Almost 200 journalism outlets closed, decreased their service, ended print editions, or merged with other newsrooms between January 2019 and Februrary 2021, accelerated by the COVID-19 crisis. Regional news outlets were among the hardest hit, intensifying calls for effective government policy and industry interventions to bolster the sector. Although there is a well-established tradition of local and regional journalistic role performance scholarship, few studies in an Australian context have taken a multiplatform approach, investigating the perceptions of TV, radio, online news, and print journalists. To help address this gap, this paper draws on survey data of 307 regional Australian journalists and 31 in-depth interviews. Our analysis reveals differences in the way regional reporters understand and narrate their roles, highlighting important distinctions between media platforms that need to be considered in contemporary debates about the sustainability of Australian regional journalism.

中文翻译：

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动荡时期澳大利亚地区记者的角色认知

2019 年 1 月至 2021 年 2 月期间，近 200 家新闻机构关闭、减少服务、终止印刷版或与其他新闻编辑室合并，这在 COVID-19 危机的影响下加速。地区性新闻媒体受到的打击最为严重，呼吁采取有效的政府政策和行业干预措施来支持该行业。尽管地方和区域新闻角色绩效奖学金的传统已经确立，但在澳大利亚，很少有研究采用多平台方法，调查电视、广播、在线新闻和印刷记者的看法。为了帮助解决这一差距，本文利用了 307 名澳大利亚地区记者的调查数据和 31 次深度访谈。我们的分析揭示了地区记者理解和叙述其角色的方式的差异，