ABSTRACT
This chapter explores what news organisations and those who work in them can do to secure their futures in a digitised media environment where their cultural authority and professional status are challenged as never before in the history of journalism. It argues for a response, from both institutions and individuals, on three levels. First, there needs to be an enhancement of the traditional sense-making, sorting-and-sifting, gatekeeping functions of journalism (Bardoel, 1996). Second, the performance of the information-gathering and date-management practices understood by the term objectivity (which I will define below as the range of ‘strategic rituals’ (Tuchman, 1972) underpinning the perception of truth and trust in journalism amongst audiences, readers and users) must be given greater visibility. And third, media organisations must maximise their enabling of user participation in professional production environments. This includes not just the facilitation of interactivity and the innovative management of user-generated content (UGC), but the incentivisation of user access to paid-for content through secure, convenient micro-payment and subscription tools which can recruit users and maximise their retention.
