THE DRIFT OF MODERN JOURNALISM.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1545, 14 September 1912, Page 9

THE DRIFT OF MODERN JOURNALISM.

A- notable gathering of journalists, presided over by Lord Morley, attended a dinner to Sir Edward Cook in London tile other day. The dinner was in celebration of Sir Edward's attainment of a Knighthood, and it called forth from the "Westminster Gazette," of which ho once was the editor, a striking article on "The Drift of Modern Journalism": ; "We ourselves may claim to have a special interest in this occasion, since Sir Edward Cook was a formed editor of this journal, and,wo know.from intimate experience that his remarkable qualities of character and intellect were no wise exaggerated in the tribute paid to him last night.- SJir Edward has walked modestly all his days and scrupulously observed tho anonymity of journalism. It is for that reason' well that tho public should know for how much he has counted and how deep a mark he has made on affairs in these times. | "If the type which he represents is, as was hinted last night, becoming rarer in journalism, we should be compelled to say, so much the worse for journalism. If that were true, it would be a heavy discount on the'general improvement of the press to which Lord Morley Lore witness last night. Journalism, like other professions and institutions, has its phases, but we cannot imagine a great I and'powerful press which failed to provide opportunities for the school of writers and publicists of which Sir Edward Cook and Lord Morley and Lord Milner have in recent years distinguished ex- v ponents. "But Lord Morley's admirable discourse on this occasion may well set us thinking about certain features in tho trend of modern journalism. Of tho improvement of the press in certain obvious respects there can be no reasonable doubt. Never was so much capital and enterprise expended on the. business of supplying the public with' news. What in the old days werq-raro and occasional journalistic feats are in these , days so much in .the ordinary course of newspaper business that they have ceased to be noticed or boasted about Tho cheapening of paper and the improvement of machinery have enabled the public to get bigger newspapers iii much larger quantities. There is no question of the intelligence and ability which is being put into tins business of supplying the public with news, but thero are inevitably some questions about (he reaction on the newspapers of their relation with' tho millions of new readers who have grown up in the last generation.

"Tho old journalism conceived of itself as informing and instructing "!p circle of educated readers''nnd giving them what it v thought they ought to have, and what would bo good for them to read. The. new journalism thinks predominantly of 'what tho public wanft,' and gives it sometimes on a mistaken guess of this imponderable quantity. Tho old journalism was apt to forgot that the public had always the simple remedy of not buying the paper or not reading the article, if it got too far aloof from what the public wanted. The new'journalism is apt to forget that the public is often above the low average of opinion which a shrewd man of business, arguing from ths circulation ledger, might assign to it. "Many earnest men have laboured in vain to give an unapprcciativo public what Sir Edward Cook called 'tho University tip.' And some shrewd men* of business are also labouring unnecessarily to sound deeper depths of banality tlinii tho public will descend to. A really sound popular press has to find tho level between the two things, and the process is not easy. Lord-Morley said last niph'c that while ho respectfully admired tho gramophones nnd the megaphones, ho still reserved iiis exaltations and enthusiasms for Beethoven and Mozart. It would be asking too much to expect the press to provide classical music on every day iu the week, but it would do well to remember that thero are still a considerable number of people to whom gramophones and megaphones"become an abomination on the third day. Lord Morley is probably right in saying that some part of what iV vaguely called the modern unrest is duo to the 'flaming, garish colours, dashing emphasis, and high feverishness' of thu modern newspaper.

"There is another tendency in modern journalism- which must cause anxiety, to

those.who are thinking of tho future supply of journalists. This is that, while raoro newspapers nre sold, tho number of separate newspapers tends to decline. Instead of a large variety of newspapers with moderate circulations, wo tend to have comparatively few newspapers with enormous circulations. The result which was formerly achieved with, eay, twenty newspapers with twenty different. staffs_ is now achieved with ten newspapers with only ten different staffs. So while the number of newspaper readers is constantly increasing, the number of newspaper writers is constantly declining. "This is a loss to the public as well as to the profession. In place of the yariety of opinion, stimulating different kinds of intelligence, which, is furnished by the many newspapers of a country like France, wo tend to a uniformity of opinion turned • out on two or threo machinemade patterns. And as tho opportunities diminish, tho.number of the writers who oau be attracted into journalism from larger and more secure professions crows less.- It is easier to seo these drawbacks than to point out the remedy," adds the "Westminster,"' "but it is in the interest of all , parties that they should not be lost sight of, though wo justly pride ourselves on the improvement of tho press.