Journalism in decline?
The decline of journalism is the theme in two very different articles this week in the church press. The
Church of England Newspaper carries a piece by Andrew Carey on the discovery that there are more people working in PR than there are journalists. The other, by Andrew Brown in
the Church Times, highlights one specific and highly lamentable example of this – the sacking of Jonathan Petre as religious affairs correspondent on the
Daily Telegraph.
Andrew Brown, speaks passionately about the main reason for the sacking - the Telegraphs moves to a more ‘tabloid’ approach to newsgathering. The editors will decide on what the stories are and the journalists will provide the words to go with them. It saves money but the casualty – apart from gainful employment for some very good journalists – is truth. It’s sadly ironic that we were given an insight into this change in approach when diocesan communicators visited the swanky new Telegraph offices at Victoria last November. Jonathan was there, giving up his time to get to know us and to explain about his work, little knowing what was to befall him.
In his Church Times article, Andrew speaks about the hole it leaves in religious reporting on national newspapers. In his view Jonathan was the best informed specialist working on the dailies, he was trustworthy, authoritative and respected as an honest broker.
I've known Jonathan for several years and had a good professional relationship, hav
ing an odd drink together after a hectic day at General Synod. (
See picture with JP just beyond Ruth Gledhill (on the left side of pic about half way up ) at work during a debate). My own experience of Jonathan was certainly that he was indeed “one of the good ones, the unsung professionals like ship’s engineers, who make all the pomp and ceremony possible in the first-class lounge.” After the 7/7 bombers were identified as coming from up here, he was the only religious correspondent to take the train to Leeds and find out what was really going on. During our difficulties at the Cathedral he would regularly call me for long chats to try and get the low-down.
That’s not to say that Jonathan didn’t have his own ‘Daily Telegraph shaped’ agenda. Clearly he wasn’t always interested in the good news stories we churn out – but then what national newspaper is? If he did follow up a press release it was usually to pose a sharp question I’d hoped might be overlooked (eg if the Bishop is moving house from Ripon to Leeds won’t that put the noses of those in the north of the diocese out of joint?) While up in Beeston he seemed keen to focus on whether the local mosques were hotbeds of radicalism, not only a rather dangerous question to be asking anywhere in earshot of LS11 at the time, but at odds with the emphasis we wanted to put on moderate Christians and Muslims working together.
But I am very sad too at the news, and I wish Jonathan and his wife well, hoping he very quickly gets snapped up by a more discerning ‘information centre’ as newspaper offices will soon be called.
There are now 47,800 people employed in public relations - verses 45,000 journalists, according to Andrew Carey (though thanks to the Daily Telegraph, the figure is now presumably 44,998). Andrew is astounded, and laments the effect this will have on the independence of the press and the “blurring of the impartiality of the media”. Do my eyes deceive me!? The words ‘impartiality’ and ‘media’ have never sat well together, and an ‘impartial newspaper’ is an oxymoron. Newspapers were never interested in reporting our good news or our press releases, unless we are talking about the local rag with one cub reporter on a job creation scheme. I can personally count on the fingers of one hand the number of times a TV crew from regional news has turned up at an event I’ve been involved in publicising in the last two years. That’s why organisations have always had to employ PR officers to play the media game, creating statistics, carrying out surveys, paying celebrities, engineering controversy, all to catch the eye of the editor.
Part of the reason for fewer journalists and more PR professionals is the decline of newspapers and the growth in new media. Newspapers themselves tacitly acknowledge this as they downsize their traditional journalism staff while employing more video and web specialists for newly created video departments, websites and ‘information hubs’. The spin off is that well meaning organisations and charities can begin to rely less on the vagaries and mood swings of journalists, newspaper editors and media bosses to transmit their news. After all, why does the audience need to go to a newspaper’s brand new all-singing all-dancing website when they can Google the topic and go direct to horses mouth on an equally well produced web page. The playing field is levelling out. Will there be any place for professional journalists at all in a future of citizen journalism and home grown internet tv?. Perhaps, in the not too distant future, we will laugh at the way we had to rely on BBC Look North to turn up before anyone heard about the new Bishop, chuckle ruefully at the way we had to try and catch the eye of a reporter to get a new campaign into the public eye. In the words of Bob Dylan, The Times (and the Telegraph) they are a changing.
