The Daily Telegraph and Radio 1 Newsbeat

As part of my latest presentation, I looked at the News Agenda of The Daily Telegraph and Radio 1.

The Daily Telegraph was founded in June 1855 by Colonel Arthur B. Sleigh, an army officer and travel writer. It was originally published to air Sleigh’s complaints about the Duke of Cambridge and to expose what Sleigh saw as the truth of the Crimean War. The paper was not a success however and as a result Sleigh was forced to sell it to his publisher Joseph Levy.  Levy was experienced in this field as he was involved with other newspapers around at this time and he decided to launch the Telegraph as a cheaper alternative to those already on the market. His sons who succeeded him later coined the slogan ‘the largest, best, and cheapest newspaper in the world’.

Nowadays, however, the Telegraph is owned by identical twin brothers, Sirs David and Frederick Barclay, who made their £1.8billion fortune in a variety of businesses including hotels, casinos and department shops. They purchased the Telegraph and its sister companies in 2004 from a Canadian business for around £665m. Their time in charge has been somewhat ruthless and eventful with one hundred journalists made redundant in 2006 and a further seven editorial changes to the Sunday and Daily Telegraph since their ownership began.

The Daily Telegraph is traditionally considered to have a right-of-centre political alignment and as a result has conventionally been considered pro-Conservative Party. Its affiliation with Tory leaders actually led to Private Eye magazine dubbing it ‘The Torygraph’. There is some suggestion however, that under the Barclay brothers the Telegraph is eager to move away from being associated as 100% Tory. In a recent interview David Barclay stated that the Telegraph would not be ‘the house paper of the Conservatives’ adding that ‘where the government are right, we shall support them’. Despite this I believe the Daily Telegraph to still be a centre-right newspaper. I have found numerous references to this relationship in my recent reading, from subtle quotes such as ‘targets concerning waiting times and cancelled operation, introduced by Labour, result in managers pushing Doctors’, showing a desire to emphasize blame on the previous Labour government. There was also some more obvious pro-Conservative content featured, such as the headline ‘Mrs. Thatcher was right’. I think that Barclay’s statement regarding The Telegraph’s political persuasion was a somewhat pragmatic comment on his behalf. He may well have wanted to avoid the paper being completely associated with the current government as if they were to prove unpopular, the newspapers sales would be likely to dip.

The Daily Telegraph itself usually has something of a busy front page layout. The ‘Win Free Sex’ box at the top of the paper is not as crudely obvious as many of the tabloids often are, but it is often brightly coloured, advertising promotional give-a-ways or articles from feature writers.   
The main headlines of the day of course feature on the front, and are usually politically based, rather than entertainment news for example. There are usually three or four main stories on the front page, each with a reasonably large section of reporting and this is again in contrast with the one story front page approach favoured by the tabloid and mid-market papers.

Along the right hand side of the second page runs a news in brief column which features short bulletins of both serious and light-hearted stories. 

The Daily Telegraph features a World News section towards the back middle pages of the paper. I was surprised at how far back many of these world affair stories were published as they were often important reports including violence in the Middle East and the G20 summit. Even further towards the back is the Comments and Features section, where feature writers and special guests write much more in depth pieces. There is also a significantly sized letters to the editor area in this section.

The Daily Telegraph describes its target audience in its online rate card as being affluent, loyal, influential and elusive. This claim of loyalty appears to be justified as 81% of their readers look at no other daily quality. 

The Telegraph has the oldest average readership of any national paper and on average it takes fifty-six minutes to read. This suggests to me that The Telegraph is mainly targeted at someone with more time to spare reading the news, and its high age of readers suggests many of them will be retired. The Telegraph can therefore afford to feature longer articles and features as it understands that many of its readers can afford the time to view them.

