The Present for Journalism May be Uncertain, But What Does the Future Hold?

This blog post was written to partially fill the requirements of the ‘Media and Cultural Industries’ module from the Media Studies Department of Maynooth University. It will examine the precarious nature of media work, with an emphasis on journalism, and will then delve into the trends that have affected the prospects of workers in the industry. It will also look to the future of journalism and examine how it will function as NGO’s and other non-traditional startups enter the field and begin producing content.

Over the past number of years, the digital media industry has proven to be one of the most volatile in terms of stable employment. The uneasy relationship between advertising revenue and online media has led giants in the field such as the Huffington Post and Buzzfeed (whose parent company now owns HuffPost) to undertake several rounds of layoffs, making hundreds of employees redundant. Many traditional media outlets, who have both a physical and online presence have moved to a subscription model. Readers must now pay a certain amount per month if they want to read more than a limited number of articles. Everything after this amount is placed behind a paywall. As someone who is interested in entering this industry it is difficult not to despair at this state of events. Irish online media outlets have also suffered from this volatility, with many employees of Maximum Media, which is the home of Joe and Her, being made redundant and the Daily Edge ceasing operations altogether.

Much of this turmoil is caused by social media platforms that are less than transparent about how content reaches users and how users engage with this content. Facebook allegedly lied to advertisers about the impact video has had on the platform. They ‘touted impressive statistics that showed vast numbers of people were not only seeing video in their feeds, but pausing to watch videos for extended periods of time’ (Oremus, 2018). This “pivot to video” led to many media companies restructuring, letting go many journalists and replacing them with videographers. Only to then let those same people go too, after the extent of Facebook’s mistakes became clear. Many companies folded as a result.

The relationship between the digital media and profit margins has always been precarious, with media workers suffering as a result. The trend towards digital, in the face of ever decreasing newspapers sales, has led to downsizing in media organisations (Pithan, et al, 2019:159-160), as both new and traditional outlets struggle to remain viable on a revenue stream as unreliable as online advertising. The downsizing in print media has also been aided by the introduction of new technologies, which have ensured that media workers must have a broad set of skills to remain employable. Workers who do not or are too specialised are more likely to see their roles become extinct (2019: 159).

This trend in journalism is no different to similar trends in other media sectors. The outsourcing of media work from traditional broadcasters such as the BBC or RTÉ to independent production companies is often associated with flexibility and innovation in the sector. Initially, Independents introduced new technologies into the TV production process, as well as staff with a variety of skills and a willingness to multi-task (Dwyer, 2019: 353). They gave new voices the opportunity to pitch programming ideas, giving broadcasters a wider variety of options to choose from, rather than ones only generated inhouse. The freelance and causal labour opportunities created by independent production companies also reduce the cost of production for broadcasters. However, the lack of security afforded to these roles can leave workers in a precarious employment situation (Dwyer, 2019: 347). Freelancers have less protection under employment law in comparison to a worker who is directly employed by the broadcaster. They receive no paid time off and may often find themselves going through durations of time with inconsistent levels of work. They also may be forced to wait long periods to receive payment for work already completed.

In my interview with him, the Guardian journalist Ben Quinn (2021) said ‘don’t be despondent’ about the current situation. As awful as it is to see this lack of job security and constant layoffs, new startups, that never existed before are creating a whole new field of jobs in journalism. For example, new forms of journalism such as “advocacy journalism” are growing exponentially as charities and non-governmental organisations (NGO) continue to invest in it. Werker and Ahmed define NGOs as private organizations that are characterized primarily by humanitarian or cooperative, rather than commercial, objectives. They ‘pursue activities to relieve suffering, promote the interests of the poor, protect the environment, provide basic social services, or undertake community development" in developing countries’ (2008: 74). The NGO sector has grown rapidly over the last number of decades, as governments outsource aspects of their ‘development aid delivery’ (2008: 81). This makes their move into journalism even more logical.

