Book review: Journalism in the Digital Age: Theory and Practice for Broadcast, Print and Online Media, & Reporting in a Multimedia World

Herbert, John (2000) Journalism in the Digital Age: Theory and Practice for Broadcast, Print and Online Media, Focal Press, Boston. ISBN 0240515897. 349 pp. Alysen, Barbara; Sedorkin, Gail & Oakham, Mandy (2003) Reporting in a Multimedia World, Allen & Unwin, Sydney. ISBN 2003 1865089109 Pbk. 312pp Reviewed by Padma Iyer Journalism, like many vocational courses, is prone to the chicken-or-the-egg conundrum: does practice precede theory or does theory pre-exist for changes in practice? Historically, perhaps it could be argued that the bird that laid the egg out of which the chicken ultimately emerged wasn’t a species of fowl as we now know it at all, thus making it convenient for us to view journalistic theory as an evolutionary process which has dramatically transformed the original impulse. Without going too far back in time, and without sacrificing the relevance of a sharp focus on contemporary media, it could be observed that the mutually accommodating adaptability of theory and practice continues its relentless pace, leaving neither the practitioner nor the teacher any wiser as to who is the primary agent of change.