title: Seeking a new mission
title: journalists leaving the field for the nonprofit sector
titleType: Subtitle
Creators: name: Davis, Michael
Publisher: name: University of Iowa
Year: 2025
Subjects: Labor
Mission
Nonprofits
Routines
Communication
Culture
Journalism

description: The journalism profession has long been able to forge its strong identity by tying its work to the ideologies of the First Amendment and Freedom of the Press. While these discursive connections and boundary conditions still linger, the public no longer holds the profession in such high regard. Worse yet, professional and economic intrusions are being laid at the feet of working journalists to manage and overcome. Ultimately, many leave the profession for more stable and supportive work environments. To better understand how this might happen, this dissertation examines the personal narratives and motivations of 22 former journalists who left the profession to work in the nonprofit sector. Through qualitative interviews, these men and women were able to document their departures, caused by burnout, lack of institutional support and advancement, poor work/life balance, inadequate pay and benefits, and toxic workplace cultures.
description: Using Bourdieu’s field theory as the theoretical vantage point, this dissertation argues for a re-evaluation of how journalism culture is enacted through stringent professional practice and codes. The hyper-fixation on these practices has had negative material effects on the lives of these men and women, enough that they decided to leave the profession. If you are asked to participate in a work environment where your margin for error is low, magnified by poor pay and no opportunity for advancement, it does not leave open much hope for success.
description: Beyond the professional constraints on routines and practices, our understanding of journalism culture is highly influenced by the education system in which it is being taught. Interviewees spoke of learning about the importance of journalism as the Fourth Estate — a check on power and a beacon of democracy. Such a stance reinforces this notion that journalism is a “calling” profession, one in which sacrifice and humbling oneself for the greater good is baked into what gets called “good journalism.”
description: Once these men and women decided to leave journalism, they had to chart a work path forward. That new path ended up being in the nonprofit sector, a line of work that exemplified some of the best of their previous jobs but without some of those detrimental side effects. They spoke highly of working in a field where their professional lives made a strong impact on the communities that they served, something that did not always turn out to be the case in a competitive, for-profit enterprise. Their writing, communication, and critical thinking skills could be used more progressively in a nonprofit organization, while the dogma satisfying some larger societal mission was less onerous.
description: Ultimately, the journalism profession can serve the public interest, but it is also a job like many others. Without acknowledging this, men and women will continue to follow the path set forth by these 22 former journalists, seeking a new mission under better working conditions where their skills will be appreciated instead of exploited.
description: This dissertation’s goal was to give voice to the labor roles played out by journalists, allowing the public to better understand the difficulties and struggles that these men and women go through to meet society’s need for public information and discussion. In doing so, it showed that the journalism profession is not the only place men and women with professional and educational experience in journalism can work and thrive.