Experiences Of Journalists Research Articles

Journalists at the Frontline: Recognising and Managing Emotions in the Face of Conflict and Terrorism in Burkina Faso

ABSTRACT This article examines the impact of emotions on the professional realities and practices of Burkinabè reporters working in conflict-ridden regions of Burkina Faso. To achieve this, it adopts an innovative theoretical perspective that links the emotional turn in journalism to the sociology of risk. Using an original “fieldwork in delegation” methodology involving three focus groups and 37 interviews with Burkinabè journalists, the study closely investigates the specific realities of these volatile areas. The results highlight four main forms of professional adjustment that are emerging in the current context of crisis: (1) individual adjustments - to secure both physical and mental security, (2) professional adjustments - to secure working and employment conditions, (3) media adjustments - to secure the practical and economic functioning of the media companies; and (4) values adjustments - to reflect the core values underpinning the profession in conflict-situation. The article demonstrates that the Burkinabè journalists’ current attempt to manage risk and emotion is rooted in their traditional role, but also in the new responsibilities they wish to assume in the current security context. This innovative and significant research provides a useful foundation for reflection for those interested in the experiences of local journalists operating in other global conflict zones.

‘We cracked a hole in this very white structure’: Indigenous journalism practices in mainstream Australian news organisations

A new wave of anti-racist politics is challenging the racialised dynamics of news media reporting. This paper explores the experiences of Indigenous journalists working in mainstream news media organisations in Australia in this changing context, and their strategies to navigate the racial political economy and news values of the industry. While many have observed the growing number of Indigenous journalists working in mainstream news, Indigenous journalists’ experiences and practices in these contexts have rarely been canvassed. I analyse 11 in-depth interviews with practicing journalists in Australia to explore how they have their mediated their positions. I suggest that Indigenous journalists engage in a specifically Indigenous journalistic practice, informed by connections to place, community and culture. This can be understood as a contested practice of Indigenous sovereignty. It also highlights the racialised presumptions of news values, including notions of objectivity, authority and balance.

HEALTH JOURNALISM IN FLUX: UNRAVELING CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

Health information is widely disseminated through the media. This study explores the experiences of Pakistani journalists in covering health-related topics to understand their duties, news selection criteria, sources, and problems. This is because reliable health news reporting is crucial and because there is a national demand for professionalism in health journalism. The results show different coverage frequencies, highlighting the importance of health reporting. Obtaining trustworthy data, conflicting studies, a lack of resources, and complex communication are all problems.Journalists depend on reliable sources and specialized interviews. While finding professionals can be demanding, some have solid networks. Assessment of the quality of health reporting is primarily negative and highlights issues with its standard. Accuracy, clarity, expert insights, images, and real-world examples are essential for better reporting.According to the research, journalists are eager to get training to improve their health reporting abilities, demonstrating their commitment to meaningful journalism. It emphasizes how critical it is to support health reporters through training to improve public health communication and guarantee the spread of accurate information.To sum up, this study clarifies the nuances of health reporting among Pakistani journalists. The results highlight the necessity of addressing issues, incorporating crucial reporting elements, and offering training to advance health journalism.

Data Journalism Practices in Turkey During COVID-19: Methods, Narratives, News Production, and Future Directions

ABSTRACT This research investigates data journalism practices in Turkey during the COVID-19 pandemic, exploring their current usage, development, and prospects. The research focuses on data journalism methods, narrative structures, and journalists’ approaches to news production processes, including the use of big data and access to open data. The semi-structured interviews with 15 journalists were coded and analyzed using an interactive and cyclical method within a phenomenological research design. The findings indicate that journalists maintain pre-pandemic habits and that the COVID-19 big data did not significantly alter news production practices. Journalists are interested in data’s potential, processing skills, and analysis. They receive encouragement, technological opportunities, and training. However, journalists face challenges such as the need for an open data culture, innovative perspectives, revenue models, pressure for breaking news, loss of reader loyalty, reader habits, and news literacy levels. The findings reveal the experiences of journalists by comparing a critical period such as the pandemic with its predecessors and explain the critical factors influencing the development of data journalism. It also highlights implications for the future of data journalism in Turkey and suggests ways to encourage innovation in news production processes.

