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