Local Journalism in the New Media Landscape: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

The practice of local journalism is changing alongside with the increase of new me­dia usage among the audiences and the people working in the media industries.  The deve­lop­ment of new media landscape, with the increasing use of digital/online media, presents the local journalism with new opportunities and challenges, both in the consumption as well as the production of the local media contents.  This paper attempts to describe how the practices of journalism have been impacted by the growing use of new media in the local media industries, especially in the city of Surakarta. The use of new media in local journalism has created multi-media and multi-platform news production and distribution, more demand for new skills from the journalist – which in turn will demand new approach in the journalism education/training, and new ethical issues to be addressed.