Drones, apparently, are the new way forward for journalism and reporting, according to the Telegraph's editor-in-chief Jason Seiken. They will be the latest tool in turning the newspaper group into a "digital-native, entertainment and news organisation."

Almost certainly enough to get the retired colonels choking over their marmalade, and definitely food for thought for NUJ members gathering in Eastbourne, where we kicked off our delegate meeting with an event looking at the future of journalism.

Drones? Having looked at the range of motions to be discussed at our conference, torpedoes would be a more apt instrument - it feels as if journalists and journalism have been torpedoed.

Since our last policy-making conference 18 months ago, there has been no let-up to job losses and title closures - Johnston Press has shed nearly 1,600 staff in two years.

Newspapers are getting rid of staff photographers, they are closing their town-centre offices and reporters are expected to work from their cars.

The solution, according to their owners, is to fill local papers with "reader-generated‚" stories. David Montgomery's Local World group has gone as far as giving the green light for police to publish their press releases and propaganda directly onto newspaper websites.

But readers will not be covering courts and council meetings and holding public officials to account. As one conference motion says: "When our courts dispense justice, justice requires to be seen to be done."

What makes me angry is that it isn't the world recession that's to blame for this - it has been years of newspaper groups being bled dry by greedy shareholders and overpaid executives.

It has been years of ill-thought-through acquisitions and a racking up of huge debts that have put my members out of work and local democracy at risk because reporters are too stretched to do a proper job.

Yet there is still a lot to celebrate in journalism.

The press has exposed the hypocrisy of former culture secretary Maria Miller, the antics of the Co-op's "crystal Methodist" Paul Flowers, exposed London's violent criminal gangs and the private companies and lobbyists buying access to Parliament and, at a local level, Preston's hidden world of the homeless, food banks, pawn shops and loan sharks.

Newspapers provide a fantastic service for their readers. We have The Guardian to thank for publishing Edward Snowden's leaks, which revealed mass surveillance programmes by the US National Security Agency and its collusion with GCHQ, despite intimidation by the government.

The NUJ is fully supporting those journalists who are exposing the extent of the surveillance society we now live in.

Comedian and NUJ member Mark Thomas, who is performing a gig during conference, including material based on his experience of finding himself labelled a "domestic extremist" for exercising his democratic rights, is in good company.

Thanks to an ongoing NUJ campaign which will lead us to challenge this in the courts, there are many other NUJ members who have been put on this database alongside him.

Mark made a subject access request under the Data Protection Act asking for information held on him by the Metropolitan Police. He received 63 entries - a list of events attended, lectures given, panels attended and petitions supported.

He said: "One entry notes my presence at an anti-war demo, describing what I am wearing and what sort of bike I am riding."

The union is defending its members from attempts by the state to prevent them doing their job, by using legislation aimed at terrorists to stop and search them.

We are challenging police who attempt to confiscate journalists' material when they cover demonstrations.

There have been huge changes in the way journalists work, as publishers increasingly juggle print and digital and try to find out a way to make it pay.

It looks as if some newspapers are beginning to recruit again, albeit with lower paid digital posts than the print roles they replace.

There are new ventures, from the brash Buzzfeed to De Correspondent, the Dutch "online journalism platform" that came into being by crowd-funding, to eBay founder Pierre Omidyar's First Look Media, which claims to combine "technological innovation with the power of fearless reporting."

Sadly, many things remain the same. We are still in the position where three companies control some 70 per cent of daily national newspaper circulation and five groups account for more than 70 per cent of online news consumption.

The monoliths of Amazon, Google, YouTube and Facebook dominate globally. So, despite the seeming proliferation of websites and social media, power and influence is still concentrated in the hands of the few - the neoliberal billionaires and corporates.

Rupert Murdoch still controls a vast chunk of the British and Irish media and has appointed his son, Lachlan, as non-executive co-chairman of News Corp and 21st Century Fox. Meanwhile, rumours continue that he is about to launch another bid to take full control of BskyB.

According to a report from City University, there are more than three times as many male reporters as women, male experts outnumber female experts on the main news programmes by a ratio of four to one and women represent eight out of 10 presenters up to age 34 but only 7 per cent of those older.

We are still in a position where black minority ethnic staff in the media is one-third the level expected if proportionate to the share of working-age population.

So it is no surprise that, as our motions reveal, a lack of a diversified press means that many publications are still churning out negative and offensive stereotypes of women, transgender people, Roma, Gypsy and Travellers, benefit claimants and the other regular demons of the right-wing press.

Whatever the weather at the seaside, there will be many rays of sunshine at the NUJ's conference.

NUJ members will be debating the issues close to their hearts and celebrating the many victories which show collective action and being part of a union is the only way to fight for press freedom and fairness in the workplace.

Michelle Stanistreet is general secretary of the NUJ