NUJ - National Union of Journalists

Activists

Monday, 10 December 2007 Print | Send

Shaping the Future

December 2007

NUJ Commission on Multi-Media Working 2007

Click here to download a pdf of the full report of see below for chapters with live links.

CONTENTS

1: Background to the commission

2: Summary and recommendations

3: The Union and Union Policy

4: Analysis of the evidence
(i) Union agreements

(ii) Pay

(iii) Working Practices

(iv) Staffing and Jobs

(v) Training

(vi) Health and Safety

(vii) Freelances

(viii) User Generated Content

5. Professional Standards

6: The Future

�

APPENDICES

1. Questionnaire and Results

2. NUJ Agreement at Guardian/Observer

3. The Irish Times and ireland.com

4. NUJ Integration Claim at The Liverpool Post and Echo

5. The Agreement at The Drogheda Independent

6. Oxford Mail and Times NUJ Chapel Monitoring Form

7. Reed Business Information Editorial Guidelines on Web Transition

8. Health and Safety: The BBC Risk Assessment Form

9. NUJ Code of Practice on �Witness Contributors�

�

FOREWORD

Jeremy Dear, NUJ General Secretary

The NUJ launched its Journalism Matters campaign in 2005 to protect standards at a time when publishers were hacking away at their spending on journalism to make way for investment in the �new�digital media. At meetings around Britain and Ireland members proclaimed that they could not do their jobs properly as editors pressed them to deliver on multi-platforms without adequate staffing, pay or training.

Everyone agreed that technology was not to blame. The fault lay with its appropriation by shortsighted media employers. Instead of seizing the opportunity to enhance journalistic content, most seized the potential to reduce costs and boost profits, with the erosion of quality journalism an acceptable price to pay.

Now the media pages are crammed with starry-eyed commentators who talk not just of �new�media but of a �new�journalism, with the open access of the internet effectively allowing anybody to be a journalist. Yes the internet is a brilliant medium for everyone, but not, the NUJ says, at the expense of decent professional journalism.

This report, and the events that happened during its writing � most notably the multimedia agreement signed at The Guardian/Observer in London � demonstrate unequivocally that journalists don�t reject technological change or seek to hold back the tide. But we do seek to shape the future, to serve not the media corporations but the readers and viewers.

The real threat to quality comes not from technology, not from new media, not even from the �citizen journalism�, but from those who treat information and news as nothing more than a commodity, and journalists as the servants of corporate interests, not the public.

This report brings together the experience of journalists across all media and sectors of the industry. It shows developments happening at different speeds, but a common view shines through: that to take best advantage of the opportunities, companies need to ensure they are adequately staffed, that staff are properly trained, and that the fundamentals of journalism are not sacrificed in the pursuit of technology for its own sake, or for a quick financial return.

There will be those who say of this report that the NUJ is too slow to embrace technological changes, and there will be those who will say we are too keen on them. Both are wrong. We are unashamedly in favour of new media where it enhances good journalism, and unashamedly opposed to moves which undermine it.