1 Journalism and the Literature of Reality

Journalism matters to us all. I believe that or I wouldn’t have spent my working life as a journalist and then as a lecturer in journalism, training students in the skills they’ll need if they want to be reporters and writers of features. Some of the skills have changed-- familiarity with HTML or how to produce a podcast wasn’t needed when I worked for the Newcastle Evening Chronicle or Brides magazine. Equally, some have not – the ability to use words well is as vital for journalists today as it ever was, and old-fashioned shorthand remains a key skill, at least for news reporters. Why journalism matters should be obvious. It’s one of the most significant ways we have of learning about the world and ideas beyond our own immediate experience or people we know personally, and this applies to all areas of life whether domestic and private or national and public. I’m not suggesting that all journalism matters. Plenty of what appears in newspapers and magazines is prurient, vicious, nasty or even invented. There’s trivia too although for me that’s regrettable only in as far as it steals editorial resources from more serious things