Customer Reviews
A very good read - By: PhilosopherKing, 22 Nov 2008 
Andrew Marr has a wide range of experience of all aspects of British journalism from working on the Scotsman to becoming editor of the Independent & later political editor at the BBC.
This book combines anecdotal & biographical details with an historical approach to British journalism. It raises many questions about the ownership of national newspapers, the way journalists operate & many other issues & is a bit of an eye-opener.
I found this to be a well written, informative & entertaining read.
Behind the scenes look at journalism - By: , 16 Dec 2005 The work of journalists, perhaps moreso than that of other professions, is often viewedin a stereotypical light. Andrew Marr's book however sweeps away much of the romance & glamourin favour of a down to earth this-is-how-it-is approach. He is well suited to the task, having moved through many of the important stagesin the print & broadcast hierarchy over the course of his career.
Although the book is billed as a "short history of British journalism", most of the book is taken up with impressively detailed accounts of what a journalist does, how they do it, & why, addressing also issues of personal motivation, bias, editorial influence, government pressure... The historical sectionin fact only ends up occupying one chapter of this fairly dense book. Whilst it is undoubtedly fascinating, Marr is not a historian & a lot of the substance & cohesion you would expect from a historical essay is lacking; that said however it takes up only about 15% of the book & does provide valuable context for the rest of his narrative.
The main body of the book gives a blow by blow account of the various roles which newspaper (mainly broadsheet) journalists play, right from the commanding national editor down to the latest teenage provincial apprentice. He recounts a range of issues which the layman might not think about too often: What makes a story? What keeps a story alive? What should the balance of stories within a newspaper be? How does the editor decide what to put on the front page? These are then linkedin with a more logistical account (based on his period as an editor), explaining how it all gets put together into something printable, how long it takes, what the priorities are for printers. He gives the reader an acute sense of how stressful & monotonous a lot of this routine work can be.
A study of this nature cannot avoid tackling journalism's relationship with politics. Marr also dedicates a lot of space to the tightrope, cloke & dagger world of the political hack, how journalists go about building up sources, developing & maintaining contacts, where they can sniff for stories. His account of this all too closed world is revealing & for me was the best part of this book.
His treatment of broadcast journalism is a bit more thin (a reflection on the few years spend on television) & talks about a world with which most people are probably more familiar. We are treated to an overview of the running battles between various governments & the BBC, along with explanations of the BBC's special status & the reasons why the rules of the game are that bit stricter for the Beeb.
Finally, Marr is acutely aware of the massive changes inflicted on the industry by the electronic revolution, & charts their impact on a range of fields. As well as the obvious practical changes (computer-based editing, email, satellit communications, internet), our new world of instantaneous communication & constant availability has also led journalists to think differently &in some cases has paradoxically made finding the story more difficult.
Although only one inch thick, the book is pretty long, at least 150,000 words at a rough guess. Marr does an impressive job of keeping it all hanging together & maintaining the momentum right up to the last page. Although densely packed with information, this book is very well written & the user friendly writing style makes the text flow easily along.
Any gripes? Perhaps one:in his discussion of the pressures an editor is under,in particular from politically-minded proprietors (whichin the end covers most newspaper owners), not much space is given to the impact of commercial interests on journalistic decisions. Whilst the owner's impact is direct & obvious, the influence of advertisers' business interests is indirect yet, as acknowledgedin passing by Marr, has a bearing on what a paper is willing to print. Newspapers really only stay afloat because of advertising revenue;in fact you could even say that instead of selling the news (the product) to us (customers), papers are selling our attention (the product) to advertisers (customers). How many newspapers are going to have the conviction to document the impact of companies like BMW & Mercedes on climate change when the very same two are writing the cheques which keep the paper's profits healthy? Other than this point however, the book is excellent & well-worth reading.
a great book on journalism and politics - By: , 07 Nov 2005 Although this books begins almost as a conventional history of journalism & newspapers - as good as that is - it soon moves on to a much more intersting mix of personal story & insider account of political journalism, newspaper editorship & broadcast journalism. Once there, all the personality & insight that made Marr's TV work as BBC political editor shines through.
A great read for budding journalists, broadcasters & politicians everywhere.
Very Informative - By: Paul Johnson, 03 Sep 2005 I rate Andrew Marr very highly as a journalist & was sorry when he stepped down as the BBC's Policitcal Correspondant. His easy style & ability to explain the complexin simple terms was a great asset to the BBC.
Here that same style is used to give us an insiders look at how the News is reported, gathered, created. He has clearly done extremely extensive research going all the way back to the first newspapers right upto modern times. There is an awful lotin here that most people will not be aware of & it makes it a book that you look forwards to picking up.
He draws a lot on his own experiences, explaining the role of a newspaper editorin terms of how he did it & I think that could well have been expanded on. There is obviously a lot involved but there was not the spacein a book trying to cover the entire history of journalism. Perhaps if he ever does an autobiography we will learn more - I for one would like to.
So, to sum up, this is an excellent read for anyone interestedin the news or just generally interestedin history. I certainly have no regrets having bought it.
Very interesting and entertaining - By: , 31 Aug 2005 
I bought the audio CD - something to listen & chuckle toin the car on the wayin & out of work. Really enjoyed it! Shall miss Andy Marr as BBC Political Ed.
