The chill winds blow through the hallowed halls of journalism ...

Anyone who has followed my Twitter stream (@bhowarth) will know that I attended the Walkley Awards in Melbourne last week as a guest of the organisation's recently-appointed web developer, August. It's the second time that I've been to the Walkleys - the first time was earlier this decade when I was still working at BRW, and my colleague Nick Tabakoff took out an award for his expose that effectively destroyed the local career of former Solution 6 CEO Christie Tyler.

The thing I noticed this year most of all was the seige mentality that prevailed amongst the various speeches given through the evening. Surprising really when you consider that the one area that is showing signs of growth - online reporting - was not represented. The mood was best summed up in a piece on Crikey today, written by Margaret Simons, in this paragraph:

But amongst all the alcohol fueled bonhomie, back slapping and back stabbing, this year’s Walkley Awards were the first when you could really feel the chill of the winds sweeping through journalism.

You can read the full piece by clicking here.

As someone who makes a living as a journalist, it's not a pleasant sensation. As much as I've tried to adapt (and a good portion of my income comes from online sources), the big question for me personally is whether I am adapting quickly enough, and whether or not the dollars will be there to make my efforts worthwhile in the long run. For now I am convinved they are, but I'm not sure that the same can be said for all of my colleagues. I met a number who have been affected by recent retrenchments at Fairfax and PBL - there are only so many 'traditional' jobs to go around, and it seems that more chairs are being pulled away every time the music stops.

So it seems based on last Thursday's event that the higher echelons of journalism are aware of what's going on (and the old union has been active in running sessions discussing the future of journalism in the face of cost cutting and social media), but seem perplexed in terms of what to do about it. Considering that the Walkleys do not even acknowledge the existing of digital media, let alone reward its creators, it troubles me that the 'us versus the upstarts' mentality may prevail. Online journalism and social media need to be brought into the fold quickly so that both camps can learn from the other.  The alternative is that journalism evolves in the direction of ultra-fast reporting that has no time for the disciplines of investigation and analysis that have been the hallmarks of quality traditional media. At the same time, traditional media needs to accelerate its own adaptation lest it find it find itself tumbling away into obscurity (and yes, I accept that there are exceptions to this generalisation on both sides).

Comments

[Renai LeMay]

I've always been confused by the "us vs them" mentality re: digital media. Yes, it's different, but the online medium offers the professional journalist so many creative opportunities, especially when it comes to speed and multimedia, not to mention interaction with readers, I don't see why people ignore it.

Renai
News Editor
ZDNet.com.au

[Bob Hughes]

Rupert Murdoch got it right in his recent Boyer lectures, when he complained about entrenched backward looking elements in newsrooms.