The general election proved how important local media is to our democracy
(Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
Election campaigns always produce a superstar or two. That was certainly the case this time around, with the likes of Chief Secretary to the Treasury Rishi Sunak and Labour’s Shadow Business Secretary Rebecca Long-Bailey coming to the fore via high-profile media appearances.
It’s not always about bright new things though. Sometimes old stars re-emerge as well. We saw that in 2019 too. However, it wasn’t a politician, but local media that reasserted itself. Local newspapers, and indeed radio, have long been vital and much loved. In this general election, local and regional newspapers did a fantastic job of highlighting key issues for their readers, and often influenced the national conversation.
Perhaps the best example of this was the Yorkshire Evening Post. The paper’s front-page splash of a young child sleeping on the A&E department floor at Leeds General Infirmary was a devastating image. It focused the election debate on the future of the NHS and the current issues facing much of the system. The Post’s story resulted in one of Boris Johnson’s most awkward moments of the campaign, when he refused to look at the picture on an ITV reporter’s phone. The Health Secretary Matt Hancock was dispatched to the hospital to clear things up.
When the veracity of that picture was questioned, the paper fought back. Its editor, James Mitchinson, published a warning against the rise of fake news. In an open letter to a reader who had seen a post on Facebook that claimed the incident was a set-up, Mitchinson wrote:
“We went to great lengths to establish the story was true and to check that the hospital accepted as much. I do not blame you for contacting me as you have done. You are not the only one to have seen the Sheree Jenner-Hepburn Facebook post — amongst thousands of others very similar in nature — and believed it to be true.”
Mitchinson noted that the Facebook account spreading the inaccurate information had been deleted. “Do not believe a stranger on social media who disappears into the night,” he warned.
Across the Pennines, the Manchester Evening News was doing a similarly sterling job. In particular, Politics and Investigations Editor Jennifer Williams published a number of stories that gave an invaluable insight into issues facing the Greater Manchester area. Through her reporting, Williams has deservedly risen to some prominence and brought the coverage of her region to national publications like Prospect, for whom she wrote about Oldham.
Furthermore, publications aimed at certain minority communities also have a prominent voice. The Jewish Chronicle and Jewish News have consistently published hard-hitting stories highlighting the issue of anti-Semitism within Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour party. This culminated in a very dramatic Chronicle front page in which the paper urged non-Jewish voters to reject Corbyn and his party for its failure to tackle the issue.
We can never know for sure how many people their stories influenced at the ballot box. However, Labour’s near-total abandonment by the Jewish community, and the outpouring of disgust at Labour’s anti-Semitism from all parts of British society, cannot simply be put down to coincidence.
The Voice, a publication that speaks for the black community, has been highly influential. Its coverage of the 2018 Windrush scandal was especially powerful. The episode cost the Home Secretary Amber Rudd her job. It also recently published an investigation outlining the “racially charged” disinformation that the likes of Diane Abbott and David Lammy experience. Only publications with the focus of the Voice have the capacity and knowledge to do work like this.
All this is great if an outlet can sustain and retain journalists of calibre. For many, the drying-up of advertising revenue has proven crippling. The dominance of BBC local news websites has surely not helped either.
Earlier this month, Newsquest, a major publisher of local news, removed a number of editorial roles from its titles in Cumbria. There were also job cuts at some of its Scottish titles, and further reductions were only called off in the face of threatened strike action.
Previously, starting at your local paper was a matter of pride for journalists — a key step on the career ladder. However, this has become increasingly rare as opportunities have dwindled. As Jim Waterson noted in the Guardian back in March: “Over the last decade outlets have been merged, staff laid off and physical offices are increasingly being closed in a final effort to cut costs. The end result often leaves a single junior reporter trying to fill an entire town’s newspaper, meaning they are inevitably reliant on press releases and material provided by the authorities.”
Recent months, not least the election, have proved what a vital role these publications still have to play, and how crucial they are for our democracy.
