Creativity, Media and Journalism

[Una Murphy]

I attended the Awakening Creative Entrepreneurship workshop on Creativity, Media and Journalism in Derry, Northern Ireland today. There was an interesting discussion led by Roy Greenslade, David McKittick and Deric Henderson. It was an open-ended discussion, with some people agreeing with Roy on the imminent death of newspapers and everything going onto the internet in about 10 years time . My contribution amounted to two things: how do you ensure the production of news on the net is authorative and if there is corporate sponsorship by, for example, local councils of local news gathering how to be ensure it's fair and impartial? We discussed today's breaking news story in Ireland - a court case in which a man was found guilty of laundering money from the biggest bank robbery in Ireland. Deric Henderson from the Press Association said that he while he had multi-media journalists with video and stills cameras outside the court, he still relied on the journalist with the traditional media skills to get an accurate account of the court proceedings.

[Graham Maclachlan]

I think we're now starting to enter into very dangerous waters. Newspapers have traditionally been owned by 'tycoons' who used them to promote their individual interests, we've seen them all from Beaverbrook to Maxwell, but their personal opinions were always balanced by the professionalism of the news reporters and editors supported by the National Union of Journalists. This will not be the case in the future. Staff numbers will fall, titles will reduce and as the jobs get scarcer the journalists will be under greater pressure to reveal sources and spin stories to suit the proprietor. Like you I have real concerns over the veracity and quality of the alternative sources.

Citizen as journalist? Who knows? The internet will provide the platforms for 'ordinary' people to report and provide opinions on news stories, we're seeing it already with the BBC's continual request for images from 'hot spots', but would you trust reports that didn't go through the filter of an organisations like the BBC? Newspapers, as we know them, will change beyond recognition, if they survive at all.

As for me, I buy one copy of The Guardian a week I used to buy six. Says it all really. There seems to be more questions than answers