Future of the media : sights from the inside

Abstract

Journalists as workers and makers of news are a very important stakeholder group for news media companies. It is vital for organizations to acknowledge the needs and expectations of their stakeholders, because fulfilled expectations lead to stakeholder favor and good organizational reputation. Unmet expectations lead to loss of stakeholder trust and bad organizational reputation.

The purpose of this master’s thesis was to map the expectations and experiences of journalists and freelancer journalists working for major Finnish media companies. The aim was to find out how journalists see the future of media and their own future roles as journalists, how social media has affected journalists’ work and what do journalists expect from their employers or clients and the media in general. A total of 16 journalists and freelancers were interviewed for this study. The results were analyzed through qualitative theory-driven content analysis.

The results of this study show that Finnish journalists are pessimistic about the future of media. They expect the media business to shrink. Some believe that media will divide into expensive quality media and cheap or free bulk media. Journalists predict that the future journalist must be multi-talented. Most journalists use social media but it hasn’t had a big impact on their work yet. Journalists expect social media to become more important in journalistic work in the future. Journalists have various expectations towards their employers. They see the actions of media companies as unfair, because many companies have been reducing journalistic personnel to cut costs while they are making good profits. Journalists expect the media companies to invest in quality of journalism. It means hiring more workers and investing in technological and content development. The results of this study show that journalists’ expectations are not fully met by their employers.