Journalism’s Lost Generation: The Un-doing of U.S. Newspaper Newsrooms
Abstract
Journalism’s Lost Generation discusses how the changes in the industry not only indicate a newspaper crisis, but also a crisis of local communities, a loss of professional skills, and a void in institutional and community knowledge emanating from newsrooms. Reinardy’s thorough and opinionated take on the transition seen in newspaper newsrooms is coupled with an examination of the journalism industry today. This text also provides a broad view of the newspaper journalism being produced today, and those who are attempting to produce it.
... Around the world, mobility is becoming a distinctive feature of 21st century journalists. Along with the physical and virtual mobilities that mobile technologies allow and compel, news workers are moving in and out of their employment (Davidson and Meyers, 2016;Reinardy, 2016;Reyna, 2021), shifting their identities from organizational to individualized identities (Lassila-Merisalo, 2018;Nygren, 2011;Wiik, 2009), and experimenting with new organizational forms (Anderson et al., 2014;Deuze & Witschge, 2020;Hepp & Loosen, 2021). ...
... The studies addressing job satisfaction, burnout, and turnover in journalism partially fill this gap in research. Highlighting employment over practice, these works dissect how journalists involuntarily (O'Donnell, 2017;Örnebring & Möller, 2018;Ricketson et al., 2020) or voluntarily (Davidson and Meyers, 2016;Reinardy, 2016;Reyna, 2021) move in and out of their jobs. However important, these contributions have been developed through the frameworks of job satisfaction, burnout, and turnover. ...
... These studies invite us to rethink journalism beyond employment and organizations. Particularly the literature on job satisfaction, burnout, and turnover has given us elements to question the conception of journalists as static and fixed to the organizations that employ them, as it has revealed that they are moving in and out of them at an unusual pace (Davidson and Meyers, 2016;Reinardy, 2016;Reyna, 2021). By stressing labor mobility, this body of works overcomes the emphasis on job loss of previous research (Downie & Schudson, 2009;McChesney & Nichols, 2010;McChesney & Pickard, 2011). ...
As mobility is becoming a distinctive feature of 21st century journalists, this theoretical article proposes a mobility turn in journalism studies. Drawing on sociological perspectives on mobilities, individualization, and turnover, it puts forward a shift from the analysis of news workers as static and fixed to the organizations that employ them to their analysis as mobility agents. By stressing that their capacity to move is transforming their employment and identities, it invites contemporary journalism scholars to recognize how this bottom-up disruption is reshaping the institution, the organizations and the labor of journalism. Since journalism’s corporate and industrial structures have not fully crumbled, this article’s emphasis on labor, physical and virtual mobilities offers an alternative to current theorizations of change in journalism.
... Extensive research has been conducted examining "layoff survivors" who remained in newsrooms following seismic cuts, which resulted in 51% of newspaper journalism jobs being eliminated between 2008 and 2019 (Grieco, 2020). Previous studies have examined the rate of burnout among layoff survivors (Reinardy, 2011b(Reinardy, , 2013(Reinardy, , 2017, job satisfaction (Reinardy, 2009(Reinardy, , 2011a(Reinardy, , 2012(Reinardy, , 2017, the implications of additional workload following departures (Reinardy, 2017) and the quality of work being produced in downsized newsrooms (Reinardy, 2017). However, there has been limited research that examines what becomes of newspaper journalists who lost their jobs during that time. ...
... Extensive research has been conducted examining "layoff survivors" who remained in newsrooms following seismic cuts, which resulted in 51% of newspaper journalism jobs being eliminated between 2008 and 2019 (Grieco, 2020). Previous studies have examined the rate of burnout among layoff survivors (Reinardy, 2011b(Reinardy, , 2013(Reinardy, , 2017, job satisfaction (Reinardy, 2009(Reinardy, , 2011a(Reinardy, , 2012(Reinardy, , 2017, the implications of additional workload following departures (Reinardy, 2017) and the quality of work being produced in downsized newsrooms (Reinardy, 2017). However, there has been limited research that examines what becomes of newspaper journalists who lost their jobs during that time. ...
... Extensive research has been conducted examining "layoff survivors" who remained in newsrooms following seismic cuts, which resulted in 51% of newspaper journalism jobs being eliminated between 2008 and 2019 (Grieco, 2020). Previous studies have examined the rate of burnout among layoff survivors (Reinardy, 2011b(Reinardy, , 2013(Reinardy, , 2017, job satisfaction (Reinardy, 2009(Reinardy, , 2011a(Reinardy, , 2012(Reinardy, , 2017, the implications of additional workload following departures (Reinardy, 2017) and the quality of work being produced in downsized newsrooms (Reinardy, 2017). However, there has been limited research that examines what becomes of newspaper journalists who lost their jobs during that time. ...
Since 2008, U.S. newspaper jobs have been cut 51%, forcing journalists to seek new jobs and possibly careers. This study examined how journalists who lost their newspaper jobs (N = 306) navigated the emotional and physical toll of unemployment and adjusted to new work norms. Furthermore, this article examined how displaced journalists managed after returning to the workforce. Implications here might be indicators of what to expect for those who lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic.
... Why are journalists quitting journalism? In recent years, journalism scholars have shown a growing interest in turnover intentions and turnover (Davidson and Meyers 2016;Reinardy 2017;Smith 2015). Beyond the studies merely focused on job satisfaction (Beam 2006;Flores and Subervi 2014;Liu, Xiaoming, and Wen 2018), this corpus has helped to make visible a phenomenon that had been obscured by the wave of newsroom cuts and layoffs stemmed from the latest financial recession -voluntary turnover in journalism and has exposed the newspaper industry's loss of staff retention capacity. ...
... This sample allowed us to reach an information saturation as the interviewees' answers began to be reiterative beyond news organizations. For this article, we chose to focus on young reporters as previous studies have shown that they have the greatest propensity to voluntary turnover among journalists (Moss 1978;Reinardy 2017;Tharp 1991). All the interviews were recorded and transcribed. ...
... Previous studies have found that working conditions like salaries and schedules are not the main predictors of job dissatisfaction, burnout and turnover intentions in journalists (Beam 2006;Ireri 2016;Reinardy 2017). Instead, they have discovered that they are more prone to leave their jobs when they perceive a detour from professional ideals in their organizations. ...
The objective of this article is to analyze the relationship between job control, role strain and turnover in Mexican journalism. Understood as the workers' capacity to influence decision-making at an organizational level, job control is a concept that can help us predict turnover in this country's newspapers. The analysis is based on 64 in-depth interviews with journalists and former journalists from three northern Mexican states: Baja California, Nuevo Leon and Sonora. The main finding is that this region's news workers perceive and experience a deficit of job control as they feel that they cannot influence the definition of their own labor in terms of methods, tasks, quality, quantity, pace, schedules, supervision and salaries. As their job demands are high, this produces role strain, turnover intentions and turnover. By replacing the notion of professional autonomy with job control, this article examines how journalists respond to a perceived shortage of capacity to influence decision-making to try to improve our understanding of the changing nature of job continuity in the newspaper industry.
