parts of the audience have much less to celebrate. US news channel CNN (1.3% of choices) was just as popular as all UK local news media combined – a stark reminder that local news often struggles for oxygen within a crowded market.</p>
<p>Only two of the top 11 news brands (BBC and ITV) are obliged to provide news from across the whole of the UK. Healthcare is devolved and it seems reasonable to assume that people most need access to news specific to their own regions, lives and families.</p>
<p>While our findings reflect that even despite the steady migration towards digital, legacy brands remain strong, they also reflect a more generic approach from news audiences that result in a deficit of more pertinent, local information.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/141808/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Thomas receives funding from the ESRC albeit not for this particular project. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marlen Komorowski is affiliated with Cardiff University and Vrije Universiteit Brussel. At Cardiff University she is funded by AHRC.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Justin Lewis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A survey of 1,268 people has found that the BBC is popular across all age groups. But all media needs to pay more attention to devolved and local news.Richard Thomas, Senior Lecturer, Media and Communication, Swansea UniversityJustin Lewis, Professor of Communication, Cardiff UniversityMarlen Komorowski, Impact Analyst at Clwstwr & Senior Research at imec-SMIT-VUB, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1379062020-05-05T12:49:14Z2020-05-05T12:49:14ZVE Day as reported by British newspapers: relief, joy and a saucy comic strip<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332667/original/file-20200505-83769-hw9r8d.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C48%2C4601%2C3400&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Daily Herald's front page for VE Day: 80% of the UK public read a newspaper during the war.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Philip Bird LRPS CPAGB</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1945, Britons were the world’s most enthusiastic newspaper readers. The habit of buying daily national newspapers extended throughout every social class. About 80% of British families <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1461670X.2012.680810">read one of the mass circulation London dailies</a> and two-thirds of middle-class families also bought a serious title such as The Times, Manchester Guardian or The Scotsman.</p>
<p>The BBC is rightly given the lion’s share of credit for bolstering the British wartime effort on the Home Front. But newspapers also served massive audiences of engaged readers and, crucially, they could and did perform roles the BBC could not. Newspapers were better able to hold the wartime government to account on issues that mattered to ordinary Britons. Examples of this include coverage of the overseas evacuation of children, air raid shelter policy and food rationing. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332674/original/file-20200505-83721-bv3aeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332674/original/file-20200505-83721-bv3aeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332674/original/file-20200505-83721-bv3aeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332674/original/file-20200505-83721-bv3aeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332674/original/file-20200505-83721-bv3aeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=762&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332674/original/file-20200505-83721-bv3aeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332674/original/file-20200505-83721-bv3aeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332674/original/file-20200505-83721-bv3aeg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How the Mirror reported VE Day.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daily Mirror</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some also brought a sense of irreverent fun to alleviate the hardship of what the Daily Mirror, most successful of the wartime titles, described on VE Day as “five years eight months and four days of the bloodiest war in history”.</p>
<h2>Britain’s ‘secret weapon’</h2>
<p>But such candour about the endurance that brought victory was not the element in the Mirror’s editorial mix that did most to attract left-leaning servicemen and made it the most popular daily for Britain’s fighting men and their families. </p>
<p>That was sex appeal delivered with a dose of demotic humour in the form of the cartoon beauty Jane. The cartoon strip had been created in 1932 by the cartoonist Norman Pett as “<a href="https://thecartoonmuseum.wordpress.com/2018/02/02/janes-journal-the-diary-of-a-bright-young-thing-1932-1959/">Jane’s Journal, the Diary of a Bright Young Thing</a>”. Pett had originally used his wife Mary as the model for Jane but as the war advanced the role was taken over by former champion swimmer and model Chrystabel Leighton Porter. </p>
<p>She became a potent symbol of British cheerfulness and <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1377473/Death-of-Jane-the-model-who-helped-win-war.html">Winston Churchill described her</a> as the country’s “secret weapon”. Jane was certainly the British serviceman’s favourite and, on VE Day, Pett took the unprecedented step of portraying her entirely naked.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332660/original/file-20200505-83730-1p9qn2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332660/original/file-20200505-83730-1p9qn2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332660/original/file-20200505-83730-1p9qn2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332660/original/file-20200505-83730-1p9qn2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332660/original/file-20200505-83730-1p9qn2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=768&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332660/original/file-20200505-83730-1p9qn2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332660/original/file-20200505-83730-1p9qn2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332660/original/file-20200505-83730-1p9qn2l.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=965&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Jane’ was originally based on artist Norman Pett’s wife, Mary, before model Chrystabel Leighton Porter took over.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daily Mirror via Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the cartoon published on page seven, Jane first appears in full army uniform seated on a table in a bar. She holds a glass of champagne in her left hand. A male soldier friend stands in the doorway carrying a Union Jack. Raising her glass, Jane declares: “Victory at Last, Smiler! I shall soon be out of my uniform now!”. In the next frame Jane is mobbed by a group of British squaddies all demanding “a souvenir” of their favourite pin-up girl. In the final frame, Jane emerges from the crush naked except for a loosely held but strategically draped Union Jack. Smiler jokes: “You’ve said it Jane - You’ve been demobbed already”. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332661/original/file-20200505-83721-1qm1amu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/332661/original/file-20200505-83721-1qm1amu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=253&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332661/original/file-20200505-83721-1qm1amu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=253&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332661/original/file-20200505-83721-1qm1amu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=253&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332661/original/file-20200505-83721-1qm1amu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332661/original/file-20200505-83721-1qm1amu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/332661/original/file-20200505-83721-1qm1amu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=318&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">VE Day or not, this hasn’t aged well.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daily Mirror</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This clearly passed as humour for the audience of the day.</p>
<p>Though far short of the Mirror’s antics with Jane, even the decorous BBC played with sexual humour in its wartime programming. Mrs Mopp, Cleaning Lady, one of the stars of the popular comedy <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00lnhq6">It’s That Man Again</a> (ITMA), was popularly known for her catchphrase “Can I do you now, sir!”</p>
<h2>‘Concourse of joy’</h2>
<p>If cartoon nakedness did not appeal to readers of the popular Conservative Daily Mail, its proprietor, the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/media-families-22-the-rothermeres-1250650.html">second Viscount Rothermere</a> and his low-profile editor Bob Prew certainly understood that pictures gave them an advantage with which radio news could not compete. The Mail’s banner headline declared “VE Day - It’s all over. All quiet till 9pm then the London crowds went mad in the West End”. The front page picture depicted huge crowds in Piccadilly Circus. Beneath it appeared the caption: “The face of Victory – Daily Mail pictures give you a vivid impression of the great concourse of joy.”</p>
<p>Throughout their reporting on May 8 1945, newspapers reflected public frustration that the official announcement of the end of hostilities in Europe had been postponed. The surrender of all German forces had been agreed at Reims on May 7. But the chief of the German high command, Field-Marshall Keitel, did not sign the formal instrument of unconditional surrender until shortly before midnight on May 8. </p>
<p>Working throughout the evening of the May 7 among the crowds in central London, Daily Mail reporter Guy Ramsey captured the popular reaction to this delay: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>London, dead from six until nine, suddenly broke into victory life last night. Suddenly, spontaneously, deliriously. The people of London, denied VE Day officially, held their own jubilation. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the VE Day edition of the elite, establishment Times, a parliamentary correspondent diligently recorded why May 8 is recognised to this day as the official end of the war in Europe. Churchill would make “the official announcement” at 3pm. There would be simultaneous announcements in Washington DC and Moscow. </p>
<p>The Times reported the previous evening’s festivities with restrained and decorous pride: </p>
<p>“Although by 9 o'clock last night the expectation of a victory declaration by the Prime Minister had been dispelled by official warnings of its postponement, civilians and service men and women thronged the road and pavements carrying flags and paper hats. Cheering demonstrators climbed the roofs of buses. Cars trying to press through the crowds emerged with dozens of men and women clinging to the bonnets.</p>
<p>After six years of blackouts, the Times was thrilled to note that "Large bonfires ringed London and most public buildings were floodlit”.</p>
<h2>On a serious note</h2>
<p>At the smaller, more graduate-oriented – though equally liberal – Manchester Guardian, an international flavour was apparent. “Nations Rejoice at Victory” was the headline on one prominent news story. This recorded that King Gustav of Sweden had broadcast “warmest congratulations to Denmark and Norway now that our Nordic neighbours have once again become free and independent nations”. </p>
<p>The Guardian paid particular attention to neutral Ireland, where only days earlier the Taoiseach, Eamon de Valera, had called on Dr Hempel, the German ambassador to <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/news/de-valera-s-expression-of-sympathy-to-diplomat-condemned-1.17065">express condolences for Hitler</a> who had committed suicide on April 30. The Guardian reflected on the deep divisions apparent in Irish society noting that, on VE Day, people in central Dublin “‘were surprised to see students of Trinity College hoisting the Union Jack and the Red Flag over the main entrance to the University”.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Students assembled at the windows and sang 'God Save the King’ and ‘Rule Britannia’. This provoked an outburst of booing from the crowd. The Guardian noted that ‘police were drafted in and windows were broken’.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The Guardian also recorded a note of caution that was present throughout Britain’s wartime press on VE Day. “We dare not forget” it reminded readers “that war still rages over a quarter of the globe, that British, Americans and Chinese are being wounded or killed every hour of the day and that many of the men who have won this victory in Europe will have again to screw their courage to the sticking point and risk their lives in the Far East”. </p>
<p>Small wonder so many of them were pleased to be temporarily distracted by Jane’s cartoon antics in the Daily Mirror.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/137906/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Tim Luckhurst has received research funding from News UK and Ireland Ltd. He is a member of the Society of Editors </span></em></p>Britain’s newspaper’s reported some wild scenes as the nation celebrated, but none wilder than in the Daily Mirror’s cartoon strip.Tim Luckhurst, Principal of South College, Durham University. He is a newspaper historian and an academic member of the University's Centre for Modern Conflicts and Cultures., Durham UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1180042019-05-30T12:33:01Z2019-05-30T12:33:01ZClimate change or climate crisis? To really engage people, the media should talk about solutions<p>Days after the British parliament <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-48126677">declared</a> a “climate emergency”, The Guardian <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/17/why-the-guardian-is-changing-the-language-it-uses-about-the-environment">announced</a> that it would start using “stronger” language to discuss the environment. Its updated style guide states that “climate change” no longer accurately reflects the seriousness of the situation and journalists are advised to use “climate emergency”, “climate crisis” or “climate breakdown” instead.</p>
<p>Though it may seem inconsequential, language choices really do <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/17524030903529749">matter</a>. How we label an issue determines how we frame it. Back in 2003, Frank Luntz told the US Bush administration that it’s time to start talking about “climate change” instead of “global warming”, because <a href="https://www.motherjones.com/files/LuntzResearch_environment.pdf">the former sounds less frightening</a>. Explaining The Guardian’s decision, editor-in-chief Katharine Viner <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/17/why-the-guardian-is-changing-the-language-it-uses-about-the-environment">said</a> that “climate change” sounds “gentle” when in fact scientists are describing “a catastrophe”.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1130815580049743873"}"></div></p>
<p>While scientists’ responses to this move have been <a href="https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-changes-to-guardian-style-guide-on-reporting-of-climate-change/">mixed</a>, The Guardian’s changing language is prompting <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/may/24/media-outlets-guardian-reconsider-language-climate">reviews</a> in newsrooms around the world. In Norway, the Morgenbladet recently <a href="https://morgenbladet.no/aktuelt/2019/05/ut-med-klimaendringer-det-er-en-klimakrise">announced</a> that it will follow The Guardian’s example.</p>
<p>But how novel is The Guardian’s use of “strong” language and what could be its impact?</p>
<h2>The war on climate change</h2>
<p>An opinion piece published in The Guardian a few days after its style guide was updated <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/may/22/climate-crisis-ed-murrow-bill-moyers">argued</a> that “the climate crisis” needs to be covered in the same way as “the start of the second world war” and that the duty of the news media is to “awaken the world to the catastrophe looming ahead of it”.</p>
<p>The Guardian and other leading <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-009-9785-x">British newspapers</a> already have a history of reporting on the environment in ways that resemble covering a protracted state of armed hostility. Op-eds and editorials published in The Guardian <a href="https://www.routledge.com/The-Role-of-Language-in-the-Climate-Change-Debate-1st-Edition/Flottum/p/book/9781138209596">have often used metaphors</a> to talk about climate change in terms of war. We have <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/15/to-take-on-climate-change-we-need-to-change-our-vocabulary">read</a> many times of carbon tax proposal “battles” led by “eco-warriors”.</p>
<p>War metaphors might yield <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10584-009-9785-x">positive results</a>. They may create the necessary conditions for politicians to push ambitious proposals for dealing with climate change, the same way the threat of invasion galvanised British resolve to mass produce weapons and implement rationing in World War II.</p>
<p>But the “strong” language of “breakdown”, “crisis”, “emergency” and “war” may have unintended consequences.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277189/original/file-20190530-69067-19bk444.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/277189/original/file-20190530-69067-19bk444.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277189/original/file-20190530-69067-19bk444.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277189/original/file-20190530-69067-19bk444.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277189/original/file-20190530-69067-19bk444.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277189/original/file-20190530-69067-19bk444.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/277189/original/file-20190530-69067-19bk444.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Extinction Rebellion activists declare a ‘climate and ecological emergency’ in London, April 2019.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/london-uk-19th-april-2019-climate-1381329668">John Gomez/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Evoking war instils fear in readers, and much has been written about these “<a href="https://oxfordre.com/climatescience/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190228620.001.0001/acrefore-9780190228620-e-386">fear appeals</a>” and climate change. Some suggest that <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2100086/">scaring the public about climate change</a> will motivate individual action and stimulate support for wider social change. Even if this strategy <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17524032.2017.1289111">succeeded</a> some of the time, wars are destructive and divisive. Addressing climate change means working together.</p>
<p>Fear appeals might also have <a href="https://sciencepolicy.colorado.edu/students/envs_4100/oneill_2009.pdf">the opposite effect</a> to what is intended, causing indifference, apathy and feelings of powerlessness. When people see a problem as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2016.1145633">too big</a>, they might stop believing that anything can be done to solve it. If fear is to motivate people, then studies suggest that <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/wcc.2">a solution must also be presented</a> to focus minds on action.</p>
<p>Surveys of Norwegians aged 16–17 conducted in 2013-14 showed that young people wanted to learn about the positives – how they could contribute to reducing the dramatic consequences of climate change. It was their <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13676261.2016.1145633?scroll=top&needAccess=true">optimism about the future</a> that drove their engagement with the issue and their commitment to act, not fear.</p>
<p>As millions of young people worldwide join Greta Thunberg on the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/climate-strikes-66457">school climate strikes</a>, is there any doubt that people want the chance to apply their skills and passion to solving climate change?</p>
<h2>Beyond the crisis</h2>
<p>Many “wars” have been declared by politicians – on drugs, obesity and poverty – which were fought <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/15/to-take-on-climate-change-we-need-to-change-our-vocabulary">on the pages</a> of newspapers. Negativity has traditionally been key to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1461670X.2016.1150193">defining what is news</a>. News tends to be about bad things that are happening in the world. After all, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/17/steven-pinker-media-negative-news">we never hear a journalist tell us they’re</a> “reporting live from a country where a war hasn’t broken out”.</p>
<p>Informing people about wars, crises and emergencies is an important part of the media’s role, but we may have reached “<a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/negative-news-bbc-charlie-beckett-positive-good-stories_n_6706128">peak negativity</a>”, where the news is so full of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/feb/17/steven-pinker-media-negative-news">serious crises</a> that people are <a href="https://www.ncvo.org.uk/guide-to-constructive-journalism">increasingly avoiding it</a>. They are left feeling disengaged, demotivated and depressed about the state of the world and their role in it.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.ncvo.org.uk/guide-to-constructive-journalism">Constructive journalism</a> should take a solution-focused approach that covers problems with the appropriate seriousness, but also answers the inevitable “<a href="https://vimeo.com/206078297">what now?</a>”, by describing how similar problems have been addressed elsewhere in the world. Awareness of climate change is <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/01/climate-change-awareness-polls-show-rising-concern-for-global-warming/">high and growing</a>, but the <a href="https://theconversation.com/imagine-newsletter-researchers-think-of-a-world-with-climate-action-113443">potential solutions need more attention</a>.</p>
<p>In May, The Guardian joined the <a href="https://www.cjr.org/watchdog/climate-crisis-media.php">Covering Climate Now project</a>, which aims to identify and share coverage of climate change that is as much about solutions as about detailing the problem itself. Perhaps this should have been the story that grabbed the headlines instead of redefining the “climate crisis”.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=140&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/263883/original/file-20190314-28475-1mzxjur.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=176&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
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<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/imagine-newsletter-researchers-think-of-a-world-with-climate-action-113443?utm_source=TCUK&utm_medium=linkback&utm_campaign=TCUKengagement&utm_content=Imagineheader1118004">Click here to subscribe to our climate action newsletter. Climate change is inevitable. Our response to it isn’t.</a></em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/118004/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dimitrinka Atanasova is a Visiting Researcher at the LINGCLIM research group at the University of Bergen.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kjersti Fløttum has received funding from the Research Council of Norway and the University of Bergen, as head of the research group LINGCLIM.</span></em></p>Strengthening the language on climate change can help, but journalists should cover its inspiring solutions, too.Dimitrinka Atanasova, Lecturer in Linguistics, Lancaster UniversityKjersti Fløttum, Professor of Linguistics, University of BergenLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1074532018-11-22T15:06:52Z2018-11-22T15:06:52ZFuture of journalism: papers must deliver value – to readers not shareholders<p>The conflict that exists within the organisations that own Britain’s newspapers, and the strategies that they employ in running their businesses, was recently brought into sharp focus. One of the key regional players, Johnston Press, went from publicly-listed administration to a <a href="https://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2018/news/johnston-press-under-new-ownership-with-35m-cash-injection-and-135m-less-debt/">controversial, private rebirth</a> within 24 hours, prompting a wider debate around the state of the industry.</p>
<p>The company, which owns major regionals such as The Scotsman and the Yorkshire Post as well as the nationally popular i newspaper, announced <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/nov/16/owner-of-the-scotsman-and-i-newspapers-enters-administration">on November 16</a> that it was in administration only to reveal the following day it had <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-46243622">been bought out by its debtors</a> and would continue to operate as before but under the new name of JPIMedia.</p>
<p>While it undoubtedly leaves the newspaper titles in a healthier financial position for now, whether or not any optimism will be long-lasting, given the state of the UK’s print newspaper market, is a matter of some conjecture.</p>
<p>In September 2018, I made a submission to the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/call-for-evidence-on-sustainable-high-quality-journalism-in-the-uk">Cairncross Review</a> – a government initiative to examine the options for securing a sustainable future for high quality journalism. The events of the past week have led me back to the following extract:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>During the past decade of declining revenues, the traditional local news publishers have used a smoke and mirrors approach to mask their editorial cutbacks. News content has become more regionalised and less relevant, patch offices and receptions have been closing, while titles have continued to be branded as local. There are understandable business reasons for this happening, but these public limited companies have always had profits at their core, often prioritising their shareholders over their readers.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This tension remains at the heart of many newspaper companies – and it is also a parallel to the historic and counter-intuitive decision-making that still remains when it comes to print and web content.</p>
