An interesting question has come out of the recent economic crisis or ‘credit crunch’ as was the buzz phrase of the moment: How big a brand is a journalist? Throughout the economic turmoil that’s unfolded over previous months, Robert Peston has become a household name – reporting several times a night on the BBC News, and on Radio 4 and Radio 5Live, his face and voice were rarely off the screen. But – interestingly, he was breaking a lot of the stories he was receiving through his blog, rather than on T.V./Radio. With these mediums, he has to wait for designated slots before he puts the information into the public domain – but with a blog, he can do it instantly.
But how big a brand did Robert Peston actually become?
But how big a brand did Robert Peston actually become?
For many, it reached a point
– many people tuned in to see if Peston would pop up rather than what the latest economic or financial news would be. Is Peston bigger than the BBC though? My guess is not. He’s able to break the stories and find the interviewees that he does because he’s part of such as massive Broadcasting Corporation. If the BBC did not have the platforms for him to break such stories – i.e. a rolling news channel, several national radio stations, and hugely popular network news programmes then ‘Peston: the brand’ certainly wouldn’t have grown to the extent it had.
There’s no doubt that people do rely on high profile journalists to tell them what’s going on in the world. We expect Nick Robinson to tell us what’s happening in the political world, we depend on Julian Manyon to bring us a well put-together, sensitive report from a war zone. They’re faces, names, and voices that people trust. It’s not just high profile journalists though – every word that is written or broadcast, the public rely on to be free from bias and personal views – this is naturally more true for broadcast rather then print media. This is why responsible journalism is so crucial – particularly the ‘power’ it brings with it. However, there is a very fine tipping point between reporting the story and being the story.
There’s no doubt that people do rely on high profile journalists to tell them what’s going on in the world. We expect Nick Robinson to tell us what’s happening in the political world, we depend on Julian Manyon to bring us a well put-together, sensitive report from a war zone. They’re faces, names, and voices that people trust. It’s not just high profile journalists though – every word that is written or broadcast, the public rely on to be free from bias and personal views – this is naturally more true for broadcast rather then print media. This is why responsible journalism is so crucial – particularly the ‘power’ it brings with it. However, there is a very fine tipping point between reporting the story and being the story.
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