News and the new media
101. The impact of new media and particular the
internet on traditional media has already been discussed in previous
sections. In summary the internet provides access to constantly
updated stories from news organisations across the world. All
major news supplies are now moving to multi-platform delivery
of their products and the internet also provides increased opportunities
for user input in the form of feedback and user generated content.
102. However, it is important not to overestimate
how many people currently use the internet as their primary source
of news. Statistics show that very few people (6% in 2006) use
the internet as their main source of news. Ed Richards, the
Chief Executive of Ofcom, told us that he believed the internet
would continue to have a supplementary, rather than dominant,
role in news provision. "I am sure it will change a little
more over time, but I think that the finding about the significance
of television news compared to the supplementary role—the
important supplementary role—that the internet is playing,
we may see as a resilient finding in the years to come" (Q 863).
103. During this inquiry there have been those
who have argued that the proliferation of news sources, especially
on the internet, is an argument against regulation to maintain
plurality of ownership of traditional news media. Rupert Murdoch
told us that the UK Government was "ten years out of date"
in being exercised about ownership levels because there are now
so many news outlets for people to choose from (see appendix four).
104. However, in the case of the internet, although
there are many news sites, there are very few new organisations
that invest in journalism and news content production. Websites
that provide news online are usually provided by either: existing
broadcasters and newspaper companies that have moved to multi-platform
distribution; news agencies; news aggregator sites that link to
the content of two previous two categories; or blogs which comment
on the news but rarely engage in investigative journalism or news
gathering.
105. It is therefore the case that so far, not
many new news organisations are appearing online and the proliferation
of news sites is not matched by a proliferation of journalists
or investment in news.
106. However, news websites have pioneered some
new news collection techniques. One such example is the use of
User Generated Content. This is content provided by the public,
often recorded on the cameras or video functions of mobile telephones.
The term also encompasses users providing comment and "analysis
of stories on web based news" sites. Professor Stewart
Purvis, Professor of Television Journalism at City University,
suggested that "unmediated content is back to the printing
press in the first place. It is about people putting forward their
views; it is about citizens having a voice suddenly. If we do
not like what they say, that is a small price to pay for the freedom
those people are being given to air their views" (Q 722).
However, in its analysis of the state of the US news media in
2008, the Project for Excellence in Journalism found that "The
prospects for user-created content, once thought possibly central
to the next era of journalism, for now appear more limited, even
among "citizen" sites and blogs. News people report
the most promising parts of citizen input currently are new ideas,
sources, comments and to some extent pictures and video. But citizens
posting news content has proven less valuable, with too little
that is new or verifiable"[30].
107. The internet also provides opportunities
to break news as it happens. As with 24 hours news channels, internet
sites do not have to wait until the next scheduled news bulletin,
or the next print run, to bring new news to consumers. Because
of this consumers now expect instant updates and a wide choice.
108. Unease about the provenance, accuracy and
trustworthiness of new internet sources was raised by several
of our witnesses. Websites that allow users to contribute data
are particularly at risk from inaccuracies. This is a problem
both for the public who are not always clear what information
they can trust, and for news organisations which are introducing
training for journalists on how to use internet sources. Pierre
Le Sourd, the London Bureau Editor for Agence France Presse, told
us:
"We have a written rule inside our company
which forbids any journalist from using Wikipedia. We have the
same thing, which has been updated last week, for Facebook because
there was an incident last week with Bilawal Bhutto in Oxford
where some newspaper picked up some pictures on the Facebook site
about Mr Bhutto which turned out to be fake, so we are trying
to be vigilant about it, but obviously every day you have new
possible virtual sources where we have to be very careful and
journalists have to recruit their sources normally, so he cannot
follow only one source" (Q 1600).
109. David Schlesinger suggested this reinforced
the importance of known news brands "You go to sources who
have standing, who know what they are talking about" (Q 1599).
Conclusion
110. There is no doubt that the traditional media
are under very considerable competitive pressure. Newspapers,
television and radio are losing advertising revenue to the internet,
with the result that costs are being cut and economies are being
made in traditional news gathering, ranging from journalists based
overseas, to local journalists at home.
111. At the same time, there have been changes
affecting the nature of journalism. 24-hour television news and
other technological advances have meant that up to date news can
be provided virtually as it happens, direct to the public. Newspapers
can never compete with this speed of communication. Speed, however,
can have its dangers and risks compromising accuracy.
112. Alastair Campbell, press secretary to Tony
Blair between 1994 and 2003, was particularly concerned about
this development. He told us that the speed with which news now
has to be put out can have "an impact on any real interest
in whether the story is right or wrong" (Q 1893). The
Media Standards Trust agreed stating that "News agendas evolve
much more rapidly than they did, partly due to ease of publishing,
and to multiplication of news outlets" and concluding that
"there is less money, fewer people and less time, constraining
journalists' ability to travel or meet people" (p 142).
113. Nevertheless, there is a danger in taking
a too apocalyptic view of the state of the traditional media.
Fifty years ago, it was predicted that the creation of television
would mean the death of newspapers. Although newspapers, both
national and regional, have declined they have not died and even
with the expansion of the new media, we do not believe that they
are in such imminent danger. The UK has one of the highest levels
of newspaper readership in Europe and newspapers are the second
most used source of news behind television[31].
