Bearing the Burden of Corporate Restructuring: Job Loss and Precarious Employment in Canadian Journalism

Cohen, Nicole S.; Hunter, Andrea; O’Donnell, Penny

doi:10.1080/17512786.2019.1571937

Cited by 32 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 24 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…1 Each country also has active public service media (PSM) organizations but the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is more dominant than its Australian and Canadian counterparts (Cunningham 2015;Armstrong 2016). All three countries have also seen a collapse in commercial journalism and numerous journalists have been retrenched over the last decade (see Nielsen 2016;Ricketson et al 2020;Cohen, Hunter, and O'Donnell 2019). However, there are also some key differences within the media markets of each country.…”

Section: Commonwealth Comparisons: Inquiries Reviews and Media Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Journalism Policy across the Commonwealth: Partial Answers to Public Problems

Meese

2020

Digital Journalism

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Governments and policymakers are considering intervening in the relationship between major tech companies and the news media industry and holding various inquiries and reviews to canvass reform options. This article provides a comparative study of Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom, some of the earliest countries in the world to engage in these policy processes. The study reveals that these media systems have devised similar regulatory tools and their approach aligns with a more disaggregated set of reforms occurring across Europe. While these reform agendas often draw on valuable concepts from media policy, they also awkwardly translate frameworks and introduce already questionable regulatory approaches to the platform environment. The most notable is the ongoing focus on stakeholders instead of the wider public interest. I end the paper by arguing the long-term sustainability of journalism need to be decoupled from attempts to limit platform power. I outline a more targeted regulatory response focussed on antitrust and privacy and note that journalism will receive downstream benefits from these efforts. The approach challenges the core issues associated with platform dominance and stands in contrast to current reform proposals, which threaten to hamper much needed institutional transformation across the journalism sector KEYWORDS Media policy; platforms; Australia; Canada; United Kingdom regulation Governments are beginning to critically examine the relationship between platforms and the news media and have held reviews and inquiries to canvass reform options (Puppis and Winseck 2019). The central motivation for this policy activity is the concern that news media are becoming dependent on platforms for audiences, in turn contributing to the news media's ongoing economic woes. Governments are also worried about the opacity of platform algorithms and the rise in misinformation and disinformation (Bechmann 2020). Countries across the world have conducted reviews and inquiries in response (Puppis and Winseck 2019) and Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom (U.K.) have been some of the first movers in this space. The U.K. review focussed specifically on the relationship between platforms and news media (Cairncross 2019) and Canada and Australia addressed this relationship as part of CONTACT James Meese

show abstract

Section: Commonwealth Comparisons: Inquiries Reviews and Media Systemsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Journalism Policy across the Commonwealth: Partial Answers to Public Problems

Meese

2020

Digital Journalism

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Journalists are aware of the profession's downsides such as low wages, stress, and incompatibility with family life, however, they still call journalism a 'dream job' for its varied work and public respect (Hummel et al, 2012: 725). Studies also suggest that journalists exhibit strong commitment despite experiencing the work as stressful and with insecure career prospects (Cohen et al, 2019). Apparently, journalists believe in the higher purpose of their profession despite the drawbacks in their everyday work.…”

Section: Job Motivations and Expectations As The Field's Illusiomentioning

confidence: 99%

Illusio and disillusionment: expectations met or disappointed among young journalists

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Recent developments in journalism seemingly curtail a satisfying work environment and contribute to journalists experiencing discrepancies between initial job expectations and actual day-to-day practices. This can lead to disillusionment, challenging journalists’ dedication to their job. Research indicates that young journalists are particularly affected by the symptoms of the journalistic crisis and thus exhibit low job commitment. This study examines the extent to which their initial job motivations and expectations are met or disappointed in practice. We apply Bourdieu’s concept of illusio to advance our understanding of expectations and experiences in the journalistic field and as an explanation for why journalists tend to remain in the profession. Based on in-depth interviews with 40 Austrian journalists we found that autonomy constitutes a key facet of the field’s illusio, both as an ideal of journalistic work, as well as the superior reason to become a journalist despite the awareness of financial drawbacks. While respondents are disillusioned by the lack of autonomous decision-making in everyday work, they still adhere to the ideal of acting as autonomous providers of information and thus remain in the profession. Crucially, they believe that accepting periods of precarity, as well as less autonomous work empowers them to better contribute to journalism’s societal mission.

show abstract

“…The loss of a job has a significance that goes well beyond strictly material or financial matters, since alongside the loss of an income is the loss of a community and a vocation, something that is also experienced in other national sectors (Cohen, Hunter and O'Donnell 2019;Reinardy and Zion 2019;Raito and Lahelma 2015). These traits are ultimately a symptom of a lengthy path, or narrative arc, in which trust and loyalty are nurtured, but have since been made anachronistic and dysfunctional by new forms of labour management (Sennet 1998, 37).…”

Section: The "Wretched Day": the Forceful End Of Journalismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“It Was Journalism that Abandoned Me”: An Analysis of Journalism in Portugal

Matos¹

2020

tripleC

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Over the last few decades, journalism in Portugal has undergone a series of changes in both its practice and its conditions. This reconfiguration has been reinforced by the noticeable rise in layoffs and fixed-term contracts, particularly after the implementation of an austerity program over the last few years. This has led many journalists to abandon their job, either voluntarily or otherwise. The present article aims to analyse these trends through the socio-professional trajectories of ex-journalists, seeking to understand what led to the end of their careers, what came after, and what is their current outlook on journalism.

show abstract

Bearing the Burden of Corporate Restructuring: Job Loss and Precarious Employment in Canadian Journalism

Cited by 32 publications

References 24 publications

Journalism Policy across the Commonwealth: Partial Answers to Public Problems

Journalism Policy across the Commonwealth: Partial Answers to Public Problems

Illusio and disillusionment: expectations met or disappointed among young journalists

“It Was Journalism that Abandoned Me”: An Analysis of Journalism in Portugal

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About