Reports from the Hamlets: March

ben | 16 Mar 2024, 1:09 p.m.

“Journalism is printing something that someone does not want printed. Everything else is public relations.” George Orwell

 

This is obviously false. 

 

There’s a lot of journalism out there that no-one wants printed. The Daily Mail is famous for getting flack, for one. It’s well known for sloppy journalist standards, misleading article titles, and content that is meant to make you upset rather than perform any respectable journalistic aim. I think that those people who do no want the Daily Mail printed do not suddenly make an article about the five disgusting times Lenny Henry picked his nose that you won’t believe, into good journalism. 

 

So what makes good journalism?[1] I think it needs to inform you. Inform you, not only about random facts going on in the world, but about facts that are relevant to you. You can think of informing someone as an action with a success condition, embedding in it the fact that it has to be towards some end that they care about. So telling someone about the miniature of your postcard stamp collection would count as saying facts; but not informing. 

 

Good journalism should portray a full and accurate picture of its subject. It shouldn’t mislead, like some American outlets are accused of doing (e.g. Fox). This can be quite difficult. One of my history teachers at school always has a distaste for the word “bias” in analyses of sources. This is because everything is biassed. You can argue about the metaphysical possibility of complete objectivity, but one thing is certain: practically achieving objectivity is near impossible. You can attempt it by merely reporting facts and figures, although that would not really be journalism, more so being an actuary. There is definitely a scale of subjectivity, however, and attempting to get all and only relevant detail is a desideratum.

 

Finally, good journalism should be aware of its effect on people. You shouldn’t write that is deliberately going to rile up the reader, to try to get them hooked on interacting with your website, seeking another hit of anger. You shouldn’t report on suicides unnecessarily, out of respect for the family and friends of the deceased, and a wariness of copycat behaviour that is triggered.[2] You should try to give people information which can help them makes choices that they want to make, and ideally helps the subject of your journalism too. 

 

As a result of these views, I quite like the idea of Constructive Journalism. To quote the Wikipedia article: “The idea behind constructive journalism is to give stories more context and make the consumer of the news more informed by portraying the world more accurately by adding nuances, context, progress and solutions. By giving more background and also reporting what is going well, so that people are more able to create a realistic view of the world.”

 

This falls right into the target of constructive, positive, action of which I’m very much in favour. [3]

So I was quite excited to discover Bethanl Green Ldn, an online newspaper that is run by Social Streets CIC. This is an outlet specifically aimed at constructive, local, journalism, in an area I’m a local in. Fab.

 

You might notice one thing while looking through its online presence though. There just is not a lot of it? One of the few articles they have in their food section is about La Forchetta, a restaurant which has been shut down for over half a year now. It was written a while ago, but it’s still one of the top articles, because they simply do not put many articles out. 

 

So what’s up with that? I thought maybe it’s a lack of man hours. They’re a not-for-profit (although not a charity?) after all. However they also do not accept articles written by, or even in cooperation with, external authors. The reason being that they want to guarantee that their articles follow the tenets of constructive journalism. 

 

Hang on a second though. Constructive journalism is an approach to journalism. And this is meant to be local, constructive, journalism. Local authors might end up writing shameful attack pieces, sure. Anyone could do that. However local authors also seem best placed to achieve some of the aims of constructive journalism; they’re immersed in the area, and care about the subject of their journalism. 

 

You can tell a local touch is missing in these articles. Just look at Best Pubs in Bethnal Green. It successfully tells you where the pubs are. It even tells you that some of the pubs are, in fact, pubs. It does not tell you much more. This is a listicle, not constructive journalism, not local journalism. 

 

The reason why Social Streets is so odd seems to be because it is split between two purposes: being a consultancy and being a news outlet. And if their stated purpose listed on Company House[4] is anything to go by, their purpose as a consultancy is what is explicitly meant to come first.

 

So this is a company which serves to raise the profile of the director, pay some staff, and may not do a very good job of being a newspaper.[5] So what? Their journalistic output is certainly not having a negative effect. It is constructive. They do what they say they do (even if maybe they are a bit over the top about it, with their website claiming their founder “left her career in glossy magazines to help make a difference”, to save Roman Road, which prior to her incredibly generous intervention was “was left to languish”).

 

I think there’s somewhat of a concern that they ask for money from the public under the guise of funding local journalism. Although in 2020 (the latest figures available on their website) the donations received for Roman Road Ldn (their flagship outlet) was only £214, so I don’t think this is a real concern. However they received £35,500 in grants! They don’t say where these grants come from. If they ultimately come from the taxpayer, though, I would be slightly concerned. 

 

Let’s try practising some constructive journalism here though. The root problem here is not this single company. It’s that there isn’t - as far as I can tell - any local journalism in Tower Hamlets with regular output and significant coverage.

 

What are the potential solutions for this? It might be to find this local journalism. Do your own research, specifically on topics you care about, see if you can find something I didn’t (then maybe tell me about it, I’m interested). Or maybe it’s to start your own thing (I would also be interested to hear about anyone that had inclinations towards that).

 

 

[1] I’m tempted to talk about the BBC’s standards, but I think they’re aims very specifically chosen for what makes good government journalism. 

[2] For an interesting example, see https://www.sos.org.sg/media/media-guidelines/ 

[3] I’ve recently been reading the books of, and listening to, Rory Stewart. His portrayal of conservative values as a force for seriousness, responsibility, and for doing something positive, reminds me of reasons to not be ashamed to call myself conservative. Which is something needed around now. 

[4] The nature of business is “Information technology consultancy activities”. See here.

[5] Their 2020 report listed nearly 233,775 unique visitors. You might think that's a lot. However this website gets over 40,000 unique visitors in a year, and I would estimate around 10 of those might be real people who want to interact.