In terms of social groups 59% of the Daily Telegraph’s readers are AB1. This means that they are upper and middle class with a further 28% lower middle Class. This would imply that the vast majority of Telegraph readers are wealthy and well educated. As a result of this the Telegraph can use different language and more complex sentences than a tabloid paper. The Plymouth University’s guide to working out a reading age shows that the Telegraph use an average reading age of a nineteen year old whilst The Sun’s is that of a twelve year old.

The Daily Telegraph also has a 56% male majority of readers.  One example that I regularly found which may show their awareness of this was that more often than not the front page featured a photograph of an attractive woman.  These women tended to be more culturally high-brow than say Cheryl Cole for example (and usually in less sexually suggestive poses), but including these images may be a deliberate acknowledgement of their male majority audience.

The adverts featured in the newspaper also tell us much about their audience. I found that the brands of car and watch that are often advertised were usually at the reasonably high-end of the market, with Audi in particular embarking on an almost daily campaign. Similarly the supermarkets that advertised in the Daily Telegraph were Waitrose, Marks & Spencer’s, Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s, highlighting the Telegraph’s predominately middle-class audience, as cheaper brands such as Aldi or Lidl did not.

The Daily Telegraph is the bestselling quality daily with an average circulation of 678,252 between April and September 2010, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation. This is estimated to mean they have around 1.8m readers (National Readership Survey). This circulation is 35% more than the nearest daily rival The Times and amounts to 43% of the quality market. Despite this, in keeping with the general decline of newspapers, sales for The Telegraph are down by around 2.5% in the last year and nearly double that in the last five years.

With other former broadsheet newspapers such as The Times deciding to change their broadsheet format to something smaller, it is interesting that The Daily Telegraph did not. One possible reason for this could be to ensure that it still stands out. Given that all the other daily qualities now use a smaller format I believe that this is certainly a valid point. I also think that given the older nature of their main readers, many will be retired and therefore can spare the time and space to unfurl the paper over their table. Also given the great emphasis on loyalty that the Telegraph places on its audience, they may have been reluctant to change this particular area, despite making technological innovation with other aspects.

The Telegraph launched its online version in 1994, becoming the first daily web-based newspaper in Europe to do so. www.telegraph.co.uk is now in the top 3 most popular UK newspaper websites, receiving an average of 1,669,773 unique browsers a day, each spending roughly thirteen minutes on the site. Though The Telegraph had fallen somewhat behind online in recent years, its exposure of the MP’s Expenses Scandal has seen it climb back up in the last eighteen months.

I will now look to compare The Daily Telegraph with Radio 1’s own news coverage.

BBC Radio 1 was launched in 1967 in an attempt to modernize the BBC’s radio coverage. Its use of jingles was also a BBC first and was an attempt to attract the young listeners who previously had often listened to ‘pirate’ radio stations such as Radio Caroline, that had recently been outlawed.

Radio 1 has a public service broadcasting obligation to provide news, under Ofcom regulations, as it is an organisation intended for public benefit rather than purely commercial reasons. The result of these restrictions is Newsbeat, Radio 1’s flagship news programme.  It began in 1973 and was a response to the less traditional news bulletins that were popular on commercial radio stations at this time, making it very different from the formal, old-fashioned style of BBC Radio’s news reporting.

Nowadays Newsbeat is broadcast at 12.45 and 17.45 during the week, lasting for around 15minutes, with shorter bulletins played throughout the day every thirty minutes. This is structurally the complete opposite to The Telegraph, which has a lengthy average reading time and as a result reports each story in much more depth.  

Newsbeat tends to open by outlining the stories it intends to discuss, with brief snippets of upcoming reports and interviews. The various regulations imposed ensure that it too must provide important political stories; however it often features basic question and answer style information to explain more complex reports. In addition to this nearly every report tends to feature interviews with the general public asking for their opinions. This is a clear contrast to The Telegraph, where the readers own thoughts are located near the back, taking up just half a page.

Most Newsbeat episodes feature entertainment news, usually with at least one celebrity interview. In addition to this there is usually one story featuring education based events as a result of their target audience. Recently for example, stories about the rise in tuition fees have featured and are very pro-student biased. In contrast to this The Telegraph was very critical of lecturers who took part in and praised the recent protests.

