Tag: journalism

A WORLD WITHOUT NEWS

No news

Just take a moment to think what it would be like to live in a world without news. No negative headlines. No worries about the wider world. No gossip columns. No announcements of job losses or business failures. No articles about people that mean nothing to you. No articles. Full stop.

Now take some time and think again.

There would be no national newspapers to keep you up to date with politics and economics. No business pages to provide category insight, trends or innovation. The narrative would be ‘manipulated’. Stories would share the positive but fail to give the bigger picture. We would become reliant on a one-sided view of everything. There would be no accountability, governance or code of practice.

Local news would come from chatter shared around the school gates or water cooler. Gossip would prevail. There would be no time for investigating the facts. Those stories that make us feel all warm and fuzzy inside would be enjoyed by the few, not the many.

Charitable activities, good deeds and communities coming together to clap in the street. Veterans raising millions of pounds through personal challenges. Residents using their skills to sew, knit and cook to selflessly help others.

These things would still happen, but only those involved would know about them. Certainly not the millions of people that rely on their newspaper, radio or TV broadcast every day.

Give journalists a chance

So, perhaps I’m painting an unbalanced picture of the news myself.

Maybe some journalists aren’t as thorough or as professional as we may like. Playing devil’s advocate, couldn’t that be said of all industries? Surely the behaviour of few doesn’t set a precedent for the many.

I have worked with journalists across international, national and regional media, broadcast and print, for more than twenty years. Throughout my career, I can honestly say that I have built up a genuine respect and admiration for what they do.

Some, I would even consider as friends.

A heartfelt plea

Yesterday evening I was scrolling through my twitter feed only to come across a video which had been shared by journalists from the Yorkshire Post. The collective, with no outside encouragement, had come together to give a heartfelt plea to readers.

The message was very simple: buy a paper.

Not only was the content raw, it put a face to the people behind the headlines. It gave a glimpse of those that work so hard to put a paper together every day. Those that allow us to better understand what is going on in our region; good or bad.

It struck a real chord with me.

You may not like the way that some journalists behave, and you may have taken a vow never to buy a particular title for your own reasons, but don’t shoot every messenger. We live in a country where we have a choice of media and medium.

Spoilt for choice

You don’t have to buy one paper, listen to one radio show or rely on one TV station. There is an abundance of media out there. We are fortunate that this is the case, and perhaps too spoilt for choice.

While I know that people will take this as an opportunity to share their opinions about the media; with some that say journalists are ‘missing the mark’, perhaps even that they are not representative of the British public. The simple truth is, this goes beyond a daily press conference.

This is a moment in time, and we would be mindful to think beyond it.

Think about the last story you read which made you smile. Think about the cuttings your mum kept. Think about those you are saving for your own family. Think about that feeling when your company featured in the business pages and someone mentioned it. Think about the ideas, encouragement and motivation you took from a feature.

Don’t be the reason to ‘stop press’

There are good and bad sides to everything. Nothing is perfect. We are all learning, and we are all adapting. Journalism is a skill. It takes patience, thought, concentration, the ability to find an angle and to get to the heart of a story. It is creative, exciting, interesting and engaging. It keeps us all informed.

This may be an opportunity for us to turn our backs on journalism and to make a stand. Refuse to buy a paper. Turn off the radio. Avoid the press conferences. Choose a box set.

When this is all over and we come out from the darkness and into the light. When we go to pick up our free paper on the daily commute. When we go to grab the local paper to see what’s happening down the road. When we go to the shop on a Saturday morning to enjoy the paper with a strong coffee. When we go to grab the Sunday paper with its many supplements that last us a week.

They won’t be there.

The stand we took. The one we didn’t think enough about. The point we made. It will be the demise of the newspaper. Humble as it may be, it is a lifeline for many. Don’t make a mistake you will live to regret.

Taking the right stand: the news stand

For now, I am backing the Yorkshire Post and the journalists that work for the title and those within the wider JMIMedia Publishing Ltd.

I will continue to buy my local papers. I will learn from the stories, laugh at the stories, cry over the stories, be shocked by the stories and I will encourage others to do the same.

In a time when it has never been more important to come together, let’s back the many and ignore the few. Buy a paper and keep an industry alive that many of us really do rely on.

TRANSITIONING FROM JOURNALISM TO PR, ONE YEAR ON…

This time last year, I was preparing to leave my career in journalism behind.

A necessary change

After four and a half years in the industry, I finally made the decision to switch to public relations. But, as my former colleagues often taunted and teased me about turning to the ‘dark side’, I can safely say that the transition has been an extremely illuminating experience.

During my tenure as a business journalist, I was on the receiving end of the hard work of many PR professionals. Whether it was receiving press releases, organising interviews, collecting client comments or the often-tedious task of sourcing high resolution images, collaborating with PR agencies makes the lives of journalists a hell of a lot easier.

Although I’m sure many in the profession may be quick to disagree, or squirm at this admission, it is the truth!

Yes, journalism is a competitive, demanding and high-pressured job, but it can also be extremely exciting and rewarding. The thrill of being the first to break a story, working towards an impending deadline, meeting high-profile individuals, being privy to many major announcements and simply not knowing what the next day may bring were just a few of the things I thought I’d miss about being a journalist.

When my decision came to light, I found myself on the receiving end of the vitriolic questions journalists often pose to their target. But the majority of my contemporaries would simply want to know ‘why?’

Leaving a legacy

In recent years the rollercoaster ride of being a journalist turned into more of a repetitive slog where the twists and turns were becoming less frequent and lacked the thrill they once provided. In a world of economic uncertainty and squabbling politicians, the same doom and gloom headlines dominated the news in a never-ending cycle.

‘What legacy is this?’ I often asked myself. The realisation finally came that it was my time to stop and get off the rollercoaster. Another force pulling me to the ‘dark side’ was the positive experiences I had during my frequent encounters with PR professionals from a plethora of different agencies. I was always intrigued about the variety of clients just one PR agency could work with and the diverse ways in which they strategically operate to reach a certain outcome.

Collaborating with multiple businesses; learning about different sectors; promoting beneficial initiatives; marketing the latest products or just simply learning and refining new skills are a number of aspects which made PR much more appealing to me than journalism. My days of finishing one story then going on to the next were over.

My PR journey begins

Not long after joining Open Communications, I was introduced to what it really meant to be an agency that delivered PR, social media and content marketing strategies for brands and businesses across a range of sectors.

The concept that public relations industry revolved around writing press releases and making phone calls all day was quickly eradicated. My reality check was quick. PR professionals are multifaceted, motivated individuals who need to prioritise their own time, strategically plan out each day and week and expect the unexpected.

The biggest eye-opener for me was initially monitoring the scale of the day-to-day tasks the team carries out and how they all form part of a results-driven process which is applied to every single client.

Gone are the days where I’d be churning story after story for newsletter after newsletter, hoping and waiting for the monotony to end. My daily activities now comprise a range of tasks I didn’t have the means to complete just one year ago.

With no two days ever the same, I can be writing copy for a clients’ new website; laying out a comms strategy to enter new markets or creating promotional content one day, to researching the latest innovative features in a specific field or carrying out a social media campaign across multiple platforms the next.

It is also worth mentioning that the good old-fashioned press release still plays an important part but it’s certainly not the sum of the piece!  This is the sort of legacy I want to leave, and I cannot wait to see where my PR career continues to take me.