Two publications land on my desk on the same day.
The first is from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. What's Happening to Our News is written by Andrew Currah - a specialist on the digital economy and future of the internet at Oxford. He sounds a warning about digital news being led simply by "the clickstream" and providing for popular taste and the lowest common denominator. Its a well researched and argued piece - worth reading. Most interesting to me was his analysis of the reduction in international bureaux and resources by news organisations and a look at how the internet and digital technology might - and might not - be able to compensate for this.
Despite its capacity to enhance newsgathering, however, the deployment of digital technology also has serious drawbacks. The new agility of flexible newsgathering is also matched by a new fragility, which threatens the breadth, depth and accuracy of news coverage.On the same day arrives "To Tell You The Truth" - a book marking the launch of The Ethical Journalism Initiative by the International Federation of Journalists. For anyone concerned about serious, value driven journalism around the world this looks like an important and worthwhile project, seeking to establish strong editorial values and ethical for news organisations around the world.
