Australia did not see much change regarding newsroom democracy in the last ten years. As in the 2011 MDM survey, interviewees did not refer to any written newsroom rules regarding the rights of journalists, nor are there newsroom councils in the selected media outlets.
However, in the various media companies, the Australian journalists union does have “house committees” of journalists meeting regularly to discuss industrial matters and professional and ethical issues. Most interviewees pointed to the news conferences – usually held twice daily in the print media and once daily in the broadcast media – as a forum for discussion and consultation. While all agreed that Australian newsrooms follow a hierarchical structure in which the editor is the boss, several mentioned that some editors work in more collegiate ways than others, depending on the journalist’s seniority and how much direction they need (Josephi, 2011).