Generative Artificial Intelligence for Journalistic Content in Ibero-America : Perceptions, Challenges and Regional Projections

Introduction: The increasing availability of artificial intelligence (AI) tools has brought with it various, increasingly advanced, uses for content production. Digital media editors have not been immune to the phenomenon, which is why there is growing interest, both professional and academic, regarding its possible uses.<br /> Objectives: In this paper we seek to detect the experiences, challenges and projections regarding the use of artificial intelligence in the generation of news content. In turn, the specific objectives aim both to offer a general overview of journalistic experiences with AI and to study the results of a survey regarding the use of this technology in the production of content in Ibero-America.<br /> Methodology: A survey was conducted among 154 participants through a cycle of webinars held at four universities in Ibero-America during the second semester of 2023, corresponding to 14 countries in the region, including academics, researchers and students of Journalism (and related degrees in Social Communication), along with managers and journalists from prominent media outlets.<br /> Results: although journalistic experiences with AI are still incipient in the region, the responses obtained show that most participants use generative AI tools every week, there is greater knowledge (and preference) for ChatGPT, and there is a consensus regarding how artificial intelligence can bring great benefits if it has the proper regulations.

Female Sports Journalists: The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same

This article aims to explore the experiences of female sports journalists in Sweden from a gender perspective. The theoretical framework is inspired by Yvonne Hirdman’s understanding of gender in a binary system and R. W. Connell’s definition of hegemonic masculinity. Data consist of 10 semi-structured interviews with the most prominent female sports journalists in Sweden. The sports journalists in this study express that there has been a change in the media industry, resulting in a better understanding of women’s working conditions within the industry. Even so, the work is still grounded in a culture signified by hegemonic masculinity, where women need to find their own strategies to build a successful career, handle harassment, and cope with other gender-related challenges.

Pressure, compromise and overwork: How Australian regional journalists gain job satisfaction through community service

In a time of enormous change in the Australian news media industry – with outlet closures, redesign of company business models, rationalization of staff and shifts in medium uptake – this article explores journalists’ exposure to and perceptions of work pressures in their jobs. It explores the relationship of these experiences with the journalists’ job satisfaction. The study reports that journalists find the industry difficult and demanding, with time pressures, ethical compromise and overwork being their main concerns. However, the study also found that journalists still derive satisfaction from a profession they perceive as meaningful through informing their communities about matters that affect their decision making and how they live. This passion for community service alongside the notion of holding authority to account result in a sense of overarching job satisfaction. This article presents part of a study that investigated the experience of journalists in remote and regional media organizations in Queensland and New South Wales through survey and interviews.

Verbalisation of emotions in Ukrainian online media

The relevance of the research is determined by the tendency of modern media discourse towards emotionality, evaluativeness, the importance of emotional language means the process of perceiving a journalistic text. Undeniable today is the growing popularity of digital media, which emphasizes the need to learn the language of emotions in the online environment. The subject of studies is language techniques and means of emotional expression in the texts of national news resources "Ukrainska Pravda" and "Dzerkalo Tyzhnia". The study aims to monitor and systematize the most common verbal markers of emotionality in online publications, to highlight the dominant connotative emotional language units in the context of the analyzed topics. The research methodology includes a complex of general scientific methods: conceptual analysis, content analysis, induction, analysis and synthesis, comparison, systematization an classification. The novelty of intelligence lies in typology language means and methods of expressing the emotional spectrum in online texts. As a result of the research, it was found that an important component of the media text is the audience's emotional reaction to it. Emotions are verbalized with the help of emotives i.e. language units of different levels (lexical, morphological, syntactic, stylistic). The content analysis of the all-Ukrainian online editions "Dzerkalo Tyzhnia" and "Ukrainska Pravda" from September 2020 to March 2021 showed the dominance of emotions with a negative connotation, corresponding to the emotions and experiences of journalists and recipients regarding conflict i.e. sensitive topics (Covid-19, violation of human rights and freedoms, violence, corruption). Metaphors and epithets, foreign vocabulary, qualitatively evaluative adjectives and idioms, subjective modal syntactic constructions with evaluative semantics, colloquial and colloquial vocabulary, neologisms are most often used. Emotionally expressive means demonstrate the dominance of a pejorative construction of reality, cause a predicted emotional effect in the audience and tend to model the language picture of modern media texts in the online space.

