THE FUTURE OF JOURNALISM

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am very grateful to the two distinguished plenary speakers who fired up the Future of Journalism 2011 Conference with their thoughtful, provocative and scholarly presentations. Emily Bell (“The (Many) Future(s) of Journalism”) is Professor of Professional Practice and Director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at the Columbia Journalism School. Robert W. McChesney (“Farewell to Journalism? Time for a rethinking”) is the Gutgsell endowed Research Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign, USA. Their contribution to the academic success of the Conference would be difficult to overestimate. Annie Rhys Jones is the undoubted powerhouse behind the organisation of the Future of Journalism; she worked incredibly hard and with great enthusiasm to make it happen once again in 2011. I owe her a huge debt of gratitude. Thanks also to Shelley Allen and Meredith Drew at Routledge, colleagues at JOMEC including James Clemas, Justin Lewis, Deb Lloyd, and Jon Adams and his technical colleagues—as well as Melissa Beattie, Lucy Bennett, Joe Cable, Susana Dias, Patrick Fitzgerald and Janet Harris, who have given their support, time and labour to help make everything work! But finally, thanks to the many presenters, speakers and session chairs for their contributions—in fact, to everyone who came along to contribute by sharing evidence and arguments; and for making it so abundantly clear that peer-based learning is highly productive but also terrific fun.

Notes

1. At the time of going to press, there have been very significant developments since the “Hackgate” Roundtable was convened. On 4 January 2012, Elizabeth Filkin's (the former Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards) inquiry into relationships between the police and the press concluded that they were “too cosy” (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/jan/04/filkin-report-police); on 12 February 2012, six senior journalist at the Sun were arrested on suspicion of bribing police and public officials (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/077d060e-54c1-11e1-a372-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1pecq6Q6y); on 9 March 2012, the Press Complaints Commission was closed and entered a “transitional phase”—its Chair Lord Hunt began drafting a proposal for a new self-regulating body for the press (www.pcc.org.uk/news/index.html?article=NzcyNA); on 14 March 2012, Rebekah Brooks, ex-Chief Executive of News International was arrested for a second time (http://www.france24.com/en/20120313-news-of-the-world-phone-hacking-rupert-murdoch-rebekah-brooks); on 3 April 2012, James Murdoch resigned as Chair of the BSkyB Board—he had resigned as Chair of News International of 29 February; on 23 and 24 April, James Murdoch's evidence to Leveson revealed an “inappropriate” email correspondence between the Department of Culture, Media and Sport concerning News Corporation's bid for BSkyB which triggered the resignation of Adam Smith, special adviser to Secretary of State Jeremy Hunt (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/leveson-inquiry/9225854/Jeremy-Hunts-special-adviser-quits-saying-his-behaviour-went-too-far.html); in his evidence to Leveson on 25 and 26 April, Rupert Murdoch apologised for the phone hacking by the News of the World saying he had been “misinformed and shielded” and that the affair was a “serious blot on my reputation” (Guardian, 23 April 2012, p. 1); on 1 May 2012, a report of the House of Commons Culture Committee concluded that Rupert Murdoch exhibited “wilful blindness” to events at News Corporation and was “not a fit person to exercise stewardship of a major international corporation” (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17898029); on 15 May 2012, Rebekah Brooks was charged on three counts of conspiracy to pervert the cause of justice by concealing “materials, documents and computers” from police detectives; on 30 May 2012, Andy Coulson was charged with perjury—at the time of the alleged offence the ex-Editor of the News of the World was Prime Minister David Cameron's Press Officer (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-18262740).