Reuters journalist advises Chinese UCLan students

By Wu Junping/Vincent

Societies need journalists who ask tough questions and hold their leaders to account says a senior Reuters correspondent.

Jim Wolf, a Washington-based journalist who writes on defence matters for the global news agency, made his call for ëaggressiveí journalism when he spoke to BA (Hons) International Journalism students who are pursuing the first two years of their UCLan course at the Guangdong University of Foreign Studies in Guangzhou, China.

He was critical of the complacent attitude taken by many US journalists in the run up to the American-led invasion of Iraq.

ëReporters didnít ask enough tough questions,í he said. This had enabled the Bush administration to make claims which later turned out to be false.

The lessons for reporters were that they shouldnít ëunquestioningly accept what governments said ñ they should hold their feet to the fireí. By doing that they were working in the best interests of society.

Major developments

Mr Wolf also spoke about the changes he had seen during his 30 years as a journalist. There had been major developments in technology, readersí tastes and more concentration of media ownership.

But one thing that hadnít changed was the need for journalists to double-check their sources and information and to ensure the accuracy of their stories.

He believed the world wide web, and the feedback it provided for audiences, could help improve journalism. ëThe internet takes the mystery awayí, he said. ëReaders now have more information to judge the story and blogs help spread stories and change the face of journalism for the better.í

Readers were becoming more sceptical and were prepared to interact with journalism. An example he gave was when readers spotted that a picture published by Reuters had been fabricated, which enabled the agency to correct the error.

An important issue for US journalism was the way news agendas were increasingly controlled by a small group of media companies. This concentration of ownership threatened the ability of journalists to function as the publicís watchdog.

His key message to the journalists of the future was the importance of good contacts. ëA journalist is as good as their sources. If your source gave you information off the record you can just go look for somebody else who will say the same thing on the record.í

Care should be taken with internet sources that should always be double checked. ëDig, dig, digí, he said, to ensure accuracy.

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BA (Hons) International Journalism
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Reuters

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