Abstract
From the British Journalism Review of ten years ago (vol. 15, issue no 2, 2004)
‘Many women are attracted to journalism precisely because they relish the chance to compete in an aggressive male environment. On the other hand, there are also women who have capitalised on the increasing trend towards lifestyle journalism to become cookery writers, interiors experts or first-person columnists detailing the minutiae of everyday life. And with the rising accessibility of mobile technology enabling a journalist to write from home, having a child is perhaps now less of a career disadvantage than it used to be.’
– Elizabeth Day, then a news reporter with The Sunday Telegraph and winner of the Young Journalist of the Year Award at the 2004 British Press Awards
‘The owners of my newspaper make a £70m profit in this country in 2003. Yet year after year the union chapel has painstakingly to negotiate a pay rise simply to match inflation, dealing with management so mean that … reporters are blocked from phoning overseas or even using the directory inquiry services, copies of our own newspaper are rationed in the office and a current sort of Stalinist stationery embargo means journalists are expected to buy their own notebooks …’
– A trainee on a London weekly newspaper, writing under a pseudonym
‘Reporters are frequently accused of biased news reporting on political issues, such as immigration, or stories slanted in favour of the white, liberal middle classes. Less complained about is views-in-news, a trend presented by many journalists as a modern, impartial news reporting style rather than the problem I believe it has become. Good reporters have always offered an analysis of events based on the facts, but now reporters’ own’ views all too frequently predominate and obscure the facts.’
– Tessa Mayes, freelance author and media commentator