OLD VALUES, NEW MEDIA Journalism role perceptions in a changing world

More than a decade after the adoption of the Internet by news organisations and newsrooms, journalism is still coming to terms with its implications. It offers a novel platform for reaching audiences and has become a part of newsgathering and news-processing routines. But, as the Net develops in sometimes unpredictable directions, it raises an array of new questions about practices and values, some of which go to the declared defining essentials of journalism. The new media ecology, with its additional agendas of interactivity, democracy, multimediality, and with a new domain of bloggers and citizen reporters, presents a set of issues and opportunities that extend beyond familiar boundaries. European journalists in 11 countries were asked, in an informed survey, to respond to questions concerning these developments. The results elaborate some of the tensions between "traditional'' journalism, rooted in "old'' media, and the new perceptions, expectations and pressures of digital journalism in an increasingly inter-connected media system.