Regional and local media - always exposed to the vagaries of direct and indirect economic activity, population drift to larger centres and the cost/supply challenges in transport and infrastructure associated with remoteness and modest market size - is experiencing digital disruption on a greater and more sustained scale in proportion to ‘mainstream’ city-based media.

Australians have a trust issue with journalists. So researchers wanted to know: would audiences be more willing to trust if news media acted more like a friend? In May 2018, the Centre for Media Transition held four workshops in Sydney and Tamworth to ask Australians about their relationship with news media. The focus was on...

The Centre for Media Transition commissioned this bibliography to assess the current state of knowledge on public trust in journalism – including audience expectations and the role of journalists, platforms, social media and other online news sources – in Australia and throughout the world.

This study shows the landscape for legal disputes around reputation is changing, as the question ‘who is a publisher’ continues to evolve. It highlights the growing influence of social platforms and websites not affiliated with media companies as the source of legal disputes.