The Medialyser

Grand old Guardian dog, Nick Davies, eats dogs in his book, Flat Earth News, where he exposes the idiotic ways of sheep journalism. He does a brilliant job: first, he avoids falling into too many conspiracy theories along the way (This isn’t a conspiracy. It’s just a mess, p. 153) – even dispels a few – and, second, he admits that he can be wrong. This is the basis for a sound analysis of, well, anything.

Throughout the book, Davies documents the decline in journalistic standards, as financial incentives obstruct deep investigative reporting and forces the workers in the news factory to resort to churnalism – and thereby also be subjected to the whims of manipulative Press Releases. The structural vulnerability of modern day journalism, where the chronic maxim is more with less, is exposed through a range of well-researched case studies (e.g. the Y2K hysteria, the misunderstandings revolving around heroin and the Iraq falsehoods leading up to the war). Especially, three points of criticism should be highlighted:

1. there is a tendency for the news factory to choose ‘safe’ stories – controversial stories about powerful people are financially taxing and timely, whereas the stories that comply with the rules (both the generally accepted truths and the elites’ perspectives) are relatively easy to (re)produce. When news media go out of line, they will occasionally be punished, which, according to Davies, has the same deterrent effect that an electric fence has on sheep.
2. when the commercial news media have to satisfy their readers, they will give them what they want – not what they need. So populist junk becomes the main course, and news media are forced to go with the moral panics, no matter how unsubstantiated they are. Furthermore, the eloquently named Ninja Turtle Syndrome influences the production: Like parents buying violent toys for their kids because they are afraid they might lose out on social relationships, the news media are sometimes forced to report stories, just because other publications run them. Dumb but true. That is the way that untruths flow through the media.
3. it is not just the powerful elite being bad. In many ways, the Alistair Campbells of the world exist to counter the dirty ways of some press outlets. Davies exposes Fleet Streets’ Dark Arts – illegal behaviour in the pursuit of stories – which involves digging through rubbish, forced cross-dressing, blagging, Trojan Horse emails, bribes etc.

It is a bleak book and the reader is left with little hope of any profound changes. Although, there is some tendency to glorify the past of journalism in the book, it does raise some important points and it is definitely a must-read for anybody who cares about the media.