... The financial recession of the newspaper industry has contributed to the increase in attention to phenomena such as job satisfaction, burnout, and turnover from the international community of journalism scholars (Liu et al., 2018;MacDonald et al., 2016;Reinardy, 2017). Beyond the wave of closures and cutbacks that this process has caused, this body of works has shown that the decline in the economic activity of this productive sector can also manifest in the mental and physical health of journalists, as well as in their turnover intentions. ...
... In contrast to studies on job satisfaction, professional burnout, and staff turnover in journalism (Liu et al., 2018;MacDonald et al., 2016;Reinardy, 2017), this article focused on the organizational and spatial consequences of the recurrent recreation of turnover events. Although the study of the impact of this phenomenon on the professional trajectories of journalists-turned-former journalists is of great relevance to the field of journalism studies, it does not allow us to observe its expression in the configuration of the space traditionally occupied by journalists. ...
The objective of this article is to analyze the meaning of journalists' voluntary turnover in the configuration of the space that they have historically occupied: newsrooms. Drawing on Auge's concept of non-place and fieldwork in the leading newspapers of three northern Mexican states, it is discovered that the recurring recreation of turnover events transforms newsrooms from spaces of permanence into spaces of transition; that is, from places to non-places. The scope of this phenomenon transcends the entry and exit of a certain generation since it erodes the identitarian, relational and historical character of these spaces.
... La recesión financiera de la industria periodística ha contribuido a que la comunidad internacional de estudiosos del periodismo le preste mayor atención a fenómenos como la satisfacción laboral, el agotamiento profesional y la rotación de personal (Liu et al., 2018;MacDonald et al., 2016;Reinardy, 2017). Más allá de la ola de cierres y recortes que ha provocado este proceso, este cuerpo de trabajos ha mostrado que la disminución de la actividad económica de este sector productivo también se puede manifestar en la salud mental y física de los periodistas, así como en sus intenciones de renunciar al periodismo. ...
... Sin una base social, sin un carácter identitario, relacional e histórico, el futuro de las salas de redacción pende de un hilo. Reinardy, 2017), este trabajo se centró en las consecuencias organizacionales y espaciales de la recreación recurrente de los eventos de renuncia. Aunque el estudio del impacto de este fenómeno en las trayectorias profesionales de los periodistas tornados ex periodistas es de gran relevancia para el campo disciplinar de los estudios del periodismo, no nos permite observar su expresión en la configuración del espacio que tradicionalmente han ocupado los periodistas. ...
ABSTRACT – The objective of this article is to analyze the meaning of journalists’ voluntary turnover in the configuration of the space that they have historically occupied: newsrooms. Drawing on Auge’s concept of non-place and fieldwork in the leading newspapers of three northern Mexican states, it is discovered that the recurring recreation of turnover events transforms newsrooms from spaces of permanence into spaces of transition; that is, from places to non-places. The scope of this phenomenon transcends the entry and exit of a certain generation since it erodes the identitarian, relational and historical character of these spaces.
RESUMO – O objetivo deste artigo é analisar o significado da rotatividade voluntária dos jornalistas na configuração do espaço que historicamente ocuparam: as redações. Com base no conceito de Augé de não-lugar e do trabalho de campo realizado junto aos principais jornais de três estados do norte do México, conclui-se que a recorrência de eventos de demissão transforma as redações, de espaços de permanência em espaços de transição; ou seja, de lugares em não-lugares. O alcance deste fenômeno transcende a entrada e saída de uma determinada geração, pois corrói a identidade, o carácter relacional e histórico destes espaços.
RESUMEN – El objetivo de este artículo es analizar el significado de la rotación de personal voluntaria de los periodistas en la configuración del espacio que históricamente han ocupado: las salas de redacción. A partir del concepto de no lugar de Augé y trabajo de campo en los principales periódicos de tres estados del norte de México, se descubre que la recreación recurrente de los eventos de renuncia transforma a las redacciones de espacios de permanencia en espacios de transición; es decir, de lugares en no lugares. El alcance de este fenómeno trasciende la entrada y la salida de determinada generación, pues erosiona el carácter identitario, relacional e histórico de estos espacios.
... For newspaper newsroom survivors of layoffs and buyouts, the cuts created an environment where work demands were dramatically compounded, causing an increase in burnout and a decrease in job satisfaction (Reinardy 2017). Journalists who no longer worked in newspapers faced a different set of stressors. ...
... In the U.S., Reinardy has previously focused, through interviews and surveys, on journalists who have remained in newsrooms depleted by layoffs and rapid changes in work practices over the course of the last decade (Reinardy 2011;Reinardy and Greenwood 2011;Reinardy and Bacon 2014). Significantly, his recent characterization of contemporary news workers as a "lost generation" (Reinardy 2017) included journalists who have remained in their roles as well as those who have departed (Lee 2016). Older journalists, he contends, feel a sense of loss because of changes in newsroom culture, burnout, and the requirement to become proficient in new technologies. ...
Modeled on the “New Beats: A study of Australian Journalism Redundancies” project (2014–17), the purpose of this study was to gather data to examine how forced career change among U.S. newspaper journalists has affected their employment, professional identities, financial situations and perceptions of newspaper journalism. Drawing from a sample of about 350 former and current U.S. newspaper journalists who had lost their jobs, 47% said the career change did not affect their professional identity. Meanwhile, 36% still identify themselves as journalists, although many have not worked in their traditional newspaper job for several years. Similarities between this study and those conducted by the New Beats team include: About 30% of those who left newspapers returned to journalism jobs; the most common new career for the departed was in media communications or marketing; and Australian journalists and American journalists demonstrated a breadth of positive and negative emotions after leaving their media jobs. A common finding between this study and the Australian parent study is that journalists are actively negotiating their professional identity at a profoundly challenging moment, and that despite the role of structural forces, journalists are retaining at least some agency in how they define themselves.
... Journalism is seen in a state of flux, especially in North America and Europe (Carlson and Lewis, 2015;Deuze and Witschge, 2017). In past decades in Western literature, newsrooms were portrayed as steady centres where news and information were generated and distributed, staffed by journalists and editors whose years of knowledge and experience contributed to the quality of their product (Nikunen, 2014;Reinardy, 2016). While this was true for parts of the world, in particular those that shaped the image of journalism, it was not true globally. ...
... 149) This question in itself indicates that staying in the profession is not a given, and on all accounts, the task of remaining in the job has become a lot harder in the past decade. The transition from print to digital in news delivery has seen thousands of journalists retrenched in western countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia (Nel, 2010;O'Donnell et al., 2016;Reinardy, 2016). ...
