“Given the importance of the intelligence services in shaping the news agenda it is a matter of serious concern that the links between hacks and spooks have been so little studied in the academy. Paul Lashmar’s latest text helps fill the
gap in masterly fashion.

He is the ideal person to write this study. An award-winning investigative reporter and now head of the prestigious Journalism programme at City, University of London, Lashmar has covered many of the recent controversies outlined
here. Since the early 1980s, his career has included spells at the Observer, Granada Television’s Work in Action, the Independent and the Independent on Sunday. The bibliography at the end includes 24 texts he has sole-authored
plus another 21 he jointly authored between 1983 and 2018 – this alone giving an idea of the depth and breadth of his journalism in this area.

But Lashmar’s investigative background means that he is able to enliven the text throughout with some engaging personal anecdotes and insights into changing journalist routine.”

“This is, in fact, a massively detailed, original and thought-provoking study that should be required reading for all students and teachers of journalism, media, communication, intelligence studies and politics”

The full detailed review is in Vol 18. No1/2 2021 OSSN 1742-0105 and can be found at: http://www.ethical-space.co.uk

4 April 2021 by plashmar

‘Investigative Journalism’ 3rd edition published this week, co-edited by Hugo de Burgh and Paul Lashmar

This third edition maps the new world of investigative journalism, where technology and globalisation have connected and energised journalists, whistle-blowers and the latest players, with far-reaching consequences for politics and business worldwide.　
In this new edition, expert contributors demonstrate how crowdsourcing, big data, globalisation of information, and changes in media ownership and funding have escalated the impact of investigative journalists. The book includes case studies of investigative journalism from around the world, including the exposure of EU corruption, the destruction of the Malaysian environment, and investigations in China, Poland and Turkey. From Ibero-America to Nigeria, India to the Arab world, investigative journalists intensify their countries’ evolution by inquisition and revelation.
This new edition reveals how investigative journalism has gone digital and global. Investigative Journalism is essential for all those intending to master global politics, international relations, media and justice in the 21st century.

8 February 2021 by plashmar

Loose Tubes remembered

There seems to be lot of renewed interest in the seminal jazz big band Loose Tubes who started out 37 years ago. Here’s a piece I wrote for The Observer in January 1986.

9 January 2021 by plashmar

UCL apologises for supporting Eugenists.

I critique Galton’s use of composite photography to create cultural constructs, which demonised or ‘‘othered’’ people in my ‘Mugshots’ paper. Lashmar, P. (2014). How to humiliate and shame: A reporter’s guide to the power of the mugshot. Social Semiotics, 24(1), pp. 56–87. https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2021/jan/ucl-makes-formal-public-apology-its-history-and-legacy-eugenics