The tone of Newsbeat is very informal. The language used is a clear representation of this. One person interviewed used the word ‘crappy’ in the broadcast and this is something that I would not expect to find on any of the other BBC news programmes. Presenters and reporters talk to each other colloquially as well with one example being where the main presenter linked to the next reporting by saying ‘Alright Dave’. This is yet another contrast to The Daily Telegraph as we have already seen that they have the highest readership age of the national newspapers.

There is music played throughout Newsbeat, rather than just at the beginning or end of the broadcast. This emphasises that Radio 1 is a predominately music based channel and could also be used to keep their target audience interested during the news break.

These examples of tone and content clearly show that they are aiming at younger listeners and indeed their target audience age is between fifteen and twenty-four. The BBC’s own Radio 1 audience rate card emphasizes this adding that the young do not often associate the BBC with things that are relevant to them. They perceive the BBC as generally ‘old fashioned’, ‘introspective’, ‘slow’ and ‘corporate’. This suggests that Radio 1 takes very deliberate attempts to appear ‘cool’ and appeal to a younger audience.

The dominant social group of Radio 1 listeners are C1, with C2 close behind. These are the lower branches of middle class mainly made up of white collar workers and skilled manual workers. The entertainment content of the news broadcast perhaps best represents the difference between Radio 1’s target class and The Telegraphs as Newsbeat for example discusses movies, rather than the opera or the theatre, which are often reviewed in The Telegraph.

Radio 1 receives an average of 11.81m listeners per week according to Rajar’s last quarterly figures. This is just over 9% of total radio listeners and makes it the BBC’s second most popular radio station. I would assume that Newsbeat’s figures are similar to that of Radio 1 as a whole, as the feature is so short that I would doubt many listeners would turn over during the broadcast.

One area where The Daily Telegraph and Radio 1 could be seen to show similarities is in their online content.  Newsbeat Online generally features similar stories to that of the radio however, I found that there was much more entertainment news and lighter hearted stories online, perhaps as it is less restricted in the content it is obliged to provide. A great deal of focus is placed on interaction, with listeners given plenty of chances to have their say, and to use Newsbeat on every modern day social network or application.  This is a clear attempt from the BBC to provide news in the format that they believe young people want, they summarise this in their target audience briefing, by stating that most young people  are ‘technologically literate’.
The Daily Telegraph online also features opportunities for ‘citizen journalism’ and interaction, as well as providing many modern day services such as Podcasts and applications.
To conclude both Newsbeat and The Daily Telegraph appear to understand the current requirement to provide news online. Both have been the innovators in their respective fields and this shows a clear understanding that modern day users need much more interaction and online availability of their news.  This could perhaps be an admission by each side that these two separate forms of old media are dying out and in order to survive, online content is a must. 

The Freedom of Information Act

The Freedom of Information Act became operational in 2006 after being drawn up in 2000 – no doubt to give certain organisations time to ‘lose’ certain information in that six years!
It applies to the availability of information in the public sector, allowing the public to get hold of such information or documents.

The Act states that ‘any person making a request for information to a public authority is entitled to a) be informed in writing by the public authority whether it holds information of the description specified in the request and b) if that is the case, to have the information communicated to them.’

A large part of the Act, however, is taken up with exemptions; particularly regarding national secrets, security and military operations.

One problem of the Act is the definition of the information itself. Information can only be requested if it has been recorded down and this has led to the practise of ‘sofa government’ where leading figures of government or organisations discuss certain matters more informally and avoid recording the meetings.
Confidentiality is another hurdle – many organisations can refuse information regarding a specific person.
One further obstacle is the Cost of Complying, whereby if the information is too expensive for an organisation to gather it, even if they do have it, a request can be refused. An average amount considered to be too much is around £600 though it varies on the organisation.

