The future of radio news: BBC radio journalists on the brave new world in which they work

Radio listeners in the United Kingdom are increasingly using new digital platforms internet, mobile phone and podcasts to tune into their favourite and new radio stations. Digitisation has allowed radio to emerge from its box on the counter or in the dashboard and take flight across national borders and boundaries, across time and history, beyond streaming broadcasts, out of the house or car and into our pockets and headsets (Hilmes 2007). Changing technology has also meant that journalists have had to become multi-skilled and work across the spectrum of print, radio, TV and online. This article reports on a set of 27 interviews with current and former journalists of the national BBC radio newsroom and Radio 1, carried out in the summer of 2008. Despite the increased workload and the worries expressed by some about falling standards of language and content, the majority of those interviewed are overwhelmingly positive about the future of radio news.