Kevin Marsh Wednesday Conversation
This is the official un-edited version of my Wednesday 30/1/08 Coventry Conversation article, without the John Mair edits. Some say that this article is too opinionated, but I think it is still a valid commentary of the event, and covered the key facts Kevin Marsh put forward.
Kevin Marsh, Editor for the BBC College of Journalism, and former Editor of Today on Radio 4, visited our wondrous department this week in one of John Mair’s extremely exclusive Wednesday Coventry Conversations. The turnout wasn’t great, which didn’t do much to sway Marsh’s increasingly erratic mood, but he did have some interesting things to say to prospective students. Firstly, he expressed that “you’re there to report the story, not to get involved”, whilst referencing gullible Gilligan’s tenacious ways. Moving on, he made his opinions strongly known on audiences, stating that “more people get news from radio than TV”, which is a pretty bizarre statement when you take into account audience figures for TV news. By this time, it was evidently clear that he was defending a medium that is under a huge amount of pressure from competing media.
Going back to the hot topic of the day, he let slip that “editors don’t usually ask who or what sources are in case of leaks”, which evidently later became a huge downfall for him when Gilligan got it wrong. Furthermore, he was of the opinion that there is “nothing special about Downing Street complaining” about an item or what was said in the programme. This kind of erratic, mad behaviour shouldn’t be a point of contention though, as he clearly can get the job done and knows the journalism industry like the back of his hands, but what should be a point of contention was that his attitude didn’t engage the audience into the subject matter, and actually made them feel belittled. One student stated that he was “put off journalism altogether now”. If figureheads like this are invited back to Coventry University, they should offer a much more balanced outlook with a positive attitude, as well as being a figurehead for which students can aspire to imitate in the future.
