Good evening and welcome to this week’s edition of Media Watch.
Over the past week, we’ve had news of more proposed job cuts in the journalism industry – this time at STV.
The broadcaster announced last week plans to cut 60 jobs and axe its north of Scotland television news programme.
It comes after newspaper publisher Reach Plc, which has a number of local titles in Scotland as well as the Daily Record, announced earlier in the month plans to cut more than 320 journalism jobs in a major editorial overhaul.
The firm said 135 new journalism roles will be created under aims for a new live news network and expanded audio and video offering.
Concerns were also raised earlier this year as PA announced plans to cut jobs in its Scottish newsroom.
The BBC has implemented cuts in the last year too, doing away with long-running television programme HARDTalk, shortening Newsnight, and cutting World Service roles.
Having worked in local news for more than six years, prior to joining The National, it always saddens me to see media outlets diminish their regional and local reporting.
I can tell you for a fact that people care as much – or perhaps more – about what happens on their doorstep than they do about what Keir Starmer is saying on immigration, though the mainstream media would have you believe otherwise.
The passion I heard people speak with about their local community centre closing, or how a road layout was making life a misery, or their opposition to the demolition of a historic site, showed me how much people care about things that immediately affect them and where they live. Reporting on these things made you feel close to the people you spoke to, and it was often hugely rewarding.
People have now become disillusioned with the mainstream media because it now so often tells them what to care about, rather than listening to what they do care about and working to make a difference.
If STV’s north Scotland service goes, it would only offer one programme from its Glasgow base, which would cover stories from across Scotland. This is unlikely to help with many people’s perception that the central belt gets all the attention.
The less the news tells you what is going on in your immediate world and how it will affect you, the more disconnected people feel, and subsequently they lose interest in domestic and world politics stories that are being fed to them. Politicians are not solely responsible for the disillusionment they are contending with.
From a career perspective, most journalists see local news as a bit of a stepping stone to bigger things, and I did too, but it gives you such solid grounding for moving into national arenas and some of the things you cover you will remember for the rest of your life. I find it troubling that these roles are disappearing with regards to the futureproofing of newsrooms.
Alongside local news, we are seeing specialised journalism come under attack too – feature writers, sports journalists, and business reporters have all borne the brunt of cuts in recent times.
It would appear to be the unfortunate consequence of an instant-gratification world where the majority of people now seem unable to consume in-depth, specialised, and focused content without reaching for their Instagram feed within seconds.
The world is now driven by 30-second videos that drill down these complex issues into manageable chunks, and as a result, fewer of your creative writers and deep thinkers are needed.
I have watched the development of smartphones and social media totally transform the way news is reported since I started out in journalism in 2015, and I can understand in many ways the need to adapt and restructure to survive.
But that does not mean we shouldn’t fight for media platforms to remember their core role in informing, educating, and opening the minds of the public, and often that cannot be achieved without local and specialised reporting.
