Care(lessness) in precarious journalism, before and during the pandemic

Freelancers’ work-life experiences and coping strategies

Datos Bibliográficos

ID21215593
AutoresMirjam Gollmitzer (0000-0002-8513-6083, Université de Montréal, autor de correspondencia)
Año2024
Volumen9
Número2
Páginas206-220
Fecha de publicación2024-06-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaGlobal Media and China (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 2059-4364 • E-ISSN: 2059-4372
EditorialSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/20594364241230434
OpenAlexW4391353298
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas2
Referencias citadas31

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