'The Newspapers Handbook'

Author: Richard Keeble

Publisher: Routledge / 1994

Pages: 382pp

Journalism or rather the state of the media has always been and remains central to any discussion about democracy in any country.

Although published 30 years ago this book has valuable insights to deliver.

This book is a comprehensive guide to the job of a newspaper reporter. It offers advice on a range of different types of newspaper writing, looks at how newspapers cover different events and shows why different reporting styles are appropriate to different kinds of newspaper.

Richard Keeble also discusses the impact on the reporter's job of media ownership, censorship and self-censorship, new technology and new working practices.

In addition, Henry Clother, David Northmore and John Turner contribute specialist chapters on court reporting, investigative journalism and local government reporting.

The book explores the theoretical, ethical and political dimensions of a journalist's job as well as its practical side.

It also includes:

-          Interviews with journalists about their working practices

-          Working extracts throughout from a wide range of newspaper genres - national broadsheets, tabloids, local papers and the alternative press

-          A survival guide for freelancers

-          A guide to training and career opportunities (in the UK)

Obviously, the book refers to the situation in the UK then, a far cry from the situation in the UK now and an even further cry from the situation in our country then and now. But the fundamentals of what makes good journalism remain the same, then and now.

Keeble taught journalism at City University, London. He is a former executive editor of The Teacher and has also worked on the Nottingham Guardian Journal and the Cambridge Evening News.