Journalism in times of blurring boundaries between journalism, PR and advertising

The focus of this study are the blurring boundaries between journalism, PR and advertising from the perspective of journalism. The results of 27 semi-structured interviews with journalists, journalists/content producers and former journalists in Austria show that the blurring boundaries are a fact that is unlikely to go away. The use of social media is the driving force, but the lack of financial and human resources in journalism are also reasons for this. The blurring boundaries are transforming journalism, partly even disrupting and raising the question of journalists’ self-concept. What is journalism and who is a journalist today are questions that are not easily answered anymore.