Journalism has long been seen as a ‘young person’s occupation’. While the average age of journalists has increased from 35 to 39 in past 20 years, this article investigates what developments are covered, or covered up, by this average. The Worlds of Journalism Study data permit us to compare journalistic workforce ages with that of the general workforce, we juxtapose labour force median ages with journalists’ median ages in 60 countries. On realizing that age alone does not present experience, we also include years of professional experience as indicator for journalistic workforce profiling, and also analyse the journalistic and general workforce in age segments in 14 countries to arrive at a more detailed picture of age distribution. Our findings reaffirm that journalism is still an occupation for the young, and underscore the fact that in many countries journalists do not stay in the job for long. This leads us to contend that journalism lives with large numbers of young and relatively inexperienced workers, making it an easier transition into the digital age when journalism similarly is created from many diverse sources and with workers with varying levels of experience.
... D epuis que les études médiatiques ont entrepris un « labor turn » pour analyser l'ambivalence du travail au sein des industries culturelles (Hesmondhalgh, 2015), la littérature scientifique sur la souffrance au travail des journalistes s'est considérablement développée (Omidi, Dal Zotto et al., 2022). Plusieurs études ont en effet démontré que les conditions de travail de certains journalistes se sont dégradées depuis le début de la « crise des médias » (précarisation, intensification et accélération du travail, harcèlement), ce qui cause de multiples phénomènes de détresse psychologique comme des épisodes de surmenage, de dépression et même de suicide (Reinardy, 2016). Ce nouvel intérêt est d'ailleurs loin de se limiter au monde universitaire : de nombreux journalistes quittent eux-mêmes leur objectivité traditionnelle pour parler de ce phénomène, comme en témoignent les livres, articles ou balados produits sur le sujet 1 . ...
Cet article propose une analyse comparative de la souffrance au travail se produisant chez deux des plus grandes institutions médiatiques du Canada : le service public Radio-Canada et le conglomérat médiatique privé Québecor. Chez Radio-Canada, la souffrance au travail est étroitement associée à la montée de la gestion néolibérale, cette dernière accentuant le fossé entre le travail prescrit et le travail réel. Chez Québecor, la souffrance au travail est plutôt associée à la division extrême du travail mise en scène par le processus de convergence. Dans les deux cas, le collectif de travail est fragmenté en une lutte individuelle des journalistes entre eux, ce qui provoque une diminution du pouvoir d'agir. Abstract This article offers a comparative analysis of workplace suffering occurring in two of Canada's largest media institutions: the public service Radio-Canada (CBC) and the private media conglo-merate Québecor. At Radio-Canada, work suffering is closely associated with the rise of neoli-beral management, the latter accentuating the gap between prescribed work and real work. At Québecor, work suffering is rather associated with the extreme division of labor brought about by the convergence process. In both cases, the work collective is fragmented into an individual struggle between journalists, which causes a reduction of the empowerment.
... Even if journalists no longer have to personally travel "with the news" in the way William Howard Russell did, the speed of news production is still keenly felt. The politics of mobility perspective directs us to ask questions of the effect of this persistent internalization of speed as a core value on the health and mental well-being of practitioners (as in Burke and Matthiesen 2009;Reinardy 2009Reinardy , 2013Reinardy , 2016, and how the stress this causes is unequally distributed. For example, research indicates that women journalists feel more stress-induced negative affect and exhaustion than men do (Burke and Matthiesen 2009;Reinardy 2009). ...
This paper presents a theoretical reframing of journalism as a fundamentally mobile practice and outlines a research agenda for studying the politics of mobility in journalism that is centered on the everyday work of journalists. Our reframing draws on geographer Tim Cresswell’s work on the six components of a politics of mobility, which are motive force, speed, rhythm, route, experience, and friction (Cresswell, T. 2010. “Towards a Politics of Mobility.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 28 (1): 17–31). Cresswell poses six key questions about mobility, and rephrasing them to to fit journalists, we get why do journalists move?; how fast do journalists move?; according to what rhythm do journalists move?; what route(s) do journalists take?; how do journalists feel when they move?; and what stops/impedes the movement of journalists? These questions entail a research framework concerned with the different conditions of movement for different bodies, thus drawing attention to previously under-studied areas of journalism studies.
... Almost 1,800 newspapers (a very high percentage of them nondaily newspapers in rural and suburban areas) permanently shuttered between 2004 and 2019 (Abernathy, 2020) and the size of the U.S. newspaper workforce shrank by half between 2008 and 2020 (Grieco, 2020), mostly due to staff cuts at medium to large dailies. In a context where demoralized and exhausted journalists are having to do more with less (Reinardy, 2017;Siegelbaum & Thomas, 2016), the reconfiguration of journalistic routines is less a matter of negotiating the tension between tradition and change and more of finding ways of remaining economically viable. In the context of COVID-19, this shifts the emphasis away from how journalists routinize unexpected news events to how the unexpected shapes news routines. ...
This study examines COVID-19’s impact on the journalistic routines of U.S. community newspapers during the pandemic’s early months. Oral history interviews with 22 journalists and state newspaper association directors indicate weekly journalists discarded entrenched journalistic routines to better serve their communities during a crisis. However, structural issues with business models, internet access and legal definitions of newspapers hinder weeklies from fully embracing the digital era during a crisis and in the long term.
... As indicated by Hanusch, they found that, as students neared the end of their studies, journalism increasingly lost its lure, and public relations and corporate communications gained in attraction (Mellado and Hanusch 2017). These figures should also be seen in the light of academic institutions producing more journalism graduates than media institutions can absorb, especially as the industry is progressively contracting in the course of the twenty-first century (Zion et al, 2018;Reinardy 2016;Nygren 2016). ...
Journalism and communication courses almost unfailingly report a majority of female students such as the Journalism Students Around the Globe project (Mellado and Hanusch 2017 Mellado, Claudia, and Folker Hanusch. 2017. “The Socialization of Journalism into the Profession: Results from a Global Survey of Journalism Students.” Presentation at the 2017 ICA conference, San Diego. [Google Scholar]), which has led scholars to assume a connection between the rise in the numbers of female journalists and the growth of academic journalism education. But as yet no study has been carried out to test this assumption, which has led us to probe the strength of that presumed link. A comparison between two baseline studies, David H. Weaver’s The Global Journalist (1998) and Hanitzsch et al.’s Worlds of Journalism Study (2019) provides the longitudinal perspective on the numbers of female journalists and educational attainment. The Worlds of Journalism Study data set permits us to see the percentages of women journalists, and of those having specialized in journalism or communication and their ages. The Journalism Students Around the Globe project offers not only percentages of female students but also the students’ stated intention whether they want to become journalists. Based on this data, we examine 19 countries to test the link between academic journalism education and the increase in women journalists, concluding that tertiary journalism education has contributed to the rise in the number of female journalists.
... The results have been devastating, with a quarter of all newspapers closing in the past 15 years, leaving "news deserts" in their wake (Stites 2020), and newspapers shedding half of their employees between 2008 and 2020 (Grieco 2020). For the journalists that remained, this has meant having to increasingly do more with less, as ever-smaller, demoralized newsrooms struggle to keep pace with the demands imposed upon them (Siegelbaum and Thomas 2016;Reinardy 2017). This has only compounded during the COVID-19 pandemic as newspapers saw a 42% decline in advertising revenue in the second quarter of 2020 compared to 2019 (Barthel, Batsa, and Worden 2020). ...