In our conversation, Ben Quinn (2021) briefly mentioned an investigation he had collaborated on with the environmental NGO, Greenpeace. Since 2015, Greenpeace have had an investigations unit of their own, staffed by journalists who had previously worked for prestigious organisations such as the New York Times (Jackson, 2015). Greenpeace have had great success in the United Kingdom, where they have exposed major health and safety breaches by the multinational oil and gas company, BP (McClenaghan & Carter, 2016). However, journalists have suffered backlash from their colleagues and media commentators for moving to work for a lobby group and then continuing to maintain the job title of journalist. For example, Phil Vine, a New Zealand based television reporter and presenter, received much criticism when he crossed ‘this perceived Rubicon between ‘recognised’ media and a campaigning organisation ‘with an agenda’ (Vine, 2017: 45), to work for Greenpeace himself. Vine states that ‘What counts is the standard of the journalism, not the shape of the medium’ (2017: 45).

He believes that much of the disgruntlement within the establishment stems from the public’s decreasing levels of trust in journalism, due to the rapid spread of misinformation on social media of “news” that is ignored or not sufficiently debunked by mainstream outlets. This is coupled with the ‘shrinking resources’ (2017: 46) of newsrooms, as I previously established, and the undermining of journalistic credibility by the ‘clickbait-driven competition’ between New Zealand’s dominant digital sites (2017: 47). To counter this, Vine states that this ‘new form of journalism must maintain high standards of factual accuracy, fairness and thoroughness’ (2017: 48) to combat these criticisms. It is impossible for an NGO not to have some bias. But their biases tend to be transparent. Vine argues that ‘objectivity is an outdated and unachievable myth’ (2017: 48). All journalists – all people – come to stories with their own ingrained biases. It is time to acknowledge this unspoken truth.

It is difficult not to agree that the current economic situation of media organisations is uncertain and, in some cases, quite bleak. But there is still much to be hopeful for. There will always be important news stories and people will be needed to report them to a wider audience - think of the major news stories in Ireland from the past 18 months, from the breakout of the pandemic to Golf Gate. The places that we visit to consume these stories, and the organisations who produce them, may just be different to what we traditionally would expect.

Bibliography

Dwyer, P., 2019. Flexibility, Innovation, and Precarity in the Television Industry. In: M. Deuze and M. Prenger, ed., Making Media: Production, Practices, and Professions. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, pp.347-359.

European Youth Press, n.d. Future of Media Cartoon. [image] Available at: <https://www.youthpress.org/future-journalism-traditional-media-still-matter/> [Accessed 8 May 2021].

Gilsenan, T., 2021. Interview with Ben Quinn. [online] Thomasgilsenan.wixsite.com. Available at: <https://thomasgilsenan.wixsite.com/website/post/interview-with-ben-quinn> [Accessed 18 April 2021].

Jackson, J., 2015. Greenpeace hires team of investigative journalists. [online] the Guardian. Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/sep/09/greenpeace-hires-investigative-journalists-meiron-jones> [Accessed 18 April 2021].

McClenaghan, M. and Carter, L., 2016. Leaked report reveals BP safety failures as it heads back to Gulf of Mexico. [online] Unearthed. Available at: <https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2016/12/13/bp-leaked-report-sparks-concerns-safety/> [Accessed 18 April 2021].

Oremus, W., 2018. The Real Lie About Online Video Runs Deeper Than Facebook’s False Metrics. [online] Slate Magazine. Available at: <https://slate.com/technology/2018/10/facebook-online-video-pivot-metrics-false.html> [Accessed 18 April 2021].

Pithan, L., Vaclavik, M. and Oltramari, A., 2020. Vulnerable careers: analysis of media layoffs as a turning point for journalists. Cadernos EBAPE.BR, 18(1), pp.158-171.

Vine, P., 2017. When is a journalist not a journalist?: Negotiating a new form of advocacy journalism within the environmental movement. Pacific Journalism Review, 23(1), pp.43-54.

Werker, E. and Ahmed, F., 2008. What Do Nongovernmental Organizations Do?. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 22(2), pp.73-92.