inbox


Label illustration looked too much like a noose Good to see Alex Harvey’s letter (May-June 2018) about using the outdated term ‘manic depression’ rather than ‘bipolar disorder’. Not good, though, to see the


noose-like label round the person’s neck in the accompanying illustration. It may have been intended as a ‘label’ tied round the person but, given the links between bipolar disorder and suicide, it seemed totally inappropriate to me.


See: www.health.com/bipolar/ bipolar-suicide-risk-ricki-lake-people. Sorry, but that to me was really


insensitive. Lynn Eaton London


When in doubt, vote against the platform Chris Proctor is right – there is a healthy trade union instinct that our leaders are almost certainly wrong. The late Ken Morgan, once NUJ general secretary, used to claim to have heard this advice from a grizzled conference veteran: “If you understand the issue, vote according to your conscience. If you don’t understand the issue, vote against the ruddy platform.” Francis Beckett London Freelance Branch


There are more problems than a shortage of jobs Any layperson reading Raymond Snoddy’s prescription for the media (‘Clear the Decks for the More Pressing Issues’, March/April 2018) would get the impression that the cure for the problem of the press is to create more jobs for journalists. That’s nice. But we mustn’t forget


three important issues. One is that the immediate cause of


Leveson was press abuse. This has been quietly forgotten about. There has been no shift in power from the owners to those unfortunate people who get to see the methods of journalism at first hand. For the public to trust the media, the media needs to show it can regulate itself with workable ethics. We can go on forever criticising forms of regulation: let’s hear some positive ideas.


The other challenge is that people


don’t think journalism is worth paying for. We should be asking ourselves why this should be so. Could it be that journalism has been reduced to a form


of entertainment, with information as a secondary component? That almost all journalists and all media organisations have become so hooked on social media themselves that they no longer know what quality is? Third, the media – and that includes journalists – doesn’t understand its role in the political system. It should be orchestrating debate and asking all pertinent questions in such a way that the best, strongest ideas prevail. Nick Inman France


Far too much opinion goes into the news mix In ‘True or False?’ (March/April 2018), Raymond Snoddy says that “news organisations increasingly realise that they should be more open and clear with opinion and evidence-based reporting”. That may be but it doesn’t stop all news outlets saturating their output with opinion. Newspapers are awash with pundits


where an ‘analysis’ is inset into a news piece and you are directed to acres of pages of current affairs and columnists (pundits), who have multiplied to distraction in recent years, expressing their views on the news. On television and radio, seconds after


breaking news of any tragedy, accidental or man made, the incident is briefly described before analysts and experts explain why and what might/ could/should have happened. The interplay between the electronic and the print media as they relay each other’s take on topics gives papers more credit than they deserve as arbiters of the nation’s taste; TV personalties feed the pages of papers distorting what goes on in real life. Any political incident of note (or not) on a news programme will have explanations from a correspondent and is discussed by pundits with axes to grind woven into news items. Think- tanks of every political hue and some who are simply paid propagandists pose as what they are not. Roy Jones North Wales Coast Branch


We need to notice gerunds Sorry Ray Pearson (March/April), gerunds require possessive pronouns, so correct usage is ‘without your noticing’ not, as you wrote, ‘without you noticing’. Fred Emery London


twitter feed Tweet us your feedback: @mschrisbuckley RF Hunt (@RFHunt1) 14/05/2018, 17:03


A well-deserved winning letter in the @NUJofficial #TheJournalist As a fellow bipolar writer I fully agree! (Also with the final point about receiving the magazine!) pic.twitter.com/moGU4ZAyoh


Community Journalism (@C4CJ) 15/05/2018, 12:02


We are indebted to @jenny_sims for all her support. Jenny is a superb journalist, and it is due in no small part to her ongoing advocacy of our work that we were so well received at the recent @NUJofficial delegates meeting. Letter and RoR from the new issue of The Journalist. pic.twitter.com/WPDo5xkAqz


David Alexander (@Calacus) 15/05/2018, 12:53


I recall as a young student journalist refusing to think I would ever go into PR and a decade later I’d made the switch. So why are young #journalists leaving for PR? Interesting article in The Journalist. bit.ly/2Ii9lSS (P14/15) via @NUJofficial pic.twitter.com/pmpJH5ivXe


Alex Fredman (@AlexFredman) 15/05/2018, 12:55


Nice to see my letter to the @NUJofficial Journalist magazine was the ‘star letter’ during #mentalhealthawarenessweek @mschrisbuckley #bipolar #whitby pic.twitter.com/uSUmxoRRzl


Jem Collins (@Jem_Collins) 15/05/2018, 19:29


Well this is exciting! Got home to find I’m quoted in a double page spread in @NUJofficial’s magazine, with a plug for @journoresources and @SPAJournalism pic.twitter.com/x1ULE2Ltlk


Cllr Alex Paterson (@ajpaterson) 16/05/2018, 20:02


Bitter irony through letterbox this morning ... news of young journalists deserting the industry in my @NUJofficial members’ mag and a copy of Medway Council’s Pravda, ‘Medway Matters’ – the type of publication that is another nail in the coffin of a free, independent local press. pic.twitter.com/LyuAIQHHm6


Tony Naylor (@naylor_tony) 16/05/2018, 21:44


Great piece @louisetickle in the current @NUJofficial magazine, which will ring a lot of bells with a lot of freelancers who have an old fashioned attachment to getting paid for their time/expertise at events or on the page.


Lucinda Elliott (@lucinda_elliott) 28/05/2018, 19:02


Having interviewed female truck drivers in #Brazil during strike action this weekend, @christinalamb tells some genuine truths about our industry: “As a woman you have access to half the population that a man doesn’t.”@NUJofficial mag >bit.ly/2xlbvft@mschrisbuckley pic. twitter.com/WO6cUmHKCT


John o brien @irishfabian 03/05/2018, 13:25


@mschrisbuckley reading lastest issue of the Journalist @NUJofficial good journalism is needs to be rewarded @louisetickle article is inspiring journalists like other workers deserve to be rewarded.


Denis MacShane @DenisMacShane 24/05/2018, 13:16


Check current issue of The Journalist with worrying report on number of young journos quitting to go into PR as pay so poor and too much is recycling, ripping off other papers @mschrisbuckley


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