<p>If everyone in the industry – regional or national – knew then what they know now about the challenges faced with monetising their websites through a commercial base then I’m sure the landscape would be very different. The assumption that display advertisers, classifieds, property and motors would migrate seamlessly into digital was fatally flawed because the traditional media giants did not anticipate the competition that would spring up. They had no track record of overcoming it by making their own offerings better than the rest.</p>
<p>And while they were struggling to compete online, time and cash should have been reinvested into the printed products which, while on a declining sales trend, still remain profitable and well-read by certain key demographics. </p>
<p>What the events surrounding the Johnston Press have done is to complete a jigsaw whose outline was already well-known – that the eye-watering return on sales figures pocketed during the 1990s and 2000s were part of a recipe for the mess the industry now finds itself in.</p>
<h2>Printing money</h2>
<p>So what value remains in printing traditional newspapers, as opposed to an online-only approach favoured by titles such as The Independent?</p>
<p>There is plenty of <a href="https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/06/14/abcs-uk-national-newspapers-continue-suffer-circulation-decline">evidence</a> that demonstrates the continuing demise of print. But the value of print is not purely economic in nature, and should not be placed in a silo away from the value it brings to news brands as a whole.</p>
<p>There is a negative correlation between the popularity of a newspaper and the trust the reader has in it. If you were to place the <a href="https://www.pressgazette.co.uk/sun-remains-most-read-uk-newsbrand-as-new-pamco-data-shows-guardian-and-observer-most-trusted/">sales and trust rankings</a> of the main ten titles in the UK side-by-side you’d see the order turned on its head. Trust is a valuable commodity that not only gives credibility to the printed product but also pervades into the perception of the online offering of the same brand.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1065538310335070209"}"></div></p>
<p>Take the Guardian. With one of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/oct/31/guardian-rated-most-trusted-newspaper-brand-in-uk-study">highest trust ratings</a> for a national newspaper – and despite its <a href="https://www.thedrum.com/news/2018/03/15/newspaper-abcs-guardian-rebrand-fails-boost-print-sales">relatively low print sales</a> – it has been able to leverage that emotional attachment and use it to develop an online contribution scheme that will enable it to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/membership/2018/nov/12/katharine-viner-guardian-million-reader-funding">break even</a> by April 2019. While the printed product may appear to be in decline, it still acts as a firm foundation for the overall news brand as it seeks to evolve.</p>
<p>Newspapers also remain an integral part of the profits in many media portfolios. Within Johnston Press, the printed offshoot of The Independent, the <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/topic/i-newspaper">i newspaper</a>, was the jewel in the crown, bought for £24m in 2016 and now being <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/oct/11/johnston-press-puts-itself-up-for-sale-i-newspaper-yorkshire-post">touted at a value of £60m</a>. At a regional level, concentrating resources and a focus on print remains a core and profitable component of several groups, especially those in private ownership, such as <a href="https://iliffemedia.co.uk/">Iliffe Media</a>, which owns a range of local newspapers.</p>
<h2>For the many</h2>
<p>But the perceived value of the newspaper format should not be limited to the balance sheet – there is value for the reader, too. And sometimes it takes a holistic view to fully appreciate what this consists of. While the web may be ideal for delivering bespoke content that can be accessed via search, the newspaper allows people an opportunity for a deep dive into the news – not only reading the stories they are primarily concerned with, but stumbling across material they would never have known about otherwise.</p>
<p>Stories that educate and inform them about their community, their country, their world. Curated for them by trained professionals, rather than through the vagaries of any unregulated social platform. Providing what society needs rather than what an audience wants.</p>
<p>There is a compelling argument that <a href="https://inforrm.org/2017/08/04/newspapers-how-near-is-the-end-brian-cathcart/">printed newspapers will cease to exist</a>, or may remain in existence as a niche offering. But freed from the shackles of shareholdings – and with a model that promotes a long-term sustainable future over short-term profits – there is an equally compelling argument that newspapers, and the journalism within them, can continue to be a universally valuable part of the media landscape for some time to come.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107453/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Bradley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>There is still value in newsprint, but newspaper owners need to invest in their communities or face extinction.Mark Bradley, Director of Postgraduate Studies, Journalism Studies, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1054592018-11-13T12:56:19Z2018-11-13T12:56:19ZHow new media recycles the mainstream press<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/241845/original/file-20181023-169831-1otz2tz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Horoscope via Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>What are we to make of the hashtag #BoycottTheGuardian which was recently trending on Twitter? Whether we agree with the sentiment or not, the intention behind it is pretty clear. The hashtag is – like its predecessor, #StopFundingHate, which was aimed at getting people to stop buying or advertising in the Daily Mail – an attempt by social media activists to curtail the power of newspapers through a campaign of an organised shaming. It is the new media taking on the old. </p>
<p>The latest offensive began in early September with supporters of Jeremy Corbyn becoming increasingly miffed with the Guardian’s failure to fully embrace the Labour leader. For a few days the organised “twitterstorm” failed to break until, suddenly, the campaign burst into life with the <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2018/10/guardian-vs-canary-tribune-rises-dead-and-sitting-out-people-s-march">endorsement of Kerry-Anne Mendoza</a>, the editor-in-chief of the Canary, the hard-left, pro-Corbyn blog. Rather inconveniently, Mendoza had also been <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/londoners-diary/the-londoner-canary-boss-breaks-guardian-blockade-a3948296.html">invited to speak at the Guardian’s building</a> that very same week.</p>
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<p>Since its launch in 2015, the Canary has positioned itself as an independent outlet, free of proprietorial influence and in opposition to many of the values of the mainstream media (or “MSM” as it likes to call it). The Canary is, moreover, guided by an aspiration to “<a href="https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/how-news-outlet-the-canary-aims-to-diversify-media-/s2/a576960/">disrupt the status quo of journalism</a>” and – while the ongoing boycott of a 197-year-old liberal institution might be evidence of this intention – a deeper analysis of the Canary reveals something more awkward. </p>
<p>In June 2018 we conducted an in-depth quantitative analysis of the Canary and its journalistic sources. The study – tracking every article published over a ten-day period – revealed that in ostracising the Guardian, the Canary is, in effect, amputating a vital organ. Our study found that more than half of the Canary’s stories (55.2%) contained material that had actually originated in the Guardian. This can range from a link back to an earlier Guardian article, to provide background or context: to more substantial references that reuses statistics, facts and full quotes from previous Guardian articles. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.thecanary.co/opinion/2018/06/14/a-year-on-from-the-grenfell-tower-fire-the-inaction-from-the-council-and-the-government-is-a-disgrace/">This article</a> about Grenfell Tower is a classic example. It makes 12 references to Guardian material, reusing background information about the disaster, facts about the inquiry and the political context of the situation from the Guardian, as well as material from the BBC, Evening Standard and the Independent. The article also uses two quotes, filleted from different articles by Guardian journalist Harriet Sherwood. And although the site links back to the Guardian in each instance – crucially – the actual words “the Guardian” do not appear anywhere in or near the quotes – or indeed in the entirety of the piece. The casual reader, scanning the Canary on their phone, would be none the wiser to the origin of the material.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242025/original/file-20181024-48727-17ddt0i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242025/original/file-20181024-48727-17ddt0i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242025/original/file-20181024-48727-17ddt0i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242025/original/file-20181024-48727-17ddt0i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242025/original/file-20181024-48727-17ddt0i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=358&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242025/original/file-20181024-48727-17ddt0i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242025/original/file-20181024-48727-17ddt0i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242025/original/file-20181024-48727-17ddt0i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">More than half the stories in the Canary contain material sourced from the Guardian.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sean Dodson, Leeds Beckett</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>Regular readers of the Canary might be surprised that the blog supported the boycott. It is meant to be – broadly speaking– on the same side as the Guardian. The titles share a great many values – especially around issues of identity and social justice – and more than half of the Guardian’s “core readership” (51%) <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/aug/03/analysing-the-balance-of-our-jeremy-corbyn-coverage">nominated Corbyn</a> as their preferred Labour leader, according to research conducted in 2015 by the Guardian’s consumer insight team.</p>
<p>But the issue goes deeper. Despite the Canary’s well-publicised mistrust of the “MSM”, our study reveals that the blog routinely recycles its content from across the media. The study revealed that of the 1,471 sources of information that we identified, just 18 (1.2%) were primary sources (that is, material gathered exclusively by journalists working for the Canary). When statements from unnamed sources (typically spokespeople in written statements and press releases) were further stripped out – just 0.6% of the Canary’s material came from actual interviews. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242062/original/file-20181024-71026-rr8rb2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242062/original/file-20181024-71026-rr8rb2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242062/original/file-20181024-71026-rr8rb2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242062/original/file-20181024-71026-rr8rb2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242062/original/file-20181024-71026-rr8rb2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=356&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242062/original/file-20181024-71026-rr8rb2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242062/original/file-20181024-71026-rr8rb2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242062/original/file-20181024-71026-rr8rb2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Canary’s information is overwhelmingly sourced from the mainstream media.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sean Dodson, Leeds Beckett University</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>It isn’t just the Canary that is addicted to recycled news. A follow up study – to be published later this year – of its “alt-right” opposite, Breitbart London, demonstrates that the two sites are remarkably parallel, as are countless other blogs that similarly echo the mainstream media. Like the Canary, Breitbart uses few primary sources, relying instead on recycling “MSM” material and secondhand embedded tweets, while all the time moaning about the power of “big media”.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242027/original/file-20181024-48727-1u6kh9m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242027/original/file-20181024-48727-1u6kh9m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/242027/original/file-20181024-48727-1u6kh9m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242027/original/file-20181024-48727-1u6kh9m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242027/original/file-20181024-48727-1u6kh9m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=371&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242027/original/file-20181024-48727-1u6kh9m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242027/original/file-20181024-48727-1u6kh9m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/242027/original/file-20181024-48727-1u6kh9m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Media sources recycled by the Canary.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sean Dodson, Leeds Beckett University</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<h2>Frankenstein news</h2>
<p>Although the decline of independent reporting is most established in the “alt-media”, the MSM has long had problems of its own. In a longitudinal study spanning 20 years <a href="https://orca.cf.ac.uk/18439/1/Quality%20%26%20Independence%20of%20British%20Journalism.pdf">Cardiff University reported in 2008</a> that pressure for mainstream journalists to produce ever more copy has also increased their reliance on recycled material. Indeed, news “aggregation” – the practice of taking information from other published sources and displayed in a “<a href="https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/32174?show=full">single abbreviated space</a>” such as a live blog or a listicle – has become a habit that all media outlets practice widely.</p>
<p>The Mail Online, the third most popular news source on the internet in the UK, according to the <a href="https://www.alexa.com/topsites/countries/GB">Alexa Traffic Rank</a>, is a routine recycler. The paper’s “sidebar of shame” (the column on the right-hand side of the website that reports celebrity news and photos) borrows liberally from celebrity magazines, primetime chat and other newspapers. The Guardian’s Politics Live blog also sources a great deal of content from elsewhere – especially Twitter. But there is a difference – Politics Live also includes source material from many of the Guardian’s reports: firsthand attributable quotes gathered and tested by trained reporters. </p>
<p>Some have begun to call this the phenomena of habitual recycling “<a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/1369118X.2017.1313884">Frankenstein news</a>”.
The <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Andrew_Duffy2">ethnographist Andrew Duffy</a>, of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, has observed at firsthand how journalists are more reliant on secondhand news. Techniques of <a href="https://repositories.lib.utexas.edu/handle/2152/32174">“curation” and “aggregation”</a> are in the ascendancy at the expense of independent reporting. But while journalists have always borrowed and copied – it’s not called the “press pack” for nothing – our research indicates that the newer “alt-media” titles are abandoning independent reporting in favour of critiquing material that has been gathered by others. All perfectly legal, of course, under the long established concept of “fair dealing.”</p>
<h2>Political-media complex</h2>
<p>Kerry-Ann Mendoza declined the opportunity to comment for this article – but, to be fair, the Canary’s content is at times very good. The blog has given voice to many unrepresented elements of society. It has championed the <a href="https://www.thecanary.co/uk/2018/05/31/judges-just-forced-the-dwp-to-review-the-benefit-claims-of-countless-disabled-people/">cause of the disabled with some skill</a>, harried the Department of Work and Pensions over <a href="https://www.thecanary.co/uk/2018/06/20/the-dwp-would-probably-prefer-you-didnt-see-these-eye-watering-figures/">its problematic policy of universal credit</a> and has been successful in investigating the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jun/01/channel-4-leads-the-way-on-tory-election-claims">claims of electoral fraud by the Conservative Party</a></p>
<p>But our research indicates that, like much of internet journalism, the Canary and Breitbart are not quite so independent from the political-media complex as they like to boast. Their failure to gather much of their own source material, in the form of on-the-record interviews, makes them dependent on others to do so. By avoiding the interview, as our analysis indicates, they are denying themselves a chief tool of journalism and are dependent on the very MSM they profess to <a href="https://twitter.com/themendozawoman/status/825072918002544641">hate</a> . </p>
<p>The Canary might have been cutting its beak off to spite its face in continuing to boycott the Guardian. But without The old newspaper’s stories to source from, perhaps it will finally resort to gathering a few more scoops of its own.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/105459/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sean Dodson is the co-author of a new book: Anti-Social Media? The Impact on Journalism and Society which is published by Abramis on October 26.</span></em></p>Despite their derision, media outlets such as the Canary and Breitbart, still source much of their information from the mainstream press.Sean Dodson, Postgraduate leader, Journalism, Leeds Beckett UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1032432018-10-10T22:42:43Z2018-10-10T22:42:43ZMedia Files: Guardian Australia’s Katharine Murphy and former MP David Feeney on the digital disruption of media and politics<p>Today on Media Files, a podcast about the major issues in the media, we’re taking a close look at the role of the news media in politics.</p>
<p>As the Wentworth by-election looms, we’re asking: is digital disruption changing the rules of journalism and politics in Australia?</p>
<p>It is easy to miss how disorienting it can be to work in the always-on-at-fire-hydrant-strength world of political journalism these days, as Guardian Australia’s political editor Katharine Murphy recounts in her recent essay-book <a href="https://www.mup.com.au/books/on-disruption-paperback-softback">On Disruption</a>. Matthew Ricketson speaks with her to understand the media’s role (if any) in the political turmoil that cost Malcolm Turnbull the prime ministership, triggering this month’s hotly contested by-election.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/media-files-spotlights-walter-v-robinson-and-the-newcastle-heralds-chad-watson-on-covering-clergy-abuse-and-the-threats-that-followed-102564">Media Files: Spotlight's Walter V. Robinson and the Newcastle Herald's Chad Watson on covering clergy abuse - and the threats that followed</a>
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<p>One person who’s seen up close the sometimes difficult relationship between reporters and politicians is former federal Labor MP David Feeney. </p>
<p>Speaking to Andrea Carson about falling media trust and increased political polarisation, he asks: “In today’s Australia, where do you have a public conversation? Because there are so many different filter bubbles, there are no agreed facts… we are losing the capacity to build a consensus.” </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/media-files-what-does-the-nine-fairfax-merger-mean-for-diversity-and-quality-journalism-102189">Media Files: What does the Nine Fairfax merger mean for diversity and quality journalism?</a>
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<p>Media Files is produced by a team of journalists and academics who have spent decades working in and reporting on the media industry. They’re passionate about sharing their understanding of the media landscape, especially how journalists operate, how media policy is changing, and how commercial manoeuvres and digital disruption are affecting the kinds of media and journalism we consume.</p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/au/podcasts/mediafiles">Media Files</a> will be out every month, with occasional off-schedule episodes released when we’ve got fresh analysis we can’t wait to share with you. To make sure you don’t miss an episode, find us and <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/media-files/id1434250621">subscribe on Apple Podcasts</a>, in <a href="https://play.pocketcasts.com/">Pocket Casts</a> or wherever you find your podcasts. And while you’re there, please rate and review us - it really helps others to find us.</p>
<p>You can find more podcast episodes from The Conversation <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/podcast-3738">here</a>.</p>
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<p><em>Recorded at the University of Melbourne’s Centre for Advancing Journalism. Producer: Andy Hazel.</em></p>
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<p>Theme music by Susie Wilkins.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/103243/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Carson is part of a research group that receives funding from the Australian Research Council where she is a chief investigator using big data to study public policy making in Australia.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Matthew Ricketson receives funding from the Australian Research Council for two projects on which he is a chief investigator. He is president of the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA) and is the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance's (MEAA) representative on the Australian Press Council.</span></em></p>Today on the podcast we're talking filter bubbles, fake news, opinion vs fact. Media Files asks two experts how the media and politics influence each other - and why that's causing concern.Andrea Carson, Incoming Associate Professor at LaTrobe University. Former Lecturer, Political Science, School of Social and Political Sciences; Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneMatthew Ricketson, Professor of Communication, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/983962018-06-21T11:44:22Z2018-06-21T11:44:22ZWhy journalism students (and many who teach it) will be glad to see the back of the Daily Mail’s editor<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/224071/original/file-20180620-137717-1dle6wt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">h</span> </figcaption></figure><p>I’ve been teaching journalism students for six years now, at three very different universities. What they learn is a far cry from my days at Darlington Technical College, class of 1994, slogging through shorthand classes. There was no internet or social media – in fact I think we were the last cohort to learn our reporting skills on typewriters. </p>
<p>My students have taught me a lot about what it means to be an undergraduate on a media or journalism course in 2018. They may be prize-winning, or pushy, scary or scared, but they are all basically really nice kids. Who would believe journalism, this most hated of trades, would draw its ranks from such polite, witty and engaging young people? </p>
<p>Yet during one recent final-year lecture I asked how many of the 80 students were planning a career in journalism. Not even a dozen raised their hands. The rest were either heading for public relations or didn’t know what they would do with their hard-earned qualification. That varies from university to university, but in a sector filled with unpaid internships, old-boy networks, and widespread bullying, who can blame them? </p>
<p>In his book <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/aug/04/hack-attack-nick-davies-review-gripping-account-hacking-affair">Hack Attack</a>, former Guardian journalist Nick Davies argued that the main difference between his own newspaper and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/news-of-the-world-the-factor-in-its-demise-that-deserves-more-attention-51969">News of the World</a> was “the bully quotient”. Indeed, this is an industry in which old hands wear their tales of ill treatment like badges of honour. </p>
<p>I have been told many of these stories – the chief reporter throwing scrunched up pages of apparently “shit” copy at the back of a trainee’s head. Or the junior reporter being summoned daily across the newsroom to be told by another senior executive: “You’re too too slow and you’re crap, now fuck off.”</p>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44391449">Outgoing Dail Mail editor</a> Paul Dacre is/was said to be very much of this particular old school of foul mouthed management, with “cunt” a favoured term in editorial meetings. It is unsurprising then that to many, the contents of the Daily Mail are synonymous with a particularly vitriolic news agenda – because such bullying flows downhill. </p>
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<p>By contrast, the journalism courses in which I’ve been involved place great emphasis on the straight and narrow path of ethics, precision, news judgement and the democratically necessary Fourth Estate. Plus, we really care about our students. </p>
<p>We also teach them about the political economy of the media, propaganda and house styles. The harder truth for them to learn is that opportunities in traditional journalism are decreasing. More and more journalists describe themselves as freelance – and the lines between journalism, content management and media-relations are increasingly blurred. Meanwhile, the PR industry has become a dominant force in our society.</p>
<p>And although it might be too early to write journalism’s obituary, it is true that for the newly qualified, workloads are increasing and career prospects are questionable in the face of shrinking newsrooms, multi-skilling and citizen journalism. </p>
<p>Added to that, journalists are widely despised. Chatting recently with a senior university academic, I told her only a handful of my students wanted to be journalists. “Good!” she replied. “Well done.” </p>
<p>She may have been joking. But who would enter this trade – it’s not a profession – in which the most successful writers <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/jul/28/katie-hopkins-migrants-ipso-sun-cockroaches">describe humans as cockroaches</a>, former <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/george-osborne-announced-as-new-evening-standard-editor-a3492361.html">chancellors of the exchequer become editors</a> on an owner’s whim, where facts often seem to play second fiddle to a good story, and where everyone is talking about fake news? </p>
