UNELECTED peers have launched an inquiry into the future of journalism, claiming the profession fails to representative of the population.
The House of Lords Committee on Communications and Digital said it wanted to find evidence on how journalists “can become more trusted by the general public”.
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Remarkably the peers, who this week decided to give themselves an inflation-busting 3.1 per cent pay hike, said they will seek to establish why journalism is “not more representative of the population”.
The committee said it would consult on whether government policy is needed to better support the training of journalists in the UK.
Committee boss Lord Gilbert said: “In our democracy journalism is at the core, but in recent years we have seen a shift from the traditional consumption of news and away from established business models.
“Within moments, we now have access to news on multiple platforms and no longer need to wait for the morning paper or the evening news for updates.
“Social media has allowed new organisations to disrupt the news market and also gives individuals a greater freedom to publish news and analysis themselves, challenging established providers.
“For the 70,000 people across the UK who are employed as journalists, the shift from traditional print media to digital has given rise to a need for more training and an increased range of skills.”
The Sun Says
TOUCHED as we are by the House of Lords’ concern over journalism’s future, we do wonder if they have ANY self-awareness.
“Public trust in journalists has fallen,” says one peer. “The profession is not representative of the population.”
Excuse us? A Press read by millions is supposedly out of touch.
But not unelected peers who, after failing to thwart a democratic vote, consoled themselves with an inflation-busting pay rise.
Is there an institution more reviled or disconnected than the Lords itself?
