The Secret Land of Freelance Journalism in Lithuania : a life-world study of professional challenges in the digital era
(2017) MKVM13 20171Media and Communication Studies
- Abstract
- Journalism profession and journalists’ practices are usually critiqued when a new shift happens. Currently, digitalization of the newsrooms, economic state of journalism and changing labour conditions have an impact on shaping the models according to which newsrooms work and journalists understand their professional roles and identities. The aforementioned changes within the profession are usually referred to as the ‘journalism crisis’. Nonetheless, many journalism studies lack a broader and a more holistic picture of what aggregates the professional challenges for the journalists.
Employing the life-world concept, this thesis aim is to study the Lithuanian freelance journalists’ everyday experiences. They are living and working in the... (More) - Journalism profession and journalists’ practices are usually critiqued when a new shift happens. Currently, digitalization of the newsrooms, economic state of journalism and changing labour conditions have an impact on shaping the models according to which newsrooms work and journalists understand their professional roles and identities. The aforementioned changes within the profession are usually referred to as the ‘journalism crisis’. Nonetheless, many journalism studies lack a broader and a more holistic picture of what aggregates the professional challenges for the journalists.
Employing the life-world concept, this thesis aim is to study the Lithuanian freelance journalists’ everyday experiences. They are living and working in the time of ongoing changes within the profession and society. Freelance journalism as a practice in Lithuania is still developing, it is happening now, therefore it is a unique possibility to explore the phenomenon by seeing, hearing and understanding it through freelance journalists accounts. This would help to broaden the discussions of contemporary and unavoidable new roles, practices, and competencies.
The study draws on qualitative empirical research, based on 12 interviews with freelance journalists and two-week fieldwork. The analysis further sustains the already existing knowledge of how the separation of private (home) and public (work) spaces obscures, consequently, how the distinction between work and leisure time is blurring. On a more general level, the respondents’ everyday life is shaped by the state of journalism in Lithuania, because every day they try to shore up perceived problems with their own contributions. Consequently, the newsroom, drawing on the interviewees’ accounts, emerges as a symbol of the problems within journalism space as well as within the nation. Likewise, the study shows how the state of the profession in the country is influential for considering and experiencing the professional challenges. It is argued that to study journalism culture, researchers have to, with an open and unprejudiced mind, study journalism culture as a part of wider cultural aspects, such as a nation’s history. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/8906794
- author
- Rasciute, Agne LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- MKVM13 20171
- year
- 2017
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Journalism, Journalists, freelance labour, freelance journalism, life-world, everyday experiences, Lithuania
- language
- English
- id
- 8906794
- date added to LUP
- 2017-06-22 09:12:54
- date last changed
- 2017-06-22 09:12:54
@misc{8906794,
abstract = {{Journalism profession and journalists’ practices are usually critiqued when a new shift happens. Currently, digitalization of the newsrooms, economic state of journalism and changing labour conditions have an impact on shaping the models according to which newsrooms work and journalists understand their professional roles and identities. The aforementioned changes within the profession are usually referred to as the ‘journalism crisis’. Nonetheless, many journalism studies lack a broader and a more holistic picture of what aggregates the professional challenges for the journalists.
Employing the life-world concept, this thesis aim is to study the Lithuanian freelance journalists’ everyday experiences. They are living and working in the time of ongoing changes within the profession and society. Freelance journalism as a practice in Lithuania is still developing, it is happening now, therefore it is a unique possibility to explore the phenomenon by seeing, hearing and understanding it through freelance journalists accounts. This would help to broaden the discussions of contemporary and unavoidable new roles, practices, and competencies.
The study draws on qualitative empirical research, based on 12 interviews with freelance journalists and two-week fieldwork. The analysis further sustains the already existing knowledge of how the separation of private (home) and public (work) spaces obscures, consequently, how the distinction between work and leisure time is blurring. On a more general level, the respondents’ everyday life is shaped by the state of journalism in Lithuania, because every day they try to shore up perceived problems with their own contributions. Consequently, the newsroom, drawing on the interviewees’ accounts, emerges as a symbol of the problems within journalism space as well as within the nation. Likewise, the study shows how the state of the profession in the country is influential for considering and experiencing the professional challenges. It is argued that to study journalism culture, researchers have to, with an open and unprejudiced mind, study journalism culture as a part of wider cultural aspects, such as a nation’s history.}},
author = {{Rasciute, Agne}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{The Secret Land of Freelance Journalism in Lithuania : a life-world study of professional challenges in the digital era}},
year = {{2017}},
}