Labels: Church of England Newspaper, Church Times, Citizen journalism, Daily Telegraph, Jonathan Petre, Journalists, PR
Lottery Balls
Saturday's in Richmond, North Yorkshire - always a joy and tomorrow its the Diocesan Synod when top of the agenda is a debate on the National Lottery, and whether the diocese should discourage churches from applying to it for money for their buildings. I have to confess, in preparing
the press release and doing the research, Ive changed my mind.
Last month
General Synod debated gambling and in particular Casinos… speaker after speaker got up to talk about the harm done by gambling, the disastrous effects for families, marriages, and lives. There was a general feeling that this government with its apparent desire to open up gambling as a normal part of everyday life had got it badly wrong – all the more surprising as this is the Labour party, founded on Methodist principles.
However it it took a fellow Communications Officer, and member of General Syod, Jan McFarlane from Norwich to get to the heart of the problem for our communications.. “The question I most dread the Eastern Daily Press asking me tomorrow” she said to Synod “ is – isn’t it hypocritical of the CofE to take a moral stance against gambling when so many churches and indeed cathedrals have taken advantage of the Heritage Lottery Fund? I for one would like us to be on firmer ground”.
So that's what we'll be debating - the heart of the issue and lottery funding. And if we stick to our present policy couldn’t I be facing questions about hypocricy tomorrow morning if we vote against this motion? Is there any justification?
Well, I think Ive changed my mind - and am coming round to the view that there are good arguments for allowing churches to carry on using 'tainted money' from the Lottery...
Firstly the lottery itself - is it, as a form of gambling, in the same league as the so called hard gambling of Casinos, betting shops, spread betting, gaming machines? – Not according to the Churches Ethical Investment Advisory Group –
who in their paper on gambling, describe the lottery as a soft form of gambling along with things like raffles and football pools.
It’s a form of gambling which 73 per cent of the population regularly take part in, but it could be argued that the very fact that after 14 years still only 15 % of the population gamble on horses or greyhounds and only 4 per cent visit casinos shows that it doesn’t and hasn’t led to a huge rise in gambling addiction in the form of hard gambling that many of us feared. In fact in a recent You Gov poll most people, 54% were against the opening of supercasinos, for example. The Salvation Army, who you’d expect to be as opposed to the Lottery as anyone, have actually been working closely with Camelot which runs the lottery, to minimise the negative impact it might have on the most vulnerable in society…The’ve looked at whether increased sales of lottery tickets will lessen a commitment to social responsibility and concludes, on the Camelot website that “It is pleased that Camelot is working with voluntary sector organisations to make sure this does not happen”.
The Salvation Army also recognises that while the National Lottery is the third biggest Lottery in the world in revenue terms, it is only the 47th in the world in terms of amount spent per capita – less than £2.90 per head per week, and that that is spread across all socio economic groups.. It may be described as a tax on the poor to give to the rich , but the statistic show that its actually C1s who spend most money on the lottery .. D’s and E’s spend around £2.32 per head per week.. So the statistics indicate that for the vast majority, when they hear the voice of the balls, Deadly Deddicoate on a Saturday night, there’s a bit of a frisson, its entertainment, it’s a harmless bit of participation in an event which someone is going to win..and it could be them but the vast majority recognise that with odds of 14 million to 1, it probably won’t be.
Perhaps more importantly is the argument about the system. Rightly or wrongly – and wrongly in the view of many – the government has set in place a system by which more or less all of its Heritage Funding for many church buildings can only be paid through the Heritage Lottery Fund. Furthermore, as Jan McFarlane has told me this week in an email, after her words at Synod, she writes: “..I was reliably informed that it is almost impossible to get funding from other sources if you haven't applied to the National Lottery Fund. It's the biggest pot of money so other sources won't let go of their funding unless you've been refused a NLF grant. So we're locked in by "the system" ..Some separate money is available through English Heritage but this is much less and much more restricted.
