AAM_84972_Sherwood,M_2018.pdf (224.97 kB)
Once a journalist, always a journalist? Industry restructure, job loss and professional identity
journal contribution
posted on 2021-10-28, 05:11 authored by Merryn SherwoodMerryn Sherwood, Penny O'DonnellThe traditional model of journalism in western societies, dominated by
legacy media outlets such as newspapers and television, has undergone
fundamental change in the twenty-first century. One consequence has been
significant job losses within these newsrooms. As journalists negotiate
new employment post-job loss in Australia, this paper asks, how has
this impacted on their professional identity? Drawing on varying
conceptualisations of professional identity as a set of values and as a
set of work practices, this paper presents data from a survey of 225
journalists who had been laid off between 2012 and 2014 in Australia, to
explore whether and how journalists’ professional identity changed
after redundancy. The results indicated that professional identity was
likely to fade post-job loss, which indicates that identity may be more
closely linked to a journalism work context. In addition, the paper
found that the loss of institutional legitimacy may also be affecting
the respondents’ current journalism practice. Conversely, not all
participants who noted their identity was intact still worked as
journalists or in journalism. This research has implications for the
changing media workforce, as it indicates that notions of journalistic
professional identity are still contested and complicated.
Funding
New Beats: mass redundancies, career changes and the future of Australian journalism
Australian Research Council
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- School of Humanities and Social Sciences