European Journalists Survey

Summary of Findings – October 2009

Introduction

The Axess Programme in European Journalism is a major research project conducted at the Reuters Institute
for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford. The project is funded by the Ax:son Johnson
Foundation, a major Swedish charitable trust, and aims to investigate and characterize the differing values,
practices and relationships which give the differing journalisms of Europe their distinct characters. The three
main aims of the Axess Programme are:

 to produce a comparative analysis of the main journalistic cultures of Europe;

 to investigate the emergence of a ‘European’ journalism;
 to inquire into the existence of a dominant model of journalism, and its effect on the development
of differing national cultures.

As part of this programme, a large piece of original research was commissioned by the Reuters Institute for
the Study of Journalism, for which a total of 2,320 journalists in seven European countries completed a
survey. Redshift Research was commissioned to assist with the design of the survey and to administer the
fieldwork. The fieldwork was completed during the summer of 2009 and the project reached its completion
in February of 2010. This document summarises some of the key findings from the study.

Methodology

The study is based on online interviews with European Journalists conducted during July, August and September 2009. 53,076
journalists were invited by email to participate in the study and a total of 2,320 completed a survey, representing a response rate of
4.3%. Journalists in seven countries were approached and in each case an interview was completed in their native language. Overall,
the profile of the final sample was as follows:

- UK (29%), Sweden (17%), Italy (16%), Germany (15%), Estonia (12%), Poland (6%), Latvia (5%);
- 58% of respondents were male;
- 36% were under 40 years old, 27% were aged 40-49 and 37% were older;
- 19% were freelance journalists and 81% were staff journalists;
- 48% had limited or no management responsibilities, 37% had moderate responsibilities and 15% had heavy responsibilities.
- 29% had less than 10 years experience, 32% had 10-19 years experience and 39% had over 20 years experience.

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 European Journalists Survey
Summary of Findings – October 2009

Nature of Employment

The survey revealed some differences between the countries in terms of how journalists are being employed
by the media industry (figure 1).

The highest levels of pure freelancing were evident in Germany and the UK (where it reaches around 40%
and 30% respectively) but otherwise freelancing was found to be fairly limited in other countries.

Nevertheless a significant proportion of journalists in many countries would occasionally undertake

freelance work in addition to working as a staff journalist for their main employer.

Nature of Employment – by country

100%
90%
80%
70%
60% Staff with just one
50% employer
40% Staff also working for other
30% employers
20% Freelancers
10%
0%

Base: 2,320
Figure 1

The proportion of journalists who work as staff journalists for a single employer and refrain from
undertaking any freelancing work at all is actually in a minority in both Germany (where it is barely more
than one in ten) and in the UK (where it is around 40%). In eastern European countries this proportion rises
to around half and is highest in Italy and, in particular, Sweden. Thus in Germany the requirement for a
journalist to work on projects for more than one employer at a time is likely to be high (and would, by
implication, require journalists to work more flexibility and become better skilled at multi-tasking). However
in countries such as Sweden and Italy this practice is far less common (and by implication there would be less
need for flexible working).

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 European Journalists Survey
Summary of Findings – October 2009

Hours Worked and Time Pressures

Journalists were asked about the hours they worked in their most recent working day. The average response
across Europe was just over 8 ½ hours, indicating that many journalists are required to work quite long
hours.

Journalism is a career that has, historically, demanded long hours. However, working long hours on a regular
basis can be a source of stress and may, in some cases, have a negative impact on health as a result.

Figure 2 shows the proportion of journalists within each country that worked more than 10 hours in their
most recent working day as well as the proportion who worked more than 12 hours, highlighting those
countries in which longer working hours appear to be most common.

Actual hours worked during most recent working day

50%
45% 43%
39%
40% 38%

35%
30% 27%
25% 23%
20% 19%
20% 17%
15% 13%
10%
10% 7% 7%
5% 4%
5%
0%
UK Sweden Poland Latvia Estonia Germany Italy
10+ hrs in working day 12+ hours in working day

Base: 2,320

Figure 2

Poland has the highest proportion of journalists who worked more than 12 hours in their most recent
working day (17%), followed by Germany (13%) and Italy (10%). All three of these countries also register a
high proportion of journalists (around 40%) who are working more than 10 hours in a day. The UK, despite
opting out of the EU working time directive, has lower levels of journalists working long hours but it is the
journalists working in Sweden and Latvia that appear to be least likely to work long hours.

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 European Journalists Survey
Summary of Findings – October 2009

Journalists were asked to provide ratings for a number of factors to indicate the extent to which they felt
that had adequate time to do their jobs properly and the extent to which they felt their workload was
causing them stress. In each case a 7-point scale was used, with a higher score indicating a higher degree of
stress and/or feeling of time pressure. Figure 3, illustrates the results from these questions.

