Exhibit JC42 - The Leveson Inquiry

For Distribution to CPsHacks and Dons - Teaching at the London University Journalism School 1919-1939: its origin,development and influence.hours each week. This expanded with the appointment of his assistant,Joan Skipsey, in 1937, who also arranged voluntary assignments.To illustrate why Clarke considered Will’s textbook the best one forjournalism, a few extracts follow: ’Reporting and newspaper work ingeneral.., mean the acquirement of facility in trained thinking and writing ina great variety of ways to suit the special needs of newspapers. (Theymean) the attainment of good style in writing different kinds of news in theonly way in which the style can be attained- by practice in writing actualitems, perceived in the making, winnowed out of a mass of useless details,visualized with professional sco~e, order and accuracy before the reporterstakes his seat at the typewriter.’Newspaper work is trained thought. It is thought that makes a reporter andit is thought that makes an editor... If newspaper practice is carried outunder the direction of thoroughly experienced newspapermen serving asteachers, it is equal in cultural value, that is, real educational valueembracing the widening knowledge and the unfolding of innate capacity, tothe most cultural courses taught in colleges. Only in a minor, a relativelyinconsequential sense, is it methodistic, routine, mechanical or what istermed technical in academic circles. If the teaching is of the right kind,originality must be the chief aim, but the originality must be adapted to thepurpose of the newspaper. ’-~7Dr. Harrison on ’The Universities and Journalism’Clarke must have felt some trepidation as he prepared to enter theacademic world on a permanent basis for, as Dr. Harrison said in hisaddress to the Institute of Journalists annual conference in London in 1935:’the unkindest criticism that one academic can make of another’s books isthat it is journalism. ’Sa As he went on to point out, the Press was not alwayskind to academics either, representing them as ’peculiar’ in their habits and’cranky in their views.’ The bright, young reporter was someone of whom,Harrison said, many academics were suspicious because: ’like a magpie,he hopes to pick up some glittering fragment to line his own nest.’ While hewas on the subject, Harrison said: ’...Why O why, must our womenstudents always be labelled pretty girl students?’The ideal Harrison preached was one which saw journalism as a servingprofession because: ’journalists in the modern world provide one of thenecessaries of life: that is current knowledge, what is being done, taught,written and said around us. It is essential knowledge, especially indemocratic times. No human occupation calls for a wider variety of powersof intellect and character. ’59Yet what amazed laymen was that, although journalism was one of themost important influences in modern life, anybody without any particulareducation or recognized qualifications, could enter or just as easily bedismissed: ’To those outside the profession neither is a happy state.’Even though he could quote examples of inane questions from the staffof great daily newspapers, ’did Shakespeare write any prose’ was typical,he still felt that ’training in general knowledge and intelligence that aUniversity can give’ was sound and useful, even on such newspapers as8"7MOD100051258