theMediaNet mailing 28th January

Dear MediaNet members

At the Old Bailey, where the so-called “hacking trial” is being heard, a fascinating experiment in journalism is taking place.  The freelance writer and journalist Peter Jukes is live-tweeting the whole proceedings in great detail.  You can follow his tweets @peterjukes.  Peter has committed himself to staying at the trial until the very end.  He hasn’t been commissioned to do this.  As a freelance, the exercise is costly.  But he is being supported by individual donors – around 500 of them so far – who have contributed small amounts from £2 upwards to enable him to do the job.  He is close to the £12 000 target he has set himself for the first few months of 2014.  

There’s a particular appropriateness about using “crowd-funding” to finance this venture.  One of the problems in reporting the phone hacking trial is that there are so many vested interests.  Who can you believe?  How much is it reasonable to trust journalists from one paper in reporting on the trial of colleagues from another?  Where can we find news that isn’t skewed by the financial and political interests of the big newspaper proprietors?  It’s a microcosm of one of the core issues facing the news industry.  

Peter Jukes has effectively set up his own temporary newspaper.  Twitter has given him a means of publishing free of charge.  Donations have given him enough income to make it possible.  And the fact that he has 500 “employers” gives him some protection from the overweening influence of a proprietor.  Of course Peter Jukes’ initiative doesn’t solve all the problems.  He has no editor for instance, so there are no checks and balances built into the process.  His readers need to exercise their own judgement in reading his account - as we probably always should.  And whilst this scheme might work for one high-profile trial, it’s not really scaleable as a way of delivering general news. Nevertheless Peter Jukes' experiment is a helpful signpost. By prioritising communication over profit, and taking the risk of offering his work as a free gift, he is striking a small blow for integrity, courage and truthfulness in journalism. The defendants he is reporting on might want to reflect on that - and so will I.  

If you want to support Peter Jukes as he live-tweets the trial visit his site here. 


Praying for the Media
Many thanks to all those who have sent in their prayers for the media.  As you know Sunday 1st June 2014 has been designated as the third annual Day of Prayer for the Media.  Christians and their churches will be encouraged to set aside time to pray for the media and the people who work in it...and that means you!  This year we want to encourage MediaNet members to write short prayers - just a sentence or two - that are relevant to your particular needs or area of work.  What do you want the wider church to pray for?  Integrity in the edit suite?  Security in the job market?  New ideas for the editorial conference?  The more specific you can be, the more helpful your prayers are in guiding the wider church.

If you would like to offer a prayer of just one or two sentences for others to use, just send it to andrew a_t themedianet d_o_t org.  All prayers will be published anonymously unless you request otherwise.

Support theMediaNet
The work of theMediaNet depends entirely on voluntary contributions.  If you feel you could make a small regular gift to help the work develop please visit www.themedianet.org/give.  Thank you.  

That’s all for now.  Do keep in touch.

Andrew
andrew a_t themedianet d_o_t org