This study explores how U.S. reporters, columnists, editors, and state newspaper associations explained to their audiences the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on journalism. Our examination of news articles and columns found an emphasis on explaining the industry’s financial struggles in the 2000s, the strain of the pandemic on journalistic routines, the historical legacies of newspapers, and journalism’s role in democracy. We also found that state newspaper associations served as morale boosters for member newspapers to remind them of their essential community role, provided advice on innovation, played an advocacy and lobbying role in support of newspapers. The findings of this study illustrate the discursive strategies that journalists use as they appeal to readers to keep journalism alive.
... Other writers on the topic explicitly relate the crisis in journalism to mental health challenges for professionals. Scott Reinardy (2016), in his magisterial study of journalists' experience of the collapse of the newspaper industry, gave the example of a former journalist obsessively tracking job losses and newspaper closures and developing "newspaper depression" as a result (Reinardy 2016, 8). Similarly, Meyers andDavidson (2014, 1002) suggested that the crisis in the journalism industry has induced an "occupational sense of passive resignation," all the more devastating in a profession defined by its energetic engagement with society's power structures. ...
This article develops the idea of an “emotional turn” in journalism studies, which has led to an increasingly nuanced investigation of the role of emotion in the production, texts and audience engagement with journalism. These developments have occurred in tandem with, and accelerated by, the emergence of digital and social media. Research on news production has shown that journalistic work has always taken emotion into consideration, shaping approaches to storytelling and presentation. However, the view of journalists as detached observers has rendered the emotional labor associated with news production invisible. Research on emotion in journalistic texts has highlighted the fact that even conventional “hard news genres” are shaped by an engagement with emotion. As studies on news audiences and emotions have shown, audiences are more likely to be emotionally engaged, recall information and take action when news stories are relatable. The affordances of digital platforms and social media have had a profound impact on the space for emotion. The expanded opportunities for participation have contributed to questioning traditional distinctions between news audiences and producers and have ushered in new and more forms of emotional expression that have spilled over into practices of news production.
... While newsrooms in the US and UK experienced mass layoffs from 2008 (Nel 2010;Reinardy 2016), in Australia, which was less severely affected by the global financial crisis, a fragile optimism prevailed in some quarters that the extent of journalism job loss could be contained (Este, Warren, and Murphy 2010, 3). Such hopes vanished in 2012 as mainstream media companies undertook perhaps the largest episode of job shedding in Australian media history. ...
The Australian news media industry has recently experienced a dramatic contraction, resulting in the loss of an estimated 3000 journalism positions since 2011. But what does the process of being laid off (more commonly understood as “redundancy” in Australia) actually mean for those affected? Drawing on a survey of more than 200 journalists who left what were mostly long-term jobs in large newsrooms between 2012 and 2014, this paper examines how respondents conceptualised their redundancy experiences in response to an open-ended question that was part of a 2014 survey. As well as assessing the often complex and sometimes visceral responses in terms of whether they were positive, mixed or negative, the paper discusses a range of themes to emerge, and notes discrepancies that relate to whether the redundancies were voluntary or forced, and by age and gender, and to some extent, current work status. It also finds that while overall the responses to redundancy skew more negative than positive, an substantial majority of those surveyed believe their well-being has improved since leaving their jobs.
... Journalism research has a long-standing interest in various aspects of journalists' work. Recently there has also been a sharp rise in scholarly interest in journalists' not working, i.e. the experiences and effects of job loss and job insecurity among journalists (Ekdale, MelissaTully, and Singer 2015;Heinonen, Koljonen, and Harju 2017;Nel 2010;O'Donnell, Zion, and Sherwood 2016;Reinardy 2010Reinardy , 2016Sherwood and O'Donnell 2016;Spaulding 2016;Usher 2010). The explanation for the spike in interest in journalists losing their jobs on the face of it seems simple, namely the mass layoffs of journalists mainly from the daily newspaper sector across the entire Western world. ...
Research on journalists and journalistic work has focused on journalists with permanent, full-time employment. Given the rapid decrease of such employment opportunities, we argue that journalism research needs to pay more attention to those who those who have had to leave their jobs and either stopped doing journalism entirely, or who have switched to a freelance career (sometimes combining journalism with other work). This category of people is at once becoming more marginalized and “the new normal” within the occupation: In this paper, we furthermore focus on local (Swedish) journalists and ex-journalists. Based on a set of semi-structured interviews (n = 12) with ex-journalists who share the experience of having lost their permanent, full-time jobs, we use the concept of livelihood as an analytical tool. The concept of livelihood highlights the shift from journalism as a job practiced exclusive of other jobs to an activity conducted alongside other income-generating activities and makes it possible to analyse leaving the occupation from a context that incorporates the whole life situation of the respondents. This also contributes to the current wave of studies of journalism and job loss by adding qualitative data about individual experiences of job loss to the existing quantitative survey evidence.
... It is now more fully understood that journalists are in the fray of fighting for the authority and recognition, financially and otherwise, of their product, let alone in parts of the world fighting for their jobs (Reinardy, 2016;Sherwood and O'Donnell, 2016). Also, the excitement about the possibilities of the Internet creating a space in which disparate views and ideas could constructively be debated and lead to robust public engagement has given way to the sobering assessment that no such level playing field exists. ...
In answer to the question of how journalism studies can prove its continued significance, this article argues that journalism skills should be seen as bedrock for journalism studies. From a historical perspective, journalism studies has grown out of journalism education, with its emphasis on training journalists. From a global perspective, it is the skill of sourcing, verifying, and communicating news, which is common to journalists around the world, and sets them apart from other information providers. In this respect, both historically and globally, journalism skills are fundamental to journalism and, by extension, can aid journalism studies to locate its own center and draw distinctions from other fields of study.
In June 2020, representatives of eight photography organizations addressed ongoing challenges to the industry by introducing the “Photo Bill of Rights,” asserting “the rights of all lens-based workers and defining actions that build a safer, healthier, more inclusive, and transparent industry.” The bill centers what “lens-based workers” are owed by the media organizations that employ them. This study analyzes the bill’s contents and the explicit and implicit values within it, finding that the bill presents a normative view of the work environment lens-based workers should expect as a baseline. In so doing, the bill connects what lens-based workers owe their respective publics to what their employers owe those same workers. The bill highlights the enabling environment that these workers need to satisfy their obligations to the public. The bill reminds employers of their duty to create an equitable environment that can enable the fulfillment of public responsibility.
This study focuses on gendered ageism across the media industry and draws on the testimonies provided by 24 older women media professionals who were interviewed for the work. The participants had worked (and some still work) as journalists, presenters, producers or actors and their experiences included having their contracts summarily terminated or not renewed, being manoeuvred out of front-of-camera roles, seen their career opportunities evaporate when they reached their 40s or even earlier, and been replaced by younger, 'fresher' women. However, some participants are fighting back by creating their own media and developing opportunities for other women to thrive.
