Date:19/06/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/06/19/stories/2006061904521100.htm

Opinion - News Analysis

The magic of that old school tie

Hasan Suroor

Fifty four per cent of Britain's top newspaper and television journalists were educated at expensive private schools.

WHITE, MALE, and middle class, fine. But there is one more crucial qualification that anyone wanting to be a journalist in Britain needs: a privileged background which means private schooling, an Oxbridge degree and the right connections.

It would seem that it is not only in India, where according to a recent survey, a tiny upper-caste elite occupies all the top jobs in the media. Welcome to "meritocratic" Britain to get a flavour of the deep social divide in journalism, highlighted by a study by the Sutton Trust, a leading educational charity.

Its research, released last week, shows that a whopping 54 per cent of Britain's top newspaper and television journalists — editors, columnists, anchors, executives — were educated at expensive private schools, which cater for only seven per cent of all school-going children in the country. Thirty-three per cent came from grammar schools where admission is based on selection, and only 14 per cent from state-funded comprehensives that 90 per cent of the country's children attend.

Among the journalists who went to university, nearly half the top brass went to Oxford or Cambridge.

These are alarming figures for a country where they never stop talking about meritocracy, but what is even more disturbing is that the class divisions in the newsroom have widened in the past two decades despite a plethora of "equality" quangos and ceaseless political rhetoric about "access" and equal opportunities. Since 1986, when a similar study was done, there has been a ten per cent increase in the number of plum media jobs going to people with a "posh" background.

A warning

And here is a warning from the man behind the survey. Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust, says: "My fear is that in another 20 years the chances of those from non-affluent homes to reach the very highest strata of society — including the top of the media — will have declined still further. There is much that journalism profession needs to do to make sure [that] the most talented get a foothold on the ladder and rise up the ranks."

One fact that this report does not cover but has been documented by other independent surveys is the widespread ethnic and gender imbalance in the British media. Like most other professions, journalism in Britain remains disproportionately white and male — and that also goes for the public-funded BBC.

All this raises questions about the credibility of the media. Can a media, so socially insular in its composition, reflect or address the concerns of ordinary readers and viewers? As Sir Peter noted, it is pertinent to ask whether the news coverage is "preoccupied with the issues and interests of the social elite that journalists represent?"

Analysing the Trust's report in The Independent, he said: "Not only does this say something about the state of our (government) education system but it also raises questions about the nature of the media's relationship with society: is it healthy that those who are most influential in determining and interpreting the news agenda have educational backgrounds that are so different to the vast majority of the population?"

In addition to an element of covert bias against the less privileged, the reasons why members of the privately-educated elite find it easier to land jobs in the media are obvious: they are more confident and articulate; have better economic cushioning to survive the low pay and high level of insecurity in the early stages of their career; can afford to pay for postgraduate qualifications in journalism; and most importantly they have the right "personal and family connections" in the profession, as the survey notes.

Martin Townsend, the editor of Sunday Express who himself did not go to a private school, acknowledged that people who were privately educated exuded greater confidence.

"When looking to take on people for the newspaper you are always looking for enthusiasm and confidence and it comes through very brightly in privately educated youngsters ... and I think that's why so many of them end up in the media," he told one newspaper.

Senior journalists admit that because of the informal nature of recruitment in the media those who have personal contacts have an advantage as editors rely on the recommendations of those they know. And those they know invariably happen to come from the same small "Eton-Oxbridge" pool to which they themselves belong.

It is not only in the media that the old school tie is having such a good time. Indeed, it is well and alive in most high-profile professions such as the judiciary and politics, as previous surveys have shown. And merit? Well, that is another story.