<h2>Detoxifying the brand</h2>
<p>Dacre’s departure from the editor’s chair after 26 years is <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jun/07/new-daily-mail-editor-to-be-geordie-greig">reported to be part of a plan</a> to “detoxify” the Daily Mail brand. As a major employer of journalists, that would be a welcome move for the classes of 2018 and beyond. And maybe at the same time we can detoxify journalism’s image too. </p>
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<p>Lecturing on war reporting, I read to my students from the <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Front-Line-Collected-Journalism-Colvin/dp/0007487967">collected works</a> of Marie Colvin, the rakish Sunday Times correspondent <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2018/04/10/world/marie-colvin-cat-colvin-amanpour-intl/index.html">who was killed</a> by shell fire while reporting on the war in Syria. </p>
<p>Widely revered and admired, Colvin filed copy from nearly every burning hell hole on the planet during her career. Why? Because she believed that the “need for front-line, objective reporting has never been clearer”. </p>
<p>After sharing some of Colvin’s work, I quipped: “So, who wants to become a journalist?” One of my students raised her hand, and there was fire in her eyes – and I thought: “Good for you.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/geordie-greig-what-to-expect-from-the-daily-mails-next-editor-98090">Geordie Greig: what to expect from the Daily Mail's next editor</a>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Richard Fern does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Journalism is still a popular choice for students, but the harsh realities of the media industry can can crush idealism.Richard Fern, PhD Candidate, University of SheffieldLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/900572018-01-15T14:26:58Z2018-01-15T14:26:58ZNew look Guardian is a riot of modern tabloid colours – but it’s still the paper I know<p>I almost missed the new tabloid Guardian on the news stand this morning. Without the trademark strap of dark blue colour across the top, I couldn’t spot it immediately. Not that I was expecting a shouty red-top design from Britain’s most stylish newspaper, but I wasn’t anticipating quite such an understated front page either.</p>
<p>Although the new tabloid masthead has a subtle modern blockiness, it seems positively traditional with its two-deck format and return to capital letters. Perhaps this is an attempt to reassure readers that the integrity of its news values has not shrunk along with its size. Or maybe it is just part of what the paper’s editor-in-chief, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2018/jan/15/guardian-new-look-online-katharine-viner">Katharine Viner, describes</a> as a simple, confident and impactful new font. </p>
<p>Whatever the rationale, its impact was a little lost on me this morning as I impatiently scanned the news stand. The old masthead, with its lowercase letters and palette of blues, stood out in a sea of black, white and red.</p>
<h2>Identity and expectation</h2>
<p>But maybe I just find change difficult? And, of course, a redesign should result in significant changes otherwise there’s no point in it. In the <a href="http://www.thedrum.com/news/2017/06/13/the-guardians-confirms-cost-cutting-move-tabloid-format">shift from Berliner to tabloid format</a>, The Guardian designers have succeeded in making these significant changes while keeping the title’s overall identity. </p>
<p>This is largely down to the fact that the new “Guardian headline” font is not so different from the old, it just has slightly sharper serifs (the little projections off the edges of the typeface). Also, they have maintained their commitment to giving pictures lots of room to shine, including the famous centre spread image, and have kept all that lovely white space around headlines and bylines.</p>
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<p>Big pictures and white space are crucial to The Guardian’s identity and its readers’ expectations – and it’s clear these elements have remained a major consideration in the new redesign. It’s no mean feat to fit wide gaps between columns of text, and substantial white space into a tabloid design without impacting on the length of stories and the size of the pictures. And there’s plenty to read in this new tabloid Guardian, maybe even a bit too much for a busy weekday, but readers need some value for money at £2 a go.</p>
<h2>In living colour</h2>
<p>Much of the redesign effort seems to have gone into the new range of bright, energetic colours throughout the publication and this really shows. The blue detail of the news pages in the main paper has been replaced with red in the bylines, pullout quote boxes, captions and page numbers. And it’s a nice red – bright but not shocking, which I think works well on the news pages.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201942/original/file-20180115-101498-1ljuybz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201942/original/file-20180115-101498-1ljuybz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201942/original/file-20180115-101498-1ljuybz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201942/original/file-20180115-101498-1ljuybz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201942/original/file-20180115-101498-1ljuybz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201942/original/file-20180115-101498-1ljuybz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201942/original/file-20180115-101498-1ljuybz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201942/original/file-20180115-101498-1ljuybz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New-look lift-out G2 supplement.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Guardian</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>Yellow and turquoise are the colours of the sport pages with blocky black-on-yellow headlines that bizarrely bring to mind the front of Heat magazine. These garish reverse headlines on sport were a bit of a surprise – and I wondered if it was a mistake when I saw the first one. They don’t feature on every page, and I’m still not sure if this randomness is a good or bad thing. They also don’t feature on The Guardian’s new redesigned website, the old dark and light blue colours are still in play on the online sport pages.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201943/original/file-20180115-101502-1rmhkyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201943/original/file-20180115-101502-1rmhkyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/201943/original/file-20180115-101502-1rmhkyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201943/original/file-20180115-101502-1rmhkyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201943/original/file-20180115-101502-1rmhkyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201943/original/file-20180115-101502-1rmhkyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201943/original/file-20180115-101502-1rmhkyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/201943/original/file-20180115-101502-1rmhkyy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The back page of the new tabloid Guardian.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Guardian</span></span>
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<p>The G2 features and arts supplement is a riot of pink, yellow, orange and turquoise, again somewhat reminiscent of a glossy celebrity magazine. The new bright palette works at its best in G2, the colours are engaging and carry the implicit promise of some interesting reads. They also make it easy to navigate the features, and I particularly like the yellow band highlighting prime-time programmes in the TV listings at the back.</p>
<p>The new Journal supplement – which features long reads, comment pieces and puzzles – is a more sombre affair with pale peachy pages and black or orange fonts, more suited to the opinion pieces and readers’ letters that it features. This pullout is very easy on the eye, it’s got an calm, uncluttered design, and it’s good to see there’s still room for a couple of opinion cartoons too. </p>
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<p>It has a very broad content remit – opinions and ideas from across the globe apparently, and only time will tell how this section will fare in the long term. Puzzles have been spread across both the G2 and Journal supplements, making them easier to share, which is a nice touch.</p>
<h2>Mixed bag</h2>
<p>On the digital front, the redesigned website looks clean and attractive with its colour-coded sections and plethora of pictures standing out against plenty of white space. Navigating the site is very easy, thanks to clear categories and a comprehensive drop-down menu in the “More” section. It’s definitely a worthy partner to the newspaper, or should that be the other way round?</p>
<p>The redesign of the newspaper is a bit of a mixed bag for me, but if it gives The Guardian a <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/guardian-says-new-tabloid-format-important-milestone-in-turning-finances-around/">new lease of life financially</a>, then it will have served its purpose.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90057/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arlene Lawler does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Changing to tabloid from its distinctive Berliner format is a bold move. Our newspaper design expert hopes it will help The Guardian survive in print.Arlene Lawler, Associate Lecturer in Newspaper, Magazine and Web Design, Sheffield Hallam UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/800342017-06-23T16:16:24Z2017-06-23T16:16:24ZDaily Mail vs The Guardian: why did editor Paul Dacre lose his rag?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175405/original/file-20170623-17502-sxq983.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C771%2C495&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tweet by Liz Gerrard juxtaposing Martin Rowson's Guardian cartoon with the Daily Mail editorial..
</span> </figcaption></figure><p>“Words have consequences. They lead to actions.” So <a href="http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/time-tory-right-709511774">wrote</a> Peter Oborne, the maverick right-leaning Daily Mail columnist about the shocking events in <a href="https://theconversation.com/finsbury-park-attack-shows-the-harm-islamophobia-continues-to-inflict-on-muslim-communities-79682?sr=2">north London</a> recently when a white van deliberately ran into a crowd of Muslims outside a mosque, killing one and injuring several others.</p>
<p>Oborne did not write this for his weekly column (it was in the online journal Middle East Eye) nor did he mention the Mail by name. He did, however, conclude a powerful piece by saying that “the moment has come for some of my colleagues (and, in some cases, friends) in the conservative press to ask some deep, searching questions about their own use of language about Muslims and Islam”.</p>
<p>A day later, the Guardian featured a cartoon by Martin Rowson which mocked up a picture of the van and superimposed on its side: “Read the Sun & the Daily Mail” using the easily recognisable logos of both newspapers.</p>
<p>It was a brilliantly simple and satirical means of delivering exactly the same message as Oborne: that the right-wing press – and particularly the two daily papers with the highest circulations in Britain – must take responsibility for the barrage of anti-Muslim propaganda which both papers have been peddling through their news and editorial columns for years.</p>
<p>This was too much for the Mail’s editor-in-chief Paul Dacre and the paper responded with a furious tirade directed at the Guardian. Taking a whole page of Thursday’s Daily Mail, in an editorial dominated by a headline which screamed “Fake news, the fascist Left and the REAL purveyors of hatred”, the editorial aimed both barrels at the newspaper – and its left-liberal readership – which Dacre has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/oct/12/left-daily-mail-paul-dacre">made no secret of despising</a>.</p>
<h2>Two competing voices</h2>
<p>The sheer visceral ferocity of this editorial broadside took even some seasoned observers by surprise. But it can be understood in the context of two opposing visions of post-Brexit Britain. The Guardian – which has tried with <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/stevenperlberg/how-the-guardian-lost-america?utm_term=.oxlqOn8VQe#.hhxVM462GZ">varying degrees of success</a> to export its news brand to Australia and the US – represents Britain’s liberal conscience, embracing causes such as greater redistribution of wealth and Britain’s place in Europe, while campaigning against human rights abuses and climate change.</p>
<p>The Mail is the complete antithesis, ferociously anti-Europe with a long history of supporting right-wing causes including – famously – the <a href="http://archive.spectator.co.uk/article/19th-january-1934/6/lord-rothermeres-hurrah-for-the-blackshirts-articl">Hitler-supporting blackshirts</a> during the 1930s. It claims to speak for “Middle England”, an amorphous construct which is better described as a traditional, older and predominantly white readership.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175410/original/file-20170623-17477-ebyq02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175410/original/file-20170623-17477-ebyq02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/175410/original/file-20170623-17477-ebyq02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175410/original/file-20170623-17477-ebyq02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175410/original/file-20170623-17477-ebyq02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=449&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175410/original/file-20170623-17477-ebyq02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175410/original/file-20170623-17477-ebyq02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/175410/original/file-20170623-17477-ebyq02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">In retrospect, not a particularly good idea fron the Mail’s owner.</span>
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</figure>
<p>It was this readership which Dacre’s savage attack purported to defend, arguing that the Guardian’s cartoon was sick, disgusting and “so deranged and offensive to the 4m decent, humane and responsible people who read us that we owe it to every one [of them] to lay to rest this malicious smear”.</p>
<h2>Confusing claim</h2>
<p>Apart from its ferocity, Dacre’s editorial was remarkable for two things. First, it attempted to argue that the Mail newspaper was completely separate from Mail Online which “has its own publisher, its own readership, different content and a very different world view”. He was keen to distance the paper, in particular, from the right-wing columnist Katie Hopkins and her deliberately provocative commentary following the Manchester and London terrorist attacks (including one tweet, since deleted, calling for a “final solution”).</p>
<p>This sleight of hand was very quickly demolished by, among others, LBC presenter James O’Brien, who asked how this apparent separation can be reconciled with Dacre’s apparent receipt of a performance-related £263,388 bonus for continuing to invest in digital consumer media, particularly Mail Online. </p>
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<p>And as many others pointed out, the Mail Online site states explicitly: “Published by Associated Newspapers Ltd Part of the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and Metro Media Group.”</p>
<p>Second, Dacre also insisted that there was “not a shred of evidence” for the Guardian’s implicit claim that the Mail was encouraging Islamophobia. He declared confidently that “we harbour not the faintest animosity towards others on account of their colour or creed”. Others, however, were very quick to provide the evidence from Dacre’s own paper.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"877827848702013440"}"></div></p>
<p>Influential blogger Liz Gerard <a href="https://twitter.com/gameoldgirl/status/877819902739881984">tweeted</a> out a choice selection from the Mail’s Mac cartoons, including one infamous example which showed an outline of sinister-looking people, quite clearly caricature Muslims, crossing into Europe accompanied by scurrying rats. Others posted <a href="https://twitter.com/KeepUsInTheEU/status/877917247049793540">links</a> to headlines – particularly numerous in the run-up to last year’s referendum – with inflammatory headlines such as “Fury over plot to let 1.5m Turks into Britain” and “PM: UK Muslims helping jihadis”.</p>
<p>What explains this sudden outburst of rage which had several observers – not only on the left – scratching their heads? A simple explanation may be the general election result. Not only had Dacre <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/media/2017/mar/30/paul-dacre-theresa-may-private-dinner-daily-mail-editor-no-10">hitched the paper’s wagon</a> firmly to Theresa May, but he had orchestrated a series of <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/daily-mail-and-sun-launch-front-page-attacks-on-corbyn-as-fleet-street-lines-up-behind-theresa-may/">attacks on Jeremy Corbyn</a>, warning of everything from national bankruptcy to freedom for terrorists should Labour be elected.</p>
<p>It was a rude awakening when the Conservatives snatched defeat from the jaws of certain victory, and quite possible a defeat that Dacre felt personally. I have argued <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/professor-steven-barnett/dont-underestimate-the-po_b_17121064.html">elsewhere</a> that we should beware simplistic assumptions about the declining power of Britain’s tabloid press. </p>
<p>But this editorial suggests that Dacre at least feels that allegations of barely concealed racism in his newspaper are more potent – and that its “middle-England” values are more vulnerable – than they were just three weeks ago. For him personally it seems an uncomfortable – and possibly permanent – shift in the political centre of gravity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/80034/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steven Barnett does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Journalism is the first casualty as two UK newspapers with competing world views go to war.Steven Barnett, Professor of Communications, University of WestminsterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/789962017-06-14T20:09:01Z2017-06-14T20:09:01ZExplainer: what is public interest journalism?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/173038/original/file-20170609-1721-32qk3t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Public interest reporting is often equated with watchdog or investigative reporting. But it can include other factual stories that serve the public interest.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Public interest journalism could be considered the antithesis of media’s darker side, which includes fake news, propaganda, censorship and voyeurism.</p>
<p>The outcomes of public interest reporting can expose corruption, launch royal commissions, remove improper politicians from office, and jail wrongdoers.</p>
<p>Think of recent stories like ABC <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2016/07/25/4504895.htm">Four Corners’</a> exposure of the treatment of young people at Don Dale Detention Centre; The Sydney Morning Herald’s revelatory stories on now-convicted MP <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/eddie-obeid-forced-to-surrender-passport-by-supreme-court-20150205-136ocj.html">Eddie Obeid</a>; or <a href="http://www.theherald.com.au/shine-the-light">The Newcastle Herald’s</a> exposure of child sex abuse by priests. All of these led to public hearings. Then there was last week’s collaboration between <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2016/10/03/4547521.htm">Fairfax Media and the ABC</a>, revealing the extent of Chinese money and influence in Australian politics. </p>
<p>For these reasons, this form of reporting headlines the Senate select committee’s <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Future_of_Public_Interest_Journalism/PublicInterestJournalism">Future of Public Interest Journalism</a> inquiry. The closing date for public submissions is June 15.</p>
<p>Yet, public interest journalism is not universally defined. One common understanding among media practitioners and academics is that it refers to a journalist pursuing information that the public has a right to know. </p>
<p>Often implied in this definition is that, if it were not for the reporter, undisclosed information affecting the public that governments, companies and other powerful interests hold would remain hidden.</p>
<p>In this way, public interest reporting is often equated with watchdog or investigative reporting. But it can include other factual stories that serve the public interest, whether by providing a platform for debate or informing the electorate.</p>
<p>This is not stories that are simply “interesting to the public” (read here: stories about the Kardashians) – that is, entertaining, but with no civic value. These profit-oriented stories have filled certain tabloids and glossy magazines for years. Today they serve as clickbait to attract eyeballs and advertisers in the digital space, and are often found under traditional media banners.</p>
<p>The former editor of Britain’s Guardian newspaper, Alan Rusbridger, uses the analogy of a public figure such as a cricketer to make the point that not all revelations or “truths” are worth pursuing, and particularly not in the name of the “public interest”. Rusbridger suggests the “quality” of the target and its relationship to the public interest differentiate a story from mere smear or exposure journalism. He <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=kszXiZewk24C&pg=PA21&dq=love+romp+in+a+hotel+room&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiI7rWBmbzUAhVGNJQKHVPTC-EQ6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=love%20romp&f=false">says</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>What’s the public interest in a cricketer having a love romp in a hotel room … But if elected representatives are arguing a case in Parliament but not revealing that they are being paid to do so, then that strikes at the heart of democracy. That’s public interest; this is an easy distinction.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>From this example, it is clear that context matters. As author of <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?id=LZUEEq213NwC&pg=PA34&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=3#v=onepage&q=public%20interest&f=false">Understanding Journalism</a>, Lynette Sheridan Burns reminds us that other social concerns might need to be weighed up alongside public interest storytelling. These might include an individual’s right to privacy, legal considerations, and the potential for other harms such as national security risks.</p>
<p>Through the <a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/media-and-politics-wayne-errington/1112256322?ean=9780195558340#productInfoTabs">liberal democratic lens</a> of understanding the role of news media, diverse and plural voices are generally seen as enriching public discourse. This provides a range of perspectives to contest ideas and inform citizens. Ultimately, it informs their electoral choices. </p>
<p>Herein lies a key motivation for calling the 2017 inquiry hearings. With thousands of editorial <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2014/s4001324.htm">jobs cut</a> in the past five years at Australia’s major news media outlets – Fairfax Media, ABC, News Corp, Channel Ten – and the closure of many regional bureaus and mastheads, there is real concern about the state of public interest journalism. </p>
<p>Put simply, are there enough trained journalists to provide independent journalism that matters? Are Australia’s regions as well served with diverse and independent reporting as the major cities? These questions speak to the first and fourth of the inquiry’s six <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Future_of_Public_Interest_Journalism/PublicInterestJournalism/Terms_of_Reference">terms of reference</a>. </p>
<p>The other questions for the committee broadly relate to the viral spread of misinformation, and to safeguards against market power in the media landscape in the name of public interest journalism. </p>
<p>Interestingly, rather than directly tackle what the <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-media-at-a-crossroads-amid-threats-to-diversity-and-survival-77314">government’s proposed removal</a> of media competition safeguards might mean for Australian audiences’ interests, the committee is directed to examine the market impacts of new players. That is, what impact social media and search engines have on the “Australian media landscape”. </p>
<p>The complete absence of “audience” and an emphasis on “markets” in the <a href="http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Future_of_Public_Interest_Journalism/PublicInterestJournalism/Terms_of_Reference">terms of reference</a> could be seen as a win for the persistent lobbying of Australia’s most powerful commercial media companies. </p>
<p>In a rare display of <a href="http://www.news.com.au/national/malcolm-turnbull-to-meet-australian-media-bosses-about-media-law-reform-in-canberra/news-story/d6f4eed4b9582c47e7f253eabab635df">unified power</a>, 25 heads of Australia’s major commercial media outlets met the prime minister in Canberra last month to urge the parliament to pass media reforms. To improve their commercial viability, media companies are seeking to scrap the 75% reach provision (preventing 100% market share) and <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-media-at-a-crossroads-amid-threats-to-diversity-and-survival-77314">two-out-of-three</a> ownership rule.</p>
<p>Notwithstanding new international entrants into Australian markets such as Buzzfeed, The Guardian and Daily Mail, such law changes, I have previously <a href="https://theconversation.com/australian-media-at-a-crossroads-amid-threats-to-diversity-and-survival-77314">argued</a>, would likely result in concentrating proprietorial power of the biggest media operators in Australia’s most dominant news media markets: radio, television and print. </p>
<p>The committee’s inquiries into “fake news, propaganda, and public disinformation” are important issues to consider, but we should remember that these concerns have existed alongside public interest journalism for more than a century. </p>
<p>From the sensationalist, fear-mongering “yellow journalism” of the penny press in the late 1800s, to the media propaganda arising out of the world wars of the 20th century, there is nothing new about fake news and disinformation. What is unprecedented, however, is its speed and global spread in the digital sphere. </p>
