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‘They used to call them leaflets’
@paulbradshaw's wonderful Online Journalism Blog has joined in the growing debate criticising local councils for believing that their information sheets are in fact stand-alone newspapers. There is a serious issue here concerning the control of the local news agenda, as well as the waste of Council Tax money in delivering propaganda to the electorate, all wrapped up as a fortnightly newssheet:
'...if indeed people deserve to know what their Council Tax is being spent on, then there should be restrictions on how council newspapers do that: just the facts, please. No spin, no adverts. They used to call them leaflets.'
This form of vanity publishing by our esteemed politicians is happening over in Greenwich, as 853 has picked up on of late:
'Amid all the latest guff about whatever the council’s doing, there was more - yes, more! A TV listings guide! A review of the new album by the Killers! And some stuff about Charlton Athletic being crap. Hold on a second? Why is the council offering to tell me what's on the telly?'
Political propaganda puff pieces are also an issue down in my little patch of South London, as one *cough* commenter on the OJB has been keen to point out:
'Lambeth Council's fortnightly Lambeth Life has fallen into the trap of believing that it is a stand alone news publication, and not a medium for communicating council policy to the electorate. A recent edition carried the front-page lead [PDF] 'reporting' on concerns that local newspapers were carrying ads for massage parlours in the area.
Fair point. The South London Press was the clear target here, and it does itself no favours by having a full page each week for local prostitutes trading as adult massage.
But is this really worthy of a front-page splash in the Council Tax financed information sheet? Where is the benefit to the electorate in such a cheap dig at a publication that Lambeth Life clearly sees as a rival?
Competition in the market is healthy, both in terms of advertising, and more importantly, in terms of chasing down news leads. The introduction of Lambeth Life into the local news distribution chain however has led to the South London Press changing a previous objective editorial stance towards Lambeth Council, to launching a sustained attack on the local council across most issues.
There is no reporting of the facts, just a tit for tat onslaught as each rival publication lays into one another.
Ultimately it is the electorate that suffers, as well as democracy and local politics.'
Bradshaw expands the argument to explore how online distribution could carry out the job for local councils, either using their own platform of communication, or even by allowing council data to be mashed up by third parties. Lambeth Council returns a search string of Boo! over at the excellent Mash the State , an online campaign for RSS feeds to be rolled out by local authorities.
Interestingly the Leader Column in the latest Lambeth Life isn't the usual 400-word gush piece penned by at @cllrstevereed, Labour leader of @lambeth_council. Reporting restrictions around the European elections being held in June don't allow for propaganda to be published at the expense of the Council Tax payer.
Instead we have a leader written by Jean Haley, a 'community champion who has been working tirelessly in the Gipsy Hill area for almost 25 years.'
And what a refreshing read it is to. No mention of what a wonderful job your local council is doing, but instead a passionate piece arguing for more active local community campaigning to achieve real change working together.
Local councils (and local newspapers) could learn a lot from Jean.
reply via twitter
| Wednesday 5 May, 2009 |
@paulbradshaw's wonderful Online Journalism Blog has joined in the growing debate criticising local councils for believing that their information sheets are in fact stand-alone newspapers. There is a serious issue here concerning the control of the local news agenda, as well as the waste of Council Tax money in delivering propaganda to the electorate, all wrapped up as a fortnightly newssheet:
'...if indeed people deserve to know what their Council Tax is being spent on, then there should be restrictions on how council newspapers do that: just the facts, please. No spin, no adverts. They used to call them leaflets.'
This form of vanity publishing by our esteemed politicians is happening over in Greenwich, as 853 has picked up on of late:
'Amid all the latest guff about whatever the council’s doing, there was more - yes, more! A TV listings guide! A review of the new album by the Killers! And some stuff about Charlton Athletic being crap. Hold on a second? Why is the council offering to tell me what's on the telly?'
Political propaganda puff pieces are also an issue down in my little patch of South London, as one *cough* commenter on the OJB has been keen to point out:
'Lambeth Council's fortnightly Lambeth Life has fallen into the trap of believing that it is a stand alone news publication, and not a medium for communicating council policy to the electorate. A recent edition carried the front-page lead [PDF] 'reporting' on concerns that local newspapers were carrying ads for massage parlours in the area.
Fair point. The South London Press was the clear target here, and it does itself no favours by having a full page each week for local prostitutes trading as adult massage.
But is this really worthy of a front-page splash in the Council Tax financed information sheet? Where is the benefit to the electorate in such a cheap dig at a publication that Lambeth Life clearly sees as a rival?
Competition in the market is healthy, both in terms of advertising, and more importantly, in terms of chasing down news leads. The introduction of Lambeth Life into the local news distribution chain however has led to the South London Press changing a previous objective editorial stance towards Lambeth Council, to launching a sustained attack on the local council across most issues.
There is no reporting of the facts, just a tit for tat onslaught as each rival publication lays into one another.
Ultimately it is the electorate that suffers, as well as democracy and local politics.'
Bradshaw expands the argument to explore how online distribution could carry out the job for local councils, either using their own platform of communication, or even by allowing council data to be mashed up by third parties. Lambeth Council returns a search string of Boo! over at the excellent Mash the State , an online campaign for RSS feeds to be rolled out by local authorities.
Interestingly the Leader Column in the latest Lambeth Life isn't the usual 400-word gush piece penned by at @cllrstevereed, Labour leader of @lambeth_council. Reporting restrictions around the European elections being held in June don't allow for propaganda to be published at the expense of the Council Tax payer.
Instead we have a leader written by Jean Haley, a 'community champion who has been working tirelessly in the Gipsy Hill area for almost 25 years.'
And what a refreshing read it is to. No mention of what a wonderful job your local council is doing, but instead a passionate piece arguing for more active local community campaigning to achieve real change working together.
Local councils (and local newspapers) could learn a lot from Jean.
reply via twitter
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