Journalists' work in digital and print media: flexibility , creativity, and control under changing technologies and markets

The work of journalists is changing as media technology is becoming digitised and commercial market pressures are becoming stronger. These changes influence the labour process, work and management as well as the products, i.e. the publications. This paper discusses the work of journalists on the basis of issues such as industrialisation, creativity, flexibility and control. Pressures for flexibility are strong in directions like: numerical flexibility (short-term jobs, freelancing, stringers, work when needed, at night e.g.) and functional flexibility („multijournalists‟ working for various media channels: paper, web, radio, television, mobile phones.) but often with superficial training. We also discuss journalists‟ control of the products on the basis of ideas of intellectual property rights (copyright) and the quality of the work in the light of flexible or "boundless” work. Differences between print journalists and web journalists are illustrated in these respects. The results are mainly based on interviews with print and web journalists at two newspaper companies on two occasions. We largely limit ourselves to reporting the journalists‟ own view but we also make some preliminary interpretations as a stage in developing an empirical basis and questions for our continued studies. 1. General introduction Journalism and media are sometimes grouped together with other sectors like art, music and design under the heading “creative industries”. By implication it is often supposed that jobs in that type of industry are creative. In this paper we will not discuss the notion of creative industries, but the more or less creative character of the work of journalists. 1 All work is in a way creative, in the sense that it is first conceived and then carried out, but the different aspects of work are generally divided in organisations between units and individuals: some conceive and create, others carry out. This is in contrast to the ideal model of art and crafts where one person does it all. But in practice in the crafts, there was usually a division of labour between the master and the journeyman. There is organisation – a division of labour, with some having more control and power – in creative industries as well. However, many of these jobs, more than is true of most factory work, contain elements of creativity in the sense of making something new every day. In the case of journalists, this may be producing a new text or a new picture. The creation of a text or picture however often follows standard operating procedures and the result is often to a high degree standardised, within a certain genre. An article such as a report from a 1 While revising this paper, one of us (Sandberg), had a research sojourn in Paris at the invitation of the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l‟Homme. I am grateful to the FMSH, and to colleagues – most of them at the Centre de Sociologie Europeenne at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) – for providing this opportunity to study French research into media and the work of journalists. Special thanks to Patrick Champagne, Julien Duval and Dominique Marchetti. Thanks also to Eric Marquis who shared his insights as a „reflective practitioner‟ at the l‟Express magazine and as an official in the journalist union SNJ. The Centre Culturel Suedois provided an excellent basis for the stay. The Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (FAS) supported the stay. – An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 25th Annual International Labour Process Conference, 2-4 April 2007, University of Amsterdam