This article examines how journalists in non-permanent employment respond to their growing precarity. It is based on in-depth interviews with freelance journalists and interns who find that their working lives increasingly require entrepreneurial efforts. To work towards continuous access to journalistic work, these casually employed journalists engage in self-management and self-branding. To be able to make a living, they subsidize their income with work for clients outside of journalism that frequently offer better working conditions than news organizations but pursue narrow, strategic goals. The article develops a typology of non-journalistic work that illustrates that some non-journalistic jobs, but not others, cause these precarious news workers to defend their journalistic professional integrity. Furthermore, the study introduces Michel Foucault’s notions of the ‘entrepreneurial self’ and the ‘ethical self’ to interpret the different registers of professionalism between which journalists move today, identified as counter-, conforming and coping subjectivity. Thereby, the article uses a novel conceptual lens to make sense of resilience and change in journalistic professional identities under conditions of precarity.
Reshaping the News: Community, Engagement, and Editors is the culmination of a six-year search for an economic resolution to the digital business conundrum facing the newspaper industry. Today’s media tend to generate journalism with a low immediate newsroom impact, allowing journalists to continue reporting without considering the audience’s increasingly dominant role in a story’s longevity. This renders newsrooms as managed rather than led, and turns editors into facilitators―managing project-driven journalism, attempting to match publishers’ expectations of diversified income streams, and providing reporters with increased autonomy. In fact, newsrooms require a new kind of leadership, one that rethinks its relationship with the audience.
This article reports on job loss among Canadian journalists between 2012 and 2016. Building on Australian research on the aftermath of job loss in journalism, this article examines the experiences of 197 journalists who were laid off or who took a buyout, voluntarily or not, due to corporate restructuring in Canadian media (both French and English). To date, no scholarly research in Canada has examined what happens to journalists after they are laid off, including the personal and professional experiences journalists undergo when they lose their job and seek a new one, or the implications of these experiences for Canadian journalism in general. Overall, in a result that mirrors laid-off Australian journalists’ experiences of re-employment, we find a dramatic shift among journalists’ employment status and a decline in incomes after job loss. The majority of our survey participants moved from full-time, secure, and well remunerated work to more precarious forms of employment in and out of journalism, including freelance, contract and part-time. This shift in employment status demonstrates underlying precariousness in Canadian journalism. We argue that job loss in journalism has implications for broader social life and for journalism as an institution vital for participation in democratic life.
This article argues that studying the emotional life histories of journalists will help us better understand the profound changes and challenges facing the profession. The article suggests that the field has been marked by ‘presentism’ and requires new tools and vocabularies for studying how transformations in journalism have shaped journalists as individuals and journalism as a professional identity over the longer term. It proposes that an emphasis on emotional life histories allows us to think differently about the big and recurring debates in the field by, (1) offering us a way of seeing historical transformations from the bottom up, on the basis of lived and embodied experience and (2) providing a vocabulary and a method for explaining changes in journalistic professionalism, practices, and self-understanding – including journalistic norms, role perceptions, identities, and news values.
The observations in this paper are based on the results of an online survey conducted between Monday, November 14 and Sunday, December 4, 2016. Survey respondents identified a number of key challenges for the sector, including: Shrinking newsrooms: More than half (59 percent) of our survey participants told us that the number of staff in their newsroom had shrunk since 2014. Recruitment: Low pay, long hours, and limited opportunities for career progression can impede the attraction and retention of young journalists. A long-hours culture: Many respondents reported that they regularly work more than 50 hours a week. Job security: Just over half of respondents (51 percent) said they feel secure in their positions. A further 29 percent had a neutral view (neither positive nor negative) about their job security. Despite these considerations, we encountered a sense of optimism among much of our sample. This confidence is rooted in an understanding that small-market newspapers are often close to their communities—with journalists sharing similar goals and lives to their audience—and a recognition that much of their reporting is not replicated elsewhere. Nevertheless, respondents were also aware of emerging issues, such as establishing relevancy with the next generation of news consumers. Social media and emerging storytelling formats such as live video may help do this, and we found strong levels of interest in some of these spaces. Subsequently, we believe a more nuanced conversation about this sector in required. The newspaper industry, even within this smaller stratum of newspapers, is far from homogeneous. Our conversations with local journalists found a cohort eager to know more about the experiences of their peers. As a result, we welcome moves to increase coverage of the local media sector by leading trade publications. Richer coverage and research of this industry will help to inform and inspire local journalists, policymakers, and funders alike.
Suggested Citation: Damian Radcliffe, Christopher Ali, Rosalind Donald, 2017, Life at Small-Market Newspapers: Results from a Survey of Small Market Newsrooms, Columbia University Academic Commons, https://doi.org/10.7916/D8XP7BGC.
Using oral testimony with 60 present and former Australian newspaper photographers, this article examines their frequent exposure to high-risk situations and the physical and psychological costs. Photographers engage with both vulnerability and aberration, and at the same time negotiate with editors who demand and prize a proximity and emotional closeness to danger. With a particular focus on war, disaster, and everyday assignments, the article reveals a litany of hazardous experiences. It considers the photographers’ reflections, the physical effects, the significant prevalence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and trauma-related symptoms, and the support and failings of their news organisations. The article argues that the seismic changes in the photographers’ workplace and their profession have further compounded the psychological and physical stress. This work illuminates new understanding about the historical and contemporary experiences of news photographers and the impact of the fracturing newspaper industry in Australia.
Fifteen women former newspaper journalists were interviewed at length about their experiences in newsrooms with regard to perceptions of gender differences in journalistic practices and content. They confirmed and described a patriarchal newsroom culture where male journalists applied exclusionary strategies, made news decisions on the basis of sex, encouraged assertiveness arid toughness, wanted to "rescue" women from jounalistic unpleasantries, and where female editors adopted tough male characteristics to the detriment of rank and file female journalists. At the same time, the women interviewed gave voice to the claims of gendered differences in the behind-the-scenes practices and production of news content.
Lewin’s (1947) organizational development theory says thatafter an organization reorganizes and downsizes, it “refreezes” to pre-change comfort levels. This study of 2,159 newspaper layoff survivors indicates they perceive that refreezing at this time would be problematicbecause it would result in a journalism of mediocrity, more focused onquantity rather than quality. In light of previous research, the reduction ofnewsroom staff also alters the product attributes. In this case it may perpetuate the downward spiral of lost circulation and advertising revenue. The results indicate that for those employees experiencing adecline in trust, morale, satisfaction and commitment, newspapers are creating production-line journalism that is seen as void of purpose and function.
