Now a handful of massive global media organisations dominate the world stage. According to Schultz the Fourth Estate ideal has been eroded by the commercial and business interests of media owners like Rupert Murdoch and Kerry Packer. She argues the ideal is almost dead and should be revived. If you talk to journalists, they will tell you their raison d'etre is to inform the public about what's happening in society. In 1996 Prof John Henningham surveyed more than 1000 Australian journalists and found they had many characteristics in common.
Australian journalists are more likely to be men than women by a factor of two to one.
They are mostly ambivalent about religion - most don't practice a religion. Most come from homes where the main breadwinner was employed in a white-collar job . Although journalism students are now more likely to be female, women journalists remain underrepresented in senior management roles in media organisations. The problem with these demographics is that journalists, as the gatekeepers to news and information, bring their own biases and prejudices with them to news rooms. Things that don't interest journalists tend not to be published.