Every organisation is required to have a designated Freedom of Information Officer. If a request is rejected however, you can appeal to a Information Commissioner who can adjust whether your FOI application should be granted.

Although appealing for information via the FOI can be very bureaucratic it seems to me to favour the journalist as long as they’re prepared to fill out the paperwork, be forceful in their demand and not take no for an answer. 

David Hume - Seminar Notes

David Hume was a Scottish Philosopher and writer who lived between 1711 and 1776. He generally followed the Empiricist school of thought and was a very sceptical writer.

His essay ‘An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding’ was published in 1748 and was probably his most important work, although it was basically just a re-working over of his ‘ A Treatise of Human Nature’ which he had published unsuccessfully around a decade earlier.

Section 1 of ‘An Enquiry’ (which we looked at) was concerned with the ‘Different Species of Philosophy’.  This begins with Hume discussing the two different types of ‘moral philosophy’, which is basically the science of human nature.

Hume describes the first school of philosophy by saying that it follows the idea that ‘man was chiefly born for action’ and that we are influenced by our own particular tastes. This is a philosophy much more based on common sense and enters frequently into common life. As it is more obvious and easy to understand this means it is more likely to have an effect on everyday people.

The second manner of philosophy considers man as a reasonable, rather than active being. It suggests that philosophy doesn’t have a fixed answer.  Hume states that it is much more ‘abstruse’ and therefore has less of an effect on everyday people and as a result of this the philosopher has a  more difficult task of getting his point across – which in turn leads to more mistakes and confusion being created. Hume criticises these philosophers by adding that nature ‘ prohibits’ abstruse philosophy due to the uncertainty it brings and that these types of philosophers often lock themselves away in their thoughts and experience sadness as a result.
Hume suggests that the perfect philosophy is somewhere between the two as an abstruse philosopher is incredibly intelligent but lacks the scientific accuracy needed to clearly understand things. He uses a great phrase to summarize this which is ‘be a philosopher; but amidst all your philosophy, be still a man’.  

This would suggest that Hume’s ideal philosophy would combine profound ideas with clarity and scientific reason.

Hume, as an empiricist prefers the first school of philosophy as accuracy is more important to him than the ‘beauty’ of abstruse thinking. This is important to us as journalists as we need to be clear and accurate in our writing to produce a short bulletin or ‘News in Brief’ story rather than a 300 page story. Hume considers ordering and reflecting on our experiences as being crucial in how our minds operate and he emphasizes the need to study human nature when he describes that it is just as important to study how our minds work, as it is astronomy.  

There is also a brief insight into Hume’s political thoughts in this section when he comments on the need for a politician to have a ‘subdividing and balance of power’ in order to create a stable government. I think that this is very similar to Machiavelli who acknowledged that the people must have some say in an ideal rule, in order to avoid continuous rebellion.  

The next section of An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding focused on The Origin of Ideas and this features the topics which are probably most important to someone studying journalism such as Induction, Causation and how our thoughts and ideas work.

Hume begins with explaining that there is a difference between feeling something (for example pain) and then trying to imagine this sensation again in our mind. He describes how all the colours of poetry can never paint natural objects so that they look like the real thing and states that ‘The most lively thought is still inferior to the dullest sensation’; Suggesting that there is a clear distinction between our experiences and how we view them. His view on epistemology suggests for example that when someone tells us they are in love we use our experience of this emotion to understand what they mean even though it is different and less animated to actually experiencing the feeling yourself.
Hume takes this further by saying that we can divide the perceptions of the mind into two classes which are separated by their different degrees of force or animation.

He calls the less forceful our ‘Thoughts and ideas’ and our more lively perceptions such as hate, love and desire our ‘Impressions’.

When describing our thoughts and ideas Hume says that at first glance nothing seems as unbounded as the thought of man as our imagination can create monsters and unrealistic scenarios. However, Hume says that if you take a closer look at what we imagine you see that we are actually very narrow minded. We create these thoughts very simply by putting familiar objects together. Hume uses the example of a unicorn to show that we conjure up this animal easily by putting virtuous ideas in a horse form. This is an example of synthetic logic where our minds can add knowledge to other knowledge we have and is very similar to Locke’s view on our ideas in that they solely from what we experience.  

