This paper analyses the process through which an elite of professional communicators regularly produce knowledge cast in the form of news. It focuses on the ideological and relational constraints which shape the knowledge product in systematic ways, and it is hoped that the type of analysis offered here can enrich our understanding of how economic, political, and social interests come to be reflected in media representations and accounts.
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References
1.
I am indebted to Professor Stanley Cohen (University of Essex) for his help and guidance during the formative stages of this paper.
2.
Z. A. Bass , `Refining the Gatekeeper Concept' , Journalism Quarterly, 46, 1969, pp. 69-72 ), but it remains a major constraint on a fully-developed sociology of journalism.
3.
C. MacDougall , `Interpretative Reporting', New York, Macmillan , 1968, p. 12.
4.
L. V. Sigal , `Reporters and Officials', Lexington: D. C. Heath and Co. , 1973.
5.
In Jeremy Tunstall's study (`Journalists at work', London: Constable , 1971, p. 130) 71 per cent of the specialist correspondents surveyed claimed that over 80 per cent of their copy appeared in the paper. This included 13 of the 14 crime reporters consulted. Non-specialists and inexperienced reporters are perhaps less likely to get their copy past the sub-editors unchanged, especially on mass-circulation papers.
6.
Tunstall's study also suggested that crime reporters were older, more politically conservative, and had left school earlier, than any other specialist group.
7.
In recent years, Fleet Street's lines of specialization have become somewhat blurred. There are a number of reasons for this; one is an increasing financial instability which will not allow editors the luxury of a specialist for every story, and another is the influx of radical journalists who wish to retain broad and flexible frames of reference. This is particularly noticeable on a paper like The Guardian which has no specialist crime correspondent.
8.
cf. S. J. Chibnall, `Law-and-Order News', (forthcoming).
9.
Fleet Street papers either employ specialists court reporters to cover trials or, more usually, rely on general reporters and agency copy. In the case of a major trial, the crime reporter will not generally sit through the entire proceedings but may arrive in time for the verdicts, having already prepared a background piece, anticipating the outcome ('It's no good going too early because you get fogged by a mass of irrelevant information.') Court reporting as a specialization has been declining over the last decade and many of its leading practitioners have now retired—Charles Doherty, Arnold Latcham, etc. The Association of Central Criminal Court Journalists is an enclave of conservatism who members are prepared to resist challenges to their shared values, perceptions and understandings. Something of the character of the organization can be gleaned from its reaction to the Evening Standard's decision to ask underground journalist, Richard Neville, to cover the case of Regina vs. Prescott and Purdie in 1971. Part of its letter of protest to the Evening Standard's Editor reads: Our members are reporters of long experience in Fleet Street and elsewhere, who are justly proud of their reputation of providing responsible day-to-day coverage of trials at a place that the Lord Chancellor described last month as `... par excellence, the premier criminal court in the Commonwealth, and perhaps the world.' We object, therefore, to being identified... with a person who has a conviction for sending an obscene article, viz. Oz, No. 28, Schoolkids issue, through the post.... Our members feel that in these days of declining standards, our voice must be raised in the hope that eventually, with others, it will be heard. Compared with crime reporting, court reporting is highly structured, offering the journalist less scope for innovation, autonomy, source selection and exclusivity. This means that, while conflicts of interest are by no means absent, source relationships and the negotiation of accounts are less significant.
10.
Sigal, op. cit., pp. 71-2.
11.
Police biographies and autobiographies occasionally reveal something of the quality of these relationships. The biographer of Deputy Commander Reginald Spooner of Scotland Yard produces this anecdote: Tom Tullett, crime reporter of the Daily Mirror, but once a C.I.D. officer himself, recalls that one evening he was having a drink with Spooner in a public house near Scotland Yard when Spooner suddenly said, `Here, what are you doing here drinking with me tonight? It's your wedding anniversary.' `It was too', says Tullett. (I. Adamson, The Great Detective, London: Muller, 1966, p. 46).
12.
N. Lucas , `The Child Killers', London: A. Barker , 1970, Chapter 6.
13.
I. Forbes , `Squad Man', London: W. H. Allen , 1973, p. 1.
14.
J. Halloranet al.,`Demonstrations and Communication: A Case Study', London: Penguin , 1970, pp. 137-138.
15.
The new policy was set out in an internal Scotland Yard memo from Commissioner Robert Mark in Spring 1973. One passage reads: It is my firm belief that the Metropolitan Police have a great deal more to be proud of than the public know and that a little more openness with the news media, heightening trust, confidence and co-operation, is all that is required to correct that ignorance. In particular, there is convincing evidence that, given the opportunity to do so, the press.... will give a great deal of support to the Force.
16.
The crime reporter may be able to promote the interests of individual officers, but my informants were generally uncertain of the influence of their reports on the career prospects of policemen. Most felt that senior officers at the Yard are suspicious of publicity-seekers, but some were prepared to entertain the possibility that press reports might influence the decision to promote an officer.
17.
Sigal, op. cit., Chapters 3, 6 and 7. Peter Blau's work, of course, remains the dominant body of theory in the area of social exchange ('Exchange and Power in Social Life', Wiley, 1964).
18.
Halloran , op. cit., Chapter 1, Tunstall, `Journalists at Work', op. cit., pp. 261-265.
19.
Cf. G. Tuchman , `Making News by Doing Work: Routinizing the Unexpected' , A.J.S., 79, 1973, pp. 110-131 .
20.
L. Sigelman , `Reporting the News: An Organizational Analysis' , A.J.S., 79, 1973, pp. 132-151 ; Sigal, op. cit.
21.
In my experience, journalists on `popular' papers generally see their readers as essentially conservative beings, living snugly within the illusion that all is well with the world as long as they are protected from `the wreckers in their midst': The average reader likes to feel he's safe in his bed at night and this gentleman in size 13 boots pounding up and down the street is the only line of protection he has against the ravaging hordes of vicious thugs, drug pushers and negroes who want to rape his 16-year-old daughter (who's had it so many times she's forgotten anyway). Therefore, they don't like their peace disturbed and they tend to react to stories against the police.
22.
Cf. S. Hall , `Deviance, Politics and the Media', in P. Rock and M. McIntosh (eds.), `Deviance and Social Control', London: Tavistock , 1974, pp. 261-306, for a similar conceptualization.
23.
Sigelman, op. cit., contains a more extensive discussion of natural selection in journalism.
24.
The exploration of the way in which economic changes, interests and considerations are reflected in media content has recently been promoted by a perceptive article by Graham Murdock and Peter Golding (`For a Political Economy of Mass Communications', in R. Miliband and J. Saville , eds., `Socialist Register', 1973, Merlin Press ).
25.
Sigal, op. cit., Chapter 3.
26.
One crime reporter told me of a major story he had known about for three or four weeks before writing up: I agreed on a code with this bloke who would phone me. I was in the city somewhere, and my wife phoned and said, `I've just had this strange phone call. He wouldn't give his name, he just said, The Dog is barking.' 'Course, I was able to write up the story and it was all over the front page within a couple of hours.
27.
Cf. Tunstall , `Journalists at Work', op. cit., pp. 200-201, for another discussion of the management of `news dilemmas'.
28.
A10 is the department at Scotland Yard which investigates complaints against police officers.
