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News saturation doesn't mean driving out original journalism, says Jeremy Paxman

Posted: 29/10/09 By: Judith Townend

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A crammed news market doesn't mean the end of investigative and searching journalism, BBC Newsnight presenter, Jeremy Paxman told viewers and delegates at the 'Is World Journalism in Crisis?' Coventry University event yesterday.

"I think that the BBC clearly is in the business of saturation - that's what a 24 hour news channel and a 24 hour radio news presence means (...) but I hope - I know - that has not driven out original journalism."

Paxman, who was awarded the inaugural Charles Wheeler Memorial Award for over 30 years service to broadcast journalism in May, said the industry's future was insecure and over-burdened:

"People I know who work in local newspapers now find themselves having to produce so much stuff that there's very little room for them to even go through the basic functions of journalism, of making telephone calls and casting a sceptical eye upon what people with powerful vested interests tell them," he said.

"You can look at the sums, and the NUJ [National Union of Journalists] will give you the figures for people employed on local newspapers, there are fewer local newspapers, and there are fewer journalists working on each of those newspapers."

"That means they have to cover more ground, and therefore they cover that ground more thinly. It's not a reflection on them, it's not a criticism of them, it's an expression of that environment in which they find themselves."

"There's such a sausage machine approach to much of journalism now - so much product that has to be manufactured [that] you get very, very lazy."

Journalists essentially recycle press releases, he said, which are an 'extremely partial version of the truth'.

Give them more time
But, he said with more freedom, journalism would improve: "I would plead for time, and I'd plead for an unwillingness to believe what you are told." He urged journalists to be sceptical about evidence presented by those with 'powerful vested interest'. "Knock on doors, do a bit of finding out. Pursue your interests," he said.

It's a fantastic job, and he'd do it again: "I'm always being approached by people who want to get into this business and I always try and put them off. I do so in the certain knowledge that if they are put off from the job they shouldn't be doing it.

"There's no question that it's insecure and I think it's likely to remain insecure for the forseeable future. I always say it's a difficult job - it is overcrowded, salaries are very poor, I mean the salaries at the regional press now are terrible and there is no job security in it.

"I am, by a very long margin, the oldest person on the daily side of Newsnight. Nonetheless it does remain a fascinating way to spend your time. The job provides opportunity to meet all sorts of fascinating people (...) It's a wonderful wonderful occupation."

Too much commentary
Paxman, speaking via video-link from BBC TV Centre, condemned the overuse of comment in newspapers: "It is more expensive to employ journalists to find things out that it is to employ people to express opinions.

"You can fill up a lot more of a page with 1500 words produced by an opinionated columnist than you can by employing five journalists to write 300-word stories."

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bbc | jeremy paxman | british broadcasting corporation | is world journalism in crisis |

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