The media landscape is in constant flux and, as the news industry is acutely aware, it can be difficult to imagine how that landscape will look ten years - or even a month - from now. So where do journalists fit in the grand scheme of things? What is their role as new media emerge and begin to dominate the world of news?

The Nouvelles Pratiques du Journalisme conference panel, moderated by Frederic FiIloux, editor of Monday Note, and featuring Jean-Marie Columbani, founder of Slate; Alice Antheaume of Sciences Politiques Journalism School; Jean-Marc Manach of OWNI; Pascale Robert -Diard of Le Monde; Thibaud Vuitton of France Television and Madhav Chinnappa from Google discussed the challenges facing news media and journalists in this period of disruption.

Digital media are revolutionising the way people consume news and over the past half a decade, the news industry has had to adapt to counter the disruption caused by social media and the mobile web. The relationship between new media and legacy media is one that can feel like a complete juxtaposition in attitudes. Jean-Marie Columbani observed that online culture "is a nascent culture", one which is still forming, therefore online organisations pay close attention to its development. Columbani stated that journalistic and economic logic differs between traditional newspapers in America and his company Slate.

One of the most fundamental differences between legacy media organisations and younger start-ups is their attitude towards innovation. Chinnappa, from Google, stated that start-ups such as Zite are good at innovation - but, as Filloux pointed out, Zite was not a journalism-driven initiative, but a technology start-up. "Big companies", like established news organisations are less inclined to innovate. Chinnappa argued. Interestingly, Zite was recently acquired by CNN - but does that mean that CNN's culture will change? Will it adopt a more innovative approach through incorporating this younger start-up?

Colombani attested to the importance to recognising the significance of the "fundamental revolution of the net ", which has caused traditional journalism to lose its monopoly over information; it is not 19th century anymore. "Classic Journalism" is not convinced that it needs to overhaul its culture, according to the Slate founder, hence innovation needs to come from outside, as was the case with the CNN acquisition of Zite.

While these news organisations are attempting to adapt to the changes unfolding around them, what is the role of the journalist within these companies? May people would argue that the role of the journalist is to interpret the masses of information available via the web and make sense of it for the audience. Vuitton said 'aggregation' is a term for the media not for journalism. It was upheld by some members of the panel that the speciality of the written press was investing in and producing pieces of original journalism, as opposed to the culture of replication and redistribution that can be found online.

The concept of 'journalism' and a 'journalist' is becoming ever more all encompassing. As Robert-Diard stated, now there are "different kinds of journalists" in different kinds of organisations "not only in written press". Designers, coders and filmmakers are all part of the journalistic trade. As Gabriel Dance stated in an earlier session, a journalist is "anyone who wants to tell a story". So, in attempting to decide the role of journalists in a profession that is being forced to innovate constantly, it may be worth reconsidering the way we define the word 'journalist' in the most basic sense.

CORRECTION: Frederic Filloux was wrongly stated as an employee of AFP. He is, in fact, the editor of the site Monday Note.