Hillside Media Training

However much Gordon Brown’s pundits try to rubbish the screaming front page headlines about The Sun’s switch of political allegiance this week they are agreeing on one very simple fact – one that Rupert Murdoch knows oh too well….

It is not newspapers that decide a government it’s the electorate –  and Murdoch only backs winners. Research and the mood of his readers will be reflected in the political direction of the Sun. Love it or loathe it,  it is read by more people than any other paper in this country – approximately 11 million people each day if you multiply number of copies sold by approx 3 readers a copy – so 1 in 5 of the country. Amazing power. And if Murdoch wants to keep these readers he has to reflect their interests. And if he wants to gain readers in this difficult climate the same fact applies.

The Sun does not make or break governments – we do. The paper might expose their weaknesses and report under its now chosen political bias – but it’s only reflecting our mood. In terms of business speak – and let’s not forget newspapers in the end is a media business that is struggling to survive – it is about responding to the demands of your market.

And on the reporting aspect – its vicious pull-out section, punning on GB, PM’s initials and GB, us,  was visually very clever but factually tortuous and in some cases dangerously vague. But as a body blow , a cruel knock-out.

Yes, some Labourites might argue that it doesn’t matter as most people under 35 get their news on-line so will ignore what they perceive as the Sun’s tantrums but behind closed doors they know the timing and focus was annihilating. Plus those reading news on-line still go to newspaper websites in the main, as  The Sun knows.

Labour has so much work to do to stop this tide of apathy that comes after any 3 term tenure of government. We just get bored and tired of the same old faces and same old mantras. At least last time round when the mood swung from 12 years of Tory rule there was hope in the voice and style of change that Tony Blair represented. This time round the voice of David Cameron leaves much to be desired. What is it? And what does it represent? Will someone in the media please force them to nail their true blue colours to the mast so we can all take stock of where we might be heading mindlessly towards?????

The prime minister’s Unleashing Aspirations all-party report, released tomorrow, has apparently come up with the unastounding conclusion that  journalism has become an exclusive middle class profession.

Should we be surprised? A resounding NO echoes through the former annals of Fleet Street and every local newspaper newsroom.

With the demise of local papers, as blogged here, gone are the days when you could blag your way in at 16 and write your way up – backed with the training credentials of doing a  2 year block release course at a designated college with the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) whose Proficiency Test was the only way to get ahead in the news game.

There were five such colleges in my time round the country and if you’d won a place on their full year entry course for which you had to have A levels and pass a challenging interview process, you knew you were on your way. I actually turned down a place at university because I’d been given one of these coveted places,  because I believed it was my passport into a highly competitive industry.

Sadly now, with papers closing, the only way in to journalism, it seems, is if you have a degree – and that still is very much a middle class preoccupation. So lo! It has become more and more a middle class job. 

We seem to have forgotten the whole power of learning on the job via apprecticeships and indentures, as my training programme was called when I joined my first paper on leaving Harlow Technical college with my first NCTJ requisistes. I had to complete 3 years of indentures and pass my finals – the Proficieny Test (equivalent now of a degree) to be a fully fledged senior journalist and then be free if I wanted to find another job. Until then I was tied – or indentured to that paper.

I often talk on how it was such a wonderful training ground. I learned so much working day to day on the job and then having that training backed with classroom support. Those who hadn’t done the full year pre-entry course worked the same way but did block-release courses whereby they’d return to college more frequently to complete the formal learning exercises.

It didn’t matter what your background, your education or family purse you could get a job on your own merit, and boy, you had to prove yourself, and work your way up. You didn’t need a degree, unless you wanted to break into the likes of the BBC and broadcast in general. And then it was very much a case of being white and Oxbridge to even open the White City door.

I bet even now if you want to break into the Beeb, who will soon have complete control of local journalism through its local webnews sites, you will need a degree – that will push the realms of being a journalist from a working class background further away.

Again as I’ve written here before we need to watch the death knell of local journalism – not just because its loss will have a frightening impact on local democracy but also because the local paper provided a fair, open and thorough training ground for healthy journalism all through the ranks.