Ground-breaking book on UK financial and business journalism
Fri, 20 Nov 2015 15:39:00 GMT
Former financial journalist, Keith Butterick has put his years of experience into a new book Collusion and Complacency: A Critical Introduction to Business and Financial Journalism the first detailed analysis of financial and business journalism in the UK. The book looks at its origins and the way it has developed.
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“Inevitably given the impact it had I also look at the role financial and business journalism played in the origins of the 2008 financial crisis and also other major financial crises,” said Butterick, Director of the Huddersfield University Centre for Communication and Consultation Research.
Butterick is an award winning financial journalist – ‘Industrial Journalist of the Year’ in 1993 and 1995 and also Northern Business Journalist of the Year 1995 and 1996. In addition to his magazine work he was also the business editor of Yorkshire on Sunday newspaper.
As well as financial journalism he also worked in financial PR and such a background has provided him with a unique insight into how PR influences financial journalism.
In addition to drawing on his experience in financial and journalism and financial PR, the book also explores the impact that financial and business journalism has on politics. “I believe that the financial and business pages are the most important in a newspaper because they help to establish the credibility of an economic paradigm. In the last election economic issues were the most written-about topic. For example, I track the way that campaigns such as that to cut the 50p higher tax rate started in the business pages.”
Butterick argues that in the run-up to the financial crisis of 2008 the main issue was not whether financial and business journalists identified the subprime crisis in the USA, but the way in this country there is an obsessive preoccupation with property and the property market. “Many newspapers benefitted financially from the property market so they find it hard to criticise the bubble they were helping to create.”
The book also analyses the contemporary practice of financial and business journalism through research carried out at the Huddersfield University Centre for Communication and Consultation Research. “Our research looked at the pressures on financial and business journalists and how they are coping with increased demands and fewer resources. We interviewed journalists from a range of backgrounds and newspapers so for the first time we have a clear picture of how these journalists operate.”
He suggests that there was – and still is - an element of celebrity journalism in the sector, which allows our financiers to be given an easy ride in the media. They do this in order to keep open the channels of communication with the company.
“Our research also asked why journalists how they got into the genre usually its been unplanned one, arising out of an interest in pursuing a career in journalism rather than in financial journalism. Financial journalists are not sufficiently trained, qualified or experienced to analyse some of the people they deal with and this was certainly noticeable as the 2008 crisis unfolded,” said Butterick.
Financial and business journalism is understudied by researchers and it is his hope that at the very least the book stimulates an interest in the genre. “There is a huge amount of work still to do in this area and so far we have only scratched the surface, I would like for example to look at the way that business is treated on TV and the radio and also to look at the business magazine sector.”
The book is published by Pluto Press.
