The Fox Report: Democracy unmasked - ‘Some reporters bark, very few ever bite’
Judy Kirby asks: Do we really live in a democracy? And why isn’t the press telling us more about its failures and its alternatives?
In his book Fraudcast News – How bad journalism supports our bogus democracies, Patrick Chalmers, a former Reuters financial reporter, contends that conventional journalists are incomplete public guardians. The workings of governance are lost to ordinary people in a tangle of institutions and regulatory bodies operating in obscurity and immune to public influence, he writes. The answer, he now believes, is a new media – public-interest journalism.
Patrick ditched his mainstream career and became part of the increasing tide of public-interest reporters. ‘The core aim of public-interest journalism,’ he writes, ‘is to produce work that helps make our existing governments and governance bodies become radically more accountable to us or be shunted aside by alternatives.’ He explains that ‘…the collective task would be to fill the void left untouched by the chatter of conventional media coverage.’
There are more people engaged in this task than might be realised. When the internet first spawned ‘citizen journalists’ a lot of mainstream journalists, myself included, were sceptical of untrained people masquerading as journalists, writing dubious posts. This development is maturing and training is becoming part of its story. A lot of those ‘citizen journalists’ are looking for training in documentary film and video and learning about political structures.
In his home village in south-west France, Patrick Chalmers began simply. He hosted free documentary screenings for local people to come together over a meal and discuss a local political issue. He says it has reinforced the general knowledge of politics. The meetings have grown in popularity and professional film-makers have presented their work there. ‘Together, screenings build a live audience for budding activist-journalists as well as a pool of potential reporters,’ Patrick says. In this special Fox Report, in the following pages, Patrick reports on new democracy in Europe and ponders the effect on the UK of Scottish independence.
Public-interest journalism can be the future. But it faces huge challenges. There are, he warns, decades of work ahead: ‘That it has already begun, most recently with various Occupy movements around the world, should be encouragement enough for more people to get stuck in.’
Quakers take note. Is this the movement we have been waiting for?
Judy Kirby
Co-editor of The Fox Report
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