Weber Shandwick supports launch of ‘The Power of the Commentariat’

This week, Weber Shandwick partnered with The City of London Corporation to support the launch of a new report entitled ‘The Power of the Commentariat’. Published by The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and leading media think tank, Editorial Intelligence, the report investigates how much commentators influence politics and public opinion.

Launched last night at a high-profile debate at the Royal Society of Arts, the report charts the growing importance and influence of the ‘Commentariat’ – star-name political, business and society columnists – against a background of declining traditional media consumption and the growing need for newspapers to differentiate themselves, as well as the increasing growth of the blogosphere.

Chaired by the RSA’s Chief Executive, Matthew Taylor, panellists included: Rt. Hon Hilary Armstrong; former Cabinet Minister Charles Clarke; Daniel Finkelstein (The Times); Simon Jenkins (The Guardian & Sunday Times); John Lloyd (Financial Times) and Suzanne Moore (Mail on Sunday) and brought together over 150 leading business executives, political influencers, journalists and media commentators to examine in detail the power that journalists and commentators have when it comes to shaping political outcomes and public opinion.

Click here to download an extract of the report.

Click here to listen to the podcast from the debate.