Cuts Mean Real News Turning to ‘Churnalism’

International media is increasingly focused on money-making to the detriment of quality journalism, says a senior journalist from the United Kingdom.
Cuts Mean Real News Turning to ‘Churnalism’
Funding cuts and high pressure are affecting news quality around the globe, award-winning journalist Nick Davies says, as Fairfax media announced cuts of 550 jobs in Australia and New Zealand. (William West/AFP/Getty Images)
9/3/2008
Updated:
10/1/2015
<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/news_cutbacks_71755710.jpg" alt="Funding cuts and high pressure are affecting news quality around the globe, award-winning journalist Nick Davies says, as Fairfax media announced cuts of 550 jobs in Australia and New Zealand. (William West/AFP/Getty Images)" title="Funding cuts and high pressure are affecting news quality around the globe, award-winning journalist Nick Davies says, as Fairfax media announced cuts of 550 jobs in Australia and New Zealand. (William West/AFP/Getty Images)" width="320" class="size-medium wp-image-1833800"/></a>
Funding cuts and high pressure are affecting news quality around the globe, award-winning journalist Nick Davies says, as Fairfax media announced cuts of 550 jobs in Australia and New Zealand. (William West/AFP/Getty Images)
MELBOURNE—International media is increasingly focused on money-making to the detriment of quality journalism, says a senior journalist from the United Kingdom.

While speaking at the Melbourne Writers Festival last week, Nick Davies – an award-winning investigative journalist with 30 years experience – labelled the current state of journalism as “churnalism”.

“They just churn this stuff over without having the time to check it, without having the time to decide whether or not this is what they should even be covering today. And it flows into the news, and a lot of it is garbage.”

With the focus on the dollar, editorial staff had been cut to trim costs, while output expectations had increased. This, he said, had resulted in a lowering of journalistic standards worldwide.

Mr Davies said cutting staff and raising output left journalists strapped for time, which in effect took away their ability to source, investigate and analyse original material.

“If you take away time from reporters, you are taking away their most important working asset. So they can’t do their jobs properly any more.

“So in this commercialised world, you have journalists who instead of being active gatherers of news – going out and finding stories, and making contacts and doing funny, old-fashioned things like checking facts – they’ve become instead passive processors of second-hand information, stuff that comes up on the wire Reuters or AP, stuff that comes from the PR industry.”

Mr Davies said the “dumming down” in journalism affected all media, not only print, and the greatest concern now was the cost of quality of news.

“…News is expensive and unless we find a new financial model, we won’t be able to deliver it, and I don’t quite see where that new financial model is coming from and I don’t know any media proprietor who can see it either. They’re all very worried.”

Mr Davies, who has written a book titled Flat Earth News about the state of quality newspapers in the UK, was in Australia as a guest of the Melbourne Writers Festival.

His comments came as Fairfax Media – publishers of The Sydney Morning Herald, Melbourne’s The Age and the Australian Financial Review – announced cuts of 550 jobs across Australia and New Zealand to save $50 million. The cuts were to include 165 editorial jobs across the two nations.

Staff, who had been on strike for three days, agreed to return to work on Sept. 1 after negotiations with management.

Fairfax, which merged with Rural Press last year, recorded a net profit of $386.9 million for 2007–08, up from $263.51 million the previous year.