Characterisation of Spanish online journalists: Consolidation of a profession in a context of economic crisis

Abstract

Introduction. The crisis of the Spanish newspaper industry has transformed the media ecosystem in Spain and has led to the emergence of new independent online news media, which have been mostly launched by journalists themselves. Methods. A mixed methods approach has been used to analyse the professional profiles of journalists working in the new Spanish digital news media outlets. The research involved a survey questionnaire applied to a sample of journalists working in 301 different media outlets and six semi-structured interviews. Results. The digital journalist is versatile and multiskilled and there are no significant differences between the activities carried out by journalists across age groups. However, male journalists give more importance to technological tasks than their female counterparts do. Conclusions. This study shows that the precariousness of the Spanish journalistic sector makes it difficult to exploit the potential that digital media afford, while job insecurity does not allow journalists to develop their online presence.