ABSTRACT
Radical shifts in journalism are changing virtually every aspect of the gathering, reporting and reception of news. The pace, extent and significance of these developments have accelerated markedly since 2009, when the previous Future of Journalism Conference convened at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies. The factors prompting this radical and structural reshaping of journalism, which were analysed and discussed on that occasion, included: the continuing innovations in communication technologies; the harshly competitive and fragmenting markets for audiences and advertising revenues; dramatic reductions in the entry costs of some online outlets for news; the collapse of the traditional business model to resource journalism; an expansive role for social media as sources and drivers of news; dynamic changes in government media policy; as well as shifting audience requirements for news, the ways in which it is presented and, given the expansive number of (increasingly mobile) devices on which it is received, even the places and spaces where news is produced and consumed (Franklin, 2011, pp. 1–2; Peters, C., 2012). Each of these trends and developments continues to have significant implications for journalists’ jobs, their workplaces, products and perceptions of their professional roles, ethical judgements and day-to-day practice. They also pose significant challenges to the future funding of a sustainable, critical and high-"quality" democratic Journalism. The economic recession since 2007 has exacerbated these longerterm trends, heightened their consequences for journalism and increased the already "break-neck" speed of developments, prompting Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger to claim that journalism "as an industry, [is] collectively suffering from what deep-sea divers refer to as the bends" (Rusbridger, 2010).
