Le journalisme américain au 21e siècle
The number of full-time
journalists in the United
States
Fewer journalists identify
themselves as Democrats, although as a group they consider themselves more
liberal than the public at large. More said they found themselves to be middle
of the road or even conservative in their politics.
"This fourth study of U.S.
Weaver is the lead author
of the new book, The American Journalist in the 21st Century (Erlbaum,
2006). It is based on the third comprehensive survey of American journalists he
has done with colleagues at IU, particularly G. Cleveland Wilhoit, who retired
in 2003.
The book was the result of
a Knight Foundation-funded study of nearly 1,500 journalists in 2002. Bonnie
Brownlee, associate dean for undergraduate studies and associate professor of
journalism at IU Bloomington; and two former IUB faculty members -- Randal Beam
of the University Washington University of Colorado
Despite cuts in employment
at many news organizations, the average journalist is older. Baby boomers are
largely remaining in the profession. The largest increase in the number of
reporters was the 45-to-54 age group. Nearly two-thirds of all full-time journalists
are over age 35.
"A lot of younger
people who are hired into journalism don't stay that long," Weaver said.
"There are enough journalists who work their way up into some of the
middle- and upper-management jobs and are hanging on until retirement that it
forces the average up."
News organizations grew
exponentially in size in the 1970s and early 1980s. Between 1971 and 1992,
employment at daily newspapers grew from 38,800 to 67,207. Employment in print
media organizations increased from 52,200 to 85,097 during the same time
period.
In the last decade that the
professors studied, from 1992 to 2002, employment at daily newspapers fell by
more than 8,400, to 58,769. Similarly, employment at all print media outlets
fell by 3,268, to 81,829.
"In daily newspapers,
the main reason has been the loss of advertising revenue to other media,"
Weaver said. "Online services like Craig's List are hurting daily
newspapers … and more advertising is going to television.
"The other reason is
that they've been pushed by a lot of these companies that have bought them to
have higher profit margins, especially if they are publicly traded
companies," he said. "One way to do this is to cut the costs, and you
do that by cutting the size of your news staff."
On the other hand, the
number of television journalists has grown every time Weaver and his colleagues
have conducted their research. The number of television journalists grew from
7,000 to 17,784, between 1971 and 1992, and was 20,288 in 2002.
The number of radio journalists
grew from 7,000 in 1971 to 19,583 in 1982, but has declined since reaching that
peak. Weaver said there are fewer than 14,000 journalists working in radio
today.
Interestingly, online
journalists tend to share the same characteristics of other reporters. For
example, the media age of online journalists is 39, compared to 41 among print
reporters and 40 among those in broadcast media. The Online News Association
cooperated with the study.
"Journalists working
for online news media were not dramatically different from those in more
traditional mainstream media in terms of demographics, education, political
attitudes or views about journalistic roles and the ethics of reporting,"
Weaver said.
Other book
findings include:
While there was little change
in the percentage of journalists who identified themselves as Republicans (from
16.4 percent in 1992 to 18 percent in 2002) and as Independents (from 34.4
percent in 1992 to 32.5 percent in 2002), Weaver and his colleagues saw shifts
in those identifying themselves as Democrats and "Other."
The percentage of those
identifying themselves as Democrats dropped from 44.1 percent in 1992 to 35.9
percent in 2002. The percentage of those who claimed some other political
affiliation grew from 3.5 percent in 1992 to 10.5 percent a decade later. There
also was a small increase in the number of respondents who said they didn't
know or refused to answer.
"Part of that is a
reluctance of journalists to say they identify with either of these political
parties," Weaver said. "It could be younger journalists saying
this."
The big surprise in the
study is that the number of women in journalism hasn't increased. They continue
to account for about a third of all full-time journalists. The percentage of
women with zero to four years of experience was significantly higher in 2002
(54.2 percent) than in 1992 (44.8 percent). "If the attrition rate doesn't
change, that will mean more women journalists with more experience in the
future," he said.
Minority representation in
American media has inched up over the years, but, at 9.5 percent by 2002,
remained much below the minority percentage of the U.S.
While U.S. U.S.
Weaver suspects there is a
higher level of attrition with many minority and female journalists leaving the
profession within a few years.
Nearly 90 percent of all
journalists have at least a bachelor's degree. The proportion of college
graduates in journalism rose from 82 percent in 1992 to 89 percent in 2002.
When Weaver began his research a quarter century ago, slightly fewer than 75
percent of journalists were college graduates.