However Hume says that there are problems with linking ideas together in our minds as we draw inferences or jump to conclusions using this logic. He says that we tend to produce ideas by induction rather than by reason. To show this he describes Causation theory which is basically where our mind decides that one thing causes another. Two examples of this are the Billiard Ball example where the white ball hits the red and the red moves. We assume that the white ball caused this movement however there is no natural evidence that this happened. The example that Betrand Russell uses is that when biting an apple we may experience a certain taste, but that does not 100% prove that the apple caused the taste.
Obviously is it highly likely that this is the case and Hume is being extremely sceptical with this idea as it would be pretty much impossible to live without making inferences however, I think that he is correct to scientifically suggest that we should not assume one thing causes another for definite because we regularly find ourselves jumping to conclusions and then realise we were wrong. One example of I could think personally was when I’d brought a magazine from one shop and been accused by a different shop selling the magazine of stealing it from them. Though it would seem likely I had taken it from them, I actually had not.

Finally therefore Hume clearly shows a preference for the ‘Impressions’ of our ideas as these are stronger, more accurate and defined. He says that we should ask ourselves ‘from what impression is that idea derived’ in order to clarify the ideas we have and discard ideas that may not necessarily be true.  This is something that Journalists should look to do when reporting a story as it allows us to try to understand exactly what is going on and for what reason rather than drawing inferences between events.

In many ways Hume sees the world as a baby. He sees everything that happens as unusual when broken down and believes that it is all equally improbable. By stating that we should never even assume that the sun will rise tomorrow or any of the other habits of mind we make every day, it is almost like when these things do happen they’re something of miracle. This is an outlook that I feel is a great way to look at things and by not presuming one thing always causes another, we may well notice more unusual ‘miracles’ happen all the time. 

Confidentiality and Secrecy

Confidentiality is a civil law. This means that it is harmful to an individual as they have a right to keep secrets and pass them on to those they choose to in private – providing of course that the secret is not in the public interest.
Certain professions have a duty not to disclose personal information confided in them, such as Doctors, lawyers and employees etc.   Failure to keep such information is therefore a breach of confidence and a claimant has a right to lodge a civil complaint, most likely in a bid for compensation. If information becomes available through a breach of confidence to a Third Party (such as a journalist who may wish to publish such a story) the claimant can apply for an injunction to prevent such an article being published.

Secrecy is a criminal law, including examples such as revealing a military secret without permission and is treated as a much more serious crime. The Official Secrets Act 1911 outlined the duty of confidentiality owed to the UK State and the need to punish those who leak unauthorised information of a sensitive nature. Journalists must be aware of such risks when publishing material concerning the military or information regarding terrorism in particular.

The Official Secrets Act has been accidently broken on a number of occasions. Often a film crew taking a ‘general view’ shot of a military base for example has unintentionally portrayed an area that may disclose private information of use to organisations wishing to harm the UK and this could be considered a crime. To try to prevent this most military bases have large signs forbidding the filming of certain areas in any circumstance. Similarly announcing Armed Forces returns should also be checked before publishing as military location is also considered a government secret.

Businesses also have certain protection rights regarding their commercial activity in The Commercial Confidentiality Statute. For a business to file a claim against someone found guilty of disclosing private information they must prove that the information is important, was imparted in circumstances implying confidentiality, that no permission was given for the information to be published and that the information caused actual detriment.

The Human Rights Act outlines the need for an individual to have a certain degree of privacy in their family life. This often applies to celebrities in particular and it is considered a breach of privacy if photos or videos are published without consent, unless a public duty is being performed.
The are two types of consent; Explicit Consent – which shows an awareness of the camera and Implied Consent – where a person is looking into the camera and posing for it etc.
As a journalistic defence implied consent is generally the stronger defence should a claimant file for a breach of privacy against a photograph being published.

