Here’s something that I’d never considered before: how do the public (and news organisations) perceive online journalists? - And I don’t mean do they think they’re (we’re?) all unbelievably intelligent and good looking.. Research by the Poynter Institute indicates that online journalists working for Latin American newspapers earn less than their print media colleagues, and on top of this their print media buddies also identify them as being at a lower professional level.
You can read the full article here: http://www.poynter.org/uncategorized/22212/the-state-of-online-journalism-in-latin-america/
It brings up a number of interesting points, however the two that really caught my attention were:
“The work of these online journalists is focused on writing and editing, but very little on reporting. And even though they typically don’t have an educational background in online journalism, they feel the need to acquire it... especially in learning how to create multimedia content.”
and
“Most of the Internet departments that online journalists work for are small. According to their employers, that’s because revenues that these business units bring in typically don’t support their own operation.”
It sounds a bit like the chicken versus the egg all over again; are online news departments struggling to support themselves because they don’t have a staff with a background in journalism? Or are the print media/radio/television journalists unwilling to join the online news department because they feel they will be paid less and categorised as being at a ‘lower professional level’.
It’s a tough question, especially when most print, radio and television news corporations are all in the race to incorporate online journalism into the daily spiel. However that’s not to say its all bad news for online journalists – sometimes there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow...