<p>Inaccurate reporting, whether deliberately fake or just sloppy, has consequences for news media’s capacity to serve a well-informed citizenry that underpins a healthy democracy. For example, a recent <a href="http://www.journalism.org/2016/12/15/many-americans-believe-fake-news-is-sowing-confusion/">US Pew Research study</a> found 88% of Americans believe fake news confuses the public about basic facts.</p>
<p>These are problems for all to tackle – search engines, internet service providers, commercial media outlets, public broadcasters and social media. As is occurring <a href="http://gijn.org/2017/05/08/a-global-guide-to-initiatives-tackling-fake-news/">overseas</a>, this might involve media outlets and others working together to provide news literacy tools to help the public recognise fact from fiction. Any successful approach must address sources, messengers and audiences of fake news, not just target Facebook and Google. </p>
<p>When the committee reports in December, let’s hope it offers ways to strengthen public interest journalism by placing Australian audiences’ interests ahead of all others.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78996/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrea Carson was previously a journalist at the ABC and Fairfax Media.</span></em></p>Public interest journalism exposes corruption and wrongdoers, and holds the powerful to account. But it is increasingly under threat, and we need to find ways to protect it.Andrea Carson, Lecturer, Media and Politics, School of Social and Political Sciences; Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Advancing Journalism, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/780932017-05-22T07:40:07Z2017-05-22T07:40:07ZAfter the ‘Facebook Files’, the social media giant must be more transparent<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170271/original/file-20170522-4492-1lbkl6h.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Guardian's Facebook Files give a much-needed glimpse into how Facebook moderates content.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/thailand-september-2-2014-magnifying-glass-214779115?src=aI-hFfn7JJHZZ5Uow3HMbA-1-12">www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Most people on Facebook have probably seen something they wish they hadn’t, whether it be violent pictures or racist comments. </p>
<p>How the social media giant decides what is and isn’t acceptable is often a mystery. Internal content guidelines, recently <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/series/facebook-files">published in The Guardian</a>, offer new insight into the mechanics of Facebook content moderation.</p>
<p>The slides show the rules can be arbitrary, but that shouldn’t be surprising. Social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter have been around for less than two decades, and there is little regulatory guidance from government regarding how they should police what people post. </p>
<p>In fact, the company <a href="http://culturedigitally.org/2016/06/governance-of-and-by-platforms/">faces a significant challenge</a> in trying to keep up with the volume of posted content and often conflicting demands from users, advertisers and civil society organisations. </p>
<p>It’s certainly cathartic to blame Facebook for its decisions, but the true challenge is to work out how we want our online social spaces to be governed. </p>
<p>Before we can have that conversation, we need to know much more about how platforms like Facebook make decisions in practice.</p>
<h2>The secret work of policing the internet</h2>
<p>Apparently weighing in at thousands of slides, the newly published guidelines give some more detail to the vague <a href="https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards">community standards</a> Facebook shares with its users.</p>
<p>Most of the documents are training material for Facebook’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/04/facebook-content-moderators-ptsd-psychological-dangers">army of content moderators</a> who are responsible for deciding what content should go.</p>
<p>Some of the distinctions seem odd, and some are downright offensive. According to the documents, direct threats of violence against Donald Trump <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/gallery/2017/may/21/facebooks-manual-on-credible-threats-of-violence">will be removed</a> (“someone shoot Trump”), but misogynistic instructions for harming women may not be (“to snap a bitch’s neck, make sure to apply all your pressure to the middle of her throat”).</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SGsJYTAQrVg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The Guardian’s Facebook Files explainer video.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The rules appear to reflect the scars of legal and public relations battles Facebook and other social media platforms have fought over the last decade. </p>
<p>The blanket rule against images of nude children had to be changed after <a href="http://www.politico.eu/article/facebook-backtracks-on-napalm-girl-photo/">Facebook controversially banned</a> the famous image of Kim Phuc fleeing napalm bombing during the Vietnam War. After <a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/101957/">years of controversy</a>, <a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/04/using-technology-to-protect-intimate-images-and-help-build-a-safe-community/">a specific procedure</a> now exists so people can request the removal of intimate images posted without their consent. </p>
<p>Because these rules develop over time, their complexity is not surprising. But this points to a bigger problem: without good data about how Facebook makes such decisions, we can’t have informed conversations about what type of content we’re comfortable with as a society.</p>
<h2>The need for transparency</h2>
<p>The core problem is that social media platforms like Facebook make most decisions about what constitutes acceptable speech behind closed doors. This makes it hard to have a genuine public debate about what people believe should be allowable to post online.</p>
<p>As the United Nations’ cultural organisation <a href="http://en.unesco.org/about-us/introducing-unesco">UNESCO</a> has pointed out, there are <a href="http://www.unesco.org/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/CI/CI/pdf/news/foe_online_intermediaries.pdf">real threats to freedom of expression</a> when companies like Facebook have to play this role. </p>
<p>When governments make decisions about what content is allowed in the public domain, there are often court processes and avenues of appeal. When a social media platform makes such decisions, users are often left in the dark about why their content has been removed (or why their complaint has been ignored). </p>
<p>Challenging these decisions is <a href="https://onlinecensorship.org/news-and-analysis/onlinecensorship-org-launches-second-report-censorship-in-context-pdf">often extremely difficult</a>. Facebook allows users to appeal if their profile or page is removed, but it’s hard to appeal the moderation of a particular post. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170267/original/file-20170522-4492-jfccu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/170267/original/file-20170522-4492-jfccu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=248&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170267/original/file-20170522-4492-jfccu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=248&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170267/original/file-20170522-4492-jfccu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=248&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170267/original/file-20170522-4492-jfccu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170267/original/file-20170522-4492-jfccu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/170267/original/file-20170522-4492-jfccu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=312&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">OnlineCensorship.org provides guidance to users about how to appeal content moderation decisions.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://onlinecensorship.org/resources/how-to-appeal">https://onlinecensorship.org/resources/how-to-appeal</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To tackle the issue of offensive and violent content on the platform, Facebook says it will add 3,000 people to its community operations team, on top of its current 4,500.</p>
<p>“Keeping people on Facebook safe is the most important thing we do,” Monika Bickert, head of global policy management at Facebook, said in a statement. “We work hard to make Facebook as safe as possible while enabling free speech. This requires a lot of thought into detailed and often difficult questions, and getting it right is something we take very seriously”.</p>
<p>But without good data, there is no way to understand how well Facebook’s system is working overall – it is impossible to test its error rates or potential biases.</p>
<p>Civil society groups and projects including <a href="https://rankingdigitalrights.org/index2017/">Ranking Digital Rights</a>, <a href="https://www.article19.org/pages/en/internet-intermediaries.html">Article 19</a> and the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s <a href="http://onlinecensorship.org">OnlineCensorship.org</a> have been advocating for more transparency in these systems. </p>
<p>Facebook and other social media companies must start listening, and give the public real insight and input into how decisions are made.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/78093/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicolas Suzor is the recipient of an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship (project number DE160101542) to study the governance of social media platforms and other online intermediaries. He also receives other project funding from the ARC and leads projects funded by industry groups, including the Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) and the Australian Digital Alliance. Nic is also the Legal Lead of the Creative Commons Australia project and the deputy chair of Digital Rights Watch, an Australian non-profit organisation whose mission is to ensure that Australian citizens are equipped, empowered and enabled to uphold their digital rights.</span></em></p>Facebook should give the public more insight into how content moderation decisions are made.Nicolas Suzor, Associate professor, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/754122017-03-30T09:27:48Z2017-03-30T09:27:48ZThe British media’s progressives are coming round to Scottish independence<p>As Theresa May and Nicola Sturgeon had their <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/27/nicola-sturgeon-says-theresa-may-brexit-timescale-matches-referendum-plan">Brexit stand-off</a> in Glasgow on Monday March 27 ahead of the Scottish parliament <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/scottish-independence-referendum-indyref-2-nicola-sturgeon-vote-date-latest-a7654591.html">voting in favour</a> of a second independence referendum, Richard Dawkins stepped into the fray – on the side of the Scottish first minister. </p>
<p>The renowned English evolutionary biologist and controversialist tweeted: </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"846159626269790208"}"></div></p>
<p>What made this particularly pertinent is that the best-selling author of The God Delusion had added cerebral heft along with Stephen Hawking to the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/aug/07/celebrities-open-letter-scotland-independence-full-text">roll-call of 200 celebrities</a> wheeled out before the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/events/scotland-decides/results">2014 referendum</a> to appeal to Scots to stay in the union. </p>
<p>Dawkins’ shift is part of a sea change among the progressive liberal left on how they view Scottish independence, reflected in their UK media bastions <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk">The Guardian</a> and the <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com">New Statesman</a>. Nationalism is no longer anathema – well, the Scottish brand anyway. </p>
<h2>The left’s dilemma</h2>
<p>Scotland’s inclusive “civic nationalism” with its loosely social democratic values is now viewed as something to aspire to, particularly after its <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-36599102">resounding vote</a> 62%-38% to remain in the EU. It stands in stark contrast to the right-wing populism that has produced the Trump presidency and its “America First” nationalism; Marine Le Pen and the other nationalist movements in mainland Europe; and UKIP, which has effectively infected the soul of Tory party. </p>
<p>Added to this is the prospect of a decade of Tory government due to the enfeeblement of the Labour party. This has been particularly grave in Scotland, where the party that once saw the country as its back yard now has a solitary MP – no better than the Tories or Lib Dems. Sturgeon’s SNP holds the rest, having won 56 of Scotland’s 59 constituencies <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-36599102">in 2015</a>. </p>
<p>Polly Toynbee of the Guardian made a passionate plea in August 2014 at the Edinburgh Festival for solidarity and Scots to stay in the union. By the general election of 2015 she <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/mar/30/snp-confident-tories-want-scotland-gone">was conceding</a>: “No wonder SNP are confident – the Tories behave as if they want Scotland gone”. </p>
<p>And this week Toynbee <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/28/battle-line-theresa-may-car-crash-brexit-labour">reflected</a>: “On Monday May was in Scotland, arguing for the ‘unstoppable force’ of a ‘better together’ United Kingdom. But every word in defence of that union rang hollow, as all she said applies with equal force to the European Union she herself is breaking.”</p>
<p>Other Guardian writers have been even more forthright. John Harris
<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/04/hard-brexit-case-scottish-independence-second-referendum">said</a>, “Hard Brexit is making the case for Scottish independence”, while
Suzanne Moore <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/15/brexit-was-an-english-vote-for-independence-you-cant-begrudge-the-scots-the-same">wrote</a>, “Brexit was an English vote for independence – you can’t begrudge the Scots the same.” </p>
<p>Paul Mason recently felt the need to <a href="http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/paul-mason-calls-for-scottish-labour-members-to-back-independence-1-4239426">appeal to</a> “Scottish Labour to back independence”, while George Monbiot has been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/15/theresa-may-dragging-uk-under-scotland-must-cut-rope">calling for</a> Scotland to “cut to rope”. The Guardian’s <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/28/scottish-parliament-votes-for-second-independence-referendum-nicola-sturgeon">reporting</a> of this week’s Holyrood vote has meanwhile been very even-handed – in contrast, for instance, to The Telegraph’s <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/03/28/indyref2-debate-vote-nicola-sturgeon-watch-live/">coverage</a> of Sturgeon’s “endless quest”. </p>
<p>Over at the New Statesman, Julia Rampen <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2017/03/who-would-oppose-scottish-independence-second-referendum-campaign">has been</a> asking: “Who would oppose Scottish independence second referendum campaign?” The magazine recently ran a piece by David Clark, one-time special advisor to Robin Cook at the Foreign Office, <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2017/03/4-ways-second-scottish-independence-campaign-would-be-different">which said</a>: “Scottish voters were warned that independence would leave them locked out of the EU. Now independence is their only hope of avoiding that fate.” In another piece, Simon Wren Lewis, a professor of economic policy at Oxford University, <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/staggers/2017/03/brexit-makes-scottish-independence-much-more-economically-attractive">argued</a>: “Brexit makes Scottish independence more economically attractive.”</p>
<h2>The view on the right</h2>
<p>Sturgeon is even finding some sympathy on the soft right. Matthew Parris of The Times <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-39301211">believes</a> the Scots should have a second vote if they want one. The Guardian’s Simon Jenkins agrees, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/17/independence-scotland-may-nicola-sturgeon-london-edinburgh">arguing that</a> “Anglo-Scottish relations should be released from the lingering fog of Anglo imperialism”.</p>
<p>The Spectator’s Alex Massie <a href="http://talkradio.co.uk/news/anyone-who-thinks-scottish-independence-referendum-poses-no-risk-deluded-says-journalist#U1s1aw9lxKx74QOt.99">has written that</a> “anyone in Whitehall or Westminster who thinks this is all fine, there is no risk, no danger here and so on, is deluding themselves”. Independence, if voted for, could, “one day be seen as one of the Brexit consequences”.</p>
<p>Of course, the majority of the UK press – the most “right wing” and “biased” in Europe <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/news/2016/02/07/british-press-most-right-wing-europe/">according to</a> a recent YouGov poll of seven European countries – <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3903436/Enemies-people-Fury-touch-judges-defied-17-4m-Brexit-voters-trigger-constitutional-crisis.html">has been</a> in full “enemies of the people” mode against the Scottish nationalists. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163176/original/image-20170329-8553-vslfc7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163176/original/image-20170329-8553-vslfc7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/163176/original/image-20170329-8553-vslfc7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=708&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163176/original/image-20170329-8553-vslfc7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=708&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163176/original/image-20170329-8553-vslfc7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=708&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163176/original/image-20170329-8553-vslfc7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=889&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163176/original/image-20170329-8553-vslfc7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=889&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/163176/original/image-20170329-8553-vslfc7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=889&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Old faithful.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">telegraph.co.uk</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Telegraph’s Allison Pearson outdid even the tabloids with a <a href="http://www.thenational.scot/news/15158795.English_newspaper_s_call_for_Nicola_Sturgeon_s_beheading_sparks_anger/">recent splenetic attack</a> on Scotland’s first minister, headlined: “Nicola Sturgeon is a liar and a traitor – off with her head!” It was later changed to “Nicola Sturgeon – another treacherous queen of Scots – has miscalculated”, as no doubt even The Telegraph recognised its tastelessness.</p>
<p>Bolstering the unionist ranks have been two commentators somewhat on the left, <a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/brexit-could-drag-all-of-europe-into-disaster-9hvgpjf02h8">David Aaronovitch</a> of The Times and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/02/beware-siren-calls-of-nationalism">Nick Cohen</a> of The Observer. Both are vigorous critics of nationalism and advocates of Western interventionism in the Middle East. </p>
<p>All the same, the shift in written opinion coming out of London has been discernible. As Theresa May triggered Article 50 and Sturgeon <a href="http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/nicola-sturgeon-issues-easter-ultimatum-10118041">warned</a> that she will be unveiling her strategy after Easter for bringing forward a second referendum, the battles lines between Edinburgh and London have been realigned. </p>
<p>Will the UK commentators fall into line and back unionism once a timetable for a vote has been agreed, or is a more permanent split developing? The signals will be fascinating to watch in the coming months.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/75412/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Simon Pia is a former spokesman for the Scottish Labour Party. </span></em></p>London’s media were unified against Scottish separatism in 2014. Second time around, the picture is more complicated.Simon Pia, Lecturer in Journalism, Edinburgh Napier UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/703572016-12-14T00:03:23Z2016-12-14T00:03:23ZHuffington Post, BuzzFeed and Vice are blazing a new trail on climate change coverage<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149897/original/image-20161213-1620-1jgf061.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jan Martin Will</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/19/where-is-climate-change-in-the-trump-v-clinton-presidential-debates">deafening silence around climate change</a> in the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/2016-us-presidential-election-23653">US presidential campaign</a> has left leading climate scientists baffled by the absence of debate about the “greatest issue of our time”. Some commentators have laid the blame <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/nov/13/climate-change-trump-presidency-environment">firmly on the US media</a> for sticking too closely to the political agendas set by the candidates. </p>
<p>But it is not just in the US where climate change and environmental issues have been virtually ignored. In the UK, a <a href="http://blog.lboro.ac.uk/crcc/eu-referendum/media-coverage-of-the-eu-referendum-report-3/">study by Loughborough University</a> found that during the Brexit referendum, television news bulletins in the six-week period in May and June dedicated no time at all to environmental issues – despite the fact that much of UK environment policy is determined by the EU. Print media did little better. </p>
<p>So what’s going on? Part of the challenge is that TV editors often see climate change as too niche or too preachy. Another is that many audiences find the issue too remote, too frightening, or too consistently depressing. In many countries too, experienced specialist reporters, including science and environment correspondents, <a href="http://www.nature.com/news/specials/sciencejournalism/index.html">are on the decline</a> because of cuts driven by dwindling revenue for legacy media.</p>
<p>In the UK, <a href="http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/publication/journalists-uk">a 2016 report</a> showed that of the 700 journalists surveyed, just over half self-identified as specialists. But while the most populous beats were business, culture, sport, and entertainment, there were “few politics, science, or religious specialists”.</p>
<h2>New kids on the climate beat</h2>
<p>The gap is partly being filled by “digital-born” players such as Huffington Post, BuzzFeed and Vice, who are the subject of our new book <a href="http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/publication/new-players-environmental-reporting">Something Old, Something New</a>. In its <a href="http://www.digitalnewsreport.org/">2016 Digital News Report</a>, the Reuters Institute for the first time asked online users what media sources were most consulted for environment news.</p>
<p>Of those in the UK who self-identified as “highly interested” in the environment, more than half accessed news from the BBC on a weekly basis, making it by far the most popular news brand online. But after the BBC, Huffington Post was used by just under a fifth. Among those with a high interest in news about the environment, it is as popular as both the Guardian and Mail Online. (See Figure 1)</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149879/original/image-20161213-1625-87yfvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149879/original/image-20161213-1625-87yfvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149879/original/image-20161213-1625-87yfvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149879/original/image-20161213-1625-87yfvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149879/original/image-20161213-1625-87yfvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=442&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149879/original/image-20161213-1625-87yfvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149879/original/image-20161213-1625-87yfvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149879/original/image-20161213-1625-87yfvx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=556&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters Institute</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>BuzzFeed News is less accessed, but among those with high interest in news about the environment it is as popular as Sky News and the Telegraph online. Vice News has a small reach, but online it is comparable to The Times, due to the impact of the Murdoch’s flagship’s pay-wall.</p>
<p>In the US, Huffington Post was the most popular online news destination for those highly interested in environment news. BuzzFeed reaches as many as the New York Times and the Washington Post (see Figure 2). </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149880/original/image-20161213-1594-1i66zwc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149880/original/image-20161213-1594-1i66zwc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149880/original/image-20161213-1594-1i66zwc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149880/original/image-20161213-1594-1i66zwc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149880/original/image-20161213-1594-1i66zwc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=458&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149880/original/image-20161213-1594-1i66zwc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149880/original/image-20161213-1594-1i66zwc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149880/original/image-20161213-1594-1i66zwc.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=576&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters Institute</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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</figure>
<p>The relative success of Huffington Post, BuzzFeed and Vice was one of the reasons we chose to analyse their climate change coverage and compare them to legacy media. All three give editorial priority to environmental issues, all three have invested heavily in different language sites or country-specific sites, and all three are “digital natives” with a strong interest in which format works on which platforms.</p>
