What is journalism? How does it exist and why? How does journalism define itself and in what ways can we make use of looking theoretically at the practice of it?

These were the central themes of our workshop; Theoretical Models as Mass Media Practice held at the ‘Minding the Gap’ conference at Reuters Institute in May 2007, from which this collection of papers has been selected. As with the other workshops during the conference, the majority of our panellists were themselves once media practitioners. It is my opinion that this background and inside knowledge of the field in itself can provide an exceptional framework for understanding the workings of mass media while helping the press reflect over these workings too. In a time of change for the journalistic profession, when media convergence is growing; the media is marked by deregulation and fewer journalists are being asked to do more, there is an increased need for the profession to get involved in debating the core values of its existence.