‘Join us for all the developments’: Guardian Australia and the construction of journalistic identity in press gallery reporting

Abstract

The Federal Parliamentary Press Gallery has traditionally held a privileged position in Australian journalism, entrusted with two important democratic functions: providing citizens with political information and scrutinising the powerful. In the last decade, however, significant changes in the global media landscape have impacted the health of Australian political journalism and new spaces for news and information have emerged that challenge the Press Gallery’s authority. This article considers how a new entrant, Guardian Australia, operates in this space through analysis of its explicit discursive construction of its own role, authority and performance. It then maps how these discourses are mobilised in political coverage through a case study exploring the publication’s 2016 and 2017 federal budget coverage. The article argues that Guardian Australia’s self-construction allowed its press gallery and political journalists to reclaim their authoritative democratic role, in the face of competition and change, by embracing both tradition and innovation in its political journalism.