Newspaper Surveys

Much of today’s society seems to be obsessed with surveys and polls. This is something that the media has clearly taken on board and we see it in all aspects of news, from opinion and health polls to entertainment and political surveys. Channel 4 even has a long running and successful comedy panel show ‘8 out of 10 cats’ based solely upon strange and unique polls.
Flicking through The Sun on Friday November 5^th I found a total of 15 polls and surveys including;

•  3 out of 4 offenders leaving prison embark on a life in crime
• Car sales fell 22% in October
• More UK men resemble Peter Kay than any other celebrity (according to a phone application – genius!)
•   Norway is the world’s best country to live in
• Daily sex with ‘the wife’ is the best way for men to live longer

It seems to me that we shouldn’t take tabloid surveys like this too seriously as many of them didn’t say where the data or sources were acquired. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were simply the product of a Horny Norwegian Criminal Car Salesman who looks like Peter Kay.

Many of these surveys also gave no precise figures or statistics to back up their claims and one ‘fact’ in particular appeared to originate from just one man (no not the Norwegian comedian). Builder Steve Morgan ‘claimed the number of mortgages available to buyers with deposits of ten per cent or less has fallen from 1,244 to just 33 since 2007. This made me wonder just who Steve Morgan was (the boss of Redgrow Housebuilders apparently) and how he had time to interview all those people.

So there we go, I’m not sure I’ll ever take a poll or survey seriously again.

Studying Newspapers

As part of my Journalism Now topic I am starting to study newspapers themselves and in this blog look at how the different British papers operate and their differing audiences and styles. Peter Cole wrote an interesting series on this in the Guardian and I will link his pages at the bottom.

The sales of newspapers in general are in decline. This may well be to the modern day desire to have everything online, despite this however, over 11.7m papers are bought each day.  This figure clearly shows the massive influence that newspapers have on our everyday lives and they can affect everything from how we vote to what we eat and can even form certain prejudices.
Most ‘normal’ people (and by that I mean non- Journalists) read one particular paper. They are often dismissive of other titles despite having never actually read them. What paper we read says a lot about who we are and using Cole’s articles I am going to look at the different papers and try to understand who they are aimed at and how their chosen stories and language affects this; as well as trying to see if papers really are dying and if different titles are evolving and trying to stop this.

The ‘Mid- Market’ (Express and Mail)
The Daily Express is a clear example of a paper who’s circulation is in decline, selling 770,000 papers daily whereas in its peak it topped 4m. It was traditionally a Tory newspaper however during the 1960’s new ownership led to a new Labour preference, though it has recently reverted back.  Cole describes its favourite topics to include house prices, taxes, the weather, political correctness, the threat of immigrants and an obsession with Princess Diana (!Express readers look away now! – What was Diana wearing the night she died? A blue bonnet).

The major player in the mid-market section nowadays however is the Daily Mail, which is the second highest selling daily behind The Sun.  Cole accredits its success to stable ownership and an understanding of who its reader is. The Mail is very anti liberal, with the majority of its readers over 45 and I would imagine middle class. Cole states that the Mail understands its audiences (probably out dated) prejudices and reflects them socially, culturally and politically.
One way in which I would suggest the Mail is trying to battle newspaper declines is that it spends the highest amount on promotions. It regularly gives away DVD’s and CD’s (although who uses them anymore?) such as The Artist formerly known as Prince’s last CD, to help boost sales. I think that this shows a willingness to battle against decline and evolve and this may well be the reason for it overtaking the Express in the mid-market sales.

