Job Expectations and Professional Role Identity in Gambian Journalists: The Mediation Role of Job Satisfaction

Abstract

This study investigates, in a sample of journalists, the relationship between meeting job expectations and professional role identity. Specifically, job expectations concerning career development, remuneration, and relationships with users were examined, while professional role identity was contextualised to the field of journalism. Following Mellado, we conceptualized journalists’ role identity as composed by the three dimensions of watchdog, propagandist, and citizen-oriented. An online questionnaire was administered from December 2021 to January 2022 and 74 Gambian journalists living in Gambia and in European countries answered the survey. The results indicated that job satisfaction fully mediated the relationship between meeting the expectations of the relationship with users and the citizen-oriented role identity. Additionally, job satisfaction mediated the relationship between met expectations of career development and both citizen-oriented and watchdog professional role identities. These findings suggest that meeting expectations of career development and interaction with citizens is related to journalists’ role identities focused on controlling the political and economic establishment and empowering people. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.