ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the position of labour and industrial correspondents and, in particular, their perception of the media work of trade unions. Labour and industrial correspondents are keenly aware of the changing fortunes of their specialism. The forces at work impinge most directly, perhaps, in terms of the greater demands for flexibility and wider briefs which most labour correspondents have to accept. National disputes, disputes which disrupt the daily lives of the general public, or local disputes which generate exceptional and ‘publicly visible’ conflict are most likely to attract the attention of labour correspondents. According to several labour correspondents, the same news values guide the selection criteria of most newspapers, left or right of centre, broadsheet or tabloid. The political perspectives to be found within labour and industrial journalism varied in a way which was associated with generational change.