<p>We took the <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/paris-2015-climate-summit-14031">Paris climate change summit</a> of December 2015 as our case study, in part because <a href="http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/1940161215612204">recent studies</a> have shown that such summits generate “networks of co-production” and a “camp feeling” where journalists often report in a very similar style and emphasis to each other. </p>
<p>An examination of more than 500 online articles by five different traditional and new media organisations in France, Germany, Spain, the UK and the US showed that the new players adopted a range of new approaches including informal tonality, “immersive” personal narration journalism, and often an emphasis on different themes.</p>
<p>Of course, HuffPo, Vice and BuzzFeed are very different to each other in terms of their business models, distribution strategies and overall editorial priorities. </p>
<h2>Countering climate silence</h2>
<p>All three did a lot of straight reporting and analysis of the summit. But we found some key differences between them and legacy media. Vice stood out for its style of “immersive” video reporting, where the reporters take their audience on a journey with them. </p>
<p>BuzzFeed used a more informal, irreverent and entertaining language, found for example in its article: “10 Adorable Animals that Climate Change is Killing Off”. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"671832880083951616"}"></div></p>
<p>Both Vice and BuzzFeed were significantly more visual in their material, relying more on photos and videos. </p>
<p>Huffington Post often had the same focus and volume of coverage as The Guardian and The New York Times. But it placed much more emphasis on a positive, solution-based approach to climate change. Also, more than half of HuffPo’s articles were blogposts, usually adopting an activist viewpoint. Vice also gave plenty of space to activist and NGO voices.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"671410633343180800"}"></div></p>
<p>We concluded that the three digital players were beneficial for public debate about climate change, as they had found new ways of covering the “old”, sometimes boring, often remote, theme of climate change. By thinking hard about what gets shared and liked on social media, they are helping to counter the “climate silence” and ensure that the issue remains interesting and relevant, particularly to younger audiences – something the legacy media would do well to take note of.
</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/70357/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>James Painter receives funding from Google and the Digital News Initiative, the European Climate Foundation, and the Energy Foundation</span></em></p>A generation of ‘new media’ sites is challenging traditional news organisations when it comes to reporting the environment.James Painter, Head of the Journalism Fellowship Programme, University of OxfordLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/691692016-11-23T10:57:56Z2016-11-23T10:57:56ZBlame the victim? Domestic violence as covered in The Sun and The Guardian<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147009/original/image-20161122-11012-15asg9r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kunal Mehta</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Domestic violence is an enduring problem in the UK: an average of two women a week continue to be killed by their current or former partner. It’s a widespread and important story, and – like all news media – newspapers make a decision about how to report this issue. </p>
<p>But, unlike television and radio broadcasting, the print media in the UK is not required to be impartial. And although newspaper content is not necessarily absorbed uncritically by readers, the way editors and journalists frame news stories can influence the “take home” message communicated to readers.</p>
<p>We explored how The Sun and The Guardian reported domestic violence in 2001-2 and 2011-12 to evaluate evidence of change over a ten-year time span. The rationale for selecting these newspapers was based on their contrasting formats: The Sun is the biggest-selling newspaper in the UK, tabloid in style and traditionally right-of-centre politically, while The Guardian is a left-of-centre broadsheet with a far smaller circulation but a far larger online readership.</p>
<p>We studied both online and hard copy articles of the two papers: these included analyses of victims (predominantly women) and perpetrators (predominantly men). While The Guardian adopted a respectful position towards women victims, the textual and visual techniques adopted by The Sun reveal a tendency for victim blaming and, in some cases, giving character references for the perpetrators.</p>
<p>The stimulus for investigating newspaper reporting of domestic violence was a <a href="http://dialogueinpraxis.net/index.php?id=5&a=article&aid=47">European Union funded project</a> led by the University of Hertfordshire with partners in Greece, Italy, Poland and Slovenia, which researched the well-being of women experiencing both domestic violence and mental health issues. </p>
<p>The expressed guilt of the women participants made us consider what leads victims of this type of violence to accept guilt, blame and shame instead of holding perpetrators accountable. Given the influential role played by the media in both shaping and reflecting public opinion on issues such as domestic violence, this second project examining newspaper coverage of such violence was undertaken.</p>
<h2>Laying the blame</h2>
<p>The most commonly identified theme derived from our newspaper research was how The Sun appears to hold women responsible for their own abuse. Replete with descriptions of men who have killed their partners as “spurned lover”, “jilted lover” and “jealousy-crazed”, The Sun seems to be insinuating that the woman is culpable, partially at least, for her victimisation.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146986/original/image-20161122-21724-1bejfcz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146986/original/image-20161122-21724-1bejfcz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146986/original/image-20161122-21724-1bejfcz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146986/original/image-20161122-21724-1bejfcz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146986/original/image-20161122-21724-1bejfcz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=651&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146986/original/image-20161122-21724-1bejfcz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146986/original/image-20161122-21724-1bejfcz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146986/original/image-20161122-21724-1bejfcz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=817&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How The Sun reported the story.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Sun</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A key case in point was a story reported from the island of Jersey where a man called Damian Rzeszowski killed his wife, Izabela, two children and his father-in-law as well as a family friend and her daughter. <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/833148/bbq-dad-killed-6-over-wifes-affair/">The Sun described</a> how he “slaughtered six people at a family barbecue after he flipped over his wife’s affair”. This gave the impression that it was the woman’s alleged infidelity that triggered the bloodshed. The Sun describes Rzeszowski as a “doting dad” and Izabela as “cheating on him”, again denoting her as a blameworthy victim.</p>
<p>Similarly, when a father, Jean-Francis Say, <a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/372289/ive-killed-the-kids/">fatally stabbed his two children</a>, The Sun observed that his wife had left him for another man two years earlier, taking the children with her. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146988/original/image-20161122-21709-jtxhdv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146988/original/image-20161122-21709-jtxhdv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146988/original/image-20161122-21709-jtxhdv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146988/original/image-20161122-21709-jtxhdv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146988/original/image-20161122-21709-jtxhdv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146988/original/image-20161122-21709-jtxhdv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146988/original/image-20161122-21709-jtxhdv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146988/original/image-20161122-21709-jtxhdv.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=636&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘All his wife did was sleep and go to work’.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Sun</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A neighbour was quoted saying that Say had told her he was always the one who did things for the children while “all his wife did was sleep and go to work”. The use of this quote appears to disparage a woman whose children have been killed.</p>
<h2>When women kill</h2>
<p>This contrasts with the description of “evil” Tracie Andrews, convicted of killing her boyfriend and subsequently in preparation for release from prison. Entitled “Evil Andrews serves up cuppas in a church cafe”, The Sun article juxtaposes her evilness with the sanctity of a church café and having a “cuppa”. Compare “evil”, redolent of internal, innate characteristics, with the descriptions of men who “snapped” or “flipped” and whose actions were “out of character”, thus suggestive of external, qualifying triggers.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146992/original/image-20161122-21724-1jkgft.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146992/original/image-20161122-21724-1jkgft.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/146992/original/image-20161122-21724-1jkgft.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146992/original/image-20161122-21724-1jkgft.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146992/original/image-20161122-21724-1jkgft.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146992/original/image-20161122-21724-1jkgft.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146992/original/image-20161122-21724-1jkgft.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/146992/original/image-20161122-21724-1jkgft.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=551&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Female killers treated differently in The Sun.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Sun</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Guardian does not tend to engage in a victim-blaming narrative, which is a key issue when trying to understand the reporting of domestic violence which ends in the death of one of the partners. Sandra Horley, the chief executive of Refuge – who has been a prominent advocate on this issue – states that domestic violence cases are not about one partner “losing [their] temper” or “flipping out”, they are about systematic control and abuse. </p>
<h2>Domestic violence</h2>
<p>When it comes to covering domestic violence as an issue, we found that The Guardian had consistently outnumbered The Sun in relation to the amount of articles published over the whole of our survey period. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147014/original/image-20161122-10962-1m1at9v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147014/original/image-20161122-10962-1m1at9v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/147014/original/image-20161122-10962-1m1at9v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=160&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147014/original/image-20161122-10962-1m1at9v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=160&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147014/original/image-20161122-10962-1m1at9v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=160&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147014/original/image-20161122-10962-1m1at9v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=201&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147014/original/image-20161122-10962-1m1at9v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=201&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/147014/original/image-20161122-10962-1m1at9v.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=201&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">How the two papers compare on domestic violence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michele Lloyd and Shula Ramon</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A closer inspection also revealed that The Guardian’s coverage had far more in-depth analysis of domestic violence overall, while The Sun tended to report on individual cases in a sensational manner.</p>
<p>Domestic violence in the news is seldom framed as a societal public health issue – but rather an individualised problem or somehow precipitated by victims. Our research, book-ended by the years 2001-2 and 2011-12, found that the ten-year passage of time has diminished neither the medium nor the message of The Sun in terms of blaming victims, and reinforcing society’s normalisation of privatised violence as “just another domestic”.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>To see a YouTube video about the article based on this research please <a href="https://youtu.be/otTGDbDrjJQ">click here</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69169/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Research shows the vastly different ways the two newspapers approach this important issue.Michele Lloyd, Senior Lecturer, School of Education, University of HertfordshireShulamit Ramon, Professor, Mental Health Research, University of HertfordshireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/566222016-03-21T14:52:44Z2016-03-21T14:52:44ZJournalism isn’t dying – there’s even room for optimism about print<p>On Saturday, March 26 the Independent <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-35561145">will publish its last edition in print</a>. The Independent on Sunday sold for the last time on March 20. The distinctive El Pais of Madrid has announced that <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-spain-media-elpais-idUKKCN0W61PD">it will take “a step from paper to digital”</a>. The Guardian with a huge online readership, shrinking print sales and sizeable losses <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/mar/17/guardian-media-group-to-cut-250-jobs">plans to shed 250 jobs</a>, of which 100 will be journalists. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.nuj.org.uk/news/johnston-press-starts-the-year-with-cull-of-almost-100-jobs/">Another 100 journalists are at risk</a> on newspapers and websites run by one of Britain’s largest regional groups, Johnston Press. And Fairfax Media, the venerable Australian publisher that prints the countries two biggest dailies, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/mar/17/fairfax-media-to-shed-120-journalists-in-attempt-to-slash-costs">announced plans to cut another 120 editorial jobs</a> at the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, the seventh round of redundancies since 2004. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"710271096184905729"}"></div></p>
<p>Do these developments signal that print journalism, after ailing for two decades, is dying at last? The answer is no: journalism is not dying. It is not even dying in print.</p>
<p>Newspapers do fail and people lose their livelihoods. But papers are extraordinarily hard to kill. Millionaires, whose methods in any other business are unsentimental and ruthless, preserve them because they think they bring influence and prestige. Even if falling circulations and reputations dilute the influence, newspaper ownership guarantees political access. <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=D1W38tCrYAMC&pg=PA117&lpg=PA117&dq=us+newspaper+closures+1960s+radio+television&source=bl&ots=QoyT_pGF56&sig=EnUi7mtDkPGdu7__phoWa6KSJOs&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjJ8fGjwdHLAhWLVhoKHYcDCtwQ6AEIRDAG#v=onepage&q=us%20newspaper%20closures%201960s%20radio%20television&f=false">More newspapers died in the US around the early 1960s</a>, when television was becoming a mass medium and seizing advertising, than have been extinguished by the arrival of the internet.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"711841539325095936"}"></div></p>
<p>When an industry is in decline, the turbulence will throw up opportunities. The Independent started i, which <a href="http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/2016/news/deal-done-johnston-press-buys-i-newspaper-but-independent-set-to-close/">its owners recently sold</a> to Johnston Press. Trinity Mirror has <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-readers-rise-to-greet-the-new-day-heres-what-i-thought-of-britains-new-paper-55529">just launched a national paper</a>, New Day.</p>
<h2>Downward trend</h2>
<p>But these are exceptions to a long, steady trend and it is not towards the extinction of print. The remorseless change is the threat to the business model of daily, general-interest printed news. Specialist newspapers such as the <a href="http://aboutus.ft.com/corporate-information/ft-company/">Financial Times</a> and <a href="http://www.economistgroup.com/our_news/press_releases/2015/the_economist_group_posts_p60m_profit_circulation_remains_robust.html">The Economist</a>, many of whose readers charge their subscriptions to their employers, are <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/current-affairs-magazine-abcs-2015-spectator-new-statesman-private-eye-and-economist-all-grow">not facing the same red ink in their accounts</a>. Magazines rise and fall – but survive better. </p>
<p>Advertisers and readers <a href="https://www.themediabriefing.com/article/datawatch-circulation-decline-developing-economies">have gradually deserted daily papers</a> across the western world. Even where circulations appear to have held up, profitability has not. Even countries such as <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/circulation-declines-hit-german-papers-a-decade-after-america-a-915574.html">Germany</a> or <a href="http://mediaauditfinland.fi/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Circulations2013.pdf">Finland</a>, where this downward trend worked more slowly, are not exempt. Even countries such as <a href="http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/1808431/internet-now-subsidising-struggling-newspapers">China</a>, <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/india-ink-newspapers-boom-where-the-internet-doesnt-reach-1441740780">India</a> or <a href="http://latinlink.usmediaconsulting.com/2013/03/online-vs-offline-which-rules-in-brazil/">Brazil</a>, where print circulations were expanding at the turn of the millennium, can see that print will soon be second to online as a news medium. </p>
<p>Loved, hated and respected as newspapers have been, these histories and feelings cannot undo the simple reality they are a cumbersome and expensive way to transmit fact and opinion when anyone with a smartphone can summon them with a thumb.</p>
<p>Look historically at Britain’s national press and you can see that its dominance was surprisingly brief. Cheap, national papers with large circulations really only took hold at the start of the 20th century. Their total circulations <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=EWp2AAAAQBAJ&pg=PA64&lpg=PA64&dq=uk+newspaper+circulation+peaked+between+1950+and+1955&source=bl&ots=5pAkd9LFjl&sig=QFamwV2aCg9TJiMVbzaJpcHI7DY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjvgbChxdHLAhXF_nIKHVXgAgQQ6AEIHDAA#v=onepage&q=uk%20newspaper%20circulation%20peaked%20between%201950%20and%201955&f=false">peaked between 1950 and 1955</a>. The Daily Mirror hit its highest circulation many years ago, in 1966. The late 20th century was an exceptional period for news: both print and broadcast enjoyed steady income.</p>
<h2>Death and rebirth</h2>
<p>Journalists are understandably gloomy about what is happening now. But the volatile sequences of publishers experimenting with something new, failing and then trying again would have been entirely familiar to journalists of the 18th or 19th centuries. Did Charles Dickens sit in a panelled office in a single, steady newspaper job all his life while writing novels on the side? He did not: <a href="http://www.dickensfellowship.org/dickens-journalist">he joined or founded more than one start-up</a> and more than one failed. His writing lasted, but his businesses did not. Technology is now dragging us into the future but the experience has echoes of the past.</p>
<p>Newsrooms are more than just places of which journalists become fond. They are storehouses of knowledge, technique and values. Journalists worried that major news brands will disappear have a real concern: that journalism’s job of “holding power to account” will be done less effectively without that accumulated experience and memory. They have been told for years not to worry. Fear not, say the digital gurus, new online <a href="https://www.divestopedia.com/definition/5114/unicorn">“unicorn” businesses</a> will rise where others have fallen. The news business often has to re-invent itself and this is one of those moments.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115787/original/image-20160321-30929-1365kyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/115787/original/image-20160321-30929-1365kyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115787/original/image-20160321-30929-1365kyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115787/original/image-20160321-30929-1365kyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=483&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115787/original/image-20160321-30929-1365kyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115787/original/image-20160321-30929-1365kyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/115787/original/image-20160321-30929-1365kyz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=607&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Boston Globe is in the spotlight for its investigative reporting.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tony Fischer CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a description of history’s trajectory, this optimistic prediction will probably turn out to be right. As I found when researching my book, <a href="http://blog.wan-ifra.org/2013/09/23/george-brocks-out-of-print-newspapers-journalism-and-the-business-of-news-in-the-digital-">Out of Print: Newspapers, Journalism and the Business of News in the Digital Age</a>, the need for accurate and reliably independent information is deeply embedded in the elites of developed societies and those communities will eventually solve the business problems which currently afflict the production of news. I can even see that recovery starting in the recovery of investigative journalism (both in start-ups and inside mainstream newsrooms), the outstanding online analysis of the European migration crisis or the rise of Donald Trump and the energetic work of a <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2014/09/six-things-we-learned-about-big-news-outlets-from-a-report-on-editorial-standards/">new breed of verification sites</a>.</p>
<p>But, as the digital pundit Clay Shirky <a href="http://www.shirky.com/weblog/2009/03/newspapers-and-thinking-the-unthinkable/">pointed out</a>, transitions are an exhausting mess if you actually have to live through them. In a deservedly famous blogpost seven years ago, he wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>That is what real revolutions are like. The old stuff gets broken faster than the new stuff is put in its place. The importance of any given experiment isn’t apparent at the moment it appears; big changes stall, small changes spread.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"710780034299125760"}"></div></p>
<p>The old is dying but the new has not yet been born. Reflecting on Shirky’s wisdom, Wolfgang Blau, currently at Condé Naste but with experience at the Guardian and Die Zeit, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/wolfgang.blau/posts/10153988508540960">wrote recently</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sad? Yes. When a newspaper goes down, the greatest loss - beyond the immediate loss of jobs – is the disappearance of a social fabric, a true social network that had been built and nurtured over decades. Pessimistic? No, not really. Optimistic about the future of journalism? Yes. Still.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/56622/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>George Brock is the author of Out of Print: Newspapers, Journalism and the Business of News in the Digital Age (Kogan Page 2013).</span></em></p>The history of newspapers has been one of adapting to prosper and now is no different.George Brock, Professor of Journalism, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/553882016-02-29T19:07:03Z2016-02-29T19:07:03ZThe Guardian’s costly gap between traffic and profits<p>The Guardian is a perplexing media phenomenon – a digital media company with the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/gnm-press-office/8">third highest global readership in English</a> that nonetheless appears to be on the brink of a financial crisis.</p>
<p>Later this month employees at the London headquarters will find out how many of them face redundancy, as the company tries <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/media/12120006/Guardian-to-slash-costs-by-a-fifth-as-losses-mount.html">to cut annual running costs by A$105 million</a>. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/uk/article4698745.ece">The Times</a> of London reported last week that The Guardian is hoping to do this without resorting to compulsory redundancies. According to The Times, The Guardian’s management is said to have increased its cap on leaving packages from A$174,000 to A$289,000 in the hope of “encouraging the elite to take a bullet for the good of the workers”. </p>
<p>Keen readers of the online editions will be heartened to know that the Australian and American operations are <a href="http://www.melbournepressclub.com/event/watch-online-digital-invaders-in-our-media-patch">“completely insulated”</a> from the cuts, according to Guardian Australia editor Emily Wilson. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.lse.ac.uk/media@lse/research/mediaWorkingPapers/pdf/WP39FINAL.pdf">In a paper</a> published last week by The London School of Economics and Political Science, I explored aspects of The Guardian’s transformation from a national newspaper into a global digital brand. One of the areas I investigated was its emerging strategic plan.</p>
<p>The principal part of the plan was, and continues to be, the growth of its online international readership. The Guardian was an early adopter in the digital arena, with online publication of various parts of its business from 1994/5 onwards.
