Sue Cameron
Former Newsnight presenter Sue Cameron has worked for Channel Four and for BBC Radio as well as making a number of TV documentaries on subjects that include the inner workings of Number Ten, the role of the judges and the failings of Britain's Westminster democracy. She has also written for the Times, the Spectator and The Financial Times.
Power Without Responsibility?
Sue Cameron
"Power without responsibility - the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages." So said Tory leader Stanley Baldwin - borrowing the phrase from his cousin Rudyard Kipling - in an attack on Lord Beaverbrook's Daily Express back in 1931.
Some will say that little has changed - except perhaps that the media has grown bigger, more powerful and less responsible. Certainly the media is more far reaching and more intrusive than it was 70 years ago. Today we have 24/7 news with the press and the broadcasters feeding off each other's stories. There is intense competition between media outlets which drives the search for anything that will sell papers or programmes - and the BBC is as anxious about its ratings as the commercial stations because only good ratings can justify the licence fee.
True, the media has a vital role as the fourth estate - increasingly so as the public loses confidence in politicians - but ultimately it is the profit motive that drives the voracious appetite of news outlets. As a result journalists are more aggressive and less deferential than they once were - the broadcasting archives really do have clips of reporters asking Ministers if there is anything they would like to say and giving a grovelling "thank you" when the Minister says "No".
Admittedly deference goes in cycles. The media, particularly the cartoonists, of the late eighteenth century were not nearly as deferential as they became in the 1950s. Today it sometimes seems as if no holes are barred. There is an almost insatiable appetite for sensation and, above all, for novelty. It may sound obvious but news has to be new. One reason why long running wars and ongoing atrocities - Iraq, Darfur - often appear low down and very briefly in news bulletins is because despite the daily human tragedies there is nothing "new" happening in the overall situation.
There is an almost insatiable appetite for sensation and, above all, for novelty. It may sound obvious but news has to be new.
The need to provide a new angle, a new approach, a new voice is something that applies right across the board from business stories to lifestyle programmes and it is something that should never be forgotten by those venturing into the media jungle; nor should they underestimate the importance of pictures, especially when it comes to TV.
For example, disasters, whether natural or man-made - earthquakes, riots, wars - lend themselves to the small screen and to the front page. Often business stories do not, unless there is a really big "bad news" photo opportunity such as Enron executives being led away in chains. This means new ways have to be found to inform the public about the business world and to do so in a way that has real impact. It is possible. One example was the highly successful TV series "The Apprentice".
There is no doubt that the media is powerful: it has power to set agendas and sometimes to bring down individuals whether in the business world or in politics, whether they deserve to fall or not. Yet there are limits on the media's power. Sometimes it tries and fails to take a scalp - President Bill Clinton and the Monica Lewinsky affair is one of the most dramatic examples in recent years. And the media is all too vulnerable to manipulation - as the New Labour saga of spin, counter spin and sexed-up dossiers has shown.
Yet there are lessons to be learnt from the successes and even more the huge failures of the spin culture - lessons not just for politicians but for all those who have to deal with the media whether in a TV appearance or an interview with the local press. Today’s opinion formers, whether in business, the charity world, the professions, design or engineering need to know how to operate in the media marketplace. It is possible to survive in the media jungle and to navigate a way through it. But like it or loathe it, you cannot ignore it.
As the Tory politician Enoch Powell once said, for a politician to complain about the press is like a ship’s captain complaining about the sea. He was right - except that nowadays the rule applies not just to politicians but to people in all walks of life.