07. 05. 2014

JOURNALISM IS HEADING IN WRONG DIRECTION

Washington, 07.05.2014 (Beta, NUNS) - American journalists are pessimistic about the direction their profession is headed in, according to a survey released today by the University of Indiana.

The vast majority of them believes that journalism is heading in the "wrong direction."

According to the survey, which is conducted once every ten years, six out of ten journalists in the United States (59.7 percent) believe that their profession is going in the wrong direction, while two out of ten journalists (23.1 percent) believe that it is going in the right direction.

Asked to identify the major problems that journalism is facing nowadays, 20.4 percent of the respondents indicated the reduction in income, 11.4 see Internet media as a threat, 11.3 percent think the problem is that are fewer jobs, and 10.8 percent of respondents believe that a new economic model is needed.

Only 23.3 percent of journalists said they are "very satisfied" with their job - while 33.3 percent of them said this in 2002, and 49 percent in 1971.

"Over all, about a quarter of American journalists stated that they are not or are not at all satisfied with their job," noted the authors of the study, stating that in 2002 only 16.1 percent of journalists said the same.

Only 33.6 percent of journalists believe that they have "almost complete freedom" in selecting story topics in their newsrooms, compared to 40 percent in 2002, 44 percent in 1992, and 60 percent in 1982 and 1972.

The survey was conducted in the fall of 2013 with the participation of 1,080 journalists.