After success with a UK digital edition of the paper, the former editor-in-chief Alan Rusbridger gave the green light to a US edition in 2011.</p>
<p>Guardian US, now edited by Lee Glendinning, has 50 journalists and three offices in New York, Washington and San Francisco. It was ranked 17th in the country in 2015 in the <a href="http://www.journalism.org/media-indicators/digital-top-50-online-news-entities-2015/">Pew Center’s Digital Top 50 Online Entities</a>. With over half of its readers now coming from mobile, it recently won <a href="http://knightfoundation.org/press-room/press-release/guardian-us-launch-news-innovation-lab-focused-usi/">US$2.6 million from the Knight Foundation</a> to launch a news innovation lab, “focusing on using mobile technology to create deeper journalism”.</p>
<p>Guardian Australia was launched in 2013 with money from multi-millionaire Wotif.com co-founder Graeme Wood. The size of the investment loan has never been confirmed but was reported by <a href="http://www.crikey.com.au/2014/07/10/media-briefs-nine-locks-down-15-million-to-guardian-australia-keating-responds/">Crikey.com</a> to be A$14.9 million. Editor-in-chief Katharine Viner (now UK-based) insisted that without this money, the edition would never have come into being.</p>
<p>Today the website has 42 journalists plus offices in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. The <a href="http://www.nielsen.com/au/en/press-room/2015/nielsen-online-news-rankings-jan15.html">Nielsen Online Ratings</a> for the month of January 2016, show Guardian Australia came in at 7th position nationwide with 1.8 million unique viewers. </p>
<p>And finally in 2015, The Guardian launched an <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/help/insideguardian/2015/apr/20/giving-our-international-readers-a-fresh-take-on-the-news">“international edition”</a>. This edition will be a lot cheaper to run as it will not be commissioning but will instead be aggregating the best global stories from the front pages of the other editions.</p>
<p>The Guardian has financed this overseas expansion through the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/the-scott-trust/2015/jul/26/the-scott-trust">Scott Trust</a> an investment portfolio set up in 1936, which allows richer parts of the group to subsidise the poorer partner – in this case, the newspaper. But the fund’s value has decreased by A$194 million to A$1.423 billion over the past six months, according to the <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/83512944-c35e-11e5-808f-8231cd71622e.html#axzz41EMw1hjI">Financial Times</a>. </p>
<p>Readership of the newspaper is falling, with year-on-year figures from the <a href="http://www.mediareform.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Who_owns_the_UK_media-report_plus_appendix1.pdf">Audit Bureau of Circulations</a> (July 2015) down by 7.07% to 168,369 readers. </p>
<p>But ditching the print version of The Guardian does not appear to be on the agenda. Back in October Katharine Viner told me: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“The newspaper model was a really good model and it still is, it’s just we know it’s got a time limit on it. I think some years ago, it looked more imminent than it does now.” </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But given that the print version of the <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/12153947/The-Independent-newspaper-confirms-an-end-to-print-production.html">Independent newspaper</a> finishes later this month, and the decline in revenue from print advertising is currently <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/the-guardian-counts-the-costs-of-its-global-ambitions-a6833846.html">down 25% per year</a>, this timeline might need to come forwards. </p>
<p>With regards to paywalls, Viner was equally unmoved: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“I would never say never on pay-walls. I’m not convinced that they work financially.”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>With these options seemingly off the table for the moment, The Guardian is left with trialling more acceptable forms of paying for stories. It has conducted a range of experiments with “branded content”, sponsorship and native advertising. </p>
<p>But the recent collapse in digital ad-spend has been a further blow – with advertisers preferring to spend their money on Google, Facebook and Twitter rather than on “legacy media”. According to Viner, this decrease in digital ads, combined with the arrival of ad blockers, means that this is “a precarious model”. </p>
<p>Like other media players, The Guardian has also been involved in an experiment with <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/may/13/bbc-news-guardian-facebook-instant-articles">“instant articles”</a> on Facebook. Viner was philosophical: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>“You know, Facebook has 1.4 billion users. I wouldn’t mind getting close to a few of those.’</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In the meantime, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media/press/the-guardian-counts-the-costs-of-its-global-ambitions-a6833846.html">speculation continues in the media</a> with some commentators wondering if the Guardian HQ at Kings Place might not get sold off along with its proposed events venue – the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/membership/midland-goods-shed-progress/2014/sep/10/-sp-midland-goods-shed-guardian-events-membership-building-space">Midland Goods Shed</a>.</p>
<p>For her part, Viner is persuaded of the value of tapping Guardian loyalty – by extracting cash in exchange for different levels of enhanced membership. She wants editorial to be much more involved in the program. </p>
<blockquote>
<p>"It could be anything from a quarterly magazine to a members-only space to discuss an event online, or discuss a good piece online, talk boards, meet-ups, even phone calls from me!”</p>
</blockquote>
<p>The new <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/guardian-news-and-media-slash-%C2%A353m-annual-budget-curb-losses">three-year plan</a> aims to “focus international growth on the US and Australia, increasing their contribution to the overall business”. It has yet to be revealed how they will put this plan into action in Australia.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55388/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Colleen Murrell gathered the data for this paper while on sabbatical at LSE as a visiting senior research fellow.</span></em></p>With ad blockers hurting digital, and print readership declining, The Guardian’s plans to take on the world face strong headwinds.Colleen Murrell, Course Director and Senior Lecturer, Deakin UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/540702016-02-23T12:28:40Z2016-02-23T12:28:40ZWill crowdfunding save journalism?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109993/original/image-20160202-32222-sa3j22.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hat's all folks</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=&search_tracking_id=guPTUxaCzkVm5wxx3x1u4Q&searchterm=press%20hat&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=66149689">Gert Lavsen</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Journalism is in an existential crisis: revenue to news organisations has fallen off a cliff over the past two decades and no clear business model is emerging to sustain news in the digital era.</em></p>
<p><em>In the latest in our series on <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/media-business-models">business models for the news media</a>, journalist and academic Angela Phillips looks at crowdfunding and how it might help pay for new media ventures.</em></p>
<p>Plans have been afoot for a new sports newspaper for Scotland. The proposed paper would be weekly and big names such as tennis coach Judy Murray and football pundit Pat Nevin signed up as columnists. All it requires is £50,000 in <a href="http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/scottish-sports-newspaper/">crowdfunding pledges</a> by February 25 and the first copy will drop in May. Developed by a group of Scottish journalists and fronted by media news site <a href="http://www.allmediascotland.com">AllMediaScotland</a>, those who pledge money would be rewarded with the first edition of the paper.</p>
<p>It looks very unlikely to get off the ground. Though many see crowdfunding projects as having the potential to make journalism viable for the future, the Scottish sports weekly has attracted 205 backers who have pledged just short of £10,000 since it was announced at the end of January. The Twitter account <a href="https://twitter.com/scotsportspaper">@ScotSportsPaper</a> has just over 1,200 followers. </p>
<p>Crowdfunding requires a large number of people ready to back an idea with money. The most successful attempts usually involve a product, so most people are simply paying in advance for it to be developed and then delivered. To be fair, that appears to be what this Scottish proposal has been aiming for. But the very best they could have hoped for was the beginning of a database, built up via pledges, which could then be converted into subscriptions. And without support from Scottish newspapers (which would see it as a rival), the launch team would have had to make its own waves.</p>
<h2>Bright spots</h2>
<p>There have been some isolated examples of success in funding start-up journalism projects through crowdfunding. The Dutch news site <a href="https://decorrespondent.nl/en">De Correspondent</a> was launched with a crowdfund of $1.7m (£1.2m), which allowed it to pay salaries for a group of well respected journalists. The 19,000 backers quickly became 28,000 subscribers and <a href="https://medium.com/de-correspondent/heres-what-happend-to-that-world-record-in-journalism-crowdfunding-cc5bac50b812#.kl0vu6cq3">within a year</a> the website had a viable model, paid for through subscription and a paywall. It is now an established part of the Dutch media scene.</p>
<p>This is one of those cases where the exception proves the rule, however. De Correspondent was launched into a news-media field which was ripe for a new voice. It got heavyweight backing from the start and, crucially, the funding was only intended for the launch – hence the more orthodox funding that has followed. </p>
<p>Other attempts at using crowdfunding include <a href="https://thebristolcable.org">The Bristol Cable</a>, an English local news magazine and website, which is “funded” by 600 shareholders paying £2.50 per month each. <a href="https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/how-the-bristol-cable-wants-to-democratise-local-media-/s2/a556313/">Launched</a> in 2014, it is a welcome independent voice in a local news environment <a href="http://www.mediareform.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/ElephantintheroomFinalfinal.pdf">dominated by</a> large chains that have stripped back their journalism to cut costs. </p>
<p>The funding is not enough to cover wages, however. The Bristol journalists all work for free, very much in the same tradition as those responsible for the <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=OHDhJOHynUIC&pg=PA91&lpg=PA91&dq=radical+community+press+1970s&source=bl&ots=z5YIi_p_bN&sig=UKUyNSStNAaPXylXDBFxF6BQFnE&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjQiLCAiNnKAhWJtxoKHf0gCccQ6AEIKDAC#v=onepage&q=radical%20community%20press%201970s&f=false">radical local press</a> of the 1970s, which flowered briefly due to local enthusiasm and then died away. The only sustainable long-term funding for The Bristol Cable is likely to be display advertising in the magazine. As Christopher Thomson, chief executive of publisher <a href="http://www.dcthomson.co.uk">DC Thomson</a>, <a href="http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm201314/cmselect/cmcumeds/uc143-i/uc14301.htm">told the</a> House of Lords select committee on plurality in 2013, digital advertising was providing only 5%-10% of his group’s local newspaper income. Local news is still typically sustained by print. </p>
<p>Probably the biggest experiment in crowdfunding in the UK so far has been The Guardian’s <a href="https://membership.theguardian.com">membership scheme</a>. With The Guardian mainly funded through a mix of advertising revenue and trust funds, the membership scheme was launched in 2014 to help plug annual losses and put the news organisation on track to break even in the future. In the first six months, <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/guardian-membership-scheme-reaches-35000-2015-3?r=US&IR=T">according to</a> Business Insider, 35,000 people had signed up (Guardian.com <a href="http://www.abc.org.uk/Products-Services/Product-Page/?tid=22995">reaches</a> 8m people each day). Guardian Media Group <a href="http://www.ft.com/fastft/2016/01/25/guardian-to-cut-costs-by-20/">recently revealed that</a> it had lost more than £100m over the last year, which is likely to lead to a 20% cut in staffing. Clearly a more sustainable income stream is needed than donations from concerned members of the public.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109994/original/image-20160202-32254-pu20tf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109994/original/image-20160202-32254-pu20tf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109994/original/image-20160202-32254-pu20tf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109994/original/image-20160202-32254-pu20tf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109994/original/image-20160202-32254-pu20tf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109994/original/image-20160202-32254-pu20tf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109994/original/image-20160202-32254-pu20tf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109994/original/image-20160202-32254-pu20tf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Seeking funding: The Guardian.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=&search_tracking_id=3P9h3eZyNhJWaFwl9Thk-A&searchterm=The%20Guardian&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=234299326">Gil C</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Funding stories</h2>
<p>Where crowdfunding has been a little more successful has been in funding individual journalism projects. A number of funding sites such as Kickstarter have dedicated sections, while sites such as <a href="https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/byline-a-new-wave-in-crowdfunding-/s2/a565733/">Byline</a> are exclusively intended for the purpose. An analysis of Kickstarter journalism projects by US research organisation PEW, <a href="http://www.poynter.org/2016/crowdfunding-is-on-the-rise-for-journalism-pew-report-finds/392415/">found that</a> in the past year they raised $1.7m. The bulk went to individuals for specific research, while 22% went to established organisations, such as the trust-funded <a href="https://www.propublica.org">ProPublica</a>, to help pay for specific projects. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109995/original/image-20160202-32227-1ji3kh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109995/original/image-20160202-32227-1ji3kh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109995/original/image-20160202-32227-1ji3kh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109995/original/image-20160202-32227-1ji3kh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109995/original/image-20160202-32227-1ji3kh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=687&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109995/original/image-20160202-32227-1ji3kh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109995/original/image-20160202-32227-1ji3kh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109995/original/image-20160202-32227-1ji3kh0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=863&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Lend a hand …</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&autocomplete_id=&search_tracking_id=bycfEDMlNykeyTUCtnFHbQ&searchterm=crowdfunding&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=300284054">Girc</a></span>
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<p>An <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1111/jcc4.12051/asset/jcc412051.pdf;jsessionid=953ADAB7DD5B58F41E397033AE571873.f04t01?v=1&t=ikzdcbk9&s=50303139847b8e55d2beb1479beb388fc35a83a6&systemMessage=Wiley+Online+Library+will+be+unavailable+on+Saturday+27th+February+from+09%3A00-14%3A00+GMT+%2F+04%3A00-09%3A00+EST+%2F+17%3A00-22%3A00+SGT+for+essential+maintenance.++Apologies+for+the+inconvenience.">academic survey</a> of the US crowdfunding site for journalism, Spot.us, looked at the kinds of stories that people are prepared to fund. It concluded that donors go for “specific news topics that are of immediate utility to them in daily living”, particularly those about public health and city infrastructure. Spot.us unfortunately <a href="http://www.knightdigitalmediacenter.org/blogs/agahran/2015/02/spotus-ends-insights-community-news-crowdfunding">folded</a> a year ago, however. </p>
<p>Yet if crowdfunding looks relatively limited as a means of funding “watchdog” journalism that keeps a sceptical eye on people in power, this will have to be paid for by other means. We are in living in an era where the traditional funding from newspaper sales and advertising revenues is greatly reduced. Paywalls and metered content are proving to be a sustainable funding-method for some larger online publications. In the US, more than a third of news sites are behind <a href="http://www.poynter.org/2014/newspaper-industry-narrowed-revenue-loss-in-2013-as-paywall-plans-increased/247555/">paywalls</a>. </p>
<p>And new experiments with dedicated news platforms on which subscription money is shared via micropayments might start to do for news what Spotify has done for music – witness Dutch site <a href="https://launch.blendle.com">Blendle</a>, which has <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/new-york-times-axel-springer-invest-in-dutch-startup-blendle-1414408997">attracted funding</a> from the New York Times and Axel Springer; and <a href="https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/it-takes-commitment-lessons-from-piano-media-s-national-paywalls/s2/a564829/">Piano Media</a>, which is active in eastern Europe. Whether any of this will be of any help to the mooted Scottish sports weekly is another matter, but good journalism does not come free – that is as true in today’s digital era as it was in the days of hot metal and printing presses.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/54070/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Angela Phillips has received funding from Leverhulme and EPSRC Digital Economy ‘Communities and Culture’ Network+. She is a member of the Media Reform Coalition and the National Union of Journalists.
