Care(lessness) in precarious journalism, before and during the pandemic
Freelancers’ work-life experiences and coping strategies
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21215593 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mirjam Gollmitzer (0000-0002-8513-6083, Université de Montréal, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 206-220 |
| Publication date | 2024-06-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Global Media and China (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2059-4364 • E-ISSN: 2059-4372 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/20594364241230434 |
| OpenAlex | W4391353298 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 31 |
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, interest in care as a potential remedy for a variety of issues and crises, such as improving global health justice or creating more “caring” educational systems, has increased across academic disciplines. This article contributes to this literature from the perspective of journalism studies. It explores whether the notion of care captures and addresses one facet of the contemporary news industry crisis, namely the precarity of journalists. I focus on the work-life narratives of a small group of freelance journalists in Germany and Canada before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Applying a care lens articulates the struggles the freelancers experience regarding income, social security, housing, and childcare as a result of careless states and careless markets. Furthermore, the care practices journalists use as coping strategies merge mutual aid for fellow freelancers or members of their local communities with entrepreneurial networking for professional survival. However, such informal care practices cannot make up for structural gaps in support. Waged work—outside journalism—in the formal labor market, performed by the freelancers themselves or their life partners, turned out to be more important for coping with precarity. Overall, the pandemic meant more continuity than change for the care struggles as well as coping strategies of the journalists examined here. Nevertheless, those with residential property, gainfully employed life partners, and established care networks fared best, hinting at the crucial role of privilege in shaping the work experiences of precarious journalists during crises
2019-20 coronavirus outbreak · Journalism · Media studies · Pandemic · Sociology · Digital Economy and Work Transformation · Engineering · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Medicine · Psychology · Youth Education and Societal Dynamics · Mechanical Engineering · Virology
Writers' Rights
Social Reproduction Theory
The Precariat
Thematic analysis of qualitative research data
At Work in the Digital Newsroom
Care-ful Work
Covering Covid
Glimpses of resistance
Social reproduction and pandemic neoliberalism
The New Normal of Working Lives
The Routledge Companion to the Cultural Industries
Qualitative Researching
The Covid-19 pandemic has increased the care burden of women and families
New Media Unions
Freelance Journalists as a Flexible Workforce in Media Industries
In the Margins of Journalism
Happier Working for Themselves
Global health and the Covid-19 pandemic
Belgian Journalists in Lockdown
The pandemic politics of cultural work
Understanding changes to perceived socioeconomic and psychosocial adversities during Covid-19 for UK freelance cultural workers
What’s the harm in moonlighting? A qualitative survey on the role conflicts of freelance journalists with secondary employment in the field of PR
Should I Stay or Should I Go
Journalism ethics with Foucault
The blurring line between freelance journalists and self-employed media workers
The politics of care
The Longitudinal Qualitative Interview
The logic of small samples in interview-based qualitative research
Weapons of the Chic
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2026 - 2026 (1) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |