Economic conditions and their impact on journalistic autonomy

Economic factors, such as organisations’ profit expectations, advertisers’ needs, the implications of market forces and audience research have direct impact on journalists’

work and behaviour. ‘Contemporary journalism across the world faces similar pressures in regard to technological and commercial changes’ (Obijiofor and Hanusch, 2011: 154). ‘Making money and surviving in the new competitive environment have become the key concerns of commercial media’ (Ibid: 160). These claims refer to the crisis of the traditional business model of professional journalism (high costs of quality-news production versus availability of free news on the Internet;

advertisers moving away from traditional media, etc.) and its consequences. In order to survive, media organisations introduce business models that aim at cost saving (reducing budgets and distribution costs, and cutting salaries and jobs). Under the pressure of gaining profit, media companies invest rather in advertising departments than in the quality of news production. As a consequence, the pressure is to produce less expensive entertainment content rather than discuss serious societal problems or develop investigative journalism. The traditional role of journalists as democracy gatekeepers is very hard to play in the global market, which is driven by economic interests. The professionals are barely able to reconcile their traditional values with market-oriented practices, which are at the same time antithetical to social responsibility.

The economic pressure influences all levels of journalistic autonomy:

institutional, organisational and individual. In addition, although the market pressure is universal, it appears differently under different circumstances.

3.4.1 The institutional level: The size and type of the media market

At the institutional level, the size of the market (determined by either or both the language and the size of the population) makes the difference. Germany, the UK, Romania, Spain and Turkey are certainly big markets. Denmark, Finland and Bulgaria are medium markets. Belgium (divided by language), Croatia, Slovakia and Estonia are small markets. Tens of thousands of employees and freelancers work in the German media market, where public and private broadcasters together yield annual turnovers of more than 18 billion Euros (Müller and Gusy, 2011: 7). In Bulgaria in

2007, the total number of journalists was estimated to be around 7,200; the total number of employees in the media business was 16,250 in 2006 (Smilova, Smilov and Ganev, 2011: 28). In Estonia, in 2011, the number of employed journalists (including part-time employees) was about 1,100.

In Estonia, the oligopolistic media market certainly diminishes journalistic autonomy. This situation, however, is unavoidable in a small market. A limited number of relatively strong companies have more resources for producing quality journalism than fragmented ownership with many financially poor companies.

A fragmented and overpopulated media market seems to be the problem in Romania – the naturally large market grew organically from the 1990s onwards, with too little care for strategic development. Populated initially with small entrepreneurs with small budgets and medium to low managerial skills, the media market evolved towards a polarised structure, with a cluster of big media conglomerates and a cloud of small local media outlets. The media outlets employed thousands of journalists and technical staff. The economic crisis that marked the end of the first decade of 2000 strengthened the competition for jobs among journalists in a shrinking market (Ghinea and Avădani, 2011: 7).

3.4.2 Economic factors affecting the autonomy of news organisations

A universal problem that affects news organisations is the diminishing border between marketing and journalism. According to the Belgian report, it is not uncommon that editors are paid bonuses for increasing sales figures (which creates the risk of commercial interests prevailing over journalistic interests). In other words, separation between journalistic activities and commercial strategies seems to be dismantled at the level of the editorial board (Van Besien, 2011: 38).

In Estonia, journalists detect immediate commercial pressure on content, and it seems to be most evident in the magazine sector and the newspapers’ ‘soft news’ or B-sections (Harro-Loit and Loit, 2011: 34).

The Greek advertising companies have gained an increasingly influential role in the management of broadcasting content, especially when critical issues concerning important clients are in question Advertisers have also influenced the news organisations to prioritise entertainment to the detriment of information, and to remove news that could damage their clients (Psychogiopoulou, Anagnostou and Kandyla, 2011: 12, 39).

The rapid growth and professionalisation of the PR industry has a direct impact on journalists’ work. Due to the increased time pressure in the newsrooms, news sources are selected on the basis of easy reach. Journalistic reporting relies more on the material provided by information sources without journalistic filtering or critical evaluation. It seems clear that strategic communication is impinging on journalistic independence in a negative way, since its one key output is ready-to-print press releases and information materials. Research demonstrates that the proportion of the news derived from press releases and other PR material in both press and broadcasting is globally increasing (cf. Davis, 2000; Juntunen, 2011; Larsson, 2009).

According to a UK study (Lewis et al., 2008: 15), 38 per cent of press news and 21 per cent of broadcast news rely on PR material. The Internet has facilitated the circulation of PR material as news agencies are now easily bypassed and PR material can be e-mailed directly to reporters (Fenton, 2009: 94). In the Estonian daily

Postimees, for example, in 2011, 51 per cent of the news was composed using mainly PR information (Kase, 2011). Journalists’ extensive use of, and reliance on, PR material as news sources raises questions concerning journalistic independence and the journalists’ role as a fourth estate (cf. Lewis et al., 2008).

3.4.3 Economic factors influencing the individual autonomy of journalists

Most of the Mediadem reports emphasise that the degree of journalists’ individual autonomy depends on the media sector (public or private, national or local) and channel for which they work as well as a journalist’s job position in a news organisation. Several reports mention that the Internet era has changed the situation in the job market: the online media have created new job opportunities and the profile of journalistic competencies has changed. The reports also reflect the fact that policy makers have not analysed and debated the effects of the changing job market, working conditions and career opportunities of journalists on democracy. The majority of country reports describe economically unsustainable situations where the intensity and amount of work increase, but salaries do not. In overpopulated job markets (e.g.

Romania), a cheap and unprofessional labour force competes with qualified, but more expensive journalists and as a consequence, the quality of journalistic content decreases. In small media markets, the lack of resources (both workforce and finances) causes stress and worsens working conditions. None of the Mediadem country reports tell about discussions on policy mechanisms, which would be able to reduce these economic pressures on the journalism profession.

3.4.3.1 The job market

The situation in the journalistic job market (the conditions of entrance, competition, job security and career models) strongly affects the individual autonomy of journalists. The conditions of the entrance to the profession largely vary in different countries. In many countries, it is easy to become a journalist without any specific education or training. For example, in Bulgaria the entry to the job market is entirely open, which leads to an exponential increase in the number of journalists and to a toughening of the competition among them (Smilova, Smilov and Ganev, 2011: 28).

In Romania, a number of good and experienced journalists are unemployed or choose to be freelancers. Employers prefer to give low-paid temporary jobs to beginners and inexperienced young journalists, which makes the job perspectives for the experienced generation uncertain (Ghinea and Avădani, 2011: 45).

Similar tendencies are described in Spain: around 4,000 journalists of the older generation were dismissed in favour of younger ones, thus getting rid of reputed professionals along with their memories and know-how (De la Sierra and Mantini, 2011: 21). In the 1990s, the Estonian media organisations also got rid of older journalists (who in some cases were labelled as ‘Soviet relicts’). The problem that followed was similar to the Spanish situation: the loss of the collective memory of the profession as well as awareness of professional values. These cases refer to the problem that the age balance is an important factor concerning continuity of the values and standards of journalism as a profession.

The entrance to the job market in Estonia has no restrictions, but the conditions for jobs and the requirements for candidates are not clear and transparent,

and journalists seldom get to know why, or why not, they got the job (Harro-Loit and Loit, 2011: 38).

In Italy, by contrast, journalists must be enrolled in the national Register, they enjoy a set of limitations of liability when exercising their professional activity, but this cannot be extended to anyone providing the same activity online without being enrolled in the Register (Casarosa and Brogi, 2011: 5). Still Italy needs more defined rules on the definition of the journalistic profession vis-à-vis the common use of the web as a means for the diffusion of user generated content (Casarosa and Brogi, 2011:

55). The digitalisation of the information market mostly worsened the working conditions of young and freelance journalists. Some newspapers in Italy remunerate their staff from €4.30 gross per piece to €325.00 for two months of work Register (Casarosa and Brogi, 2011: 50).

The recent economic crisis has seriously affected job security in all countries.

In Finland, hardship in the media’s profit making has led to the recruitment of less professional journalists, and reducing the overall number of the working force. The increased amount of editorial work is reflected in a 2010 survey by the Journalists’

Union, in which 53 per cent of 600 respondents feared losing their jobs, 45 per cent regarded their work meaningful and 54 per cent said they have too much work to do (Kuutti, Lauk and Lindgren, 2011: 32).

