Exhibit JC42 - The Leveson Inquiry

For Distribution to CPstiacks and Dons - Teaching at the London University Journalism School 1919-1939: Its origin,development and influence.The following year, 1938, students were asked ’to discuss, in 300 words,"It is impossible to define NEWS to satisfy every taste."’ Earlier years hadseen questions on topics then in vogue: ’What do you understand by theterm "the new journalism"?’ (1934).The paper that was believed to cause many students to fail was that on’Principles of Criticism of Literature and Art.’ In the first paper, set in 1927,Plato, Aristotle and Matthew Arnold were in the first four questions. By1934 Professor Isaacs was asking them: ’the following are headlines fromrecent newspapers: "Peer’s son leaps to death", "Russian explorers perishin Arctic", "Suicide of Stavisky", Discuss their suitability as themes forclassical tragedy.’One thing was certain; the professors were reading their newspapers, asthere were very few books which gave a critical appreciation of thejournalism of the day. Isaacs’s last question in the question paper justquoted goes a long way to exemplifying how different the journalist’s exampapers must have been from other university exams, which mainly endedtheir studies in 1895. The question called for short, critical notes on any twofrom:(a) Futurism(b) Cubism(c) Surrealism(d) Expressionist drama(e) The poetry ofW.H. Auden(f) Epstein’s Rima(g) The acting of Elizabeth Bergner(h) The films of Ren4 Clair orEisenstein(i) The novels of Virginia Woolf(.j) The music of Honegger orSchoenburg or Duke EllingtonAs an indication of what lecturers considered suitable culturalbackground knowledge these questions, first asked in 1934, appear asadventurous, if not downright avant-garde. But they were certainly inkeeping with the journalists’ self-perceived role as purveyors of ’currentevents’, although slightly outside the usual remit of events journalistsconsider current, i.e., political, economic, sporting, yet indicating, possibly,how journalism has to keep enlarging its own boundaries.The scope of some of the history papers appears vast, ranging fromquestions about ’the causes and results of the establishment of LatinAmerican independence between 1810 and 1926’ to giving an ’account ofthe nationalistic movements in China after 1850 and explain their problems’to the more basic ’Give some account of the origins of the Great War of1914.’ The examiners of this modern history paper were Miss P. BoysSmith and Norman Gash (1912-2009), long retired from the chair ofEmeritus Professor of history at St. Andrews University who began hisacademic career as assistant lecturer in history at University College,London.Other question papers demonstrate a determination to be up to date: ’Inwhat direction is a knowledge of psychology useful to journalists?’ ’Politicalscience’ papers tested students’ understanding of the collectiveresponsibility of the Cabinet, as well as seeking analysis of the chiefweaknesses of the British electoral process. ’Distressed Areas’ was one147MOD100051318