The Tabloids

Tabloid papers are generally considered the papers for the masses. Cole states that they feature quick read stories on crime, sex, sport and celebrities with a mostly working class audience in mind. He adds to though they too are in decline they are something of a loathed obsession for the rest of the media and those who don’t actually read them.  The main tabloids of today are owned by two groups The Trinity Mirror (The Mirror and The People) and Rupert Murdoch (The Sun, NOTW).  The tabloids aim to connect with ‘ordinary’ people and its main readers are in the skilled manual workers and below social grouping. To meet this demand they have a very low reading age of text and run extensive features on ‘celebrities’ and lower pop culture, the things they seem to think their target audience cares most about. Despite this audience The Mirror in particular under Piers Morgan tried to take a more upmarket approach, no doubt as a result of the falling numbers of the working class population, however this failed, allowing The Sun to increase its stronghold of the tabloids.

Broadsheets

Broadsheets are considered the ‘quality’ newspapers, although Cole suggests this is inaccurate and that ‘serious’ would be a better adjective. The main broadsheets are The Guardian, The Independent, The Times and The Telegraph. Though their circulation is very small they are considered to be of great importance and are the first choice read of most politicians, professionals and managers. As a result of this their style is generally more affluent than that of the tabloids and mid-market papers with a higher reading level and more focus on higher levels of interest and culture.

It could also be argued that the broadsheets have achieved the most innovation over recent years. The Independent, Times and Guardian all changed to a more compact, tabloid style format of paper with an increase in sales a sign of the success this had.  Other examples of change include the magazine supplements that feature in The Times and Guardian in particular, whilst The Times also launched a pay-per-view online format, recently copied by the NOTW, although whether this has been a success is still up for debate. The Telegraph, whilst keeping its broadsheet format, has also moved into the internet age with many interactive features and podcasts.

In conclusion, it is very interesting to try to understand how the different newspapers operate with regards to their audience and attempting to do so certainly changes the way we read and view the differing titles. Change seems to be something that a lot of papers have been reluctant to do but the declining sales suggests that it is something they must attempt. Regardless of this however newspapers are still vital forms of media and are certainly not irrelevant just yet.

For Peter Coles articles see the following links:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/aug/20/mondaymediasection.pressandpublishing

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/aug/27/mondaymediasection.pressandpublishing

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/sep/03/mondaymediasection.pressandpublishing1

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/sep/10/mondaymediasection.pressandpublishing4

Joseph Addison

Joseph Addison was born in May 1672 and could perhaps be considered one of the first true Journalists.  The majority of his works focused on minute social observation and his writing style contained much flair and humour.

In 1712 Addison began publishing ‘The Spectator’ with the help of his childhood friend Richard Steele.  The Spectator was something of an entertainment paper with articles often featuring the leading fashions at the time as well as frivolous issues such as how to correctly throw a tea party. In many ways the paper was representative of the Restoration period in which Addison worked.  This era saw an end to the Puritan reign started by Oliver Cromwell, where plays, parties and enjoyment in general were often seen as immoral. Addison’s style of writing is certainly a step away from this as he uses much humour and colour in his work. There is often something of a sarcastic tone to his style such as when describing the Royal Exchange in one essay he comments that there were ‘tears that have stolen down my cheeks’. This over-exaggeration is a clear example of the gentlemanly style of tongue-in-cheek wit that was fashionable at the time.

Another interesting aspect of Addison’s work, particularly The Spectator, was that it was aimed at both male and female audiences.  Many articles focused on what was fashionable at the time and this shows that Addison clearly understood he had female readers as well. This was very reflective of the age as the increasing industrialisation had led to a rise in the middle class and therefore it was considered very proper for domestic women to spend their growing leisure time sat around a table cheerfully discussing papers like The Spectator. Addison himself acknowledges the value of female writers in his piece ‘On the Essay form’ commenting that he received letters from ‘persons of the best sense in both sexes’. This is yet another example of a change in attitude in the Restoration period as during Puritan times women were somewhat distrusted and witch hunts were still prevalent – no doubt with Eve and the apple firmly in mind!

