REVIEW: Some bright spots in the gloom

Abstract

Review of: Australian Journalism Today, edited by Matthew Ricketson. Melbourne: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. 258pp. ISBN 9781420256727.

According to this collection of essays, Australian journalism is in a parlous state, beset by public mistrust, new demands of technology, the insidious influence of public relations and the greed and short-sightedness of newspaper proprietors. We have been here before, of course, and journalists and good reporting have managed to survive, but the challenges are bigger than they have been in the past. Neither have journalists had to contend with quite such a lack of acknowledgement of their professional status.