Crisis or Transformation? Debates over Journalistic Work in Canada

Abstract

Background There is a broad recognition that journalism is facing difficult times in Canada and internationally. Analysis This article reviews the literature on the state of journalism and then focuses on one element of the perceived crisis of journalism in the Canadian context: claims that the number of employed journalists has fallen sharply in recent years. Using data from Statistics Canada and the United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, the authors find that, unlike the United States, the number of journalists employed in Canada has risen slightly in absolute terms over the past two decades.Conclusions and implications These findings have important implications for how researchers, politicians and the public think about the state of journalism in Canada and what types of policy prescriptions might be more or less appropriate to deal with the real but not necessarily calamitous changes that are taking place.Contexte On reconnaît généralement que le journalisme est en train de traverser des moments difficiles tant au Canada qu’au niveau international.Analyse Cet article passe en revue la littérature sur l’état du journalisme, après quoi il se focalise sur un élément particulier de la crise apparente du journalisme au Canada : l’idée que le nombre de journalistes a chuté depuis quelques années. Au moyen de données provenant de Statistique Canada et du United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, les auteurs constatent que, contrairement à ce qui s’est passé aux États-Unis, le nombre de journalistes au Canada a connu une légère augmentation au cours des deux dernières décennies.Conclusion et implications Ces données ont des implications importantes sur la manière dont les chercheurs, les politiciens et le public perçoivent l’état du journalisme au Canada et sur les types de politiques qui seraient appropriés pour gérer les changements incontestables mais non calamiteux qui sont en train d’avoir lieu.

Epic Snowmen, Expert Takes, and Audience Orientation: How Journalistic Roles are Performed in Canadian Media

“…While there is evidence of signifi cant cuts to newsrooms and the number of journalists working in them, particularly local newsrooms (Public Policy Forum, 2022), even while acknowledging the deep impact of such cuts, questions have been raised about the actual number of jobs lost in Canada (Winseck, 2021). There are also positive signs in newsroom reinvestment by major legacy brands (Brin & Charlton, 2022), and studies that show that the loss of traditional newsroom jobs has been largely off set by roles not traditionally considered journalistic but that are nonetheless staff ed by people who would self-identify as journalists (Wilkinson & Winseck, 2019). There seems to be more widespread agreement that, on the proverbial shop fl oor, journalists face signifi cant stressors, including increased harassment and threats (Eschner, 2022;Campion-Smith, 2022;Fenlon, 2022) and job precarity (Wilkinson & Winseck, 2019) that, according to one study of 100 Canadian journalists, forces many practitioners to rely on family members for childcare, household labour, and fi nancial support (Reid & Ghaedipour, 2021).…”

“…There are also positive signs in newsroom reinvestment by major legacy brands (Brin & Charlton, 2022), and studies that show that the loss of traditional newsroom jobs has been largely off set by roles not traditionally considered journalistic but that are nonetheless staff ed by people who would self-identify as journalists (Wilkinson & Winseck, 2019). There seems to be more widespread agreement that, on the proverbial shop fl oor, journalists face signifi cant stressors, including increased harassment and threats (Eschner, 2022;Campion-Smith, 2022;Fenlon, 2022) and job precarity (Wilkinson & Winseck, 2019) that, according to one study of 100 Canadian journalists, forces many practitioners to rely on family members for childcare, household labour, and fi nancial support (Reid & Ghaedipour, 2021). For all newsworkers, the fi eld is changing at both the technological and narrative level.…”

Who is a journalist now? Recognising atypical journalism work in the digital media economy

“…In the Canadian context, Wilkinson and Winseck (2019) seek to challenge 'crisis' journalist job loss narratives derived from findings from Canadian journalism unions by analysing data from Statistics Canada, which, they argue, provides a more nuanced view. They find that the number of journalists may have actually increased over time, but with the important caveat that 'it is impossible to tell whether the fluctuating number of journalists are employed at traditional news firms, vertically integrated telecommunications firms that also have some kind of stake in journalism, or new and evolving forms of independent and digital native forms of journalism, or are just people who call themselves journalists' (381).…”

Accounting for Absences and Ambiguities in the Freelancing Labour Relation

“…Second, in our sectoral focus on the media, we dig deeper into freelancing to understand why non-standard employment relations grow more quickly in this sector than the labour market as a whole. According to Wilkinson and Winseck (2019), while there is concern that the number of journalists in Canada is declining, it is their employment relationship that is changing -this more nuanced picture is harder to capture than stories of newspapers letting reporters go as the jobs are not lost, they become temporary contracts for unaccounted for freelancers. Moreover, it is important that we understand how some workers are 'primed for precarity', where workers 'largely accept precarity as natural part of journalism because precarity is in line with key professional norms such as norms of entrepreneurship and meritocracy' (Örnebring 2018).…”