Multiskilling in the newsroom – de-skilling or re-skilling of journalistic work?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5617/jmi.v1i2.876Keywords:
Multiskilling, journalistic work, cross-platform production, professional identityAbstract
Multiskilling in a journalism context is not a case of “de-skilling” as the profession. There are problems concerning related to the quality in newsrooms adapting that are adapting multiskilling strategies, but in general multiskilling is more correctly to defined as a re-skilling or an up-skilling.
This is thea conclusion from result from a survey to of 1,500 journalists in Poland, Russia and Sweden and interviews with 60 journalists in these three countries. Multiskilling in journalism gives more space room for creativity and more power to the individual journalist, according to those with experience of working as multi-reporters. It allows them more freedom to make their own decisions in their daily tasks, i.e. choosing subjects and stories. At the same time, from the perspective of the media company, multiskilling is a strategy to increase production in the newsrooms. Multiskilling is also changing the journalistic culture, putting more focus on production and adapting content for different channels.
References
Alström, Börje (2008) Från tidningsföretag till marknadsplats för ikoner. I Hvitfelt, Håkan och Nygren, Gunnar(red) På väg mot medievärlden 2020 – journalistik, teknik, marknad. Lund: Studentlitteratur
Anikina, Maria; Dobek-Ostrowska, Boguslawa and Nygren, Gunnar (2013) Journalists in three media systems. Polish, Russian and Swedish journalists about values and ideals, daily practice and the future. Moscow: Faculty of Journalism
Boczkowski, Pablo J (2010) News at Work. Imitation in an Age of Information Abundance. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press
Börnfelt, P-O (2011) Arbetsorganisation i praktiken. Stockholm: SNS Förlag
Deuze, Mark (2007) Media Work. London; Polity Press
Karlsson, Michael (2010) Nätnyheter – från sluten produkt till öppen process. Stockholm; Institutet för mediestudier.
Konow Lund, Maria (2013) Moving Image News Production in Two Newsrooms. Oslo; University of Oslo
Lavrakas Paul J (2013) Encyclopedia of Survey Research Methods Pub. date: | DOI: 10.4135/9781412963947, downloaded 2013/07/21
Lee-Wright, Peter; Philips, Angela (2012) Doing it all in the multiskilled universe. In Lee-Wright, Peter; Philips, Angela, Witschge, Tamara: Changing Journalism. London and New York: Routledge
Lee-Wright, Peter; Philips, Angela, Witschge, Tamara: Changing Journalism. London and New York: Routledge
Magnusson, Lars (2006): Håller den svenska modellen? Arbete och välfärd i en global värld. Stockholm: Norstedts
Opgenhaffen, Michaël , d'Haenens, Leen & Corten, Maarten (2013) Journalistic tools of the trade in Flanders. Journalism Practice, 7:2, 127-144,
Mitchelstein, Eugenia och Boczkowski, Pablo J (2009) A review of recent research on online news production, Journalism Vol 10(5) pp 562-586
Nygren, Gunnar (2008) Nyhetsfabriken. Journalistiska yrkesroller i en förändrad medievärld. Lund: Studentlitteratur.
Nygren, Gunnar och Zuiderveld, Maria (2011) En himla många kanaler – flerkanalpublicering i svenska mediehus. Göteborg: Nordicom
Nygren, Gunnar(ed) (2012) Journalism in Russia, Poland and Sweden – traditions, cultures and research. Stockholm; Södertörns University
Nygren, Gunnar & Appelberg, Jonas (2013) Swedish journalists, a profession in decline? In Anikina, Maria; Dobek-Ostrowska, Boguslawa and Nygren, Gunnar (2013) Journalists in three media systems. Polish, Russian and Swedish journalists about values and ideals, daily practice and the future. Moscow: Faculty of Journalism
Örnebring, Henrik (2010) Technology and journalism-as-labour: Historical perspectives. Journalism 11 (1) pp 57-74.
Örnebring, Henrik (2013) Anything you can do, I can do better? Professional journalists on citizen journalism in six European countries International Communication Gazette 75: 35-53,
Ottosen, Rune och Krumsvik, Arne H (2010) Digitisation and Editorial Change in Online Media. Findings from a Norwegian Research Project. Nordicom Information 4/2012
Quandt, Thorsten och Singer, Jane B (2009). Convergence and Cross-Platform Content Production, ur Wahl-Jörgensen/Hanitzsch (ed) The Handbook of Journalism Studies. New York and London: Routhledge
Quinn, Stephen (2005). ”Convergence´s Fundamental Question”, Journalism Studies Volume 6 (1) pp 29-38.
Stiernstedt, Fredrik (2013) Från radiofabrik till mediehus. Medieförändring och medieproduktion på MTG-radio. Örebro; Örebro universitet
Weaver, David H and Willnat, Lars (2012) The Global Journalist in the 21st Century. New York and London; Routledge
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution BY 4.0 License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