THAT’S why the
United Reformed Church which has been totally opposed to lottery funding for its churches since 1995, had this same debate at its National July assembly a year ago and went the opposite way – it reversed its opposition now allows indeed encourages churches to apply for lottery funding for listed buildings and restoration.
One of its arguments, interestingly, is that Heritage Fund money is effectively the result of a tax like any other – a tax on the lottery - the 25 p of every pound at the newsagents which goes to good causes. … is as much a tax on gambling as other taxes on alcohol and tobacco.
But also both they and the Methodist church argue that if it was hypocritical for Christians to apply for Heritage Lottery funding – it is arguably just as hypocritical to visit a theatre, museum or art gallery or attend the 2012 Olympics. Things have moved on—the Lottery is now a part of national life. And I have changed my mind.,..15 years ago I too was adamantly opposed to it, but the goalposts have been moved, the arguments have changed.
It should be an interesting debate and its as important for those who have applied or think they will but are a bit unsure about the moral justification, as for those who oppose it.
Labels: Casinos, Christians and Lottery, Church of England, Diocese of Ripon and Leeds, English Heritage, Heritage Lottery Fund, National Lottery
Say Sorry
It's always worth coming to General Synod if you want to know what's really going on. So, between debates (
Mental Health and Anglican Communion), I have to humbly report an error in my last blog. Revd JJ is still at the Lambeth Palace press office ... which rather undermines my theory about how the Archbishop of Canterbury was allowed to go on World at One and say what he did. It wasn't a depleted staff after all.
Ruth Gledhill explores this element of the whole Sharia story in her blog. I'm sorry.
Meanwhile the Press (sitting conspiritorially next door as I write this) and the Church of England are having a stand off. The Press are calling for the Archbishop to apologise - for misleading the public (
cf The Mail). The Church of England is increasingly calling for the press to apologise - for misrepresenting the Archbishop. Things are getting heated.
But it's not all about Sharia.
In fact, on the floor it's hardly had a mention. Synod has been rebelling against centralisation, stalling a move to collect funeral and wedding fees centrally and throwing out plans for dioceses to take over official ownership of parsonages. There's been a moving and amazing series of stories in the mental health debate while we're now onto the Anglican Communion. And strong attacks on gambling and government plans for regional casinos.
We've also been asked if we can trace a giraffe called Kofi Annan, referred to by John Sentamu when he reported on his trip to Kenya. A woman in the public gallery shouted out her objections to Sharia Law before being hustled out yesterday and an old fella shouted out that Sodomites shouldn't be allowed in the church before being hustled out today. Christopher Herbert, Bishop of St Albans, who was about to speak, thanked the heckler and said he wouldn't take it personally before continuing as if nothing had happened. It's those little moments of theatre that make it worth the trip.
Labels: archbishop of canterbury, Archbishop of York, General Synod, Kenya, press, Ruth Gledhill, Sharia Law
Pancakes and Sharia Law
Phone red hot this week— first pancakes then Sharia. The World at One carrying the story – as were newspapers and radio stations throughout the known world – of the abandonment of Pancake Racing in Ripon – the ‘centuries old tradition’ (which started in 1998) - due to 'Health and Safety' and red tape; ‘Political thingummy gone mad’ as one woman put it on Look North. Once the metaphorical dust settled (there was no actual dust to settle as television pictures of empty streets attested) the phones were ringing again, this time with the Archbishop of Canterbury’s comments on Radio 4 and his speech that night on Sharia Law and its place if any in the British legal system.
Can’t blog for long—only on page 9 of Rowan's dense, 12 page, tightly packed and closely argued speech given at the Temple . Needless to say, it bears no relation to anything he was supposed to have said. But I have found two close connection between both pancakes and sharia -the two news stories of the week.
Connection number one I will encapsulate in a sentence. – Senior clergy should never speak to the press without consulting their press officers first, we are worth our weight in gold, Lambeth palace needs to bolster its Press office (was it a coincidence that all this happened following the departure just a week or two earlier of Jonathan Jennings the senior press officer) and I should be paid a lot more than I am!
