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This chapter presents a snapshot of the main characteristics of 21st-century journalism, examining changes in its organization, practice, and performance. It also contributes to the book’s main themes by outlining links between structural changes in the news industries and shifts in journalists’ activities, attitudes, and self-perceptions. Of particular concern is the impact of the internet and more generally of digitalization. This is considered in relation to traditional print media, television, radio and also with regard to journalists’ practices, which have undergone dramatic, rapid change and disruption. The chapter then focusses on journalistic content, where according to some critics, traditional journalistic standards have been weakened by the growing ascendancy of entertainment values and by the financial need for advertising revenue. Finally, the chapter discusses identity and how journalists’ traditional concepts of self-identity have responded to the pressures described previously.

The chapter introduces the selection of seven English newspapers owned by Indians to be scrutinized in the book’s final two chapters. It describes the history of the newspapers, ownerships, political bias as well as the change of format and layout. The latter is of particular importance as these changes indicate the massive influence telegraphic news had on a newspaper’s graphic design and formatting. Telegraphic news deeply transformed the outer appearance and the contents of newspapers, although not every newspaper under consideration was transformed in the same way. Also, as a dependent annexe to the globally operating Reuters’ news agency, Indian news agencies are taken into consideration in their attempt to gain access to local, regional, and national news production. It is in this context that telegraphic reporting in India, as elsewhere in the world, had a profound impact on the way news was produced and articles written by an emerging new professional: the journalist.

Since their emergence in 2011, mobile chat applications have gained massive user bases and given enterprising reporters a new challenge: verify truth in a set of fragmented public and private digital conversations involving journalists and audiences. This fragmentation fosters an intimacy and frankness among participants that, for journalists privy to these conversations, can deepen reporting and enhance storytelling. However, the closed nature of so many conversations means that notions of truth are highly contextual. For those who wish for a shared set of facts, chat apps pose troubling questions, such as: How can widely held truths endure as a rapidly growing form of communication encourages further political polarization and fragmentation of conversations, interpretations, and notions of truth? This chapter explores these questions, drawing on a study of 30+ interviews with reporters at major news organizations, examining the ways that reporters have used chat apps to verify claims in coverage of political unrest.