Whatever the doomsayers vouchsafe solid written reportage is not dead yet. If this particular kind of journalism isn't penetrating the young consciousness, it should and I urge English teachers, teachers of modern history, sociology teachers and anyone else who can work it into their curriculum to seek out the best reporters, the best "journalists" and ply their charges with the best of their work. I wonder what today's school-kids imagine when they say they want to be a journalist… do they envisage writing about science, or economics, or celebrities, or do they see themselves as television reporters standing in flak jackets doing the obligatory piece-to-camera in the latest war zone? Do they even read newspapers any more? Do they realise that there are still also people out there in those war zones, without the glamour flak-jacket, just (if they're lucky) the ordinary pock-marked one, that they prefer not to wear because it's way too hot? People who still ply the classic trade of actually writing what they see and trusting that they can do it well enough for the words to stand alone without the sound effects, without (quite often) any pictures, to make it "real"? Tim Butcher's day job from 1990 to 2009 was "journalist".
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