Paul Mason (journalist)

Paul Mason (born 23 January 1960) is the Economics editor of "BBC's Newsnight" and author of the book "Live Working or Die Fighting: How the Working Class Went Global"

Early life

Mason was born in Leigh, Greater Manchester. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/3094397.stm Paul Mason] , "BBC Newsnight"] His father, John Mason (1927-1986), was a lorry driver for Ward & Goldstone Ltd. His mother, Julia (nee Lewis, b. 1935) was headmistress of St Margaret Mary's Primary School, Hindley Green. Mason was educated at St Joseph's RC Primary School in Leigh until 1971;Fact|date=January 2008 Thornleigh Salesian College, Bolton until 1978. He graduated from the University of Sheffield in 1981 and trained as a music teacher at London University Institute of Education, after which he undertook postgraduate research in the music department at Sheffield University until 1984.

Career

Musician

Mason lived in Leicester from 1982 - 1988, working as a music teacher, special needs teacher,Fact|date=January 2008 and lecturer in music at Loughborough University. Mason wrote the music for Tony Stephens' "With the Sun on Our Backs" (1985), a play about the miners' strike produced by Utility Theatre. While Musical Director of the Leicester Phoenix Theatre, co-wrote the children's musical "The Third Class Genie" (1986) with Robert Leeson.Fact|date=January 2008

Journalist

He has lived in London since 1988, where, after 1991 he became a freelance journalist. From 1995 to 2001 he worked for Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier, on titles including Contract Journal [ [http://www.contractjournal.com/Articles/1997/04/09/23367/no-headline.html [No headline. - 09/04/1997 - Contract Journal ] ] , Community CareFact|date=January 2008 and "Computer Weekly", on which he was deputy editor. During the dotcom boom Mason launched E-Business Review and was consulting editor for the launch of CW360.com. He also contributed articles to the "Daily Express" and the "Mail on Sunday".

In August 2001, Mason joined "BBC Newsnight" as business correspondent. His first live appearance on Newsnight was on 11 September 2001.

In May 2007, Mason's book "Live Working or Die Fighting: How the working class went global" was published by Harvill Secker. The book was longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award on 24 August 2007. In June 2007 Mason presented "Spinning Yarns", a four-part series on the history of the cotton industry for BBC Radio Four.

Awards

He won the Wincott Prize for Business Journalism in 2003, [ [http://www.ippr.org/podcasts/ Podcasts] : [Institute of Public Policy Research] ] the Workworld Broadcaster of the Year in 2004 and the Diageo African Business Reporting Award in 2007. His report on the social movements behind Bolivian president Evo Morales was cited when Newsnight was awarded the Orwell Prize (2007).

Personal life

Mason is "father of the chapel" for the National Union of Journalists on "BBC Newsnight". He is a supporter of Leigh RLFC and Manchester United F.C.. He is married to Jane Bruton.Fact|date=January 2008 He has spoken on behalf of the Trotskyist organisation Workers Power, [" [http://www.cpgb.org.uk/worker/390/greenwich.html Call for party grows] ", "Weekly Worker", 28 June 2001] of which he was previously a member.

Cyberspace

In the run up to the 2005 G8 Gleneagles conference, Mason was one of the first journalists at the BBC to be permitted to write a blog. His blog "Idle Scrawl" was later incorporated into Newsnight's "Talk About Newsnight" blog. Thereafter, together with Jeremy Paxman, he became the first person on UK television to broadcast from within the online virtual world Second Life, where he has an avatar also named Paul Mason.

Works

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References

External links

* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/default.stm Official website of BBC's "Newsnight" programme]
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/3094397.stm Paul Mason bio on BBC website]
* [http://www.liveworkingordiefighting.co.uk/ Website of Live Working or Die Fighting]