Perceptions of the pressures of work

5
HIGH
4.8
4.6
4.4
Rating 7 to 1 4.2
7 = High 4
1 = Low 3.8
3.6
3.4
3.2
3
LOW UK Sweden Poland Latvia Estonia Germany Italy
Lack of time for research Lack of time to produce content
Lack of time for fact checking Workload causes stress

Base: 2,320
Figure 3

Recorded stress levels were similar across many of the countries (typically ranging between a score of 4.3
and 4.5 out of 7). Italy recorded the highest stress levels at an average of 4.8 out of 7. UK journalists were
most likely to feel that they suffered from a lack of time for research, content generation and fact checking
but the stress levels experienced seem in line with the average across Europe nevertheless. Indeed, Italian
journalists are less likely to complain of these time pressures than UK journalists, despite feeling far more
stressed in their workload. This would suggest that whilst time pressures may contribute to stress, they are
by no means the only factors at work.

In general the Latvian and Estonian journalists seem to feel that they are under the least time pressures,
although the Latvian journalists do appear to feel that they lack sufficient time for research (although they
are happier in terms of the time they feel they have to produce content and/or check facts). Nevertheless,
this does appear to influence and increased level of workload related stress in Latvia when compared with
Estonia (albeit still significantly lower than for Italy).

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 European Journalists Survey
Summary of Findings – October 2009

Autonomy of Journalists

Journalists were asked a number of questions about the extent of their professional autonomy, i.e. the
degree to which they felt they were free to write/produce the content they wanted and the degree to which
they felt other parties such as PR professionals, sources and the political agenda of the media organisation
that employed them were attempting to influence what they covered and how they covered it. A summary
of the results from these questions is illustrated in Table 1, showing the extent to which opinions differed
from the European average in each case.

Table 1: Perceived Journalistic Autonomy by Country

Perception that there is... Extent to which perception is felt vs. European average...
UK Sweden Poland Latvia Estonia Germany Italy
Freedom to choose what stories Average Average Average More Average Average Less
to work on
Sense that journalists & media Less Average Average Average Much More Much
owners share the same value More Less
Managers attempting to Much Less Average Less Average Average Much
influence nature of coverage More More
Sources attempting to influence More Much Average Less Average Average More
nature of coverage Less
PR professionals attempting to Much Less More Much Average Much More
influence nature of coverage More Less Less
Pressure to follow the political More Much Average Less Average Average Much
line of the media organisation Less More

Base: 2,320

Latvian journalists perceive they are free to choose what stories to work on to a greater extent than was the
case in other countries. Indeed Latvian journalists feel reasonably free from external pressures and
influences on their work when compared to many of their European colleagues.

At the other end of the scale, Italian journalists were less likely than average to believe they were free to
choose what stories to cover. Indeed, Italian journalists were much less likely to feel that they shared the
same values as the media owners and much more likely to feel their managers were trying to influence what
they were covering. They also felt they were under more pressure to follow the political line laid down by
their employer.

UK journalists were also more likely than average to feel under pressure from external influences with regard
to what they covered and how they chose to cover it. In the UK the primary pressures appear to come from
the PR industry and from management. UK journalists were less likely that their Italian counterparts to feel
under quite such intense pressure to conform to the political line taken by their employer and, although they
were less likely than average to feel they shared their employer’s values, this difference is, again, less
significant than in Italy.

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 European Journalists Survey
Summary of Findings – October 2009

The level of management seniority can potentially influence the degree to which individual journalists feel
they have/lack autonomy in their role. However, in general the differences tended to be limited. A notable
exception was in the perceived level of freedom to choose what stories on which to work; here the most
senior journalists generally felt they had more autonomy. The most senior journalists were also less likely to
believe that managers were attempting to influence coverage.