Men who do 'women's work' have consistently been the butt of jokes, derided for their lack of drive and masculinity. In this eye-opening study, Christine Williams provides a wholly new look at men who work in predominantly female jobs. Having conducted extensive interviews in four cities, Williams uncovers how men in four occupations - nursing, elementary school teaching, librarian ship, and social work - think about themselves and experience their work. Contrary to popular imagery, men in traditionally female occupations do not define themselves differently from men in more traditional occupations. Williams finds that most embrace conventional, masculine values. Her findings about how these men fare in their jobs are also counterintuitive. Rather than being surpassed by the larger number of women around them, these men experience the 'glass escalator effect', rising in disproportionate numbers to administrative jobs at the top of their professions. Williams finds that a complex interplay between gendered expectations embedded in organizations, and the socially determined ideas workers bring to their jobs, contribute to mens' advantages in these occupations. Using a feminist psychoanalytic perspective, Williams calls for more men not only to cross over to women's occupations, but also to develop alternative masculinities that find common ground with traditionally female norms of cooperation and caring. Until the workplace is sexually integrated and masculine and feminine norms equally valued, it will unfortunately remain 'still a man's world'.
It has been almost twenty years since the term "burnout" first appeared in the psychological literature. The phenomenon that was portrayed in those early articles had not been entirely unknown, but had been rarely acknowledged or even openly discussed. In some occupations, it was almost a taboo topic, because it was considered tantamount to admitting that at times professionals can (and do) act "unprofessionally." The reaction of many people was to deny that such a phenomenon existed, or, if it did exist, to attribute it to a very small (but clearly mentally disturbed) minority. This response made it difficult, at first, for any work on burnout to be taken seriously. However, after the initial articles were published, there was a major shift in opinion. Professionals in the human services gave substantial support to both the validity of the phenomenon and its significance as an occupational hazard. Once burnout was acknowledged as a legitimate issue, it began to attract the attention of various researchers. Our knowledge and understanding of burnout have grown dramatically since that shaky beginning. Burnout is now recognized as an important social problem. There has been much discussion and debate about the phenomenon, its causes and consequences. As these ideas about burnout have proliferated, so have the number of empirical research studies to test these ideas. We can now begin to speak of a "body of work" about burnout, much of which is reviewed and cited within the current volume. This work is now viewed as a legitimate and worthy enterprise that has the potential to yield both scholarly gains and practical solutions. What I would like to do in this chapter is give a personal perspective on the concept of burnout. Having been one of the early "pioneers" in this field, I have the advantage of a long-term viewpoint that covers the twenty years from the birth of burnout to its present proliferation. Furthermore, because my research was among the earliest, it has had an impact on the development of the field. In particular, my definition of burnout, and my measure to assess it (Maslach Burnout Inventory; MBI) have been adopted by many researchers and have thus influenced subsequent theorizing and research. My work has also been the point of departure for various critiques. Thus, for better or for worse, my perspective on burnout has played a part in framing the field, and so it seemed appropriate to articulate that viewpoint within this volume. In presenting this perspective, however, I do not intend to simply give a summary statement of ideas that I have discussed elsewhere. Rather, I want to provide a retrospective review and analysis of why those ideas developed in the ways that they did. Looking back on my work, with the hindsight of twenty years, I can see more clearly how my research path was shaped by both choice and chance. The shape of that path has had some impact on what questions have been asked about burnout (and what have not), as well as on the manner in which 2 answers have been sought. A better understanding of the characteristics of that path will, I think, provide some insights into our current state of knowledge and debate about burnout. In some sense, this retrospective review marks a return to my research roots. The reexamination of my initial thinking about burnout, and an analysis of how that has developed and changed over the years, has led me to renew my focus on the core concept of social relationships. I find it appropriately symbolic that this return to my research roots occurred within the context of a return to my ancestral roots. The 1990 burnout conference that inspired this rethinking took place in southern Poland, from which each of my paternal grandparents, Michael Maslach and Anna Pszczolkowska, emigrated to the United States in the early 1900s. Thus, my travel to Krakow had great significance for me, at both personal and professional levels.
This research examines the construct validity of Schaufeli, Leiter, Maslach, and Jackson's (1996) general burnout measure, the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Survey (MBI-GS). Whereas burnout is traditionally defined and measured in terms of a phenomenon occurring among workers who work with people, the MBI-GS is intended for use outside the human services. The authors first address the internal validity of the MBI-GS using data from two Dutch samples (179 software engineers and 284 university staff members). Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the distinction among the three subscales of the MBI-GS was retained. To examine external validity, these subscales were then related to selected work characteristics. Based on conservation of resources theory, differential patterns of effects were predicted among the correlates and the three burnout subscales. Expectations were largely supported, suggesting that the meaning of the three subscales is quite different. These results largely replicate findings obtained in similar studies on the validity of the contactual version of the MBI.
This paper uses popular and academic literature to describe the distinguishing characteristics that differentiate Baby Boomers, Gen X and Gen Y. The authors then further examine these differences by comparing the results of a survey of 5,057 members of these cohorts, using the Rokeach Value Survey, to the previously generated profiles. Both terminal and instrumental values of the respondents were analyzed. Results generally confirm the popular profiles and suggest that managers should take these profiles into consideration when leading, motivating, and communicating with employees belonging to these generations.
Employing the feminist interpretive focus group method, findings in this study demonstrate how different generational perspectives of professional women, socialized at different periods of time, intersect in the current workforce to explain conflict around work and life. In particular, the authors found conflict centers around two well-documented discourses thematic in their focus groups, which organize the way people think about work—paying one’s dues and face-time. Using interpretive focus groups to draw out the different interpretive frames of the generations, this study deconstructs the interpretations, providing a hopeful place to begin a theoretical and practical conversation that bridges the different perspectives of women across generations as they negotiate work and life. Findings have implications for organizational, work/life, and qualitative communication studies.
Burnout is a common metaphor for a state of extreme psychophysical exhaustion, usually work-related. This book provides an overview of the burnout syndrome from its earliest recorded occurrences to current empirical studies. It reviews perceptions that burnout is particularly prevalent among certain professional groups - police officers, social workers, teachers, financial traders - and introduces individual inter- personal, workload, occupational, organizational, social and cultural factors. Burnout deals with occurrence, measurement, assessment as well as intervention and treatment programmes.; This textbook should prove useful to occupational and organizational health and safety researchers and practitioners around the world. It should also be a valuable resource for human resources professional and related management professionals.
This study examined five sets of work process variables with respect to their relationship with role conflict and role overload among samples of public sector nurses and engineers. The findings suggest that managerial strategies appropriate for minimizing role conflict are not necessarily appropriate for minimizing role overload. The findings also suggest that, in the context of public sector employment, some work process predictors of role conflict and overload may be similar across professions. Finally, in contrast with some of the assumptions of recent job design theory, the findings indicate that for public sector professionals, managerial strategies that reflect professional ethos may not reduce role conflict and role overload.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate differences between three generational groups currently in the workforce (Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y), in work values, job satisfaction, affective organisational commitment and intentions to leave. The study also seeks to examine generational differences in person‐organisation values fit.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 504 Auckland employees representing a range of industries completed an online questionnaire. Generation X (57 per cent) was defined as those born between 1962‐1979, Baby Boomers (23 per cent) were born 1946‐1961 and Generation Y (17 per cent) were born 1980‐2000. The remainder (3 per cent) were born 1925‐1945.