Connection number two is a bit more interesting Let me summarise in two sentences:
Pancake racing , as a quasi religious community activity, should be granted freedom from red tape instead of having to apply every year for permission from some jumped up secular council which thinks it has rights over minority communities, in this case the Cathedral community. It should be exempt from stupid ‘vexatious’ claims for compensation if someone trips over on the cobbles of Kirkgate and allowed to operate under its own ancient rules without interference.
There – simple ain’t it! We solve two problem stories in one go. The papers can stop jumping up and down about both the Archbishop and the Political Correctness Gone Mad by recognising that the red tape they railed against at the beginning of the week (especially the Mail and Express) is the same ‘British Legal system’ they are defending over against the rights of religious minorities at the end of the week. The legal system which allows someone to sue the Cathedral and the Council if they trip over their clerical robes while running up the street tossing their pancake should just butt out, and recognise that Pancake racing is a centuries old tradition and in this case the rights of the religious community should take precedence over the local council, the high court or even the European Court of Human Rights.
This may not be a central plank of my argument on Radio Leeds at 8.05 tomorrow, but I’ll try and winkle it in somehow.
Labels: archbishop of canterbury, british law, health and safety, Pancakes, political correctness, Press Officers, Sharia Law, Temple, World at One
Troubles for the Chaplain
First there was
the Country Parish, then the Seaside Parish, there was also the
Parish in the Sun on ITV and now
the Island Parish. The popular format is generally the same. Whether it was the young Jamie Allen, moving from urban to rural ministry and infuriating the country set, the nervy Vicar of Boscastle, Christina Musser who coped with flooding and helicopters but later gave it all up, the charming condescension of Robert Ellis in his ubiquitous shorts as he ministered to the pensioners on Majorca, or now the hapless Father Guy Scott, struggling on the Scillies, we always get a warts ‘n all portrayal of life as a Vicar. Well, with the exception of Robert who, as a former Communications Officer, tried to ‘manage’ his footage with mixed success.
The common theme is of God’s work continuing despite the parish priest rather than because of him or her. I don’t mean this unkindly – well maybe I do. But so often the viewer seems to have a much clearer and broader picture of what’s going on than the Vicar. Father Guy, who I don’t know but who seems a very pleasant fellow, has two problems. First he’s stuck on an island and is therefore feeling isolated. He doesn’t get much support, it seems, from either the Diocese of Truro, other colleagues, islanders themselves, or even from his flock. And that’s probably because, second problem, he’s a man of traditional and somewhat intransigent theological and ecclesiological views, and therefore seems to see himself as a bit apart from that sort of help. If nothing else this series illustrates the shortcomings of more traditional, high church Anglicanism when coupled with a dogmatic and starchy approach to the job. It’s an approach that puts peoples backs up very quickly and certainly fails to deliver when it comes to the rich tapestry of pastoral situations one apparently find on beautiful, idyllic group of islands in the Atlantic.
This week Father Guy blesses a tree (‘I bless this tree’. Er, hang on, isn’t that God’s job?), bans parishioners on another island from holding their own, non-eucharistic service (which means they have to wait for him to get there on a boat before they are allowed to worship), creates anger by refusing to marry a couple because one is divorced and then decides not to go to the local pub, the epicentre of island life, on the grounds that he knows people’s secrets: ‘I cannot go to the Mermaid Inn and say , oh so and so’s been to see me. Guess what he said..’ (possibly the lamest excuse ever heard). No wonder his wardens are wondering if he’s up to it. Whereas Rob Ellis on his island would have stripped even more clothes off to join in on one of the racing gigs, Father Guy stands limp and lettuce like on the shore while our trusty narrator tries to get him more involved. It comes to something when the production crew have a better idea of what’s needed than the Vicar.
Oh Guy, Guy, Guy!…. Would that he was the exception that proves the rule, but when you’re in this job you know that he’s not. I think of my Mother, an active committed churchgoer, bemoaning the clergy for their often insensitive, frequently boorish, generally clumsy, and sometimes unloving attitudes and actions. She could be a hash critic but she was also very forgiving and supportive when it mattered.
I’m guessing Father Guy is not a great fan of
TV’s Pub Landlord, but like a few of his colleagues, he could do with a bit of Al Murray’s British Common Sense. And Mr Murray would add, ‘He didn’t Think it Through, did he?!’ Let’s hope he lightens up a little for everyone’s sake.
