Over the last few years I have attended a number of conferences, held internationally and in various cities around Australia, about the future of journalism.

In addition to my work as an academic, my experience as a working journalist has been important to the way I frame journalistic culture and my understanding of the limitations faced by those who work in it. While my professional experience enables me to recognise the utility of a model that focuses on conflict at the expense of complexity, I find myself sometimes questioning this journalistic practice, which is at odds with my personal politics. Over the last few years, I have found that it is not only the general public and activists but also mainstream journalists who have begun questioning conventional frameworks for analysing and reporting on politics and culture. A number of those journalists have moved their practice to blogs and other online media vehicles.

Until recently I was finding myself frustrated at the limits on what I could glean from the mainstream press or TV about issues and events shaping the world. The Australian society I moved through was not reflected in its mainstream media. Now I have myriad websites, blogs and other platforms through which to access news and current affairs.

In 2005, in his report to New York's Carnegie Corporation, US media consultant Merrill Brown said that through new media, including mobile phones and instant messaging, people are accessing and processing information in ways that