The State of British Journalism?

“Second, reporters are messengers – their job is to tell, as accurately as they can, what has been said, with the benefit of such insight as their experience allows them to bring, not to second guess whether what is said is right.”

Laurence, Jeremy. “Dr Goldacre doesn’t make everything better” The Independent on the Web 8 June 2010.

Please note: This post was written under the influence of influenza and many pharmaceuticals – I cannot guarantee it’ll make any sense ;)

There increasingly seems to be a division in British journalism between “reporters” and true “journalists”. Real journalists change the world, sometimes imperceptibly, sometimes on a dramatic scale. A journalist checks facts, verifies sources and if they cannot be cast-iron sure of the information they make their readers are aware of the fact. Journalists are people like Paul Foot, Phillip Knightley and Anna Politskovskaya – they get to the truth, then they tell the story.

Sadly there seem to be fewer and fewer true journalists and more and more reporters, like Mr Laurence, who don’t believe that fact checking is within their remit. This is bad for people like me, who want to find value in our national newspaper. Worse, though, is it’s dangerous.

If we have learnt nothing else from the Wakefield/MMR scandal, we must recognise that the public make important – sometimes life-threatening – decisions based on the “facts” they get from news outlets. By irresponsibly reporting, without verifying, the data given at a press conference, a significant proportion of the British news media created a air of panic and fear and convinced many parents to risk their child’s life by refusing the MMR injections.

We need more journalists and fewer reporters, not just in our news media, but in everyday life. We all need to fact check before spreading unfounded rumour, we all need to act based on evidence, not on speculation – especially when it comes to the big decisions.

Thankfully all is not lost, we have the likes of Heather Brooke, Ben Goldacre and many others who are fighting the corner for good journalism. I just hope that they win the day.