Scoop! Journalists in Fiction

The Inky Path 4

Newsworthiness does not depend on an absolute standard of what is or is not news.

• Quoted from The Inky Path, in Martyn Bedford's Exit: Orange and Red

"Well, it (Molecross's Miscellany of the Mysterious and Misunderstood) doesn't have a large audience. It's esoteric."

• Molecross, in Dr Who: The Algebra of Ice, by Lloyd Rose

The Inky Path 3

Journalism does not lend itself to a stereotypical office routine. The reporter must be out and about seeking and gathering the news, which is no respecter of meal-times or the demands of the reporter's private life. Take off your hat and loosen your tie, by all means, but be prepared - at a moment's notice - to return to the fray.

Or as John Preston would have it in Ink...

A number of the journalists slept under their desks, no longer having a home to go to. They could be seen first thing in the morning still huddled on the floor, fully dressed. Upon being woken, they would get up, sit down and immediately begin typing, as if this was some automatic response they had no control over.

The Inky Path 2

A reporter starting out on a provincial weekly might expect to earn £10 a week. If he is disgruntled about this he ought to look elsewhere for a living, for the true journalist measures his remuneration not in pounds, shillings and pence but in column inches.

The Inky Path 1

Journalism is a profession best suited to those of an inquisitive disposition. This is not to say that being nosy is, in itself, tantamount to having the proverbial 'nose for a story', but it is a distinct advantage. For it is basic to the art of good reporting that the journalist should seek to answer the questions: who? what? where? when? and why? In this respect, the reporter's task is not dissimilar to that of a police detective or, for that matter, the neighbourhood gossip. Nor, in the slippery business of separating fact from fiction, is it by any means certain which of these three will establish the most reliable version of events.

The first rule of journalism

Over lunch wise old sage William Boyce observes:

"First rule of journalism, Constance: never presume."

As they leave the pub, Boyce observes:

"First rule of journalism. Never miss a deadline."

Constance asks:

"Exactly how many first rules of journalism are there?"

"Only one: the one you're being told to obey at any given moment."

Boyce is right on every count - but where do the rules come from? Bedford employs the clever device of inserting regular quotes from The Inky Path, a book written in 1959 as a guide to cub reporters, which Boyce reveres as the bible of the profession.

Basics, he said.

But however influential The Inky Path might be, books are not really where the rules come from.

Although reporters do have formal training in that they need to pass National Council for the Training of Journalists, and increasingly begin their careers with a university degree(such as that offered at Sunderland) the real culture of news is learnt on the job, from people like Boyce and Connie's archetypal news editor, Gary. Operators like Gary ('operator' is a great compliment in journalism) absorb a set of principles and frameworks, almost by osmosis. Trainee reporters gradually gain an understanding of what news is, not in any formal manner, but by constantly hearing others describe its essential qualities (often, scathingly, in terms of what it is not).

The result is that definitions of news become a closed circle - news is news because it is news. This is magnified by the intense pressures of the newsroom, the high level of competition and the constant ambition of colleagues. Similar factors shape every newsroom, but the perspectives will be subtly different. That said, most people who have worked on regional newspapers will recognise the characters in Exit, Orange and Red, and will have heard many of the first rules passed down by Boyce without ever having read The Inky Path or any similar text.