In Greece, the financial crisis has exposed the weaknesses of a defective media market, which has been for years artificially supported. During 2010 and 2011, many print outlets, even large and established ones closed down, while TV channels have introduced cuts in their output and many journalists have lost their jobs (Psychogiopoulou, Anagnostou and Kandyla, 2011: 58). Another factor that has a negative effect on professional autonomy is the multiple job-holding that has been prevalent among Greek journalists. Many journalists try to have another job in the public sector (i.e. in the public service broadcaster or a press office of a public administration unit) because a public sector job pays for the social security contributions (Psychogiopoulou, Anagnostou and Kandyla, 2011: 52).

Turkey represents a country with a low level of job security for journalists.

Despite the special rights legally granted to journalists, for many years the media sector has practiced employing journalists without insurance. The competition among the workforce and the fear of unemployment prevent journalists from voicing their problems. No collective agreements exist to secure an extent of balance in salaries and individual job contracts. Informally employed journalists agree to work for much lower salaries than formally employed journalists and this causes an unfair competition (Kurban and Sözeri, 2011: 33).

In the UK newspapers hire journalists often on short-term rolling contracts, which creates pressure to comply with the style and political orientation of the newspaper (Craufurd Smith and Stolte, 2011: 38).

3.4.3.2 The status of freelancers

All Mediadem countries report about inequality of freelance journalists’ status compared to journalists with permanent positions. In most of the countries, the number of freelancers is growing because of the decreasing number of jobs in news organisations. Freelancers have fewer possibilities to protect their rights and secure their incomes. For example, in Finland, the members of the Journalists’ Union are

secured by a collective agreement (a majority of Finnish journalists are members of the Union). Freelancers are required to sign two-party contractual agreements, and they are not in a position to negotiate contracts collectively, as this is regarded as a cartel-like activity (Kuutti, Lauk and Lindgren, 2011: 35).

The financial situation of freelance journalists in Germany has been stagnating or deteriorating and thus, also their willingness to invest into time consuming printed articles or other media coverage. According to the German report, 69 per cent of all freelance journalists earn less than 1,600 Euros per month (Müller and Gusy, 2011:

39).

3.4.3.3 Working conditions

Increasing work overload seems to be a universal problem in the Mediadem countries.

The importance of this problem, however, varies in different countries. According to several case study reports (Finland, Denmark, Germany, Spain, the UK, Estonia), current journalistic practices do not give much time for fact checking and considering and editing since media houses are oriented towards financial accountability and industrial production of news. The proportion of entertaining media content is increasing at the expense of analytical journalism and criticism. Instead of doing individual information gathering, journalists have to analyse increasingly more information provided by news agencies and other online services.

Time pressure has become a significant factor that determines the ways in which journalists work, especially in online news production. Increased emphasis on rapid production makes it harder to produce well-researched news stories. The situation obviously reduces time for research, specialising, analysis and control of the issues. According to the Belgian report close to 80 per cent of Flemish journalists are of the opinion that the workload of journalists has been increasing in recent years and no less than 10 per cent of the Flemish journalists are fighting ‘burnout’. A survey among Belgian French-speaking journalists shows that almost half of them are unhappy about their working conditions and almost 80 per cent see a negative evolution in recent years (Van Besien, 2011: 39).

Also the other reports (Croatia, Estonia) tell about increasing workloads and time pressure in the news production process. Journalists work with more products, deadlines and across more media, which also reflects media convergence processes.

The struggle for survival creates the situation where the market logic prevails over professional logic or, in the rare cases where professional logic is respected, journalistic production becomes relatively uncompetitive (as reflected in the Estonian and Croatian reports).

Even in Finland, where the employment of journalists is relatively well protected, the crisis has influenced the working conditions: due to the cuts in the workforce, newsrooms have become smaller and the workload of individual journalists has grown. In a 2010 survey by the Journalists’ Union, 54 per cent said they have too much work (Kuutti, Lauk and Lindgren, 2011: 32).

In Germany, however, the overall working conditions enable journalists to produce for press, broadcasting, and online outlets that are relevant for societal and democratic discourses (Müller and Gusy, 2011: 38).

In Turkey, media enterprises are located in big cities, and mostly in Istanbul, where working and living costs are extremely high compared to the rest of the country (Kurban and Sözeri, 2011: 33).

4. Factors of influence stemming from the organisational and professional