Findings
The youngest groups placed more importance on status and freedom work values than the oldest group. Baby Boomers reported better person‐organisation values fit with extrinsic values and status values than Generation X and Generation Y but there were no other generational differences in fit. Where individual and organisational values showed poor fit there were reduced job satisfaction and organisational commitment, and increased intentions to turnover across all three generational groups.
Research limitations/implications
The study was cross‐sectional and based on self‐report data, limiting the generalisability of findings.
Practical implications
Values are important in guiding behaviour and enhancing work motivation. Organisational values must be able to meet the needs of different employees, and organisations need to clarify their work values and expectations with staff.
Originality/value
The paper presents evidence that person‐organisation values fit is important for all generational groups and popular notions about generational differences should not be over‐generalised.
A national survey of newspaperwomen finds many feel discriminated against in pay, promotions and assignments.
Interviews with editors over 25 days find no dominant problem. Both human and technological factors cause lesser problems.
Women leave full-time news jobs because of a lack of opportunity, low salaries, lack of mentors, inflexible work schedules and differing perspectives on news from male-oriented newsrooms.
Using a discourse perspective, we articulate four problematics, (a) boundaries, (b) identity, (c) rationality, and (d) voice that underlie work-family theory, research, and practice. We situate existing interdisciplinary research within each problematic, showing how such research examines outcomes and effects rather than the process of constructing such outcomes. We supplement these studies with emerging communication research to illustrate new ways of thinking about each problematic. We highlight the role of daily microlevel discourses as well as macrodiscourses of organizations and families in creating the current processes, structures, and relationships surrounding work and family. We link each problematic with an agenda for empowerment through (a) questioning boundaries, (b) integrating identity, (c) embracing practical knowledge and emotionality, (d) seeking diverse voices, and (e) developing a communal orientation.
Resistance to job burnout requires a sense of involvement in ones work, a high degree of peer cohesion and supervisor support, a strong sense of personal autonomy and a sense of physical comfort. But in this study, copy editors were found to be significantly less satisfied with their work environment and to feel less involved, less encouraged to make their own on-the-job decisions, and less physically comfortable than were reporters.
Recently, the study of gender has focused on processes by which gender is brought into social relations through interaction. This article explores implications of a two-sided dynamic-gendering practices and practicing of gender-for understanding gendering processes informal organizations. Using stories from interviews and participant observation in multinational corporations, the author explores the practicing of gender at work. She defines practicing gender as a moving phenomenon that is done quickly, directionally (in time), and (often) nonreflexively; is informed (often) by liminal awareness; and is in concert with others. She notes how other conceptions of gender dynamics and practice inform the analysis and argues that adequate conceptualization (and potential elimination) of harmful aspects of gendering practices/practicing will require attention to (1) agency, intentionality, awareness, and reflexivity; (2)positions, power and experience; and (3) choice, accountability, and audience. She calls for incorporating the "sayings and doings" of gender into organization theory and research.
Women and Journalism offers a rich and comprehensive analysis of the roles, status and experiences of women journalists in the United States and Britain. Drawing on a variety of sources and dealing with a host of women journalists ranging from nineteenth century pioneers to Martha Gellhorn, Kate Adie and Veronica Guerin, the authors investigate the challenges women have faced in their struggle to establish reputations as professionals. This book provides an account of the gendered structuring of journalism in print, radio and television and speculates about women's still-emerging role in online journalism. Their accomplishments as war correspondents are tracked to the present, including a study of the role they played post-September 11th. © 2004 Deborah Chambers, Linda Steiner and Carole Fleming. All rights reserved.
This study investigates the self-reported levels of occupational burnout among 1,094 U.S. Air Force drone operators stationed within the borders of the United States who are supporting a wide range of around-the-clock military surveillance and weapons strike missions across the globe. Data were gathered from a Web-based survey of demographic items and the Maslach Burnout Inventory assessing the facets of occupational burnout (exhaustion, cynicism, and professional efficacy). The overall survey response rate was 49%. Approximately 20% reported high levels of exhaustion, and 11% reported high levels of cynicism, but only 3% reported low levels of professional efficacy. Predictors of exhaustion, as well as between group differences, were identified along with recommendations for performance improvement and mitigating risks to safety.
Enrollments in journalism and mass communication programs in the United States have declined over the last two years, reversing a pattern of growth that has sustained the field for twenty years. It is a decline at a time of continued growth in enrollments at universities generally. It is a decline at a time when enrollments have been growing in the instructional field of communication of which journalism and mass communication is a part. The data indicate the decline, based on degrees granted, which is a reflection of enrollments. Communication has been growing consistently, but the journalism and mass communication subfield has been flat and is now declining as the 2012 Annual Survey of Journalism and Mass Communication Enrollments demonstrates.
This research documents newsroom transitions from print worlds to digital ones by uncovering the relationships that news producers negotiate and nurture with their work and their workplace. An ethnography of a hybrid newsroom and in-depth interviews with journalists in transitioning places comprised the method; an understanding of interactions of journalists in their physical, virtual, and symbolic spaces informed the analysis. The analysis reveals labor-fed tensions as reporters and their editors incorporate new technologies into their news production routines. A working diagram of the newly converged newsroom is put forward, demonstrating changed power hierarchies that privilege laborers with technological skills engaged in digital domains. Meanwhile, reporters with print-cultural mindsets find themselves increasingly isolated in the newsroom, often excluded from new workspaces.
To compare the prevalence of burnout and other forms of distress across career stages and the experiences of trainees and early career (EC) physicians versus those of similarly aged college graduates pursuing other careers.
In 2011 and 2012, the authors conducted a national survey of medical students, residents/fellows, and EC physicians (≤ 5 years in practice) and of a probability-based sample of the general U.S. population. All surveys assessed burnout, symptoms of depression and suicidal ideation, quality of life, and fatigue.
Response rates were 35.2% (4,402/12,500) for medical students, 22.5% (1,701/7,560) for residents/fellows, and 26.7% (7,288/27,276) for EC physicians. In multivariate models that controlled for relationship status, sex, age, and career stage, being a resident/fellow was associated with increased odds of burnout and being a medical student with increased odds of depressive symptoms, whereas EC physicians had the lowest odds of high fatigue. Compared with the population control samples, medical students, residents/fellows, and EC physicians were more likely to be burned out (all P < .0001). Medical students and residents/fellows were more likely to exhibit symptoms of depression than the population control samples (both P < .0001) but not more likely to have experienced recent suicidal ideation.
Training appears to be the peak time for distress among physicians, but differences in the prevalence of burnout, depressive symptoms, and recent suicidal ideation are relatively small. At each stage, burnout is more prevalent among physicians than among their peers in the U.S. population.
