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Let’s bid goodbye to citizen journalism


I know it’s autumn but I wish everyone’s New Year’s resolution would be to stop using the phrase “citizen journalism”. It does not exist, except in places such as Syria and Libya where heroic people are risking their lives to highlight an issue. To use the phrase in this country is an oxymoron. In my experience, most people who give


themselves such a label are usually unsuited to be journalists at all – most are one-issue monomaniacs who have no conception of the basic tenets of the job: fairness, accuracy, balance and relentless hard work. Many seem to be failed journalism students


embittered at being spurned by proper publications that still infuriatingly have thousands of readers and still make decent profits even though citizen journalists were predicting their demise years ago. There is a misguided view that, should the


£30 prize


letter


“established” media (of which I am a 30-year member) disappear, it would be no big problem as citizen journalists would fill the void. What we would then have are these self-righteous propagandists on the one hand and, on the other, the PR operations run by the government, local authorities, the police and the NHS, whose ideas of the “truth” are one eyed at best.


Andrew Napier Winchester


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I tried to keep the letters alive in Renfrewshire too I share the disappointment of editor Christine Buckley at the dearth of letters in the last issue of The Journalist. However, sadly, the scarcity comes as no surprise. I experienced the same problem when I was editor of weekly title The Gazette Series in Renfrewshire, Scotland. I have always thought a thriving


letters page was a sign of a healthy newspaper. And, as such, I wasn’t


happy to discover that the Gazette’s letters pages had long since been abandoned by the time that I arrived at the newspaper. I sought to reintroduce a page for


readers’ comments but, sadly, it wasn’t long before I realised the futility of my efforts. We had one regular contributor who


took the time to hand write letters and post his often humorous musings to our office. But, alas, he too gave up the ghost. Perhaps people are much happier lashing out at their chosen enemies


on social media these days than taking the time to express their thoughts in a more considered and respectful manner.


Modern man has learned that


he can publish his own views and opinions in an instant without having the inconvenience of an editor deciding whether they should be fit for publication. Time will tell if my unfashionable and outdated wittering comes up to scratch. Graham Mann Glasgow


Email to: journalist@nuj.org.uk Post to: The Journalist 308-312 Gray’s Inn Road London WC1X 8DP Tweet to: @mschrisbuckley


Let’s give more time and consideration to comment I would imagine the decline of letters pages in magazines stems from a lack of immediacy compared with other communication forms. There is such enormous space available for people to write and immediately respond online that it can seem almost comically disconnected to write to a letters page then wait two months for a reply.


While such accelerated debate brings many benefits, it also has failings. In immediate responses, we are sometimes less thoughtful and fair minded than if there is time to draft, consider and redraft. Letting a thousand hot takes bloom potentially encourages hyperbole, panic and a lack of perspective. The results of thorough research emerge far behind the stampede into an atmosphere that is perhaps already semi-shaped by less soundly formed opinion. In cooking, the slow food movement


ditches convenience and speed to emphasise quality. Perhaps considering the canard of a “slow writing” approach would be of use here too, in which those who write letters to The Journalist make a positive decision to wait and weigh contributions. It would be a cultural commitment to the unique requirements of a less frequent form of communication. Simon Saunders London


A rapid response is essential for letters It’s hard to believe of those whose trade is to read, write and sub for a living, “busy” as they are, “have little time” to write letters. There must be other reasons. Letter writing for print is a thing of moment dashed off under the stimulus of something said or done by a person or a body to which you agree or disagree. Time, though, is of the essence. Letters lose topicality and potency


unless there is some urgency shown by the vehicle used to convey what you


theJournalist | 23


TIM ELLIS


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