media


Fighting for the future


In Wales Jenny Sims hears new ideas about boosting journalism


A


s former BBC political correspondent Guto Harri says: ‘if ever there was a need for objective journalisism


now is the time.’ Harri, now managing director of


external communications at Liberty Global (owner of Virgin Media in the UK) was back on his home turf in Cardiff. Addressing a conference on the


future of the media in Wales, organised by Institute of Welsh Affairs, the ex head of communications for former London major Boris Johnson was uncomprimising in laying the blame for the South Wales valleys’ vote to leave the EU (which has ploughed billions of Euros into the area for regeneration) firmly on the media for failing to present the arguments. But the bleak media backdrop to that


failure – if Harri’s right – is not confined to Wales but common throughout the UK, as the NUJ’s recent Local News Matters campaign and research have identified. The NUJ asked the last administration’s culture secretary Karen Bradley for a public inquiry into the crisis in regional media where more than 300 local newspapers have closed in the past 10 years and more than 400 local journalism jobs lost.


Much of the blame for this has been laid on social media giants Google and Facebook.


8 | theJournalist Claire Enders, founder of Enders


Analysis, said at the conference: “Analogue pounds are being turned into digital pennies – £31 in print revenue is lost for every £1 gained in digital.” So how can good journalism pay for


itself? Funding is one theme that the parliamentary culture, media and sport committee was asked to examine as part of its inquiry into fake news. At its launch earlier this year, committee chair Damian Collins MP said fake news is “a threat to democracy and undermines confidence in the media in general”. It would be investigating “whether


the way advertising is bought, sold and placed online has encouraged the growth of fake news”, he said. Meanwhile, there are encouraging shoots of growth across the media landscape: new BBC funding for Wales (£8.5m) and Scotland (£80m) and the creation of a Scottish news channel that will bring 80 journalism jobs. The development and expansion of


community journalism is another positive. Some hyperlocals have floundered because of a lack of funding, notably the pioneering hyperlocal Port Talbot Magnet. However, Emma Meese, manager of Cardiff University’s Centre for Community Journalism, can point to many successful small enterprises, which she claims are doing “a brilliant job” filling the local news gap left by local newspaper closures.


Our role is about building collaborative networks, connecting people – for example, coders in Manchester with journalists in Devon


“ ”


Mees is exploring with the NUJ and others how people who are not professionally trained journalists might obtain some sort of accreditation – and a press card. And investigative journalism has just


been given a boost with the recent launch of Bureau Local by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism (BIJ), which is funded by philanthropists. This innovative project aims to


support public interest reporting in local and regional newsrooms across the country by teaming up journalists with technologists to dig into and analyse datasets. Megan Lucero, Bureau Local’s director, told The Journalist: “It’s very exciting. We are looking to reimagine local journalism. Our role is about building collaborative networks, connecting people – for example, coders in Manchester with journalists in Devon.” Rachel Oldroyd, the BIJ’s managing


editor, added: “Strong, investigative journalism is vital to any functioning democracy. But, with the media industry under severe financial pressure and desperately trying to keep up with a 24-hour news cycle, it is getting increasingly difficult to sustain quality, long-term investigations. “We have to find other ways to


support investigative journalism as a society. We are not a silver bullet, but we do provide a means by which important public interest stories can still get told.”


RTIMAGES / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO


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