This Monograph will explore the empirical and theoretical ramifications of journalism as social media, specifically “journalism as process.” The piece calls for an end to thinking about news as a discrete product and the beginning of considering news production as a shared, distributed action with multiple authors, shifting institution-audience relationships and altered labor dynamics for everyone involved. Using the exemplar of one Midwestern city - Madison, WI - and its information-production/consumption community, this research stems from a newsroom ethnography and 100 interviews with journalists, bloggers, and members of the socially mediating public. It puts forward the idea that news has become a transportive, transactional object of professional, social and civic work for both journalists and audience members.
Few would disagree that human resource initiatives aimed at enhancing employees' quality of life have universal appeal, but the definition of ‘quality of life’ varies by generation. Workplaces are becoming increasingly age diverse and the likelihood that an older employee will report to a younger manager is increasing. Burke's study for the Society for Human Resource Management found that in organizations with 500 or more employees, 58% of human resource management (HRM) professionals reported conflict between younger and older workers, largely due to their different perceptions of work ethics and work–life balance requirements. While cultural and gender diversity have received significant attention in the literature, little attention has been paid to the impact of age diversity on HRM practices. This study attempts to bridge this gap by examining the work values of four generational cohorts – Traditionalists, Baby Boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y – across five countries. Generational differences were found when the effects of culture and life stage were controlled for. Significant differences were observed with Generation Y in particular, presenting creative challenges in accommodating the needs of this cohort while still watching the bottom line. This study establishes the legitimacy of intergenerational differences as an important social categorization variable.
Intensive study and pretesting at Stanford University have led to the development of a questionnaire which elicits meaningful information on 14 aspects of newspaper editorial work. One of the Stanford faculty members who has had a part in this work tells about the questionnaire and its proper use.
Balswick and Peek's conceptualization of “male inexpressiveness” is reviewed and critiqued. Where they see such inexpressiveness simply as a deeply socialized temperament trait that poses certain dilemmas for the American style of companionate marriage, an alternative analysis that stresses the origin of male inexpressiveness in the instrumental requisites of the male power role is developed.
This study examined the effect of job demands (quantitative workload and computer-related problems) and social support (supervisor and co-worker support) on stress of VDT users. A survey questionnaire was administered to employees of three public service organizations. Two-hundred and sixty-two office workers participated in this study. Results showed that job demands (quantitative workload and computer-related problems) had a direct effect on psychological complaints of VDT users. On the other hand, co-worker support did not affect worker stress. Supervisor support was a buffer against worker stress both in the low and high job demands conditions. However, supervisor support did not have any interactive buffering effect on the relationship between job demands and worker stress.
In spite of feminist recognition that hierarchical organizations are an important location of male dominance, most feminists writing about organizations assume that organizational structure is gender neutral. This article argues that organizational structure is not gender neutral; on the contrary, assumptions about gender underlie the documents and contracts used to construct organizations and to provide the commonsense ground for theorizing about them. Their gendered nature is partly masked through obscuring the embodied nature of work. Abstract jobs and hierarchies, common concepts in organizational thinking, assume a disembodies and universal worker. This worker is actually a man; men's bodies, sexuality, and relationships to procreation and paid work are subsumed in the image of the worker. Images of men's bodies and masculinity pervade organizational processes, marginalizing women and contributing to the maintenance of gender segregation in organizations. The positing of gender-neutral and disembodied organizational structures and work relations is part of the larger strategy of control in industrial capitalist societies, which, at least partly, are built upon a deeply embedded substructure of gender difference.
This exploratory study applied a widely used psychological test to measure job burnout among a sample of reporters and copy editors at five daily newspapers of dissimilar size. Results indicate that the employee most likely to suffer from burnout is a young, entry-level journalist working as a copy editor at a small dairy newspaper. However, other variables were also found to significantly relate to job burnout. These include age, job title, total years of experience, income and job satisfaction.
This article examines the complex and contradictory patterns of representation used by the media in reports of Cherie Booth/Blair, wife of current British Prime Minister, Tony Blair. As a subject of media attention, she is particularly interesting for she acts as a focus for a range of identities that juxtapose stereotypes of women related to their roles in both the domestic and public domains (a celebrity wife, a successful barrister and an icon for `working mothers'). The data sample considered here consists of 130 British press reports which are analysed using lexicogrammatical tools from critical linguistics, specifically concentrating on naming practices and transitivity choices. This is complemented by a corpus-based approach which traces collocational patterns, especially those related to the phrase `working mother'. Both the naming patterns used and the contrast between the personalized profile of Booth and the collectivized stereotype of the `working mother' are understood as examples of `textual heterogeneity' and so evidence of social change. Moreover, these representations are also seen as operating within that social change to both reflect and potentially reinforce the gendered inequality presupposed by the ideological model of separate spheres.
This study identifies the environmental and personal characteristics that predict employee outcomes within an Australian public sector organization that had, under New Public Management (NPM), implemented a variety of practices traditionally found in the private sector. These are more results-oriented, and their adoption can be accompanied by increased strain for employees. The current investigation was guided by two complementary theories, the Demand Control Support (DCS) model and Conservation of Resources (COR) theory, and sought to examine the benefits of building on the DCS to include both situation-specific stressors and internal coping resources. Survey responses from 1,155 employees were analysed. The hierarchical regression analyses indicated that both external and employee-centred variables made significant contributions to variations in psychological health, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment. The external resources, work based support and, to a lesser extent, job control, predicted relatively large proportions of the variance in the target variables. The situation-specific stressors, particularly those involving harmful management practices (e.g., insufficient time to do job as well as you would like, lack of recognition for good work), made significant contributions to the outcome measures and generally supported the process of augmenting the generic components of the DCS with more situation-specific variables. In terms of internal resources, problem and emotion-based coping improved the capacity of the model to predict psychological health. The results suggest that the impact of NPM can be ameliorated by incorporating the dimensions of the augmented DCS and coping resources into the change programme.
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This Q study of journalists at two newspapers finds four different perspectives on civic journalism, but some aspects of civic journalism are widely spread.
An analysis of Inland Press Association data for 1987 suggests that if a paper invests more in its newsroom, over time, it will increase revenue, circulation and profit substantially – much more than the cost of investing in the product.
Using empirical measures, a pilot test of an investment model of commitment to television news quality yielded statistically significant results supporting four hypothesized relationships between types of broadcast station ownership. The findings indicate that the news department operated by a small media group produced more local news, more locally produced video, more use of on-air reporters, and fewer news promotions than the larger chain-based broadcast groups investigated, suggesting a deeper commitment to local news quality. The results support the policy position that stricter ownership limits would enhance the quality of local television news.
Describes a counseling program that was developed in response to the emotional and financial impact of unemployment on 5,800 workers who were laid off after the closing of an automobile assembly plant in Fremont, California. Topics of discussion include the closing of the plant, development of counseling services, providing counseling in a union setting, retraining, and the counseling model. Success of the program is attributed to flexibility and a team approach utilizing both professional and peer counselors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)