Do you deal with journalists? Then you will certainly be interested in the dominant climate of opinion among journalists,  what they want and what journalists believe the public perceives them to be. These were also the central questions that the market research institute Marketagent asked 953 journalists from Austria and Germany some time ago.  Right away:  72.8% of the journalists are "very satisfied" or "rather satisfied" with their job, 8.7% "not at all satisfied" or rather less satisfied and 18.5% "partly, partly".

Every second person is very satisfied with the activities

In detail, 48.9% of journalists say they are "very satisfied" with the "type of job". 29.3% are very satisfied with "independence", 18.6% with "extent of activity", 17.8% with "working hours", 14.0% with "payment"  and 9.1% with "time for research".  Reciprocally, journalists' wish lists include "more time for research" (70.9%), "less economic pressure" (68%), "better pay" (64.4%) and "job security" (53.7%).  

 

Interesting profession, but not easy to learn

Their profession is rated by 64.5% of journalists as "interesting", 59% as "varied", 46% as "demanding" and  33.4% as "stressful". Less frequent are the ratings "serious" (17%), "stressful" (14.9%), "one can realize oneself"  (13.6%), "strenuous/troublesome" (13.4%), "one can make a difference/impact" (12.9%), is "free/independent" (12.1%), is "well paid" (5.9%) and the profession is "easy to learn" (2.2%).

 

Half are career changers

52.1% of journalists are career changers in the profession, while 47.8% have always had this career aspiration.  More than half of journalists report that their profession matches their original career expectations. In turn, 46.8%  state that the occupation only "partly, partially" to "not at all meets their expectations". Ultimately, however, nearly two-thirds would choose journalism again. One in two of the respondents characterizes the profession of journalism as a dream job and 46% even recommend their profession to others. But only 7.7% rate the career opportunities for aspiring journalists as very good or good.

 

Little knowledge about journalists

Only about one in five journalists considers their profession to be rather socially respected, while more than a third consider it to be rather less respected or not respected at all. In addition, 8 out of 10 journalists do not believe that society has a realistic view of journalism and about 60% of them think that journalists have a lower social standing than 10 years ago.

 

Importance of the boulevard increases

88.7% of journalists believe that tabloid journalism attracts significantly more interest in society than quality journalism (44.7%). Likewise, 56% believe that tabloid journalism will tend to gain in importance. Quality journalism is still considered profitable by 49.2%.