Sexual Harassment, Gender-Based Discrimination and Mobbing in Newsrooms: Qualitative In-Depth Interviews with Women Journalists in Turkish Media

This study examines the experiences of women journalists working within the highly patriarchal media industry in Türkiye, which is facing an increase in femicide and gender-based violence. Through in-depth interviews with 12 women journalists working in the industry, this study aims to give voice to women journalists who are subject to discrimination and harassment in newsrooms across Türkiye. The interviews were conducted with journalists aged between 24 and 52, all of whom are based in the three largest cities İstanbul, Ankara, and İzmir. In addition, the journalists are currently working in some of the highly popular media outlets. The findings of the thematic analysis indicate that female journalists encounter a range of challenges within the media industry. These challenges include but are not limited to sexual harassment, glass ceiling, discrimination, mobbing, wage inequality, fighting against masculine language in the newsroom, and peer bullying. The results reveal that these issues persist across a variety of categories, highlighting the prevalence of gender discrimination within the media industry. In summary, the study demonstrates that women journalists face a complex array of challenges that require concerted efforts to address and overcome.

Challenges of Journalists Across All Continents in the Coverage of the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT During the COVID-19 crisis, journalists doubled efforts to keep societies informed, safe, and disease-free. The study examines and compares specific challenges that journalists, based in diverse world regions, confronted during the COVID-19 pandemic. A survey was conducted with 215 journalists working in 45 countries, following geographical and gender balance, to analyse journalistic skills, information and pressures received, institutional support provided by national authorities and international organizations, actions against disinformation and fake news, as well as the impact that the crisis would have on journalism. The paper shows key differences in the experiences of journalists regarding the world region highlighting the complexity of the media ecosystems and the various challenges that local journalists had covering the pandemic. After mapping those challenges, the paper tries to list key strategies to position and strengthen journalism upon future crises and to highlight the relevance of professional media as a crucial element in crisis management.

The Ethical Experience of Online Journalists in Avoiding Trial by the Press

Trial by the press is an ethically prohibited practice in journalism activities in Indonesia. However, it still occurs in various online media, meaning that there is something wrong with the ethical actions of online media journalists. This research aims to reveal the ethical experiences of online media journalists in avoiding trial by the press. This research method uses a phenomenological approach by conducting interviews with five online media journalists and a literature study of regulatory trials by the press in Indonesia. The results show that trial by the press has been institutionally regulated to be avoided by journalists, especially in Law 40/1999, Journalistic Code of Ethics from the Press Council, PWI, and AJI. However, journalistic ethical principles in institutional regulations are no longer compatible with the working mechanisms of online media, thus creating a dilemma for online media journalists to choose between the two. However, online media journalists do not view institutional regulations and online media working mechanisms as dualism in the practice of online journalism. Their experience in elaborating institutional regulations and online media working mechanisms can minimize the occurrence of trials by the press. We concluded that contextual and situational elaboration of institutional regulations and working mechanisms of online media can produce an authentic meaning for journalists to avoid trial by the press in online media.

Care(lessness) in precarious journalism, before and during the pandemic: Freelancers’ work-life experiences and coping strategies

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, interest in care as a potential remedy for a variety of issues and crises, such as improving global health justice or creating more “caring” educational systems, has increased across academic disciplines. This article contributes to this literature from the perspective of journalism studies. It explores whether the notion of care captures and addresses one facet of the contemporary news industry crisis, namely the precarity of journalists. I focus on the work-life narratives of a small group of freelance journalists in Germany and Canada before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Applying a care lens articulates the struggles the freelancers experience regarding income, social security, housing, and childcare as a result of careless states and careless markets. Furthermore, the care practices journalists use as coping strategies merge mutual aid for fellow freelancers or members of their local communities with entrepreneurial networking for professional survival. However, such informal care practices cannot make up for structural gaps in support. Waged work—outside journalism—in the formal labor market, performed by the freelancers themselves or their life partners, turned out to be more important for coping with precarity. Overall, the pandemic meant more continuity than change for the care struggles as well as coping strategies of the journalists examined here. Nevertheless, those with residential property, gainfully employed life partners, and established care networks fared best, hinting at the crucial role of privilege in shaping the work experiences of precarious journalists during crises.

