Deprecjacja zawodowa dziennikarza
Professional Devaluation of a Journalist

Author(s): Lucyna Szot
Subject(s): Media studies, Communication studies
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: journalist profession; journalists’ forms of employment; professionalism; multimedia journalism
Summary/Abstract: This article reflects upon the evolution of the professional status of a journalist. What serves as an introduction to the analysis is the explanation of basic notions: a journalist, the journalist profession, and the characteristics of various forms of employment. Fundamental questions posed in the introduction – concerning the change in journalism and related to the professional identity of a journalist, the need to maintain the quality of the message (objectivism and neutrality), and the valued skill in using modern technologies – are subject to falsification basing on the results of empirical research of the author and other data available in the journalism studies literature. In the context of the logic of the market used in the media (the criterion of cost-benefit calculation), the phenomena of commercialisation and tabloidisation result in professional devaluation of journalists; these phenomena are complemented with cultural elements of the professional environment of journalists revolving around the set of values such as independence, professional success (popularity), and further on – in gradation – the amount of salary. The conducted analysis – pointing to professional devaluation and loss of numerous professional privileges, such as the right to early retirement, the right to additional living space, or the right to additional rest leave – reaches an optimistic point in the final part. Namely, despite numerous professional dilemmas of journalists and ongoing pauperisation in the context of the evolution involving modern technologies, the key values associated with the professional ethos unchangingly accompany and characterise the journalist profession, which is still in the process of transformation and development.

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