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Journalists on the Election Trail, Alex Crawford from Sky News, CEO of Bloomberg Media

Frontline journalists on the media-management of the general election, award-winning Sky News correspondent Alex Crawford and the CEO of Bloomberg Media. With Steve Hewlett.

On the final day of election campaigning, we hear from the front line journalists who have been on the trail with candidates. There have been reports that this election has been more stage-managed by spin doctors than any previously, with national journalists even being excluded from covering events. Steve Hewlett is joined by some leading political journalists; Michael Crick from Channel 4; Patrick Wintour from the Guardian; Andrew Grice the political editor of the Independent, and Isabel Hardman from the Spectator. They discuss how easy, or not, it's been to get access to politicians, why press conferences are now few and far between, and why the growth of social media is making advisers ultra-cautious in their media management strategy.

Bloomberg, the financial news provider, has become the latest media agency to launch a dedicated European digital edition. Bloomberg rents out terminals which provide real time data to financial professionals, and currently most of its audience are subscribers. In an effort to attract a more general business audience, it's launched Bloomberg Business Europe - an online site that's free to all. Steve Hewlett talks to CEO of Bloomberg Media Justin B. Smith about expanding the portfolio, and how the company's strategy to build its digital assets will impact on business.

And danger, excitement and the challenge of making British TV viewers care about news happening in distant places - Sky News' Alex Crawford talks about life as a foreign correspondent, as she receives the Charles Wheeler Award for outstanding contribution to broadcast journalism.

Producer: Katy Takatsuki.

Available now

30 minutes

Chapters

  • The media management of the election

    Duration: 12:48

  • Bloomberg

    Duration: 06:11

  • Alex Crawford

    Duration: 07:57

Broadcast

  • Wed 6 May 2015 16:30

Podcast