6+1 Proposals for Journalism

In 2003, Bowman and Willis wrote that “journalism is in the process of redefining itself, adjusting to the disruptive forces surrounding it”. Almost two decades later, the discussion about journalism and its future has not shifted as much as one would have expected. Between then and now, there have been massive changes in the media landscape and great technological developments – financial crises and the emergence of social media platforms, to name a few examples.

It could be argued that we still share the same concerns. This book is essentially a dialogue – each chapter contributes to this dialogue, by highlighting the crisis elements and by pointing to direct proposals. The idea for the present volume emerged through a respective conference – the proposals presented in this book are the direct result of the Advanced Media Institute’s Conference in Thessaloniki, Greece, entitled “Media, Polis, Agora: Journalism & Communication in the Digital Era” (AMIRetreat2018), held in September 2018.

The outcome of the intensive and fruitful collaboration between academics and media professionals was the identification of seven key areas that pose obstacles to journalism’s progression, but also indicate the steps we need to take to safeguard and enhance journalism. These areas vary from the current employment conditions and the dominance of “web giants” over crowdfunding, the closer collaboration of professionals and academia, the need to advance our media literacy efforts, and of course, elements of media regulation (as for example, the institution of “Media Ombudsman”).

The starting point for the book is the Greek context. However, the book goes beyond Greece alone. In this context Greece is regarded as part of an international journalistic context that resides within to the crisis narrative, the new opportunities and the proposed solutions. Greece offers an interesting point of departure not only because the financial crisis was/is evidently interlinked to the journalistic one, but also because the manifestations of this crisis were/are substantial and widespread across various societal layers.

Therefore, it arguably serves as an example that indicates tendencies in other countries. The book is structured into 7 proposals, and each proposal includes two parts: one that discusses the topic through the “Greek prism” and one that provides a perspective of the topic as exemplified by another European country. Each proposal also puts forward two perspectives: an academic perspective and a professional perspective.