The market vs. the right to communicate : the anti-political local press in Britain and the journalis of consensus

Wahl-Jorgensen, Karin (author)

The MacBride Report identified communication as a basic individual and collective right, and offered a range of recommendations to protect it. Among other things, the report highlighted the need to strengthen cultural identity, provide diversity of choice in media, reduce the commercialisation of communication, and remove obstacles to individuals' participation. This paper, based on interviews with journalists, argues that in the case of British local journalism, a market logic works against the right to communicate. The increasing dominance of resource-poor, chain-owned weekly newspapers has encouraged the rise of an anti-political journalism. I look at the anti-political tendencies of UK local journalism by focusing on campaigns, editorials and letters to the editor - the opinionated journalism through which local newspapers may advance social change. I argue that journalism-on-the-cheap, as practiced in local papers, becomes a journalism of consensus; one which has the power to enhance community solidarity but cannot question the status quo.

• Language: English
• Work type: Not categorized
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FDV - Faculty of Social Sciences
• Year: 2005
• Number of pages: Str. 79-94
• Numbering: Vol. 12, no. 3
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-75687
• UDC: 659.3/.4
• ISSN on article: 1318-3222
• COBISS.SI-ID: 24610141
• Publication date in RUL: 21.12.2015

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Javnost = The public
• Shortened title: Javnost
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis, European Institute for Communication and Culture
• ISSN: 1318-3222
• COBISS.SI-ID: 40119808

Secondary language

• Language: Unknown
• Title: Grožnje lokalnemu novinarstvu v Veliki Britaniji: trg proti pravici do komuniciranja

Abstract

Poročilo MacBridove komisije je opredelilo komuniciranje kot temeljno individualno in kolektivno pravico in ponudilo vrsto priporočil za njeno zaščito. Med drugim je poročilo osvetlilo potrebe po utrjevanju kulturne identitete, zagotavljanju raznovrstnosti izbire v medijih, zmanjševanju komercializacije komuniciranja in odpravi ovir za participacijo posameznikov. Članek, ki temelji na pogovorih z novinarji, dokazuje, da v primeru lokalnega tiska v Veliki Britaniji tržna logika deluje proti pravici do komuniciranja. Naraščajoča dominacija tedenskih časopisov s šibkimi resursi in v verižnem lastništvu je spodbudila vzpon antipolitičnega novinarstva. Avtorica je antipolitične težnje proučevala na primeru kampanj, uvodnikov in pisem bralcev- mnenjskega novinarstva, prek katerega lahko lokalni časopisi spodbujajo družbene spremembe. Razkriva, da je lokalno novinarstvo postalo novinarstvo konsenza, ki lahko povečuje skupnostno solidarnost, a ne more postaviti pod vprašaj statusa quo.