journalists’ multiskilling in the digital age
DESCRIPTION
Presentation held at the 2011 Future of Journalism conference.TRANSCRIPT
MAURICE VERGEERR A D B O U D U N I V E R S I T Y N I J M E G E N
T H E N E T H E R L A N D S
ALEXANDER PLEIJTERU N I V E R S I T Y O F G R O N I N G E N
T H E N E T H E R L A N D S
LIESBETH HERMANSR A D B O U D U N I V E R S I T Y N I J M E G E N
T H E N E T H E R L A N D S
JOURNALISTS’ MULTISKILLING IN THE DIGITAL AGE
Changes in the field
Drastic changes in media industriesincreased media outputDigitizationthe InternetMergers
Factors important for media industry changes:technological innovationseconomic pressuresProfessionalizationStriving for increased quality
From convergence to multi-skilling
Single mode news organizations transformed to multi-media organizations
Converged news organizations affects journalism practice (Avilés & Carvajal, 2008) Different and more skills Production for several platforms simultaneously Production speed increases
Economic necessity
Declining number of newspaper subscriptions“News is for free”
Consequences for journalists’ daily activities More production With less journalists At a much quicker rate
Journalist transform from a specialist to generalist
Still…
Empirical evidence is lacking Little research on multi-skilling Hardly any longitudinal research
Research Questions
What type of activities do journalists carry out?
To what degree have these activities increased or decreased over time, in general and specifically for different media types?
Data and measurements
Data
Drawn from the membership database of the Dutch Journalism Association (NVJ).
2006 (N=643) and 2010 (N=1016)identical measurement instruments in both
years
Measurements
activities and media platforms, a matrix with one dimension all types of
media platforms listed and the other dimension the media activities listed.
Media platforms
Broadcasting Public service broadcastingCommercial broadcastingRegional public service broadcastingLocal broadcasting
Media platforms
NewspaperNational newspapersFree dailiesRegional newspapersNondaily newspapersFree door-to-door newspapers
Media platforms
MagazinesNews magazinesSpecial interest magazinesProfessional magazinesCorporate magazinesMagazines for associations
The WebJournalism websites and weblogs (unrelated
to media that are traditionally offline)
Activities
writingeditingreportingcoordinatephoto´s/videopresentingmaintain website
Findings
Most performed activities
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
2006 2010
writingeditingreportcoordinatephoto´spresentmaintain website
Number of activities performed
2
2,5
3
3,5
4
2006 2010
# ac
tiviti
es NewspaperBroadcastingMagazinesThe Web
What activities have in- or decreased by media type
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
newspaper broadcasting magazines the Web
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
newspaper broadcasting magazines the Web
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
newspaper broadcasting magazines the Web
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
newspaper broadcasting magazines the Web
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
newspaper broadcasting magazines the Web
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
newspaper broadcasting magazines the Web
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
newspaper broadcasting magazines the Web
-20
-15
-10
-5
0
5
10
15
20
newspaper broadcasting magazines the Web
Conclusion
Journalists perform multiple activities. About three to four activities
Writing, editing and reportingIn four years time there is been little change
overallBut,Considerable changes within different media
typesMulti-skilling is mostly performed on the web, but
less in other mediaAnd even slightly decreasing for traditional media
Editing, presenting and reporting has decreased across media types
Writing and recording videos and photographing has increased for selected media
Maintaining a website has increased across all media
Future research
What specific combinations of activities do journalists perform?
To what extent is this related to personal and professional background (age, gender, professional education)?