WOODLAND HILLS : British Students of Journalism Blast Calif. Press

Ten British journalism students spending the semester at Pierce College say they now understand what is considered newsworthy by the American press--anything about O. J. Simpson.

Another maxim may well be: Ignore the rest of the world. For weeks now, they say, they’ve been scanning newspapers and television reports for any scrap of news from home, or any international news, mostly to no avail.

It’s as if, from the moment they touched down at LAX, the world outside California ceased to exist. “All the news is about O. J. and traffic,” said one of the students, Claire Gould.

“I mean, John Majors could be dead, and we wouldn’t know about it,” added another, Erica Gordon.

Otherwise, America is great, they said. And, conceded Beryl Muscroft, the O. J. saga does have its appeal. “To be quite honest, we’re getting as hooked as the rest of you,” she said.

The students, from Barnsley College in Yorkshire, were chosen from 50 applicants for the Pierce College program, which includes writing articles for the school newspaper, the Roundup. When they aren’t busy at their schoolwork, the students are caught up in a game of compare and contrast, fueled by their culture shock.

As student journalists, they are fascinated by the differences in the way news is handled in the two countries. For example, they told an interviewer, it’s easier to obtain information in America, especially from government agencies. They credit the Freedom of Information Act, which requires government agencies to release certain types of information upon demand.

In England, “they could say, ‘That’s confidential, you can’t have that,’ ” said another student, Chris Gallagher. “It might take you a very long legal process to get” the information.

How do they feel about the image of British reporters as gossipy types who like to dig up dirt on famous people such as Princess Di?

“We’ve heard a lot about ethics since we’ve been here,” said Muscroft. “People seem to think that the British press is unethical. But I’ve seen a lot of it here as well. And we are not protected by the First Amendment.”

English reporters are aggressive nonetheless, Gallagher said.

“In Britain, reporters have a tendency to generate their own news,” he said. “They dig dirt; they think it’s investigative reporting, but it isn’t by any sense.”

And what do the countries have in common?

Apparently, a fascination with the macabre. In England, people are riveted by the trial of a woman who is accused of helping her late husband, Frederick West, murder 12 women and girls, including West’s daughter. Their bodies were discovered in and around the couple’s Gloucester home. The British press has dubbed the house where West lived “The House of Horrors.”

“We got a fax from our journalism department at Barnsley,” said Muscroft. “It asked us to look in the American press to see if there was anything about the trial that was not in the English press. There was not a thing. We have been a little bit starved.”