SCOTLAND’S media needs a radical democratic transformation in order to survive and prosper, journalists and politicians said this weekend.

At a Morning Star fringe meeting at Scottish Labour conference, Midlothian MP and former journalist Danielle Rowley highlighted the “huge, huge decline in local papers and local journalists.”

She said it was far harder for politicians both to get their message out and to be held to account because of staffing cuts at newspapers.

“There’s no media outlet to talk to about the issues and to talk about the solutions,” she said.

The event on Saturday night was supported by the National Union of Journalists’ Glasgow branch along with Unite Scotland.

Eve Livingston, a Glasgow-based freelance journalist who was working for the Star over Scottish Labour conference, stressed the need for journalism to be more representative of society.

She said this would be crucial to rebuilding trust in the media and promoting investigative work in an age where news no longer has the same premium.

Socialist journalist David Jamieson, a reporter at the CommonSpace website, highlighted the dominance of right-wing titles and said the Morning Star stands alone as the only paper supportive of Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour leadership.

He also stated: “There are few industries that have witnessed as dramatic a decline. There are far, far fewer journalists than there were 15 years ago. Aggregation has largely replaced original reporting.”

And highlighting the expansion of PR in the face of this, Mr Jamieson argued: “Capitalism is literally hiring more people to undermine the truth than to seek it out.”

Unite Scotland chairman John Gillespie praised the Star’s unique role in the media, and Tribune editor Ronan Burtenshaw invoked Irish Republican and socialist leader James Connolly’s argument that a socialist press distinct from liberal publications was essential to reshaping society.

Star Scotland editor Conrad Landin said: “The Morning Star is proud to be the paper of the labour movement — just as the other papers are not so proud to be papers of capital.”

He praised the intentions of the BBC’s local democracy reporters scheme, which funds journalists at local papers to cover council meetings — but called on media reform campaigners to “remain vigilant” over the fact that this was essentially subsidising profit-hungry newspaper groups.

Labour peer Pauline Bryan praised the expansion of the Star’s reach and coverage in Scotland over the past year, and noted Labour Party founder Keir Hardie’s move into journalism from mining.

“Keir Hardie knew you had to get [your message] out to people,” she concluded.