News And How You Can Use It by Alan Rusbridger — whose ‘truth’ can you trust?

In the race to the White House in 2016, there was seldom a day when we didn’t hear the words “Fake News” uttered by one of the Presidential candidates. It became a convenient way for Donald Trump and his followers to dismiss and discredit every news report that ran counter to his views.

Trump didn’t coin the expression but he gave it legitimacy around the globe, used by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in the UK and now, by Russia’s warmongering president.

In his guide to the world of news journalism, former Guardian editor Alan Rushbridger ponders what this means for the media industry and those who work within it, particularly when levels of trust in journalists are at an all time low. They now rank even lower than politicians according to the annual Edelman Trust Barometer.

In 2020 questions of trust in the media became, not just a matter of choosing a new leader, but one of survival. When the Covid 19 pandemic struck, who was best placed to respond to the public’s thirst for information, asks Rushbridger. Scientists? Politicians? Your peers? Or Journalists?

Some media outlets reacted brilliantly, he believes, delivering clear, simple explanations about the virus and the control measures imposed by respective governments. Others challenged the actions and inactions of political leaders. But there were also the abject failures: editorial content that was stupid, ignorant and lazy. The big question for Rushbridger is how to help the public distinguish between the good from the bad and to recognise that not all journalism is the same.

News And How You Can Use It sets out to provide an answer. It’s an A-Z guide to the business of journalism to help those who read its output, decide whether it deserves their trust. Rushbridger explains how mistakes happen and the steps most credible newspapers take to avoid them and how the breakneck speed of online news has lead to “churnalism” — where journalists spend much of their time regurgitating press releases and announcements instead of investigating potential stories.  

The book has a broad scope: one moment he’s explaining the inverted pyramid (a principle of structuring news reports so the most important information comes first); the next he’d discussing investigative journalism. He also touches on clickbait, trolls and how the title of “journalist” has taken on new meaning in a world of bloggers, Instagrammers and TikTokers. The most interesting entries are those on editors and their responsibilities, the challenges of covering stories relating to national security and the questions readers should ask when reading any reports on climate change.

News And How You Can Use It is an odd book. I’m not entirely sure what kind of reader would find this interesting. Some of the content is too basic to engage people already working in the media. They know it already so isn’t he preaching to the converted? But then other content is perhaps too inwardly focused (like the pros and cons of including hyperlinks in a story) to interest a more general audience.

My bigger frustration was the bit-size nature of its content. Given Rushbridger’s credentials I was expecting a more thorough and considered assessment of the problem of declining trust in the media rather than a glossary. But instead of taking a deep dive into this, he seemed to nibble around the edges. Fake news itself merited only 15 lines yet an explanation of the work of sub editors took up two pages and Rupert Murdoch warranted five pages.

Too often it felt I was being presented with a tasting menu instead of a banquet. Even the tasting menu was somewhat limited in its ambition. There was hardly any commentary on regional newspapers let alone those that cover the devolved nations within the UK. It would also have been illuminating to compare the British experience with that of say France and Germany. But on this, Rusbridger was silent.

Too often it felt I was being presented with a tasting menu instead of a banquet. Even the tasting menu was somewhat limited in its ambition. There was hardly any commentary on regional newspapers let alone those that cover the devolved nations within the UK. It would also have been illuminating to compare the British experience with that of say France and Germany. But on this, Rusbridger was silent.

I hope this isn’t the last we’ll hear from Rushbridger on the topic of trust in the media but in a more substantive fashion. I want a gargantuan feast next time.

News And How You Can Use It : What To Believe in a Fake News World: Footnotes

Alan Rushbridger spent much of his early career with The Guardian newspaper as a reporter and columnist. After short stints at The Observer and then in Washington as the US editor of the (short-lived) London Daily News, he returned to the UK and to The Guardian. He became editor in chief of The Guardian in 1995, a role he held for 20 years. During his time at the helm he defended the newspaper against several high-profile defamation actions and refused demands by the UK government to hand over data leaked by the former computer intelligence consultant Edward Snowden. The US Guardian went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of Snowden’s revelations. In 2020, Rusbridger became one of the first members of the Oversight Board created by Facebook. 

News And How You Can Use It was published by Canongate in hardback in 2020 and in paperback in 2021.

My copy was provided free by Canongate in return for an honest review.