</span></em></p>The likes of Der Correspondent and Kickstarter raise the prospect of a new funding model for journalism. To some extent, we are kidding ourselves.Angela Phillips, Professor, Goldsmiths, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/532872016-01-27T04:04:40Z2016-01-27T04:04:40ZAd blockers are here to stay, micropayments less so<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109308/original/image-20160127-19660-1h7n9ve.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Will the plethora of conflicting market signals be too much for news consumers to bear?</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Image sourced from shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The global media sector continues to adapt slowly to digital disruption. Paywalls are yet to make up for the loss of print advertising revenue, and experiments continue with sponsored content and micropayments. In this <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/media-business-models">media business models</a> series we explore the green shoots in media models – what’s working, and what’s yet to be proven.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Another year, another crisis in traditional media. Most recently, it has been The Guardian announcing it needs to <a href="http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-media-guardian-idUKKCN0V31Q8">cut costs by 20%</a>, as the revenues from online advertising cannot compensate for the losses of revenue from its print editions. </p>
<p>The situation with online advertising is worsening, not only because the rates advertisers are prepared to pay continue to fall – they are quite simply spoilt for choice in terms of online outlets – but because more and more people use ad blocking software. It is now estimated that <a href="http://www.campaignlive.com/article/ad-blockers-gain-ground-consumers-say-enough/1326412">almost half of online users aged 18 to 29 use ad-blocking software</a>, for reasons that range from concerns about third-party access to their search data, performance issues, and a hostility to advertising being a part of their online experience.</p>
<p>An option to advertising challenges that is generating considerable discussion is the use of micropayments to fund journalism and other media activities. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109303/original/image-20160127-19680-eg39i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/109303/original/image-20160127-19680-eg39i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109303/original/image-20160127-19680-eg39i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109303/original/image-20160127-19680-eg39i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109303/original/image-20160127-19680-eg39i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109303/original/image-20160127-19680-eg39i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/109303/original/image-20160127-19680-eg39i0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
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<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Steven Depolo/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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</figure>
<p><a href="https://medium.com/on-blendle/blendle-a-radical-experiment-with-micropayments-in-journalism-365-days-later-f3b799022edc#.q9galajen">Blendle</a> in The Netherlands has now operated for more than a year on a micropayments model, where users register once only, only pay for the news stories they access, and can request a refund if they were dissatisfied with the story they accessed e.g. if they thought it was “clickbait”. <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/09/the-micropayment-platform-blendle-is-expanding-to-germany/">German publishers</a> are now working with Blendle on developing this model. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2015/sep/14/canadian-newspaper-uses-micropayments-system-to-charge-online-readers">Winnipeg Free Press</a> in Canada has adopted a micropayments system, and the concept is attracting growing attention in the <a href="http://thenextweb.com/media/2016/01/25/future-media-monetization-cryptocurrencies-micropayments/#gref">tech community</a>, particularly as virtual currency systems such as Blockchain are being adopted and as Facebook Connect is developed for games platforms. </p>
<p>Micropayments are a logical extension of both the unbundling of media content, particularly in news, and an increasingly user-driven online experience. But they have also long had their critics. Social media theorist Clay Shirky has been a <a href="http://shirky.com/writings/fame_vs_fortune.html">long-time critic of micropayments</a>, arguing they risk enveloping users is an endless decision-making loop, and that the “mental transaction costs” of deciding whether or not to pay for particular items of content would ultimately prove too burdensome to users. </p>
<h2>Endless choice</h2>
<p>Most debates about micropayments have focused on the consumer side. Is it a desirable option to have, or are we being spoilt by too much choice? Once we start pricing individual pieces of journalism, will the plethora of conflicting market signals be too much to bear? Should we be paying for the story, or paying the journalist, and so on. If a news outlet is one whose journalism you are particularly keen to support, it arguably makes more sense to make a one-off donation to it than make large numbers of small transactions on individual stories, particularly if that donation is tax deductible. Critics such as Shirky rightly point to a fallacy of assuming people do not notice small payments as compared to large ones: once there are a lot of them, they certainly do. </p>
<p>The bigger problems, I would argue, reside on the supply side. The founders of Blendle readily acknowledge that their 250,000-plus users will not pay for news, but will pay for quality commentary. As they put it, <a href="https://medium.com/on-blendle/blendle-a-radical-experiment-with-micropayments-in-journalism-365-days-later-f3b799022edc#.q9galajen">“people don’t want to spend money on the ‘what’, they want to spend money on the ‘why’”</a>. But the providers of quality content typically require a stable source of income – the “gig economy” model is less likely to work for detailed analysis of a subject than it is for quick, real time reporting on particular events. A story like the famous account in <a href="https://www.vice.com/tag/isis">VICE</a> of what was going on inside ISIS, which established VICE as a significant news outlet and which is the sort of content for which people will pay, requires people who are prepared to embed themselves within a location for a period of time. </p>
<p>And for that kind of work, they require either cash up front, or the security of other forms of full-time employment (a news organisation, a university etc.). The personal risks of doing such stories in the subsequent hope that people will pay for them are simply too great. This is one of the reasons why the situation for public service media is better, not worse, than it was two decades ago. We have seen how vulnerable the business models of commercial media have turned out to be, in terms of generating content, attracting paying consumers, and being able to recruit and retain talent. </p>
<p>So I would be expecting a certain amount of activity in 2016 around news micropayments. It is the topic of the moment, and news organisations are prepared to try anything, particularly as the online advertising market becomes more and more fragmented. But it is at best a supplement to other revenue generating strategies, more akin to the online dating sites and weekend creative writing classes that have generated alternative revenue streams in recent times. The core of the news business will not be funded by micropayments.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/53287/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Terry Flew receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is part of an ARC-Discovery Project researching politics, the media and the future of democracy in Australia. </span></em></p>Media consumers are spoilt for choice, making new revenue models difficult for publishers.Terry Flew, Professor of Media and Communications, Queensland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/451682015-07-28T04:24:37Z2015-07-28T04:24:37ZNewspaper ownership: political influence trumps the promise of profits<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89799/original/image-20150727-7656-1mdommz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">The Financial Times newspaper has been bought by Japanese media house Nikkei. Does the ownership of a newspaper make a difference? It certainly does.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Peter Nicholls</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Financial Times, one of the great global journalism institutions, has been sold by the <a href="https://www.pearson.com/">Pearson Group</a> to the Japanese media company <a href="http://www.nikkei.co.jp/nikkeiinfo/en/">Nikkei</a>. </p>
<p>This ends 60 years of benign custodianship, which has allowed the pink paper to be one of the more successful of the newspapers dealing with the challenges of the internet. The 127-year-old FT now has 70% of its <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2015/02/newsonomics-the-financial-times-triples-its-profits-and-swaps-champagne-flutes-for-martini-glasses/">audience paying</a> to read it online and made a £25m profit this year.</p>
<p>The FT is looking healthier than most newspapers, partly because it occupies a valuable niche, but also because it has had the shelter of a large parent company. Now the Pearson Group says it wants to concentrate on its core educational publishing business. </p>
<p>Nikkei chairman Tsuneo Kita – who paid a whopping £844m for the FT - was quoted <a href="http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/1d49d566-31e0-11e5-8873-775ba7c2ea3d.html#axzz3h5oTKkvC">reassuring staff</a> and readers:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We share the same journalistic values.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So a major British institution becomes Japanese. Or does it? Is this a recognition that the FT is now truly global? Does the identity of the owner make a difference?</p>
<h2>Why ownership matters</h2>
<p>Of course it does, but not always in the obvious way. There is no reason to believe that Nikkei is going to turn things on their head. After all, they know this business well and will be fully aware that the best thing to do with a successful media product is allow it to continue on its track. </p>
<p>But there will come a time when they have to appoint a new editor, and that is when an owner exerts the greatest influence. The most respected owners choose someone they trust and let them get on with it, giving them the freedom to interpret their mandate, knowing only that they can be fired if they go beyond it. <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/the-scott-trust/2015/jul/26/the-scott-trust">The Scott Trust</a>, which owns the Guardian of London, famously instructs its editors only to continue “as heretofore”. </p>
<p>Other owners are famous for interfering. <a href="http://global.britannica.com/biography/Rupert-Murdoch">Rupert Murdoch</a> ensures his many editors follow his political choices. He uses his newspapers to give him political clout, and uses his political clout to manipulate governments and regulators to the benefit of his broadcasting interests.</p>
<p>Clearly the power to hire and fire the key editorial decision-maker gives a great deal of power to the proprietor in whatever form they choose to exercise it.</p>
<h2>When the going gets tough</h2>
<p>In recent years, we have seen that in a time of <a href="http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/media/2013/08/14/sas-newspapers-under-pressure-as-circulation-drops">financial pressure </a> on the industry a key factor in ownership is not just the individual in charge, but the structure of the company. In the good times, those newspapers that were part of listed companies made <a href="http://ajrarchive.org/Article.asp?id=69">good money</a> for shareholders. In tough times, though, the ones surviving best are those with ownership structures that lend themselves to the pursuit of long-term goals, rather than the relentless cycle of short-term results demanded by the stock exchange.</p>
<p>The best example of this is the trust-controlled Guardian. During the boom years when newspapers were making huge margins, the Guardian’s cautious trustees were considered something of an albatross around the newspaper’s neck. Now, in tough times, the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/the-scott-trust/2015/jul/23/the-purpose-of-the-scott-trust">Trust</a> has been able to sell other assets to build a war chest of more than £650m. This has allowed the Guardian to pour money into building a global internet audience and keep access to its site free and open. </p>
<p>They have gone from being a relatively small British left-leaning paper to a leading global brand which measures its audience in tens of millions. They have carried serious losses to achieve this (about £30m last year), but these appear to be decreasing. The hands-off approach of the Trust has also allowed the Guardian to take serious risks on recent stories, such as the Wikileaks and <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-22837100">Edward Snowden</a> revelations.</p>
<p>In the US, many of the papers have been controlled by families, and the best of these recognise their ownership as a public trust rather than as a source of quick profit. Although the New York Times is a listed public company, it has been protected by a <a href="http://time.com/105004/at-the-new-york-times-its-all-in-the-family/">family</a> which has taken a long view on their investment, even with a falling share price.</p>
<p>The problem with family control, however, is when things get tight families can run out of money, or squabble. This is what happened at the Washington Post, where they sold to Amazon founder <a href="http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/bez0bio-1">Jeff Bezos</a>, who had the deep pockets to sustain it, and the Wall St Journal, which was sold to Murdoch.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89801/original/image-20150727-7646-1llaor1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/89801/original/image-20150727-7646-1llaor1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89801/original/image-20150727-7646-1llaor1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89801/original/image-20150727-7646-1llaor1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89801/original/image-20150727-7646-1llaor1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89801/original/image-20150727-7646-1llaor1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/89801/original/image-20150727-7646-1llaor1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Voters read newspaper headlines during the recent Nigerian elections.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters/Joe Penney</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This points to another form of ownership: newspapers which are part of large conglomerates where other lucrative media – such as pay television – can sustain the newspapers in difficult times. This has its limits, though, as shareholders question the wisdom of carrying low-profit newspapers when their other assets are pumping money. Murdoch was forced to move his newspapers into a separate company. </p>
<p>Similarly, the <a href="http://www.media24.com/">Media24</a> group in South Africa, - which owns papers such as the Daily Sun, City Press and all the Afrikaans language titles – is part of the giant <a href="http://www.naspers.com/group-profile.html">Naspers group</a>. The fortune Naspers is making from pay television across Africa and its internet investment in China could sustain its newspapers, but shareholders – particularly those around the world who have no reason to care much about one country’s newspapers – are likely to question why they are holding low-performing assets.</p>
<p>Naspers, though, is firmly controlled by its South African directors, notably chairman <a href="http://www.news24.com/Tags/People/koos_bekker">Koos Bekker</a>, and this may offer medium-term protection. It has certainly enabled them to experiment on the internet more than their rivals.
Most other South African newspapers are part of listed companies, forcing management to chase short-term results. <a href="http://www.independentmedia.co.za/en/our-company/about-us/">Independent News and Media</a> is not listed, but its new owner carries a huge debt which is likely to constrain spending.</p>
<h2>A return to where it all began</h2>
<p>The bottom line is that most newspapers are <a href="http://www.bdlive.co.za/national/media/2013/08/14/sas-newspapers-under-pressure-as-circulation-drops">no longer</a> the lucrative investment they once were. There are a few owners (and even fewer in South Africa) who do it because they believe their papers play an important role in a democracy, and treat it as a public trust. Others will do it for the political clout it gives them.</p>
<p>This is, oddly, a return to where newspapers began a couple of hundred years ago, before advertising made newspapers so lucrative.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/45168/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>As head of Wits Journalism, I fundraise from all local media companies. We have received support from Media24, Independent Newspapers, Caxton, Primedia and Kagiso Media.</span></em></p>The sale of the Financial Times marks the end of 60 years of benign custodianship, which has allowed the pink paper to be one of the more successful in dealing with the challenges of the internet.Anton Harber, Caxton Professor of Journalism, University of the WitwatersrandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/434842015-06-18T14:10:38Z2015-06-18T14:10:38ZNews, jokes and listicles: here’s how BuzzFeed has changed the face of journalism<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85545/original/image-20150618-23239-1n8qj23.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jonah Peretti of Buzzfeed at the TechCrunch conference Disrupt NY 2013.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">TechCrunch</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="http://digitalnewsreport.org/%20">2015 Reuters institute digital news report</a> has just been published. It contains, according to <a href="https://fortune.com/2015/06/16/reuters-news-survey/">Matthew Ingram</a> in Fortune magazine, mostly bad news for traditional, mainstream media – confirming what most people already knew anyway: that most consumers of news, particularly younger consumers of news, get it on mobile devices through social media. </p>
<p>More pertinently, they don’t pay for content. Nor, it appears, are they ever likely to do so.</p>
<p>The Reuters report provides insight into digital news consumption based on a YouGov survey of more than 20,000 online news consumers in the US, UK, Ireland, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Denmark, Finland, Brazil, Japan and Australia. And according to the current data there is evidence to suggest not only an inexorable shift towards mobile platforms for news but also a move to consume online video and <a href="http://digitalnewsreport.org/survey/2015/executive-summary-and-key-findings-2015/%20">“new visual formats”.</a></p>
<p>According to Nic Newman of Reuters the future media landscape will see:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>An intensifying battle for global audiences online involving new players like the Huffington Post and Buzzfeed, expanding global newspapers like the Guardian and New York Times and old stalwarts including the BBC and CNN.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>It is the rapid rise of BuzzFeed which merits serious attention. The Reuters report states that it has doubled its reach in the US and UK over the past year and has “established a strong foothold in a number of countries amongst the young”. According to its own publicity <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/about">BuzzFeed</a> is the social news and entertainment company providing shareable breaking news, original reporting, entertainment and video content across the “social web” to a global audience of more than <a href="http://www.tubefilter.com/2015/04/27/buzzfeed-newfronts-distributed-platforms/">1 billion views per month.</a></p>
<p>Valued at <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/aug/11/buzzfeed-valued-at-three-times-washington-post">almost three times</a> the worth of the Washington Post in 2014, BuzzFeed is in the process of a major global overhaul. In August last year <a href="http://cdixon.org/2014/08/10/buzzfeed/%C2%A0">Chris Dixon</a>, capital investor and BuzzFeed board member wrote that though the company started out focusing on lightweight content such as memes, lists, funny photos and the like, it was now moving “steadily upmarket” with an editorial staff of more than 200 people covering a wide range of topics including politics, sports, business, entertainment and travel.</p>
<p>The plan, wrote Dixon, was to invest significantly more in high-quality content in the coming years. The aim is to ensure – explicitly or implicitly – that BuzzFeed emerges from this latest period of media change as the pre-eminent media company.</p>
<p>Perhaps it is this much-touted move toward “high-quality content” and original reporting that has persuaded so many talented and relatively high-profile British journalists to join the ranks of <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/?country=uk">BuzzFeedUK</a> since it began operating here in 2013 with just three employees. </p>
<p>Among others, late last year <a href="https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/buzzfeed-uk-appoints-new-senior-writer-plans-to-expand-with-beat-structure-/s2/a563386/%20">Robert Colville</a> left the Telegraph to become UK news director and Emily Ashton left the Sun to become senior political correspondent. More recently, Sunday Times assistant editor <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jan/13/buzzfeed-hires-heidi-blake-to-head-uk-investigative-journalism-team">Heidi Blake</a>, who reported extensively on the award-winning story into alleged bribery by Qatar to win the 2022 World Cup, was hired to set up and lead a UK investigative journalism unit. </p>
<p>This week it emerged that <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/janine-gibson-former-guardian-editor-appointed-head-of-buzzfeed-uk-10323290.html">Janine Gibson</a>, former senior editor at the Guardian, had been appointed as overall editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed’s UK operation.</p>
<p>It’s intended that Gibson, who was also the editor-in-chief of The Guardian’s US operation, will oversee a further expansion of BuzzFeeds’ news staff adding a dozen more journalists to a newsroom currently operating with around 45 people. Upon appointment <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jun/16/janine-gibson-appointed-editor-in-chief-buzzfeed-uk%20%C2%A0">she said</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I can’t think of a more exciting place in British journalism right now, and am thrilled at the opportunity to further BuzzFeed’s reputation as a force for breaking news, insightful reporting and very good jokes … We are going to do what was done with BuzzFeed in the US and build up a coherent breaking news operation.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>So Buzzfeed prospers – and the <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2013/s3935993.htm">arguments</a> rage: does its spectacular rise indicate an environment where journalism (mostly) becomes the collection of ready content organised on what Andrew Sullivan has referred to as “an <a href="http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2013/12/04/the-truthiness-of-buzzfeed/">entertainment/public relations site</a> whose core mission is making money”? Or is its rise inevitable and to be welcomed because it potentially draws young audiences toward news, when all indicators suggest that more and more are switching off the TV news and buying fewer newspapers?</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"610777259167846400"}"></div></p>
<p>There are many who share Gibson’s optimistic vison and all this would suggest that, in a phrase used by <a href="http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415744713/%20%C2%A0">Stephen Cushion</a>, we are already in the age of the “Buzzification” of news. Newsrooms the world over are mimicking BuzzFeed’s style. Cushion states that its method of placing quirky items and topic lists sitting alongside more serious stories has been emulated by the established news organisations. </p>
<p>In the words of <a href="http://www.cjr.org/cover_story/who_cares_if_its_true.php">Marc Fisher</a>, BuzzFeed is not a “scrappy little start-up anymore” – it is a big, profitable news organisation that has appropriated and adapted what it deems necessary from conventional news journalism. </p>
<p>With the likes of Gibson and Blake heading for BuzzFeed are we seeing the end of the (perhaps phony) war between the old and the new? Is this the era of conciliation, asks Fisher, where, “as the lines between old and new increasingly blur, are the two schools of journalism’s core values blending into a hybrid?”</p>
