New journalists entering the industry cannot expect ethics blunders to be “readily excused”, a senior editor has said.
Speaking at a session on ethics at the Journalism Skills Conference, Donald Martin, editor-in-chief of DC Thomson’s newspapers, said trainees needed to know about the Editors’ Code of Conduct from the outset.
He said editors were less tolerant about these kind of mistakes and there was a greater responsibility on trainees.
Donald said that the NCTJ had introduced a compulsory practical ethics module, with specified hours of teaching, in response to the Leveson Inquiry into press standards.
He told the conference: “The trainees face even greater responsibility. The ethics code of conduct is not a work in progress. They need to know this stuff from the outset.
“You can’t expect breaches or blunders to be readily excused just because you are a trainee. Editors are less tolerant. You can lose your job if you get something wrong.
“The responsibility is firmly on trainees to know this stuff coming out of university.”
A separate session on the core skills needed by journalists heard that trainees needed to be able to use Twitter and film video but the essential skills they should have remained the same.
Curiosity, time-management and the ability to spot a good story were all highlighted as vital skills at the conference in Bournemouth.
Derby Telegraph editor Neil White highlighted how trainees entering the newsroom needed more curiosity and better time-management skills.
He said the paper’s best two stories of the year, the Philpott fire case and problems at the Al-Madinah School had come about from “good old-fashioned contacts and curiosity”.
Southern Daily Echo editor-in-chief Ian Murray said the kind of stories human beings were interested in had not changed, just the kind of tools used by journalists to tell them.
The type of website videos that viewers were interested in was also discussed and Ian said the ones with the biggest hits were from the scenes of breaking incidents.
He said: “Our viewers are not really interested in reporters standing in front of the camera – they just want to see the scene.”
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Don’t worry. If the Local World format is adopted widely there will be no more trainees to make such mistakes.
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It would be interesting to know what past mistakes these editors have done to see if they ‘practise what they preach’!!
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Far too much is expected of trainees and as the word suggests, they should be training and their progress monitored. Companies are stripping out experience in the newsroom and leaving no capacity in staffing numbers to take account of the need for scrutiny of copy before it is published. It is a dangerously insecure edifice constantly being further undermined by companies through new editorial job losses. Editors are clearly unreasonably trying to shift the blame for the inevitable mistakes that arise when too much is expected of resourced starved newsrooms and unsupported journalists. As for time management skills, a classic “blame game” tactic to paper over appalling staffing levels after five straight years of relentless cost-cutting.
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Nothing beats experience. You can’t blame trainees for making mistakes that come from inexperience. Maybe if seniors were treated better they would have a better example to follow.
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So the Philpott fire case came about from contacts and curiosity, did it? What an utterly ridiculous example.
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