The State of the Newsroom 2018: Structured/Unstructured is the fifth report of its kind to be published by the Wits Centre for Journalism, and chronicles the ups and downs of South Africa’s media industry together with a few deeper dives into specific issues.
For the first time this year, the report also includes a set of indicators on the state of the news media, as well as some opinion pieces on key issues.
A core theme is how the “industrial age” of journalism is shrinking, editor and lead researcher Alan Finlay says: “While something of what we know of as ‘the media’ will remain, a lot now feels unsettled. Will our media landscape look the same in 10 year’s time? What will remain, and what will change, what will shatter, and what will disappear entirely? We have called this issue of the report “structured/unstructured” to try and capture this uncertainty.”
This State of the Newsroom points to real shifts in the industry that suggest an on-going weakening of what is seen as the traditional newsroom. Newspaper circulation is still on its downward spiral, with a few titles looking as if they might not make it. Parallel to this, retrenchments in both broadcast and print remain a feature in 2018.
The annual report is an attempt to be academically rigorous, while also being accessible to a wider public.