Newswork and Precarity

This edited collection brings together leading scholars from around the world to discuss the consequences and implications of precarious labor conditions within the modern news industry. In 14 original chapters, contributors speak to global concerns about journalism across all platforms, based on the assumption that unstable employment conditions affect the extent to which journalists can continue to play their historically crucial role in sustaining democracies. Topics discussed include work conditions for freelancers and entrepreneurial journalists as well as the risks facing conflict reporters; precarity in media start-ups; unionization and other collective efforts; policies regulating journalistic labor around the world; and the impact of hedge fund money on newswork. Drawing on case studies and data from South America, Africa, the United States, Canada, Mexico, the United Kingdom and continental Europe, the book highlights that media outlets are forcing newsworkers to work harder for less money and few countries are proactive in alleviating the precarity of journalists. Newswork and Precarity is a valuable addition to an important still-emerging area in journalism studies that will be of interest to both professionals and scholars of journalism, media studies, sociology and labor history.

Table of ContentsIntroduction: Global Precarity's Uneven Impacts on Journalism: Linda Steiner and Kalyani ChadhaPart I: THEORETICAL, HISTORICAL and ECONOMIC CONTEXT:Kalyani Chadha and Linda Steiner: Precarity: The Concept, Evolution, Forms and ApplicationsJohn Nerone: The Labor History of Newswork from Industrialization to the Digital AgeKrishnan Vasudevan: Dead on Arrival: Deadspin's Fight with its Private Equity Owner and The Rise of Defector Part II: APPLICATIONS TO JOURNALISM SPECIALIZATIONS AND INNOVATIONS.Carey L. Higgins-Dobney: Producing in precarity: A Focus on Freelancing in U.S. Local Television Newsrooms Lindsay Palmer: The Precarious Labor of Freelance War CorrespondentsCherian George: "All the news that's fit to print. Except for cartoons. Those things are scary"Karin Wahl-Jorgensen: Precarity in Community Journalism Start-Ups: The Deep Story of SacrificeSofie Willemsen and Tamara Witschge: "Becoming Real": Professional Precarity in Entrepreneurial JournalismPart III: Regional and National ParticularitiesAdriana Amado, Mireya Márquez-Ramírez and Silvio Waisbord: Labor Precarity and Gig Journalism in Latin AmericaHarry Dugmore: Endogenous "Precarious Professionalism" …