However, more significant divergence of opinion was found within the UK and Italy where particularly
unique issues around autonomy are evident. Table 2 shows how opinions differed by the level of seniority
from the European average in each of these countries:

Table 2: Perceived Journalistic Autonomy by Seniority in the UK & Italy

Perception that there Extent to which perception Extent to which perception

is... in UK is felt vs. in Italy is felt vs.
European average... European average...
Limited/No Moderate Heavy Limited/No Moderate Heavy
Management Management Management Management Management Management
Responsibility Responsibility Responsibility Responsibility Responsibility Responsibility
Freedom to choose
what stories to work Average Average More Much Less Much Less More
on
Sense that journalists
& media owners Less Average Average Much Less Much Less Much Less
share the same value
Managers attempting
to influence nature of More More Average Much More Less
coverage More
Sources attempting to
influence nature of Average More Much Much Average Average
coverage More More
PR professionals
attempting to Much Much Much More More Less
influence nature of More More More
coverage
Pressure to follow the
political line of the Average More Much Much Much Average
media organisation More More More

Base: 675 UK, 380 Italy

In the UK, the most senior editorial managers were much more likely to feel that sources were attempting to
influence coverage – more likely than the European average as well as more likely than the more junior
journalists. UK senior management was also much more likely to believe that they worked in an
environment where there was political pressure to follow a particular line of coverage. Interestingly, the
more junior journalists in the UK were less likely to believe this – either because they were less aware of it or
perhaps because their more senior colleagues are working hard to shield them from it.

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 European Journalists Survey
Summary of Findings – October 2009
In Italy, there is significant evidence of a divergence of opinion between senior management and more junior
colleagues. The more junior Italian journalists are much less likely than senior management to believe they
have the freedom to work on the stories they want. They are also more likely to believe that management is
attempting to influence their coverage and that significant political pressure exists to conform to a particular
line of coverage. Senior managers in Italy actually feel that they are less likely to seek to influence their
junior colleagues than the European average – the exact reverse of what junior journalists and middle
management believe. One area where Italian journalists of all levels of seniority appear to agree is in the
fact that the values of the journalists and reporters (of any seniority) are not shared by media owners.

Corruption

The project was also interested in the extent of unethical practices in each country, specifically the extent to
which journalists were offered bribes or other forms of inappropriate compensation to cover or not cover
particular issues. Corruption is very difficult to study using survey methodology; it is not feasible to ask ‘Are
you corrupt?’ and expect an honest “Yes/No” answer, to use an extreme example. We decided to use an
indirect question instead – we asked ‘Are you aware of any instance of a journalist ever receiving bribes or
other inappropriate compensation for covering/not covering a particular story?’ (Yes/No), and the
respondents were asked to answer this question twice: ‘Are you aware...etc. in your current place of work’
and ‘...over the course of your career’. We thus did not ask respondents directly whether they had accepted
bribes but rather if they were aware of anyone else doing it, which may lead to over-reporting. Another
potential issue is that ‘inappropriate compensation’ may mean different things in different countries and
contexts. Still, even bearing these things in mind, we found some striking differences between countries, as
can be seen in the following tables:

Table 3a: Perception of corruption – current workplace

Response (Percentages) Are you aware of any instance of a journalist ever receiving bribes or
other inappropriate compensation for covering/not covering a
particular story? ... in your current place of work
UK Sweden Poland Latvia Estonia Germany Italy
Yes 5 6 11 19 7 10 23
No 95 94 89 81 93 90 77
N 673 394 131 79 277 347 380

Table 3b: Perception of corruption – course of career

Response (Percentages) Are you aware of any instance of a journalist ever receiving bribes or
other inappropriate compensation for covering/not covering a
particular story? ... over the course of your career
UK Sweden Poland Latvia Estonia Germany Italy
Yes 24 27 26 56 34 39 59
No 76 73 74 44 66 61 41
N 673 394 131 79 277 347 380

The outliers here are clearly Italy and Latvia; if you look at the perception of corruption over the course of
ones’ career, these are the two countries where, to put it bluntly, it is more common to experience
corruption in journalism than not to experience it (59 per cent of Italian journalists and 56 per cent of Latvian
journalists say they are aware of an instance of a journalist receiving bribes or other inappropriate

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 European Journalists Survey
Summary of Findings – October 2009
compensation). While it was expected that Italy and Latvia would show higher corruption rates than the UK
and Sweden, for example (due to overall differences in corruption levels as measured by other studies), the
difference is still very noticeable. It is also harder to be certain of the reliability of the Latvian result as the
number of respondents is relatively small, but the result does fit with other studies that have been done on
corruption in the media in the country.

Even though the UK, Sweden and Estonia show very low levels of corruption when looking at experiences in
the current workplace of the respondents, it is also noticeable that when looking at a longer time frame
(over the course of ones’ career), around a quarter of journalists in both UK and Sweden have experienced
corrupt/unethical practices (in this regard, neither country is substantially different from Poland, for
example), and a third of journalists in Estonia have the same experience. Germany also shows a surprisingly
high level of perceived corruption.

