Cudlipp Lecture: Jon Snow on the future of journalism in the digital age

Lionel Barber, Editor of the FT, speaking at last year's Cudlipp Lecture

Channel 4 News anchor Jon Snow will be speaking at the annual Hugh Cudlipp lecture at the London College of Communication (LCC) on Monday 23 January, when the winner of the £1000 Hugh Cudlipp Award for Journalism 2011 will be announced. Snow will be the eighth speaker at the annual lecture, where Andrew Marr, Alastair Campbell and Rebekah Brooks, former CEO of News International, have been guest speakers in the past. Snow, 64, feels honored to be asked to speak at the “high profile lecture”, especially as he is not a print journalist.

The Lecture is ‘Why we are poised for journalism’s finest hour’. Snow will explain why – as journalism finds itself the subject of scrutiny like never before and we await the findings of Lord Leveson’s public inquiry – he believes ‘We are poised for journalism’s finest hour’. Defying the doom-sayers he will explain why the explosion of online media rather than being the final nail in the coffin for journalism is a ‘window of opportunity’ for journalists. The issue of how to monetize information in the digital age not withstanding, Snow says ‘Journalists have never had more access, more information – or frankly, been more important. If we seize this moment as an opportunity, it will herald a brighter future for us all.’

Paul Charman, LCC’s BA Journalism Course Director, agrees. “Amid all the doom and gloom about the fate of industry, it’s very encouraging – not least for young journalists – to hear that in many ways, we have never been in a stronger position.”

The award is for UK journalism students who have written a series of articles “in the Cudlipp tradition of exposing a wrong or investigating and depicting a social issue in a comprehensive way,” explained Charman. The articles must have been published in a national, regional or local paper between 1 December 2010 and 30 November 2011.
Charman explained that Hugh Cudlipp was one of the great pioneers of popular tabloid journalism, “Cudlipp championed the idea that important social and political issues could be presented in an attractive, compelling way which would be understood by working people.”

See full details below:

Monday 23 January 2012
Starts at 7pm prompt
Main Lecture Theatre, London College of Communication, SE1 6SB

The lecture begins at 7pm prompt and will be webcast live in the Podium Lecture Theatre and via the links below: