ABSTRACT

Local journalism in the UK has been described as being in “crisis”. Local newspapers have experienced years of declining circulations and staff cuts, leading to questions about how effectively those institutions can continue to perform normative functions of journalism. One of those is to report on the courts. Through analysis of 22 semi-structured interviews with local newspaper reporters who cover the courts beat, agency court reporters who supply the local press, as well as broadcast journalists involved in both local and national court coverage, this paper helps to establish how the daily newswork of court journalists has developed amid a turbulent period in journalism, especially local journalism. The research finds that court reporting has been less affected than other news beats but faces a series of challenges related to financial cuts and other pressures. While the local press has become even more essential to the provision of court reporting, a central part of the news media’s fourth estate role, those challenges affect the ability of court reporters to perform this function. This paper recommends that policymakers consider using a form of public funding to guarantee the future of court reporting at the local level.

摘要

英国的当地新闻业被描述为处于“危机”之中。当地报纸多年来经历了发行量下降和裁员，导致人们质疑这些机构如何有效地继续履行新闻业的规范职能。其中之一是向法院报告。通过对 22 次半结构化采访，采访报道法庭的当地报纸记者、提供当地新闻的代理法庭记者以及参与地方和国家法庭报道的广播记者，本文有助于确定日常新闻工作的方式的法庭记者是在新闻业，尤其是地方新闻业的动荡时期发展起来的。研究发现，与其他新闻报道相比，法庭报道受到的影响较小，但面临与财务削减和其他压力相关的一系列挑战。尽管当地媒体对于提供法庭报道（新闻媒体的第四产业角色的核心部分）变得更加重要，但这些挑战影响了法庭记者履行这一职能的能力。本文建议政策制定者考虑使用一种公共资金形式来保证地方一级法院报告的未来。