Soundbites and ‘Gotcha’ journalism have killed public discourse

Ferdie Rous | Issue 2 | Magazine

From the Archive

Why Can’t We All Just Get Along..., by Iain Dale, reviewed by Ferdie Rous

The rise of the 24-hour news cycle and social media has massively increased news output and has brought the public to within virtual shouting distance of the powerful. Like blogging before it, Twitter and Facebook have democratised the public sphere and have been the effective death knell of deference. So goes the thesis of Iain Dale’s latest book, Why Can’t We All Just Get Along… Ostensibly the purpose of the book is to explain why public discourse has declined and how we can learn to disagree politely again. He lays the blame for the decline at the door of journalists (particularly broadcasters) and politicians alike. Journalists, too focused on the ‘gotcha’ question, are more interested in catching out politicians and entertaining rather than informing the public, while politicians like Priti Patel – who, Dale assures us, is personable and charming off mic, is robotic when the red light flashes on in the studio – engage only to deliver the party line along with some carefully craft...

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