Although basic features of journalism have remained the same over the last decades,
the tasks journalists perform, the skills they need and the position they have within
news organizations have changed dramatically. Usually the focus in the discourse on
changes in journalism is on skills, especially on technical multi-media skills or
research skills. In this paper we focus on changes in professional roles of journalists,
arguing that these roles have changed fundamentally, leading to a new generation of
journalists. We distinguish between different trends in journalism. Journalism has
become more technical, ranging from editing video to programming. At the same
time, many journalists are now more ‘harvesters’ and ‘managers’ of information and
news instead of producers of news. Thirdly, journalists are expected to gather
information from citizens and social media, and edit and moderate user-contributions
as well. Lastly, many journalists are no longer employed by media but work as
freelancers or independent entrepreneurs. We track these trends and provide a detailed
description of developments with examples from job descriptions in the Netherlands.