Come raise a glass to a new generation of NUJ activistsThe December meeting comes a week later than normal because your branch had a very busy end of November, engaging in debates at the union’s Annual Delegate Meeting in Southport on how to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing media industry and building a collective voice back here in Oxford among the region’s local news journalists. We’d like to take the opportunity at the December branch meeting to salute the new generation of activists that is coming forward locally and nationally to meet these challenge, and invite all our members -- particularly new members -- to come to the meeting and raise a glass to them and to our future. Our industry is changing fast, demanding new skills, new business models and a new generation of activists who stand up for quality, diversity and good working conditions in this brave new world.
This year’s Annual Delegate Meeting was a showcase for many of these young activists. We set new standards of openness in the trade union movement with the entire conference being covered live and interactively on the Internet by an army of student members. They wrote and uploaded articles, offered a personal slant on the proceedings in blogs, and provided minute by minute commentary on twitter. Hundreds of pictures were uploaded onto a Flickr site, and all of it was – and is – available via www.nujadm.org.uk , with highlights of key moments such as the address of Foster Dongozi, General Secretary of the Zimbabwean Union (“We think we see a light at the end of the tunnel; we hope it’s not the lights of a freight train hurtling towards us”), and the speech of the outgoing NUJ President James Doherty “Journalism is not changing. The medium is changing, the outlets are changing, but the same values are not changing, whether you blog or work for traditional media.”
Among the delegates were many young members from the provincial press sector who had been stirred into action over the past traumatic year in defence of their jobs and their profession. They told of an industry run on greed that had overstretched itself during the good times, relying on profits of 20–35% to service huge investment loans. And they spoke to resolutions calling for the promotion of new business models that value journalism and recognise the contribution it makes to our communities – an issue on which the Oxford branch is continuing to take a lead (seeoverleaf).
Delegates from the books sector flagged up the new threat posed by the ‘Google books’ initiative which is seeking the right to snaffle up ‘orphan’ out-of-print material and publish it free on the web – framed of course by no end of ads. Why should Google have the right to earn from the creativity of others, without giving anything back, they asked?
Another challenge for the upcoming generations of members working in books and journals is maintaining quality in an industry where contracting out and off-shoring editorial work means skills and experience that have been passed on in-house from one generation to the next are being lost. The Oxford delegates learnt a lot about the pool of graduates in India who are increasingly being used as cheap editorial labour by all the big publishers (which includes almost every major Oxford publisher). Where they are based, how they are trained, what they are paid, career prospects, staff turnover rates, how much publishing companies aim to save by off-shoring editorial functions, and crucially, how far they are prepared to see standards slip (more on this in a future newsletter). A resolution from the Oxford branch committed the union to backing a campaign on quality – a sort of books/ journals/ magazines version of Stand up for Journalism – as a priority in the coming year.
A heated debate about how best to report on the BNP was another sign of the times and of the new challenges facing our members. Should those seeking to ferment bigotry and racism be denied column inches and airtime? Or do journalists have a responsibility to allow elected politicians to have their say – and a responsibility for exposing as a sham their claims to offer solutions to the problems of the people they claim to represent? Do journalists have the time and the training to do this properly (in the case of the Radio 1’s Newsbeat apparently not) and can they do this properly without themselves becoming targets and joining the list of photographers and reporters who are already listed on the infamous Redwatch site?
Meeting the challenges of today requires the experience of longtime NUJ members, but more important – certainly here in the Oxford area -- is a new generation of activists who are building their careers in this changing media industry, and are increasingly taking on the leadership roles in their chapels and in the wider union that will help ensure those changes work for them, their colleagues and the profession.
Which is why when we welcome all branch members to a glass or two of mulled wine and festive eats at the December meeting, the toast will be to our new generation of activists.
AW 2009-12-01
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