The power and the story

In a country with the most competitive, some might say most cruel, media in the world, is the line between news and entertainment becoming increasingly blurred? Is there still an audience for well-researched, in-depth political reporting that can help us better understand world events, or must this be subservient to the race to break the news first? These were some of the thought-provoking issues raised in the second annual Reuters Memorial Lecture entitled The Power and the Story: Media and Politics in the 21st Century, given by John Lloyd, Editor of the Financial Times Magazine, on 22 October.

Mr Lloyd charted the rise of what he called 'synecdoche journalism', where the part is made to represent the whole. The assumptions made may be correct, but he lamented the fact that while there is now more news than ever, there is probably less understanding of news. 'The dilemma is this. The world is very complex. It takes a lot of understanding. We are citizens, who have the right to vote for or against governments and councils and thus need to be informed of the choices we make. But mass journalism - on TV and in mass newspapers - inform us less than they used to do.' Mr Lloyd concluded his talk with a rallying call for the academy and journalism to collaborate in 'raising journalism's game by examining journalism's power within media power', and for the craft of journalism - 'which remains the first recourse for most people when they wish to understand the world beyond their own horizons' - to be taken seriously.
(The Reuters Foundation Programme, associated with Green College, gives mid-career journalists from around the world the opportunity to pursue a subject in greater depth than is possible under the daily deadline pressures they face in the newsroom. During Michaelmas Term nine fellows from media in Europe, Africa, China and Japan are engaged in research on topics including the perception of Muslim women in German national newspapers, an examination of the rise of violent urban militias in Kenya, and a study of the relationship between national security systems and personal information protection.)

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