Reporting in the ‘new media’ environment : how today’s television Journalists are recycling work practices of the past

The issue of whether the practice of journalism for new mobile platforms and round-the-clock delivery represents a sharp break with the past or an adaptation of existing practices to meet new circumstances, remains unresolved within the study of Australian journalism. Some analysts see the contemporary news environment as forcing a revolutionary change in professional practice. In television news, for example, this has seen newsrooms addressing the challenges of new competition and reduced budgets by using associated online sites to present first versions of stories, requiring reporters to do more of the production work and more of their work in a ‘live’ environment while also drawing on the public for more of the material from which to generate news. However, the idea that journalism is undergoing a revolutionary shift in practice may owe its appeal, in part, to the relative dearth of historical analysis of work practices within Australian journalism in general, and broadcast journalism in particular. While some practices may, in fact, represent something new occasioned by changes in news media delivery others are more evolutionary and, in some ways, the skills required of journalists working in the ‘new media’ environment echo those required in a very different media environment. Drawing on archival research into television news in Australia, the objective is to compare the nature of work required of television journalists in the current mobile platform and 24-hour delivery markets with those required during a period of change in Australian television journalism in the early 1970s. These changes illustrate that, in the news media, ‘the need for speed’ applies to every era in its own way. In the era of mobile communication, several interrelated factors have combined to create a changing working environment for television journalists. These factors may be broadly aggregated into four groups, consisting of (a) production technologies, (b) distribution technologies, (c) economic restraints and (d) changing audience tastes and expectations. Among the production technologies that have changed journalistic practice we may include the proliferation of satellite and microwave links, mobile phones, the ability to deliver text, video and audio to the newsroom via the web, ‘user-friendly’ lightweight video cameras, and desktop video editing, all of which have both changed the work that journalists themselves undertake and also made it easier for non-journalists to take a role in news production. The delivery technologies include computers, mobile phones and other portable platforms. Of greatest significance is that these technologies offer both 24-hour delivery and greater ease of access than scheduled broadcast news.