Blogger Paul Bradshaw has identified ten keys trends in journalism in the past decade.

For Bradshaw, the biggest change has been the increased involvement of the audience, which has morphed from the occasional letter into "something else entirely." New technology also has made communication between reader and media easier than ever before.

Another contributing factor to reader involvement is what Bradshaw terms "the rise of the amateur." The spread of affordable video cameras and camera-equipped mobile phones, coupled with online viral distribution, has put readers in a position to generate news. Media outlets have since realized the value of "user-generated content."  

The new focus on both "international" and "hyperlocal" markets has had an impact as well. Case in point: the Guardian US based readership is now on par with that of the New York Times. Conversly, Trinity Mirror's Teesside Gazette has launched news services geared towards individual postcodes. Services like Adrian Holovaty's Everyblock have also gotten in on the local craze.

Bradshaw points out that the web has forced journalists to step up their game. Everything is connected online, so readers can do their own research and quickly catch wire copy material or holes in stories.

Other important changes include:

-measurability in terms of web traffic and page views

-mapping and geotagging (such as Northcliffe's use of tagging for its ThisIs brand)

-advent of databates

- RSS

-disribution as part of a journalist's job description. As the newsstand is no longer the only point of distribution, a journalist's online activity, from social networking to blogging, is now part of the game

-increased use of multimedia, including video and podcasts. "Now print journalists are learning about white balance, and broadcast journalists are learning about local news," Bradshaw writes.

Source: Online Journalism Blog