114. A number of our witnesses from newspapers
(who admittedly have an interest) recognised the challenges but
believed that the industry would cope. Rebekah Wade said she was
"quite upbeat" about the future of newspapers (Q 1494).
Richard Wallace argued "there is a great press tradition
in this country which we can maintain not only off-line, as they
call it in newspapers, but on-line" (Q 494). Simon Kelner
told us that "My belief is that newspapers still do have
a future role to play in a modern democracy" (Q 683).
All agreed that newspaper companies would need to accommodate
the electronic media. Alan Rusbridger summed this up:
"I am not too gloomy about the future. A
lot of it is out of our hands and, as an editor, all you can do
is to make sure that the digital version of your product is as
good, if not better than your print version so that it is ready
for whatever technological or economic changes await round the
corner" (Q 234).
115. As for television, it remains the most important
force in the provision of news. Ed Richards underlined this "if
I were to pick a single statistic out of our New News, Future
News report which struck me as crucial, it would be the answer
to the question that we posed people, "What is your primary
source of news?". The finding, which I did not anticipate,
was that television news—the share of that—was, first,
two-thirds of people and that, secondly, it had remained stable.
Despite this glut of new information and access to the internet,
the significance of television as the primary source of news had
remained stable" (Q 861).
116. In summary then, we believe that the traditional
media companies remain of vital importance in delivering news
and are likely to remain so for the foreseeable future. Television
news programmes are watched by millions of people every day; national
newspapers are seen by governments and oppositions as crucially
important in the political debate; regional and local newspapers
continue to have substantial influence in their areas; and radio
news has both national and local importance. The ownership of
these dominant news providers still remains an issue of public
importance.
1 Figures taken from the Guardian Media Guide 1996
and 2008. Back
2
The State of the News Media 2008: an annual Report on American
Journalism, The Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2008. Back
3
New News, Future News: The challenges for television news after
digital switchover, Ofcom, 4 July 2007, para 3.105. Back
4
Ibid, fig 3.1. Back
5
Unique user = A measure of the number of people who visit a website.
Users may share the same IP address, the same computer, or the
same web browser. The unique user measurement attempts to count
these people separately. Back
6
Ibid, fig 3.11. Back
7
All of the UK top ten national daily and Sunday newspapers provide
free access to their online content, except for the Financial
Times which offers only a limited amount of content for free before
users are asked to pay a subscription charge. Back
8
Dan Sabbagh, Google Shows ITV a Vision for the Future, The
Times, 30 October 2007. Back
9
Steven Barnett, Reasons to be Cheerful, the British Journalism
Review, Vol 17 No 1, 2006, pgs7-14. Back
10
Display advertising = large adverts that take up a significant
proportion of a page and often feature graphics. Display advertising
space is expensive and is usually bought by large companies. Back
11
Classified advertising = usually small text based adverts that
appear in a dedicated section of a newspaper. Classified advertising
space is cheap and is often bought by individuals who wish to
buy or sell goods or seek services. Back
12
http://www.iabuk.net/en/1/iabadspend2006.mxs Back
13
The full text can be found in The Political Quarterly, Vol
78, Issue 4, 2007, pp476-480. Back
14
Shelley McLachlan and Peter Golding, "Tabloidization in the
British Press: A Quantitative Investigation into Changes in British
Newspapers, 1952-1997" in Tabloid Tales, eds Colin Sparks
and John Tulloch, Rowman and Littlefield, 2000, pp75-89. Back
15
Justin Lewis, Andrew Williams and Bob Franklin, A Compromised
Fourth Estate? UK news journalism, public relations and news sources,
Journalism Studies, Vol 9 No 1, 2008, pp1-20. Back
16
Long Term Advertising Expenditure Forecast: Forecasts from 2007-2019,
the Advertising Association in conjunction with the World Advertising
Research Center Ltd. January 2008. Back
17
Analysis of the Regional Press Survey Findings for 2006, Newspaper
Society, para 5, p.3. Back
18
Quoted in Geoffrey Cox, Pioneering Television News, John
Libbey and Co, 1995, p185. Back
19
2007 Communications Market Digital Progress Report, Ofcom, Q4,
para 1.3. Back
20
Ibid, para 2.6. Back
21
New News, Future News: The challenges for television news after
digital switchover, Ofcom, 4 July 2007; fig 3.2. Back
22
Ibid, fig 3.4. Back
23
Phase One: The Digital Opportunity, Ofcom's second public
service broadcasting review, 10 April 2008, figs 5 and 6. Back
24
Ibid, fig 3.7. Back
25
Ibid, fig 3.8. Back
26
Ibid, para 3.52. Back
27
Ibid, para 1.49. Back
28
Ibid, fig 3.1. Back
29
RAJAR figures for Q4 2007. Back
30
The State of the News Media 2008: An annual report on American
Journalism, The Project for Excellence in Journalism, 2008. Back
31
New News, Future News: The challenges for television news after
digital switchover, Ofcom, 4 July 2007; fig 3.2. Back
