What was your first job as a journalist?
Wildlife col 'Urban Fox' in a local newspaper (London Informer)
Have you ever used a typewriter?
No, only a word processor
How is social media changing news?
Buggering it about. That's good and bad. Mainly the latter as no one bothers to check any corrections as confirmation bias has already flown.
Who's your favorite fictional journalist?
Private Eye's muckraker now known as bio-waste spreader
What does it mean to be a journalist?
Being curious, informed, at times contrarian in asking unexpected questions to tease out the broader picture, expose competing narratives.
What's the funniest news-related #hashtag you've seen?
How do you prefer to be pitched on stories?
An outsider view or unaffiliated analysis
What tools and software do you use to do your job?
face-to-face for moderating and creating space for dialogue while reading body language. (90sec vlogs via smartphone (without selfie-stick)
What's your favorite social network?
LinkedIn or BlueSky - though it's harder to engage on critical thinking on most social networks
Who do you wish followed you?
As someone told me 'Rob, you think you're shouting in the desert but they are listening in the villages' So anyone can follow and challenge.
Why did you become a journalist?
A dearth of common ground over complex intrinsically related issues pulled me with an anti-groupthink curiosity
Did you work for your high school newspaper? If so, what did you do there?
Nope
What story are you most proud of writing or working on?
Langholm Moor - a partnership of conservation, shooting, wildlife, science, politics - where nothing was obvious!
What advice can you offer to aspiring journalists?
Be damn curious, avoid obvious groupthink, disrupt the norm
When's the best time to pitch you?
Early morning
What's the best pitch you ever got?
Interviewing Michael Gove as Defra Secretary of State and George Monbiot. Separately, though together would have been fun!
What's the worst pitch you ever got?
"What's the point of wildlife?" for BBC Countryfile Magazine
What's your favorite drink?
Red wine - as, on your desert island, you could view it as a fruit juice first thing or a 'tonic' at the end of the day.
When you're not at a computer, where are you most likely to be?
Outdoors, walking on the hill
Aside from your own, what's your favorite publication to read?
The Economist - you never know who wrote the piece and the obits are a breathtakingly brilliant masterclass of writing style!
What's the most common misperception about your beat?
To quote F Scott Fitzgerald the “ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function”