ОРГАНИЗАЦИЯ ХУДОЖЕСТВЕННОГО ОБРАЗОВАНИЯ БУДУЩИХ ЖУРНАЛИСТОВ: ОСНОВЫ МИМЕТИЧЕСКОГО ОБУЧЕНИЯ

The purpose of this article is to determine the specifics and features of organising the art education of future journalists based on the analysis of the experience of training journalists at the Kazan (Volga Region) Federal University. A comprehensive analysis made it possible to determine the goals and objectives of art education, to identify its integral components, approaches and principles, as well as to describe the content. Defining the artistic training of future journalists as cultural training, the author relates this to the idea of art forms as a highly potential means of educating a person, capable of satisfying the needs of an individual, elevating these needs, immersing a person in the world of culture. This point becomes especially important in conditions of underestimation of the role and significance of aesthetic consciousness and artistic culture, their influence on the dynamics of development of modern society. The main components of art education of future journalists include the developed skills of semantic creativity as an attributive mechanism for the translation of the meanings contained in works of art; formed competences in the field of art and artistic creativity; digital methodology of educational activities; dynamic cultural and educational space; mimetics of experimentation with the discovery of the meanings of the art world, based on artistic experience, formed and developed under the influence of artistic imagery. Art education of future journalists is based on a number of principles, the most important of which are the principles of an integrated approach, uniqueness, traditionality, realisation of the moral potential of art, universality, intercultural interaction, and involvement.

Journalists’ Perceptions of Precarity: Toward a Theoretical Model

ABSTRACT Journalistic work has become increasingly precarious. Labor conditions in the profession meet several criteria of precarity, as established in the sociology of work. Journalists, especially freelancers, often have low and unstable incomes and only limited access to social insurance. Thus far, precarity research in journalism has primarily focused on empirical investigations of precarious employment rather than on theorizing how journalists actually perceive these working conditions. This paper proposes a theoretical model that determines the factors of security and insecurity that can lead to a stronger or weaker perception of precarity. Drawing on a review of the precarity literature, the model allows for subjectivity within the precarious experience of journalists. It shows that family responsibilities and personality traits belong to the subjective factors influencing journalists’ perceptions of precarity. In addition, perceptions of insecure employment conditions depend on the life stage of the worker. We strongly recommend a multidimensional approach that captures not only the objective conditions of work but also journalists’ subjective sense of precarity.

The Study of Various Errors of Language in Local News Items of English Newspapers of Southern Punjab

Our media language needs to be improved. Press reporters, hosts, and anchors making so many grammatical errors is excruciating. They keep making mistakes on common stuff. When communication was limited to printing, spelling errors predominated. With electronic media sweeping the world, we see various problems besides spelling errors. Simply observe television broadcast tickers for errors. Typesetting before computers caused many spelling problems. With computerized word processors, there is no excuse. Readers are forgiving, so it is a rush to print. As for grammar, some of the text uses Indian English phrases that may be improper in British or American English. Sloppy grammar is another issue. Associated Press of Pakistan Lahore Bureau required me to write and edit news. I found various linguistic faults in Pakistan's foremost official news agency reporters. English newspapers have many errors. That led me to study newspaper inaccuracies. Objectives are to examine Southern Punjab English newspaper local news linguistic faults and to examine the causes of language faults in Southern Punjab English newspapers' local news. The local English newspapers were read. Various language errors were noted. The errors were categorized, and their repetition percentage was computed. Academic qualifications and journalism experience of journalists were collected. A total of 79 news articles from both publications were examined. The following graphs, including a diagram of a pie, bars, and various other graphs, show the proportion of errors that were discovered. According to Martin R. Maier's study, readers need to fix errors. Readers can report errors by email and a toll-free number in the New York Times daily. Pakistani publications need a similar approach so readers may correct errors. Unfortunately, none will recognize their mistakes and take such action.

Beyond “Online Notice-Me”: Analysing Online Harassment Experiences of Journalists in Nigeria

ABSTRACT Journalists are increasingly reporting that online harassment has become a normative part of their lives, and that online harassment experience induces fatigue, anxiety, and self-censorship on them. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with journalists in Nigeria, this study reports that journalists experienced acute, chronic or perennial, and escalatory harassments of intense nature. The study indicates that acute forms of online harassments were dismissed, amongst others as “online show-off”, “online banter” and “online notice-me”. Thereby misrecognising online harassments as forms of efficiency-focused media criticism. Our data further show that gender is not a triggering factor to online harassment of journalists. However, political, and investigative reporting is seen as a factor. Journalists reported improved systematic intervention from media organisations and their individual coping strategies, including engaging in self-censorship among others, as coping strategies for online harassment. Suggestions for future research areas were delineated.

