Churnalism

There's a new book causing some consternation in media circles called 'Flat Earth News' by Nick Davies. I haven't read it yet but I have read quite a number of the reviews so I am pretty confident I understand its drift. Basically Nick Davies says that too many news stories in national newspapers are poorly researched, rarely second-sourced and, more often than not, fed to them by PRs. He says that this is the consequence of a long-term, dwindling investment in UK editorial resources by publishers.

I think he is right about the dwindling investment piece and partly right about the source of stories. It is pretty clear that journalists are more reliant on companies and their PR representatives for information than they ever have been. From personal experience I can confirm that, if they dont want to know about your story they will still let you know in no uncertain terms. However I think the bigger picture here is what people want to read in their papers. Once you are beyond the big news of the day on page one what do you put in the following pages before you get to the sport? And how do you ensure you choose the stuff that keeps people coming to your paper? If you were in the editorial chair you might be tempted to take the low road after a while. Much cheaper..and people seem to read it.

(I promise I will read the book soon..and sooner if it proves that I have made a point that the book already covers adequately!)