Reporting on precarious ground: Women in digital journalism

Highlights

• Women and women of colour in digital journalism face increased levels of precarious and hostile working environments.
• The rise in contract work in journalism has increased precarity for journalists and they worry how their reporting might jeopardize their employment.
• Collective bargaining and increasing gender and racial diversity in journalism may help mitigate these experiences.

In an era of endless digital news streams and the fierce divides on social media, where we get our news is increasingly important. Part of that knowledge includes paying attention to who the journalists are behind the stories we consume.

Nicole Cohen, associate professor at the Institute of Communication, Culture, Information, and Technology at the University of Toronto and Shannon Clarke, PhD candidate at Queen’s University, studied women’s experiences in digital journalism, examining factors that have led to greater inequality in opportunities.

Their work builds on recent research showing that journalism is dominated by journalists who identify as white (78 percent). While gender and racial diversity have increased in the field, particularly in junior roles, precarious work and specifically the precarity of women’s work remain significant issues.

The authors interviewed 23 women working in digital journalism, approximately 50 percent of whom self-identified as women of color, across four cities in Canada. These interviews uncovered several prevailing themes of sexism and racism in the workplace, including a hostile work environment, a lack of respect for their expertise and work, precarious working conditions, and limited decision-making power.

Facing prejudice and precarity

Women journalists in the study described facing prejudices in their daily work. For example, journalists of color reported that senior managers often expected them to cover topics related to their own ethnic groups, even though they did not wish to be confined to one set of stories. Women journalists also encountered bias from managers, who assumed they would be “biased” in their reporting while men writing on similar topics were perceived as more “neutral.” These findings align with the idea that journalism is still predominantly a “boy’s club.” Women journalists in the study also reflected on the harassment they continue to face at work, which their male counterparts often fail to understand.

Women journalists also encountered bias from managers, who assumed they would be “biased”…while men writing on similar topics were perceived as more “neutral.”

Participants also described facing precarity in employment, which hinders their freedom as journalists. As standard, stable employment decreases in availability, journalists take on more gigs and contract work. This in turn affects the control that they have over their work, as they may be afraid to venture out and have full autonomy over the content of their story for fear of jeopardizing their work contracts. In other words, precarity of employment impacts their freedom of expression to communicate their stories. Participants in the study remarked that journalists of colour in particular often do not get full-time jobs and this affects how they can speak up and stand firm behind the ideas in their work.

Cohen and Clarke became interested in this topic based on their personal experiences in the field, when they noticed that there was a paucity of research that takes an intersectional approach in understanding journalism. They were curious if the increasing popularity of digital outlets might change experiences of women journalists in the field.

…precarity of employment impacts their freedom of expression to communicate their stories.

For Clarke, one of the biggest surprises was in “how normalized this precarity is, how accepted it is.” Many workers feel compelled to accept poor pay and demanding conditions indefinitely, as if this reality is an unspoken rite of passage. “You have to put up with these conditions indefinitely,” she said, describing the common mindset that “everyone has to do it, so you have to do it too.”

Representation and unionization

Both authors comment that there is no easy fix to address these issues. A solution may lie in hiring more people of colour and placing them in management roles. “When people of colour have decision-making power, they can influence content in ways that better represent diverse communities,” Cohen explained. However, she acknowledged that simply increasing diversity in leadership won’t address all structural barriers.

There is also the growing trend of unionization among journalists, who are increasingly turning to collective bargaining as a means of securing justice and fair treatment in the workplace. “Journalists are spearheading this movement,” Cohen said. “They’re actively negotiating change and standing up for justice through worker-led initiatives.” There are programs for advocacy work and resources, for example, at the Mary Ann Shadd Cary Centre for Journalism and Belonging. There is need for continual attention on labour issues within journalism, such as how collective action is being fostered and the role of media unions.

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Research brief prepared by:

Laura Lam