Seeking “skilled, poised, fluent” verbal communicators

Aesthetic labor and signaling in journalism job advertisements

Bibliographic Data

ID21560243
AuthorsElia Powers (Powers is an associate professor in the Department of Mass Communication at Towson University, corresponding author)
Year2021
Volume42
Issue1
Pages12-28
Publication date2021-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNewspaper Research Journal (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0739-5329 • E-ISSN: 2376-4791
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0739532921989884
OpenAlexW3126191313
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited26

Journalism job advertisements send important signals about valued skills and attributes. How such advertisements articulate journalistic expertise, including interactional expertise, has been studied, but signals about verbal communication usually have been overlooked. Little is known about how journalism employers define the most valued communication skills and the ideal journalistic voice. This signaling theory study explores expectations advertisements convey for how journalists should sound through a thematic analysis of U.S. journalism job listings (n = 510) specifying substantial verbal communication. Requirements for exceptional verbal skills and explicit calls for vocal clarity raise barriers to entry for journalists with speech disabilities or speech anxiety

Advertising · Business · CLARITY · Conversation · Journalism · Nonverbal communication · Political science · Public relations · Communication · Communication in Education and Healthcare · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies · Psychology

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access