We’re told the bell tolls for journalism. Newspaper circulation is down across the globe, newsroom floors are running with the blood of retrenched journalists, the GFC demolished advertising revenues and now a lot of people, some would argue the majority, have turned to aggregated online stories to get their news.
Media bosses are bemoaning the death of quality, investigative journalism and denouncing the rise of citizen journalism – the idea that anyone in the right place, at the right time with a camera phone can become a journalist, thereby negating the need for trained, professional reporters. In Melbourne, even the Age has indefinitely suspended its cadetship program, one fact that’s leaving a lot of journalism students uncertain about a future that when they began their studies, looked rather bright.
