As the primary mechanism through which journalistic labour is organized within a newsroom, news beats are an important feature of journalistic research. However, within the extensive research that examines beat reporting and its specialties, there is little that examines how the media covers itself -or the media beat. This study explores the media beat in Australia, examining how media covered two major media change events: the loss of jobs at newspaper publisher Fairfax in 2012 and the potential closure of wire service Australian Associated Press (AAP) in 2020. In analysing reporting of change events in journalism through a framework of metajournalistic discourse, and through an analysis of 200 items, this study found that 'media beat' journalists disclosed more information about the adverse effects of job loss and disruption on news supply in 2020 than in 2012. Intermedia competition often shaped disclosure, with journalists reporting on change in rival media companies. Yet, how 'media beat' reporters covered these changes varied in both years. The study also found that stakeholders from within and outside of media contribute to the development of change narratives in journalism by offering robust discussion of the implications of industry transformation for news quality and informed publics.

The 2014 UniPollWatch project brought together the journalism schools of four Victorian universities to cover the 2014 state election. The project was a unique experiment in political journalism education and provided valuable lessons about experiential learning, cross-campus cooperation and industry engagement. It also created a potential model for large reporting projects, involving journalism programmes at many universities working together to cover topics for the public’s benefit, while enabling students to gain real-world skills. The campuses were each designated eight key, mostly marginal, electorates and were encouraged to provide electorate and candidate profiles, as well as other news and information. The reports were compiled on one website, housed off campus and not identified as being associated with any one university. The project partnered with The Age newspaper and a number of student reports were co-published in the newspaper. The results of the project can be seen at . This article places UniPollWatch in the context of other large-scale student reporting projects in Australia and elsewhere and discusses how the project was structured and how it fostered authentic, real-world learning. It also addresses key challenges and discusses the major pedagogical and journalistic lessons gained from this groundbreaking project.

No abstract