REPORTING SUCCESS
THE LOCAL DEMOCRACY Reporter scheme is one year old. A joint venture between the BBC and regional publishers, it has been hailed as a significant success. Under the £8 million initiative, the BBC is paying for reporters employed by regional and local newspapers to bring the work of councils and other such bodies to public notice.
In its first year, Local Democracy Reporter produced 54,000 general interest stories, delivered by the BBC and across a range of other news outlets.
Among the most striking items investigated have been a £24 million health centre in Manchester that will never be used and a Leicestershire council that handed back £900,000 paid to them by housing developers because the money had not been spent within reasonable time.
The journalists are funded by the BBC as part of its latest licence-fee Charter commitment, but are employed by regional and local news organisations.
Currently, nearly 150 Local Democracy Reporter personnel have been allocated to 59 news providers in England, Wales and Scotland. The scheme is expected to be extended to Northern Ireland shortly.
STORIES SHARED
Organisations involved range from a radio station to online editorial groups and established regional newspapers. The journalists cover top-tier local authorities and other public sector bodies. Once written, stories are shared with upwards of 800 media outlets that have signed up to take part.
Local Democracy Reporter must be welcomed at a time when the traditional regional news media is ailing and many online newcomers provide little more than superficial coverage of public affairs – if any.
In a new book, ‘Local Democracy, Journalism and Public Relations’, it is claimed that a combination of public sector communications cuts and fewer regular journalists means that local democracy is under threat.
Authors Carmel O’Toole and Adrian Roxan, lecturers at Sheffield Hallam University and former journalists, insist that holding local politicians to account is becoming a serious challenge.
SCRUTINISING
The decline and disappearance of newspapers and their scribes means that the traditional means of scrutinising public sector spenders is disappearing, they have stated.
Undoubtedly that is the case. As for communications cuts by councils, it appears that non-journalists are being used more and more to create output and it is ‘puffery’ as never before – a mix of polished-up good news, gushing quotes by politicians and very selective use of facts. Plus, the usual attacks on central government, of course.
As well as making people better informed about what is going on, the Local Democracy Reporter boost for real journalism may help keep council press office members on their toes and policy makers more nervous about scrutiny.
The slide into non-accountability is bound to continue, but this BBC-funded initiative is introducing some slow-down humps.
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