at work
A precarious and privileged world
Barrie Clement reports on a study of who is working in journalism now
D
espite the stated aspirations of the great and the good in the media world, British journalists
remain rather upmarket. Just one in 10 are from an ethnic
minority or a working-class background, according to a report by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. British journalists are overwhelmingly white, university educated, ‘privileged’ and far more likely than the rest of the population to have been privately educated. Men are on higher salaries than women, and are more likely to have permanent contracts and occupy managerial roles. The analysis also paints a picture of
an increasingly precarious profession with a continuing shift away from permanent to freelance work. The 40,000-word study makes depressing reading for those of us who thought there might have been some progress towards diversity. There is, however, a glimmer of hope for trade unionists. Considerably more journalists identify with the Left since a similar study was conducted in 2015. And union membership, a ‘notable feature of journalism’, has increased from 44 per cent to 52 per cent, although the report doesn’t specify which union... The analysis is based on a survey of 1,130 journalists conducted between September and November 2023. It found that 90 per cent of respondents were white and 91 per cent university educated. Some 60 per cent were from a family where the main wage earner was a manager, director, senior official or professional and 11 per cent from the
family of an ‘associate professional’ – making a total of 71 per cent from a privileged background.
Around 22 per cent went to a
private secondary school, compared with six per cent of the population. Only 12 per cent grew up in a working-class household and they were less likely to be employed by the national media. Women and ethnic minority
journalists were less numerous among the over-50s, which suggests that they may experience less job satisfaction, says the report. The 2015 study found that 54 per cent
identified with the Left; this was 77 per cent by 2023. Around 71 per cent are not religious, compared with 38 per cent of the general population. Employment conditions continued to deteriorate with some 30 per cent doing extra work outside journalism. The proportion on permanent contracts dropped from 74 per cent in 2015 to 65 per cent in 2023 – a year when the median annual income was between £37,501 and £45,000 after tax. Men, those aged 40 or over, those whose main employer was a broadcaster and those who worked for publicly owned media had higher salaries on average. Most of us worked from home at least three days a week, perhaps owing to the after-effects of covid and the kind of work we do. The distribution platform most used was websites (97 per cent). This was followed by social media (80 per cent), print (74 per cent), email newsletters (62 per cent), podcasts (56 per cent), news apps (53 per cent), radio
UK JOURNALISTS
IN THE 2020s WHO THEY ARE, HOW THEY WORK,
AND WHAT THEY THINK Edited by Neil Thurman, Imke Henkel, Sina Thäsler-Kordonouri, and Richard Fletcher
(39 per cent), television (36 per cent) and messaging apps (32 per cent). The media format most used was text (95 per cent); followed by photographs (77 per cent); video (69 per cent); audio (67 per cent); and graphics, cartoons, illustrations or animation (50 per cent). Some 79 per cent produced stories using a combination of formats. Just seven per cent worked in
newsrooms that had automated news text production and 10 per cent with personalised news distribution. Journalists felt less secure in these jobs and less free to select news stories. Just 18 per cent of journalists said they
“
Seven per cent worked in newsrooms with automated news text production. They felt less secure
had ‘never’ experienced safety threats over the previous five years. Gender was significant; some 22 per cent of women journalists had experienced sexual violence in the previous five years and 60 per cent had felt ‘stressed out’ in the previous six months compared with 49 per cent of men. Those working for local and regional media gave more importance to roles related to the functioning of democracy, such as to ‘provide information people need to form political opinion’. There was concern that the uncritical use of AI could decrease public trust in journalism. Without doubt, the next study in about eight years will have considerably more to say on that issue…
UK Journalists in the 2020s. Who They Are, How They Work And What They Think. Edited by Neil Thurman, Imke Henkel, Sina Thaesler- Kordonouri and Richard Fletcher. https://reutersinstitute.politics.
ox.ac.uk/uk-journalists-2020s
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