Digital Scarlet Letter on Journalists: Weaponized Harassment Against Journalists in South Korea

ABSTRACT This article seeks to contribute to the existing research on journalist harassment by examining the experiences of Korean journalists who have faced online harassment. While extensive research has been conducted on this issue, there is a need for comparative studies to understand the unique patterns and underlying causes in different nations. The objectives of this article are to explore the experiences of Korean journalists subjected to online harassment, identify the factors they perceive as triggers for such harassment, understand the impacts it has on them, and examine their coping strategies with such incidents. One of the key findings of this research is the significant stress caused by specific shaming websites that aim to insult and discredit targeted journalists. Additionally, this study delves into the impact of online harassment on journalists’ self-censorship practice, where they may avoid covering controversial issues or skew their coverage towards less sensitive perspectives.

“Solidarity with the Most Oppressed Peoples of the Earth”: The Boston Chronicle and Black Internationalist Print Culture, 1945–60

Abstract This article explores transformations in the Black press during some of the most repressive years of United States and global anticommunism in the 1940s and 1950s. Centering on an examination of the editorial politics of the Boston Chronicle, a daily newspaper founded by Caribbean immigrants in the early twentieth century, it argues that Black leftist internationalism continued to be visible in print despite a repressive political climate shaping the experiences of Black journalists and activists. The Chronicle, a relatively understudied Black newspaper, offers a somewhat different perspective on the evolution of a vibrant, transnational print culture that linked Black freedom struggles in the United States with anticolonial movements in the British Caribbean, Africa, and Latin America. An examination of the Chronicle’s coverage and journalists in a period of deepening anticommunist repression reveals ongoing links between Black activists, anticolonial movements, and the organized left before the 1960s.

Becoming a Journalist: Experiences of Trainee Journalists in Zimbabwe

ABSTRACT Basing on reported experiences of trainee journalists at the University of Zimbabwe on completing their work-related industrial internship, we give unique perspectives into challenges and contradictions of “becoming” a journalist. We argue that the route to becoming a professional journalist involves imbibing a kaleidoscope of largely (Western) values along the way throughout the value chain of different socializing sites such as the university, the newsroom and broader subjective social experience. The study concludes that journalism training in Zimbabwe—and indeed in Africa—is firmly informed by the dominant liberal press theory, a development that is at variance with social, political and economic realities obtaining in a country that has not fully embraced the principles of democracy to the letter and spirit of its classical dictates. While scholars have tangentially inserted African texts into the curriculum, these are texts that are made to fit into extant conceptual schema that invariably also shape practice.

Same threats, different platforms? Female journalists’ experiences of online gender-based violence in selected newsrooms in Namibia

Concerns about the disproportionate levels of online gender-based abuse experienced by female journalists when compared to their male counterparts have attracted sizeable scholarly attention in the last few years. Extant studies have highlighted that female journalists experience online forms of harassment such as name calling, body shaming, trolling, verbal abuse, sextortion, non-consensual sharing of intimate images, manipulation of photos, cyberstalking, doxing, hacking, receiving unwanted, offensive sexually explicit emails or messages, and inappropriate advances on social media platforms, in the line of duty. Although these findings are true in some of the newsrooms in the global North, there is a disconcerting absence of systematic studies looking at the experiences of female journalists in selected newsrooms in Africa in general and Namibia in particular. This article seeks to fill this lacuna by empirically investigating the extent to which online gender-based violence is deep-seated social problem in selected Namibian newsrooms. It deploys the intersectional approach to analyze the online gender-based violence experienced by female journalists in Namibia. Drawing our data from interviews with female journalists in selected Namibian newsrooms, overall, our findings suggest that cases of online gender-based violence against female journalists are still negligible when compared to other contexts, it is happening, nonetheless. This emerging phenomenon is largely underreported. Furthermore, it is occurring in an environment devoid of legislative, institutional, and newsroom-specific mechanisms aimed at ensuring the safety of female journalists. Namibian female journalists are facing unique online gender-based violence, which contributes immensely towards self-censorship and retreating from the public sphere.