Medianet: Journalists Now Dependent On Press Releases, No Time To “Hunt” Stories

Side profile of a journalist typing on a typewriter
Sofia Geraghty
By Sofia Geraghty



The percentage of journalists using press releases has increased year-on-year to 86 per cent as Medianet claims “there is not enough time or resources to hunt independently for stories”.

In Medianet’s 2022 Australian Media landscape survey, Medianet said that journalists are now “dependent” on press releases as the figure increased to 86 per cent compared to 82 per cent in 2021 and 2020. 

The anonymous survey was conducted between October and November 2022 and includes the views of  1,023 journalists. 

The survey found that a third of male journalists (31 per cent) earn more than $100,000 per year, compared to 20 per cent of female journalists. 

This was a narrowing of the gender pay gap on last year when 16 per cent of female journalists earned above $100,000. 

Of those from an ethnic minority background (anyone other than Australian non-Indigenous, New Zealander, English, Scottish or Irish) 22 per cent said they had experienced racial discrimination, prejudice or abuse as part of their media work. 

Half of the journalists (49 per cent) said they had withheld from publishing information that they knew to be true because of fear of defamation. 

And 41 per cent of journalists responded that they believed that defamation laws in Australia are too strict in relation to the media.

Sadly, nearly half of the respondents (46 per cent) said they had experienced abuse or harassment because of their profession and work in the media.

Money, changes in workload, uncertainty about the future, and mental health were the most common challenges for journalists in 2022.  The percentage of respondents who reported money to be one of their greatest challenges of the year doubled in 2022.

Only 2 per cent of journalists responded that they did not feel there had been any threats to public interest journalism in 2022. 

Facebook remains the most used social media/communication platform for journalists professionally but professional use of LinkedIn has been increasing for the past three years.

The percentage of respondents who reported money to be one of their greatest challenges of the year doubled in 2022 (36 per cent in 2022 compared to 18 per cent in 2021). 

Industry and professional contacts remain the top story source for journalists (used by 90 per cent of respondents). 

There have also been significant increases in the percentage of journalists using the general public, PR agencies and publicists, other news media, social media, journals or peer-reviewed articles and official documents to source stories.  

Almost all surveyed journalists (97 per cent) use social media in their media work, with 76 per cent using it specifically to source stories. Facebook remains the most used social media/communication platform for journalists professionally, followed by Twitter, Instagram then LinkedIn.

Read the full report here.




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