Labels: A Country parish, A Parish in the Sun, A Seaside Parish, An Island Parish, Father Guy, Pub Landlord, Revd Robert Ellis, Tiger Aspect
Epilogue
‘They take our stuff and re-use it with a twist’ - so said Pete Ward, theologian and writer at a conference I was on three years ago, speaking about the deep seated spirituality within modern culture. So, TV on a Sunday night. Forget Songs of Praise. Its 9.30pm and of the five terrestrial channels , three of the choices are the following: Messiah (on BBC1), Kingdom (ITV1) or Ransom (sic) (Five). I’ve heard some colleagues say that these are old fashioned terms Christians should no longer use because they don’t mean anything to anyone. Maybe a rethink is called for.
Interfaith relations
Last week in the Sunday Telegraph the Bishop of Rochester made his controversial comments about Muslim ‘no-go’ areas which sparked both outcry and some agreement in more or less equal measure. This week J
onathan Wynne-Jones continues the story with an IOC poll which concludes that while most people disagree with Nazir-Ali and think he’s wrong, the majority also think Muslims should do more to integrate. Make of that what you will.
I was asked about it again
this morning on Radio Leeds, having tried to steer carefully through the story doing the Paper Review last week on Radio York. Hopefully, I again gave my usual measured response. Hmm. But it’s a tricky one to discuss. The problem is that the accusation may have an element of truth, and if local clergy say it does (as they have been doing this week), then who am I to argue? On the other hand, it won’t make things easier for those trying to build up better interfaith relationships, as in south Leeds, and there are lots of moderate Muslims for whom it clearly doesn’t ring true at all.
And, hang on, aren’t there already hundreds of reasons not to go through certain parts of our inner city areas? Norris Green,
where two people were shot to mark the start of Liverpool’s year as Capital of Culture, would be near the top of my list of no go areas. (Though, as I have now been introduced to the Vicar of Norris Green, Helen, who is marrying my former Best Man, I might have need to venture there in the future). Tarring and Feathering is
still taking place in the Shankill Road area of Belfast according to this week’s Sunday’s - so possibly somewhere to avoid in September when the Savoyards take their annual tour Gilbert and Sullivan show to the city (with either Patience, Ruddigore or the Pirates of Penzance – decision being taken tomorrow - seats in all parts).
But, re. so-called 'Muslim no-go areas', many Muslims I’ve personally met are looking for better relations with those around them. In the very week of the Nazir Ali story, I have had a very interesting meeting in Leeds with two Muslim guys from the Educational Dialogue Charity of Turkey who are trying to develop better understanding in the West about moderate Islam. Hakan and Hakan, who I met, are both educated and friendly and are organising a third visit to Turkey for westerners, after succesful visits in 2005 and 2006. They were keen to know of the sort of journalists who might benefit from a visit in may to Istanbul and Ankara, meeting government officials and visiting TV and newspaper offices. Five star hotels and all hotel costs, food and trips are paid for by Turkish sponsors, so I’ve offered to help – it’s tough work but someone has to do it! If you’re a journalist reading this and are interested then the
website with more details is here. Of course, there will be another agenda too- a better understanding of Turkey itself as it tries to join the European Union, and I’m glad to see there’ll be opportunities on the visit to ask difficult questions – on religious minorities, human rights, democracy etc.. but if influential writers for British media learn more about different forms of Islam then it has to be a good thing.
Labels: Bishop of Rochester, Islam, Muslim, Nazir Ali, no go areas, Norris Green, radio leeds, Shankill Road, shooting, Turkey
ing an odd drink together after a hectic day at General Synod. (See picture with JP just beyond Ruth Gledhill (on the left side of pic about half way up ) at work during a debate). My own experience of Jonathan was certainly that he was indeed “one of the good ones, the unsung professionals like ship’s engineers, who make all the pomp and ceremony possible in the first-class lounge.” After the 7/7 bombers were identified as coming from up here, he was the only religious correspondent to take the train to Leeds and find out what was really going on. During our difficulties at the Cathedral he would regularly call me for long chats to try and get the low-down.
