Professional mystique and journalists' dissatisfaction

Newspaper Research Journal, Summer 1999 by McQuarrie, Fiona

The professional mystique which affects other professions does not affect journalists.

A number of recent studies indicate that the job satisfaction of American journalists is not only low in relation to other types of workers, but is also declining. David Weaver and G. Cleveland Wilhoit1, in their survey of 1,156 journalists, report that only 25 percent of the subjects were satisfied with their jobs, as opposed to 50 percent 20 years ago. Ted Pease and J. Frazier Smith2 surveyed 1,317 journalists, and found that while the majority of respondents were satisfied with their choice of career, 60 percent thought they would not be working for their current employer in five years, and 15 percent did not think they would be working in the newspaper business at all after that time.

Journalists' low job satisfaction is potentially a major problem for the newspaper business, since dissatisfaction has both personal and organizational consequences. A dissatisfied worker may suffer more stress, be absent from work more often, and be more likely to leave the organization.3 Such conditions also result in lower productivity for the organization, in addition to incurring the cost of replacing the absent or departed worker.

A number of causes for journalists' dissatisfaction have been suggested. Pease and Smith suggest dissatisfaction may be caused by lack of professional challenges and absence of career opportunities. Weaver and Wilhoit's respondents cite poor management, low salaries, and excessive work load. Other studies suggest the influence of factors such as increased rule enforcement,4 small organizational size,5 and technological change such as pagination.6

Interestingly, although these causes of dissatisfaction are varied, they are similar in that they all are comparative. That is, various aspects of working conditions are being evaluated against an ideal and are found to be inadequate. The equity theory of motivation7 suggests that, indeed, this is one method by which job satisfaction is developed. Equity theory suggests that individuals use a comparison other to assess the value of the ratio between inputs of effort and outputs, or rewards. The comparison other can be a theoretical ideal, an actual other person, or a composite of the individual's own experiences (in other words, comparison to oneself in previous situations). If the individual perceives the ratio between his or her inputs and outputs to be different from those of the comparison other, motivation declines and dissatisfaction results.

The process of comparing the reality of work to an ideal has been discussed as a source of dissatisfaction in other occupations. Cary Cherniss,8 in studies of human service workers, identifies the professional mystique - the expectations built up through training and through the early stages of on-thejob-socialization - as a cause of stress and burnout when the actual conditions of the job do not meet expectations.

Through an analysis of data collected at mainstream and alternative American newspapers, this paper will attempt to determine whether the professional mystique is a cause of dissatisfaction among journalists.

The professional mystique and journalists

Cherniss discusses the professional mystique in the context of occupations such as social work and nursing. The debate over journalism's status as a profession is a long and ongoing one (see Randall Beam9 for a summary). However, the characteristics of the helping professions which Cherniss and, later, Michael Leiter10 identify as causing vulnerability to the professional mystique are very relevant to journalism, regardless of journalism's official professional status.

Leiter lists the expectations that new professionals hold when entering the workplace as: the expectation that their competence be confirmed, the expectation of autonomy in their work, the expectation of meaningful and exciting encounters with clients, the expectation of supportive relationships with colleagues, and the expectation of honest, cooperative clients that appreciate the professional's efforts on their behalf.

Many of these expectations of work also apply to journalists. In Weaver and Wilhoit's study, 58.3 percent of respondents identified "the chance to help people" as a very important factor in their jobs; 38.8 percent also identified "the chance to influence public policy" as an important factor. If the client in a journalist's work is the public, or the newspaper's readership, then the presence of this factor in journalistic work certainly parallels the factor of client relationships in human service professions. Indeed, Beam names the expectation of public service as one of the six generally recognized professional characteristics of journalism.

There is also evidence to suggest that, like human service professionals, journalists may face the prospect of working with unappreciative clients. Opinion surveys11 and studies by media organizations themselves12 have indicated that the media are often not perceived as credible by the public. Such attitudes could easily lead to journalists having unsatisfying and discouraging contact with the public in the course of their work, much like human service professionals who must often deal with clients who resist efforts at intervention.