The Triple Crisis of the Media – and of Politics

John Lloyd is the Director of Journalism at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University and a contributing editor at FT Magazine. He is the founder of FT Magazine, where he has held various posts including Labor Editor, Industrial Editor, East Europe Editor and Moscow Bureau Chief. Mr. Lloyd was also the Editor of Time Out and New Statesman, and a reporter and producer of LWT London Programme and Weekend World. He was a member of the editorial board of Prospect Magazine and of the board of the Moscow School of Political Studies, as well as a Fellow at St Anne’s College in Oxford.

Mr. Lloyd was named Journalist of the Year in 1984 by Granada Awards and Specialist Reporter of the Year in 1985 by British Press Awards. In 1996, he was awarded the David Watt Prize.

Mr. Lloyd coauthored Loss without Limit: The British Miners' Strike (with Martin Adeney, Routledge, 1985). He also wrote Rebirth of a Nation: An Anatomy of Russia (Michael Joseph, 1998) and What the Media are Doing to Our Politics (Constable, 2004).

Born in Fife, Scotland, Mr. Lloyd lives in London. He is married to Ilaria Poggiolini and has a son, Jacob.

The news media in the democratic and wealthy countries are in three crises. One is the crisis of markets. Readership of newspapers and audiences for broadcast news are falling, in some cases, quite rapidly. This is partly in response to the rapid growth of Internet as an alternative news and information source, especially for younger people; in part, there seems to be a longer running trend of growing indifference to news about public events and affairs.

The second, which is related to the first, is a crisis of money. The falloff in audiences pertains to the traditional forms of news and current affairs. Many newspapers have increased their readership on the web considerably, as have many broadcasters – notably, the BBC. However, they have not been able to monetize it. Advertising is moving to the Internet, but not yet rapidly enough to compensate for the losses being sustained by newspapers and broadcasting. The result is evident: a cutback of reporters, especially foreign based reporters; greater concentration on material that can generate advertising; and the discontinuation of newspapers, news bulletins and current affairs programs.

The third is the crisis in journalism’s relationship with the political system. This varies greatly, even in democratic countries, but there are some common elements: the ability of journalism to hold the powers that be to account when their own powers are failing; the growing power of Internet based pressure and advocacy groups over part of the political agenda; the growing weakness of the political party system in most countries and the growing dependence of politicians on the media; as well as the growing complexity of the world, especially at a global level, and the difficulty the news media have in comprehending and explaining it.

Overall, there is little examination by the media of their relationship with democratic institutions. It is true that there cannot be free societies without free media, but it is no longer enough (if it ever was) to merely state this repeatedly. There are trends that are developing rapidly – the way in which the media as a whole interact with the political process, the mutual dependence, the kinds of messages that are being carried and the means used to do so, and the greater use of the criteria of celebrity in public affairs – that are not being seriously challenged or debated.

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