Consumption and contribution in the digital era

Abstract

This chapter completes the consideration of the digital and finishes by assessing where the practice of journalism sits now in relation to its own discursive and definitional parameters as well as from the perspective of its practitioners. It begins by reflecting on the diverse nature of contributors to journalism through history before looking at the extent to which the potential for contemporary consumers to act and participate in the construction of news on social media and well as through conventional news sites poses a threat to the continuation of an identifiable journalism profession. It looks at how news is now consumed and circulated by actors outside the confines of a professional core and what implications this has for professional journalists. It considers how journalism has tried to incorporate contributions and feedback from its audience as well as the ways in which journalists have continued to define their own professional territory and the distinctiveness of their contributions as well as their organisations’ brands. In considering how journalists have adapted to social media and novel platforms for news production and the generation of opinion, we consider what added value can journalists provide through the affordances of live-blogs and Twitter.