Multiskilling in the newsroom – de-skilling or re-skilling of journalistic work?

Abstract

Multiskilling in a journalism context is not a case of "de-skilling" of the profession. There are problems related to the quality in newsrooms adapting multiskilling strategies, but in general multiskilling is more correctly defined as a re-skilling or an up-skilling. This is the conclusion from results of a survey of 1,500 journalists in Poland, Russia and Sweden, along with interviews with 60 journalists in these three countries. Multiskilling in journalism gives more room for creativity and more power to the individual journalist, according to those with experience of working as multi-reporters. It allows them more freedom to make their own decisions in their daily tasks, e.g., choosing subjects and stories. At the same time, from the perspective of the media company, multiskilling is a strategy to increase production in the newsrooms. But multiskilling has no direct correlation with downsized newsrooms: it is rather an industry norm for how to organize work in newsrooms of today. Multiskilling is also changing the journalistic culture, putting more focus on production and adapting content for different channels.

Nedbemanning som utfordring for journalistikken

“…Journalistene opplever at multiskilling gir større rom for kreativitet, større innflytelse til den enkelte journalist og bidrar til å øke produksjonen (Nygren, 2014). Selv om en konsekvens av nedbemanninger ofte er at journalister må utføre flere oppgaver, viser Nygrens undersøkelse at multiskilling i seg selv ikke automatisk trenger å bety at kvaliteten på det journalistiske arbeidet forringes.…”

Introduction to issue 2(1)

“…As such, findings suggesting what could perhaps be labeled as a somewhat hesitant or conservative approach within media organizations are discernable not only within the broader news media (e.g. Mitchelstein and Boczkowski, 2009;Thorén, 2013) Nygren, 2014;Westlund & Krumsvik, 2014). This is picked up by Katherine Champion in her piece in the current issue -Experimentation and Imitation: The Journey to Elle 360.…”

A Faster Kind of Photojournalism?

“…Thus, there has been a widespread shift towards an integrated, multi-platform and, in many cases, multi-skilled or, as they are known in Sweden, multi-competence newsroom (Nygren 2014) where everyone may be a visual gatekeeper although not everyone is a designer or news editor. There have also been changes in photojournalistic work routines (Langton 2009, Solaroli 2015.…”

“…A period of expansion has been followed by a widely familiar current trend adopted by some news organizations where each journalist produces content in both written and visual forms (e.g. Nygren 2014). These changing photojournalistic functions are a contrast to the more clearly defined areas of newsroom expertise examined in research a decade or two ago (e.g.…”