Addison was also very interested in the structure and style of essays and conversation, something that highlights his importance to Journalism. In one issue of The Spectator he discusses two different styles of writing; Regulation and Method, and much longer essays.
Method writing is described as being a ‘plantation’ where everything is laid out and planned in a certain order, making what is being written clear and easy for the reader to comprehend. He also believes that this style is effective in conversation and debate as it prevents losing sight of the question, as well as helping the author come to terms with their ‘invention’.
In contrast to this lengthy ‘essay’ writing is portrayed as a ‘great wood’ full of ‘noble objects and confusion’.  Addison praises the writing of a single volume of ones work but suggests that many great pieces have perhaps been lost due to writers being unwilling or unable to construct such a large amount of work. He likens this style to throwing down ‘Pearls in heaps’ in front of the reader rather than the ‘pains of stringing them’ and this would suggest that though Addison saw the genius in long volumes of work, he preferred shorter, concise pieces. 

To press this point further Addison used two characters to describe each form – Tom Puzzle and Will Dry. This humorous method was often used by Addison for entertainment purposes and also to help emphasize his points of view. Tom Puzzle represents the Unmethodical style of writing, with Addison stating that he knows enough to ‘raise doubts but not to clear them’.  This suggests a person that knows a lot about a handful of subjects but has no concise knowledge and therefore has to revert off topic in conversation. In contrast Will Dry’s character is a ‘clear, methodical head’ that uses less words but has an advantage of Puzzle and cuts him short with precise questions.
Such characters help to show Addison’s own views and opinions. Puzzle and Dry appear to depict Addison’s own preference for methodical writing of short, lively pieces and these are common in the work of the press, which is a great way of dealing out ‘lectures’ to the public. Addison himself stated that he wished the great writers before him had had such an invention as it would have made their own works much more concise. 

This perhaps best shows Addison’s importance to journalism as a profession. As well as understanding its potential as a business, The Spectator in particular was vital in bringing philosophy, information and stories into everyday life via the press, as previously it had only really been used as propaganda for religion and political parties. His love of precise, entertaining articles is also something that should be adhered to by any good journalist.  

Qualified Privilege

There are three main defences that can be used in court against accusations of a defamatory statement. The first of these is justification, a difficult defence that involves proving that your story is conclusively true. The second is fair comment. This is a reasonably well protected defence which basically means that it must be proved that the possibly defamatory statement was clearly an opinion and was not presented as fact. A journalist should chose their words very carefully to ensure that there is an obvious distinction between fact and opinion - particularly if they have any doubts about what they are publishing. The third main defence is Privilege, where certain groups are exempted from libel for certain reasons. Types of privilege include: 

• Statutory - where there is privilege in certain circumstances; such as reporting in court.  
• Absolute - where you can say anything you like, regardless of malice. This is a rare privilege that is enjoyed by MP's in parliament (e.g. Labour MP Tony Banks once referred to Margaret Thatcher as a 'sex starved boa constrictor). 
• Qualified Privilege

Journalists have Qualified Privilege. Reports should not show any malice and it is considered important that statements made against an individual were in the public interest. Journalists should look to show Positive Identification by methods such as putting the age, location or image after naming somebody in order to avoid being sued as a result of somebody of the same name to that reported taking offence or receiving persecution. 

Failure to do this is often referred to as 'broad brush identification' and this is potentially very dangerous indeed.

When using Qualified Privilege reporting must be fast, accurate and fair in order to prevent having it taken away from you if taken to court. The report should be published as soon as possible and any errors regardless of how trivial can also lead to the loss of QP. As previously mentioned writing should contain no malice and both side of the argument must be shown.

Following a high profile court case between former Rep of Ireland head Albert Reynolds and the Sunday Times, Lord Nicholls set out a list of circumstances to be examined by court in dealing with the defence, known as The Reynolds Test:

1. The seriousness of the allegation
2. The nature of the information
3. The source of the information
4. The steps taken to verify the information
5. The status of the information
6. The urgency of the matter
7. Whether comment was sought from the claimant
8. Whether it was a balanced article
9. The tone of the article
10. The timing of the publication