Journalist Mindsets

One must be careful not to overplay the differences between countries, as important as these are. As part of
our analysis we looked at the extent to which it may be possible to segment the population of journalists
into groups based on common attitudes, opinions and perceptions (rather than based on the type of media
they worked for, their nationality or their seniority). The results of this analysis show that journalists can be
clustered together into five groups – based on a shared outlook/mindset. Figure 4 shows how the profession
breaks down by these different groups/mindsets.

Mindsets of the European Journalist

Pens f or hire,
22%
Positiv e work
culture f its, 30%

Negativ e culture
resisters , 10%

Comf ortable
leaders , 7%
Struggling
Aspirants, 30%

Base: 2,320

Figure 4

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 European Journalists Survey
Summary of Findings – October 2009

The key characteristics of these groups/mindsets were found to be as follows:

 Positive work culture fits: These journalists were more likely than average to have good working
relationship and a strong sense of shared values with their employers. There is a strong level of
mutual trust apparent between journalist and employer and the journalists feel they have significant
freedoms/independence in their work. This all suggests a good positive fit between the working
culture of the media organisation and the aspirations and values of the journalist. Whilst this group
of journalists was found to be spread widely across the different countries in the study, a higher
incidence of journalists of this particular mindset were found to be concentrated within the Baltic
States.

 Struggling Aspirants: These journalists tend to feel more pressurised and overworked and appear to
have more deadlines to meet, within shorter timeframes, than average. They are slightly younger
and less experienced than average but nevertheless also appear to have slightly more managerial
responsibilities than others of similar age/experience. This type of journalist was most likely to work
in local/regional media rather than national media and more likely to need to produce content for
different types of media. These people probably represent ambitious younger journalists who have
been promoted earlier than average to positions with managerial responsibilities. They clearly work
hard and are keen to progress but may be finding it challenging to cope with the increased workload
and additional responsibilities that their career now demands of them. A higher concentration of
journalists of this type was noted in the UK.

 Comfortable Leaders: These journalists are often older, they are more experienced and tend to be
male. They have more management responsibility than most other journalists, including managing
fairly large teams and frequent involvement in staff recruitment. They work hard (usually working
longer hours than their colleagues) but apparently this is through choice rather than because they
have to. They feel more in control of their own destiny than others and are consequently fairly
confident people. A significant proportion of their job now focuses on people management. They
represent senior people in the profession who appear to be very ambitious and driven and who
enjoy the hard work and heavy responsibilities that their job demands. A higher concentration of
journalists of this type was noted in Italy. By contrast a lower than average representation was
found in the UK.

 Negative Culture Resisters: These journalists are highly unionised and are far more commonly found
in Italian journalism than elsewhere. They complain of less management investment in performance
reviews or staff training. There is evidence of a more corrupt environment/lower ethical standards
and evidence of interference in journalistic independence from management/senior staff. In
particular there appears to be a problem with the political stance of the media organisation clashing
with that of the journalist. These journalists also feel they work in a dictatorial working
environment, characterised by an atmosphere of suspicion and mistrust between journalists and
employers. Clearly there is a strong clash between the working culture of the media organisations
and the aspirations and values of the journalists which serves as a source of conflict and unease.

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 European Journalists Survey
Summary of Findings – October 2009

 Pens for hire: This group has a greater tendency toward freelancing and have less managerial
responsibility (probably because they are more likely to be working alone). They have a slightly
more mercenary attitude and are more likely than any other group to see the job of a journalist as
more specifically confined to writing, the ability to work alone, interviewing and researching skills.
Although they acknowledge some requirement for time management and networking skills they see
much less need or interest in broader management skills and have much more limited managerial
aspirations. This attitude seems more prevalent amongst UK freelancers than elsewhere and is less a
characteristic of German freelancers.

Whilst these grouping did display some characteristics that relate to geography (for example the negative
culture resisters group display a strong concentration in Italy), each group would generally contain a spread
of journalists from all countries. This would suggest that the cultural fit between a specific journalist and
their employer (regardless of geography) can have a significant impact on the way in which they regard their
work and their attitudes to the profession.

In Summary

This document serves to provide an overview of some of the key findings from the European Journalists
Survey and, in so doing, supply some insight into the cultural environment in which European Journalists are
working today. This will serve as a significant input into the Axess Programme’s ongoing investigation of the
modern culture of European journalism. The final report of the Programme will be a book, going into more
detail on many different aspects of national differences in journalism, to be published some time in 2011.

For further information regarding the programme, and for future updates on the progress made on the
programme overall, please refer to the programme website:

http://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/research/featured-projects/the-axess-programme-on-european-
journalism.html

Contacts

Axess Programme: Henrik Ornebring, henrik.ornebring@politics.ox.ac.uk

Redshift Research: Paul Watts, paul.watts@redshiftresearch.co.uk

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