Recently, I read a very entertaining book - My Trade: A Short History of British Journalism by Andrew Marr.
On a separate note, much earlier, in my first months in London, I read a piece of news : Gordon Brown very surprisingly announced the withdrawal of British troops and gave an exclusive interview to a journalist by the name of Andrew Marr. I remember debates on BBC: why did it have to be Marr?
My Trade turned out to be quite different from all those self-praising autobiographies so widely available today. Of course, like anything written to be sold, it did feature some over-secretive behind-closed-doors scenes, some impressive name-dropping (not so impressive for foreigners, naturally). But apart from that, I loved the author's witty narrative style, and the humor, appearing occasionally from between the lines.
In fact, the book is extremely useful for all foreigners who study Journalism or Media-related professions in Britain and feel they are lacking the context. Andrew explains in detail all the things we needed to know and were afraid to ask: what is Lobby? what is the relationship between editors of the Sun and the Daily Mail? do journalists have drinks with MPs as they exchange information?
Marr devotes a whole chapter to Lobby journalism, the upper circle of information providers so transparently existing in Britain. He goes into extensive detail, mentioning, for example, a booth in a hallway where encoded messages about upcoming Lobby meetings used to be posted.
Another exciting chapter, examines the origin of news - things the British are allegedly interested in. Sex ranks quite high, by the way, and occupies at least 15 pages.
There is also a history of Fleet Street, describing its Golden Age of newspaper printing. Besides, an outlook on the role of special advisors and communication officers, their personalities, and the way they affect the media relations is also here- all summed up nicely.
From what I read about Marr, I have a impression that he wants to give a "human face" to politics and make it appealing to everyone. He certainly managed to get me interested.
Many small details can be picked up: for instance, the fact that political journalists and MPs tend to come from the same social backgrounds is a fact bringing them closer (answers a question why politicians make these dangerous friendships with journalists).
And of course, Marr makes fun of his resemblance to Vladimir Putin and tells a story of guards saluting to him in Kremlin.