<p>But where Buzzfeed differs significantly from its old school rivals is in its attitude to advertising. As <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/2013/jan/06/buzzfeed-social-news-open-uk">Josh Halliday</a> has pointed out, while the traditional media remains (understandably) coy about its relationship with advertisers, BuzzFeed has made it the cornerstone of its business model with Coca-Cola, MTV, Starbucks and Nike all having sponsored posts on the site. </p>
<p>The fact is that it makes a geat deal of money from <a href="https://theconversation.com/branded-content-how-online-advertorials-are-changing-the-shape-of-modern-journalism-32831">branded content or “native advertising”</a> – where ads imitate the nature and style of original content. Clearly, this can lead to confusion over what is a genuine item and what is public relations. But it generates revenue – as <a href="http://www.wired.com/2014/12/new-media-2/">Matt Honan</a> writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>For every 10 people who click directly on a BuzzFeed native ad, the site expects three of them will share it with friends via email or on a social network</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But as with old media – think Peter Oborne’s <a href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/peter-oborne/why-i-have-resigned-from-telegraph%20">reasons for leaving</a> the Daily Telegraph – BuzzFeed has recently been criticised for allowing advertisers to exert influence over content through fear of losing revenue. In April this year, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/20/business/media/buzzfeed-says-posts-were-deleted-because-of-advertising-pressure.html?_r=0%20">The New York Times</a> reported that an internal review at the company had found three instances where articles were removed from the site after an advertiser or employees from the company’s business side complained about their content.</p>
<p>The NYT said that the articles criticised products or advertisements produced by Microsoft, Pepsi and Unilever. With this in mind it will be very interesting to see how Gibson reacts should similar pressure be allowed to impinge upon “the insightful reporting” she hopes to oversee in the UK.</p>
<p>That said, the fact is that news is the growth area for BuzzFeed and the appointment of quality people in a time of almost continual upheaval and uncertainty for British journalists is to be welcomed – albeit cautiously. And let’s not be wilfully naïve – all media companies have to make money and have to work with sometimes unwelcome interference, whether it is governmental or corporate. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85550/original/image-20150618-23263-14or9dn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/85550/original/image-20150618-23263-14or9dn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85550/original/image-20150618-23263-14or9dn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85550/original/image-20150618-23263-14or9dn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=296&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85550/original/image-20150618-23263-14or9dn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85550/original/image-20150618-23263-14or9dn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/85550/original/image-20150618-23263-14or9dn.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=372&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">BuzzFeed: a force for breaking news, insightful reporting and very good jokes.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And as Buzzfeed <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/stacymarieishmael/its-all-appening#.nabqOW4o9">launches its news app</a> for iOS (“It’s like your friend who always knows what’s going on before anyone else”), let’s ask ourselves why, really, is BuzzFeed investing in news? Chief executive Jonah Peretti told <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/rieder/2015/06/15/buzzfeed-expands-as-journalism-force/71250444/%20">USA today</a> this week:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>News is the heart and soul of any great media company. News might not be as big a business as entertainment, but news is the best way to have a big impact on the world. News is also becoming a surprisingly good business.</p>
</blockquote><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/43484/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
The 2015 Reuters institute digital news report has just been published. It contains, according to Matthew Ingram in Fortune magazine, mostly bad news for traditional, mainstream media – confirming what…John Jewell, Director of Undergraduate Studies, School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/415692015-05-09T14:45:57Z2015-05-09T14:45:57ZElection coverage: sweet victory or a new low for UK press?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81093/original/image-20150509-22722-1a0083j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Morning after: how the nationals covered the election.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paperboy</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>So that’s that, then. The pollsters got it <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/08/polls-wrong-pre-election-results">wildly wrong</a> and the UK did not wake up on Friday to endless debates about coalitions, minority governments and who would deal with whom. Instead a startled “national” press rushed out <a href="http://www.jomec.co.uk/blog/wp-admin/%C2%A0http:/www.pressgazette.co.uk/national-newspapers-go-press-late-6am-carry-surprise-election-news-front-page-round">early editions </a> which either greeted the Conservative victory with smug, euphoric glee (The Daily Mail and The Sun) or stunned resignation at the prospect of the bleak years ahead (the Daily Mirror and The Guardian).</p>
<p>Pretty much every serious political commentator had predicted days, may be even weeks of manoeuvring, right up until the exit poll landed moments after the polls closed at 10pm. Very quickly – and very eloquently — some journalists turned to analyse the unexpected. </p>
<p>In The Guardian online <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/08/labour-vote-party%20">Rafael Behr</a> coolly analysed the scale of the catastrophe that had befallen Labour which extended far beyond Miliband’s difficulty in performing with easy aplomb in front of a camera. In The Independent, meanwhile, <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/election-2015-results-a-brutal-night-that-laid-bare-the-disunity-of-the-united-kingdom-10234566.html">Rosie Millard</a> reflected on a “brutal” night resulting in an SNP “tsunami” and the destruction of the Liberal Democrats.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81089/original/image-20150509-22773-p9un66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81089/original/image-20150509-22773-p9un66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81089/original/image-20150509-22773-p9un66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81089/original/image-20150509-22773-p9un66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81089/original/image-20150509-22773-p9un66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81089/original/image-20150509-22773-p9un66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81089/original/image-20150509-22773-p9un66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81089/original/image-20150509-22773-p9un66.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mail in excelsis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Daily Mail</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>By Friday lunchtime the online editions of all the major titles were straining to adequately cover the continuing fall-out from what the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3072723/Ed-Miliband-resign-leading-Labour-disastrous-election-defeat.html">Daily Mail</a> accurately described as an incredible night of political drama.</p>
<p>Balls was out, Clegg had quit and Farage had failed in South Thanet. Then Miliband was gone and Cameron – enjoying his “sweetest victory” – was on his way to see the Queen. The Daily Mail was erupting with schadenfruede and triumphalism. </p>
<h2>Character assassination</h2>
<p>This was a sweet victory for the Daily Mail and The Sun which will undoubtedly and repeatedly tell us that it was them wot won it. And this is very bad news for those who us who are appalled by the character assassinations endured by Ed Miliband at the hands of the Tory press. </p>
<p>Cameron’s victory will embolden these titles to resort to such tactics again. The Sun will claim this victory as its own and the sadly iconic image of Miliband eating a bacon sandwich will be as much a feature of future election coverage as the Neil Kinnock “light bulb” image of 1992, when <a href="http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/fpage/elections/election.html">The Sun asked</a> the last person leaving Britain to “please turn out the lights”.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81090/original/image-20150509-22773-a8jnwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81090/original/image-20150509-22773-a8jnwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/81090/original/image-20150509-22773-a8jnwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81090/original/image-20150509-22773-a8jnwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81090/original/image-20150509-22773-a8jnwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81090/original/image-20150509-22773-a8jnwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1069&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81090/original/image-20150509-22773-a8jnwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1069&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/81090/original/image-20150509-22773-a8jnwu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1069&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Singing from the same songsheet.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Indeed, for seasoned critics of The Sun and Daily Mail, the vindictive lies and slurs directed at Miliband during the final week of campaigning represented another occasion for them to lament a new low. After the wet bank holiday Monday and the two-day diversion of the royal baby, Wednesday saw the gloves well and truly off as far as the right wing press were concerned.</p>
<p>Headlines such those above drew widespread criticism and not solely from the traditional left-wing quarters. Having seen the papers in advance, Andrew Neil, former editor of the Sunday Times and now presenter of the BBC’s Daily Politics, tweeted:</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"595720878979186689"}"></div></p>
<p>Some saw a “whiff” of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/06/sun-front-page-antisemitic-save-our-bacon-ed-miliband">anti-Semitism on the front page</a> of Wednesday’s Sun. In the Guardian, Keith Kahn Harris wrote that Miliband could be the first Jewish-born prime minister since Disraeli and that:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Damning Miliband with porcine satire seems – like the <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2435751/Red-Eds-pledge-bring-socialism-homage-Marxist-father-Ralph-Miliband-says-GEOFFREY-LEVY.html">Daily Mail’s exposé</a> of his ‘Britain-hating’ Jewish émigré father – to radiate some nasty connotations.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>No balance</h2>
<p>Aside from the impressionistic, research conducted by the <a href="http://www.jomec.co.uk/blog/wp-admin/%20http:/www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2015/may/06/national-newspapers-labour-sun-daily-mail-telegraph">Media Standards Trust</a> found that The Sun had gone after Miliband in a more ferocious manner than it went after Neil Kinnock in 1992. In its analysis of leader columns from March 26 to May 3 this year their research found that 95% of the leader columns in the paper were anti-Labour compared with 79% in 1992. </p>
<p>Over the whole the period the trust examined, The Sun ran 102 leader articles considered to be anti-Labour compared with just four that were critical of the Conservatives. Similarly, Loughborough University’s <a href="http://blog.lboro.ac.uk/general-election/the-knives-are-out-in-closing-days-of-election-campaign/">Communication Research Centre</a> found that across the press, over the whole of the campaign, Labour experienced “extensive negative coverage”.</p>
<p>That we have such a Conservative (and conservative) newspaper industry is not news. But it doesn’t harm to be reminded of that fact now and gain. As Dominic Ponsford and William Turvill said in the <a href="http://www.pressgazette.co.uk/uk-daily-newspaper-market-backs-tories-over-labour-margin-five-one">Press Gazette</a>, in this election the UK daily newspaper market backed the Tories over Labour by a margin of five to one. In terms of the Sundays, five out the 11 main newspapers backed the Tories working out at 66% of all the titles.</p>
<p>So Cameron is back in Downing Street and Miliband, the would-be scourge of Murdoch and the only party leader in generations to openly challenge the press barons, finds his career (for the time being) in tatters. And, whether or not we believe that <a href="http://www.jomec.co.uk/blog/wp-admin/%20https:/theconversation.com/the-suns-snp-tory-split-shows-newspaper-endorsements-arent-what-they-used-to-be-38256">newspapers influence their readers</a> we are unlikely to see his successor behave anywhere near as pugnaciously. </p>
<p>It’s my guess that the analysts and advisers to the new leader will point to the sustained and co-ordinated negative coverage that Miliband has received and reason that therein lies part of the reason for his failure. It won’t at all matter if the evidence doesn’t support that theory.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/41569/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
So that’s that, then. The pollsters got it wildly wrong and the UK did not wake up on Friday to endless debates about coalitions, minority governments and who would deal with whom. Instead a startled “national…John Jewell, Director of Undergraduate Studies, School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/389932015-03-20T03:40:02Z2015-03-20T03:40:02ZCan the Gates Foundation be convinced to dump fossil fuels?<p>This week, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2015/mar/16/keep-it-in-the-ground-guardian-climate-change-campaign">The Guardian newspaper</a>
has campaigned for the <a href="http://www.gatesfoundation.org/">Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation</a> to divest its fossil fuel investments – which the newspaper claims are worth <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/19/gates-foundation-has-14bn-in-fossil-fuels-investments-guardian-analysis">US$1.4 billion</a>.</p>
<p>The foundation can and should address the climate crisis, particularly given the threat it poses to food security, public health, human rights, and the development agenda.</p>
<h2>Practical responses</h2>
<p>The Gates Foundation has made a significant contribution to practical responses to poverty, and Bill Gates has been <a href="http://books.simonandschuster.com/Creative-Capitalism/Michael-Kinsley/9781416599425">a long-standing advocate of “creative capitalism” to address global development issues</a>. </p>
<p>To their credit, Bill and Melinda Gates have shown great personal engagement with larger questions about human development, and their foundation has been a significant actor in the fields of agriculture, global health, education, and population. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75323/original/image-20150319-1604-mdzisl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75323/original/image-20150319-1604-mdzisl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75323/original/image-20150319-1604-mdzisl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75323/original/image-20150319-1604-mdzisl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75323/original/image-20150319-1604-mdzisl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75323/original/image-20150319-1604-mdzisl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75323/original/image-20150319-1604-mdzisl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bill Gates during a 2013 speech on climate change.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matthew Rimmer</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Yet it has also been <a href="http://www.gatesfoundation.org/Who-We-Are/General-Information/Foundation-FAQ">reluctant to address the climate question directly</a>, stating:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The foundation believes that climate change is a major issue facing all of us, particularly poor people in developing countries, and we applaud the work that others are doing to help find solutions in this area,</p>
</blockquote>
<p>and:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>While we do not fund efforts specifically aimed at reducing carbon emissions, many of our global health and development grants directly address problems that climate change creates or exacerbates.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75324/original/image-20150319-1588-15z5r32.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75324/original/image-20150319-1588-15z5r32.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75324/original/image-20150319-1588-15z5r32.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75324/original/image-20150319-1588-15z5r32.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75324/original/image-20150319-1588-15z5r32.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75324/original/image-20150319-1588-15z5r32.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75324/original/image-20150319-1588-15z5r32.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sign on climate change at the Gates Foundation.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Matthew Rimmer</span></span>
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<p>For instance, the foundation highlights its agricultural development initiative, which it says will “help small farmers who live on less than $1 per day adapt to increased drought and flooding through the development of drought and flood resistant crops, improved irrigation efficiency, and other means”.</p>
<p>While this certainly involves indirectly responding to climate change, it doesn’t put the issue of preventing climate change at the heart of the issue.</p>
<p>In <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/02/18/3623344/bill-gates-climate-change/">his annual letter</a>, Bill Gates noted: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>It is fair to ask whether the progress we’re predicting will be stifled by climate change… The most dramatic problems caused by climate change are more than 15 years away, but the long-term threat is so serious that the world needs to move much more aggressively — right now — to develop energy sources that are cheaper, can deliver on demand, and emit zero carbon dioxide.“ </p>
</blockquote>
<p>This is a somewhat curious statement, given the real and present danger already posed to food security, biodiversity, public health, and human security.</p>
<h2>The energy question</h2>
<p>Bill Gates has another keen interest: energy security. He has discussed what he sees as the need for <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-miracle-seeker-20101028#ixzz3UndixUlw">an "energy miracle”</a> to remedy the climate: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>To have the kind of reliable energy we expect, and to have it be cheaper and zero carbon, we need to pursue every available path to achieve a really big breakthrough. </p>
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<p>He seems to have been interested in nuclear power, carbon capture, and geo-engineering - rather than renewable energy.</p>
<p>For her part, Melinda Gates has <a href="http://www.aol.com/video/melinda-gates-to-climate-change-deniers-listen-to-the-science/518614047/">been highly critical of climate deniers</a>, emphasising the need for politicians to heed climate science.</p>
<h2>The Naomi Klein factor</h2>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DVgwmO8RYX0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">This Changes Everything - Naomi Klein.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In a <a href="http://www.thenation.com/article/174143/time-big-green-go-fossil-free#">2013 article in the Nation</a>, the writer Naomi Klein expressed concerns about the huge fossil fuel holdings of some charities, including the Gates Foundation, and argued that this was inconsistent with public health goals: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>A top priority of the Gates Foundation has been supporting malaria research, a disease intimately linked to climate… Does it really make sense to fight malaria while fueling one of the reasons it may be spreading more ferociously in some areas?</p>
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<p>In her 2014 book, <a href="http://thischangeseverything.org/">This Changes Everything</a>, she went on to criticise the efforts of green billionaires to save us from climate change. Of Bill Gates and his foundation, she wrote: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Though he professes great concern about climate change, the Gates Foundation had at least $1.2 billion invested in just two oil giants, BP and ExxonMobil, as of December 2013, and those are only the beginning of his fossil fuel holdings.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Gates has been directly questioned on this issue, both in an <a href="https://vimeo.com/112980156">interview with a Dutch journalist</a> and during <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/tv/qanda/txt/s3761763.htm">a 2013 appearance on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Q&A program</a>.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Bill Gates on ABC’s Q&A.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Klein has also criticised Bill Gates’ technocratic approach to the climate crisis, considering him to be overly dismissive of renewable energy: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>When Gates had his climate change epiphany, he too immediately raced to the prospect of a silver-bullet techno-fix in the future - without pausing to consider viable - if economically challenging - responses in the here and now.</p>
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<h2>Will The Guardian’s campaign succeed?</h2>
<p>The Guardian’s editor Alan Rusbridger has pledged to put <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/06/climate-change-guardian-threat-to-earth-alan-rusbridger">climate change at the “front and centre” of the newspaper’s coverage</a>, lending support to the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/15/climate-change-un-backs-divestment-campaign-paris-summit-fossil-fuels">global divestment movement</a> and urging philanthropic trusts like the Gates Foundation and Britain’s <a href="http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/">Wellcome Trust</a> to follow the example of the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/22/us/heirs-to-an-oil-fortune-join-the-divestment-drive.html?_r=0">Rockefeller Brothers Fund</a>. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Keep It In The Ground - The Guardian.</span></figcaption>
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<p>The Guardian said it recognised that the Gates Foundation has made “a huge contribution to human progress and equality by supporting scientific research and development projects”, but warned that “investments in fossil fuels are putting this progress at great risk, by undermining your long term ambitions.” </p>
<p>The campaign urges the Gates Foundation “to commit now to divesting from the top 200 fossil fuel companies within five years and to immediately freeze any new investments in those companies”. Rusbridger <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/mar/16/argument-divesting-fossil-fuels-overwhelming-climate-change">wrote</a> that this would be “a small but crucial step in the economic transition away from a global economy run on fossil fuels”.</p>
<p>Hopefully, the campaign will be successful. Bill and Melinda Gates have certainly shown a willingness in the past to revise their approach, in light of new evidence, and both have been disturbed by the politics of climate denial. </p>
<p>The Gates Foundation can make a stronger contribution to the battle against climate change, especially given how the climate issue cuts across its food security, public health, and human rights aims. This is one way it can do so.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38993/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Matthew Rimmer is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow, working on Intellectual Property and Climate Change. He is an associate professor at the ANU College of Law, and an associate director of the Australian Centre for Intellectual Property. Matthew Rimmer is currently an Australian Research Council Future Fellow working on a project entitled "Intellectual Property and Climate Change: Inventing Clean Technologes".</span></em></p>The Gates Foundation is being urged to dump its sizeable fossil fuel assets. Bill Gates cares deeply about world health and development, both of which are affected by climate, but will his charity divest?Matthew Rimmer, ARC Future Fellow and Associate Professor in Intellectual Property, Australian National UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.