What we can learn from the breathless reporting on Davos last week

In the age of 24/7 news coverage, it sometimes seems like there’s never a quiet moment.

Stories are breaking every minute, and notifications of must-read news pop up on phones constantly.

This often belies the real state of affairs, which is that there are still days when a journalist will struggle to find something truly newsworthy.

So when an event like the World Economic Forum summit rolls around, it’s a gift to journalists, in a way. There are several big names in attendance, talking about the topics of the day – this year it was climate change and Brexit that dominated headlines from Davos – and with a mixture of subject matter, there should be something for everyone.

The only thing is, nothing really happens at the summit. Yes, the “global elite” all get together and talk about important ideas, but that’s about it. They talk. They don’t strike deals, or new alliances, sign treaties or otherwise take any real action.

That’s not to say that it isn’t worth reporting on what goes on in Davos. For instance, I think it’s important to note that, despite the green theme running through much of the agenda at the conference, many of the delegates travelled to and from the ski resort via private jet.

In a similar vein, the teenage climate change campaigner Greta Thunberg’s speech at the summit was well documented and rightly so. She is not afraid to take some of the most powerful people in the world to task over the gap between what they say and what they actually do. (Unfortunately, accusations of hypocrisy rarely faze titans of industry.)

However, a few days after the last private jets took off from Davos, it’s hard to think of many lasting consequences of this year’s summit. Yet the WEF and its annual flagship event dominated the news cycle for much of last week.

It’s almost a perfect microcosm of the way we produce and consume news nowadays. Sometimes events of vastly different levels of importance will be given what looks like equivalent weight, if we go by social media posts or push alerts.

It’s only by getting past the headline and reading the facts that you can decide for yourself whether it’s an important story or not. And it’s always worth remembering that one person’s important news might be ultra-light filler to another. After all, those CEOs jetting in and out of Davos see the same headlines about climate change as the rest of us.

Yours,

Caitlin Morrison
Business editor