A new report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism provides a detailed breakdown of the state of the UK journalism industry, based on a representative survey of 1,130 UK journalists. Journalism.co.uk looks at the 10 key themes and revelations.

Big picture: Many of the diversity findings make for familiar reading. The average UK journalist is white (90 per cent), university educated (91 per cent), from a privileged socio-economic background (71 per cent), and left-leaning (77 per cent). That said, women represent half of the UK journalism industry (49 per cent male, one per cent gender non-conforming).

Key finding: The average age of the UK journalist is 45 (three years older than the working population).

So what? It suggests that the UK market is becoming less attractive to young professionals. But younger journalists are also much more likely to be women or ethnic minorities.

These groups may be "catching up" as new hiring policies are enforced, but the report has another take: age discrimination hits women and ethnic minorities harder, resulting in them quitting the profession earlier. There is a lack of supporting research behind this trend.

Big picture: The 2011 Leveson Inquiry was a significant moment in the history of British media, prompted by the News of the World phone hacking scandal and leading to a debate about the future of press regulation in the UK. In 2015, an overwhelming 94 per cent of journalists agreed that professional codes should always dictate ethics, but this industry opinion has fallen to 60 per cent in eight years. This suggests a move away from an absolute reliance on industry-wide standards. The question is, can we rely on our own judgement instead?

Key finding: Men and women tend to disagree on that point. More men (22 per cent) think that journalists should use their discretion on what is ethical than women (16 per cent). Women tend to support professional codes (72 per cent), more than men (64 per cent).

So what? This may not be a huge discrepancy, but it suggests that men and women make ethical decisions differently. This could have significant ripple effects when considering the diversity of positions held, as previously noted in how managerial positions are more likely to be held by men, and that freelancers are more likely to be women.

Women consistently demonstrate greater caution regarding privacy and information-gathering methods: they are more reluctant to publish personal materials of ordinary people (41 per cent) and powerful people (74 per cent), to publish confidential business or government documents (20 per cent), and refuse to pay for confidential information (60 per cent), all lower than their male colleagues.

Big picture: Journalists with permanent work contracts are falling (65 per cent, down from 74 per cent in 2015), as freelancers grow in number (28 per cent, up from 17 per cent in 2015). Half of journalists are members of unions (up eight percentage points from 2015), which are particularly useful for freelance journalists who are without formal employment........

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