Simon Fox - 7 February 2018

The importance of professional journalism in a post-truth world

Simon gave an engaging speech on the media industry explaining how Trinity Mirror is adapting to survive in the digital age, highlighting the need for professional journalism, which is important to democracy, society and to exposing the world we live in.

He discussed how news is available 24/7 and how this appetite for information is linked to opinion and debate and often played out in real time.

Furthermore, the threat fake news poses to our democracy, where there are claims, counter claims, exaggerations and propaganda. He also discussed how politicians use media to gain attraction and how challenging it is for journalism to engage with this agenda in terms of pace.

Simon highlighted the importance of a regulatory framework for good journalism and the consequences if it didn’t exist.

In addition, the business model for community journalism; where a mobile phone user can create news immediately and the challenges that journalists face to engage and keep pace with this type of journalism.

Listen to the talk in full on SoundCloud

You can also download the set of slides used in the presentation:

• Lecture slides (PPTX)

You can find a transcript of Simon's pre-address interview on the Business West website.

You can also read the BusinessWest article that covered Simon's address.

Join in on social media

Discuss this event on Twitter using the hashtag #BristolLectures.