RESEARCHERS have called for a new strategy to support and strengthen the media in Scotland.
Academic s at Glasgow University said Scotland should look to other territories including Denmark and Quebec, which have invested heavily in their media sectors.
Their report - ‘Scotland’s Sustainable Media Future: Challenges and Opportunities’ – is based on extensive interviews drawn from civic society, the media industry, government and regulatory bodies.
Dr Catherine Happer, director of the Glasgow University Media Group, said: “Scotland has historically had a huge appetite for news – media contributes hugely to the economy and is essential to our national identity and supporting an informed electorate.
“There is no shortage of talent and energy. This new report is a way to open up a dialogue about ways in which media might be supported to produce quality Scottish journalism, and to facilitate a referendum discussion which does not have to rely on misinformation, half-truths and personality-led rhetoric.”
READ MORE: Herald wins in eight categories at 43rd Scottish Press Awards
The report has been produced amid concerns over the financial viability of public interest journalism.
The report also states that large part of the media in the UK, including Scotland, have failed to adequately hold political decision makers to account.
The report says that there has been “an erosion of trust in mainstream media” rooted in a much broader and deeper crisis of trust in public institutions.
It notes that “good quality journalism, and in particular investigative journalism, is very expensive and requires investment for the longer term”, adding: “The ability to maintain such levels of long-form discursive journalism not only in print but also in the form of podcasts or data journalism has been one of the features of the Danish and Québecois approaches, meriting further investigation.”
READ MORE: New Herald editor Catherine Salmond promises readers 'exciting chapter' in newspaper's long history
The report found that Yes-supporting blogs sprung up ahead of the Scottish independence referendum “rapidly grew in size to attract tens of thousands of readers despite their mixed quality and sometimes questionable journalistic integrity”.
It also describes a “growing culture of political impunity at UK level”, while it said the Scottish Government “has developed a reputation for intense media management and distrust of journalists”.
In June this year, the Scottish Government’s Working Group recommended the creation of a Scottish Public Interest Journalism Institute – an independent body to support the resilience and sustainability of the sector through research, grant making, training, and promoting media literacy.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel