Journalism in the Context of a Sanitary Crisis: Representations of the Job and Journalists’ Expectations

Abstract

The economic difficulties of media companies, ethical-deontological lapses, technological progress and the globalisation of information flows have been seen as the main factors of the contemporary crisis in journalism. With repercussions on working conditions and the public image of journalists, these variables are, however, only the most visible face of threats to an activity that, according to Nelson Traquina (2002), has a symbiotic relationship with democracy. Beyond these economic, social and cultural circumstances are also the expectations of the professionals themselves. In an occupation so often described as passionate, the professional situation seems to be less and less rewarding, not only due to the decrease in job opportunities, with newsrooms increasingly empty, but also due to the lack of perspective on career progression. This is one of the results of the “Study on the Effects of the State of Emergency on Journalism in the Context of the Covid-19 Pandemic”, conducted between May and June 2020. With a particular focus on reading journalists’ expectations, in this article we analyse the symbolic representations of a job that founded its social legitimacy on an idea of public service. Based on studies about the profession and its representations, we tried to find answers to understand why the acceptance of precariousness and abandonment of the profession can still be understood as places of resistance.