Survey: More than 70 percent of journalists struggle to make ends meet

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The İzmir-based Press Freedom and Media Studies Association (BAMAD) released the results of a survey to mark the Working Journalists Day.

The survey was conducted among journalists, including reporters, editors, managing editors, editors-in-chief and camera operators, from Turkey's western Aegean Region.

Among the respondents, 73.5 percent said they cannot make a living with the income from their jobs. Despite that, 70 percent of the respondents said they don't consider changing their profession and 73.5 percent said they would choose journalism if they had the chance to choose a profession again.

Social media and newspapers

When asked how many daily newspapers they buy and read other than the newspaper they work for, 43.4 percent said zero, 20.5 percent said one, 19.3 said two, and 16.9 said three or more.

Also, 37.3 percent of the respondents said they don't buy and read a magazine, and 33.7 percent said they buy and read one magazine in a month. Nearly 30 percent of the journalists said they buy and read two or more magazines in a month.

When asked about how many newspapers they follow on social media, 73.5 percent said seven or more, 17 percent said four to six, 8.4 percent said one to three and 1.2 percent said they don't follow a newspaper on social media.

Also, 60.2 percent of the respondents said they follow social media, 31.3 said they follow online platforms and 8.4 percent said they watch TV for news.

The future of journalism

When asked whether they are hopeful for the future of journalism, 27.7 percent said they are hopeful, 9.6 percent said they are optimistic, 15.7 percent said they are undecided, 24 percent said they are pessimistic and 22.9 percent said they are very pessimistic.

The fear of unemployment

According to the survey, 60.2 percent of the journalists sometimes fear losing their jobs, 25.3 percent often fear losing their jobs and 14.5 percent never have such a fear.

Fifty-three percent of the journalists expect to retire from the profession while 47 percent think they won't be able to retire from the profession for sectoral, economic, political, or personal reasons.

If the government changes...

Fifty-nine percent of the respondents believe that the conditions of journalism will improve if the government changes, while 41 percent don't believe they will be an improvement even if the government changes.

Only 64 percent of the journalists work under the Press Law, which does not include digital journalism.

When asked whether they are a member of a professional organization, 38.6 percent of the respondents said they are members of two or three organizations, 32.5 percent said they are members of one organization and 18.2 percent said they aren't members of any organization.

Self-censorship

Fifty-nine percent of the respondents said they sometimes feel the need to censor themselves while writing a news article, and 25.3 percent said they often apply self-censorship. Only 15.7 percent of the journalists said they never need self-censorship.

When asked whether they think they might get in trouble with the law while reporting, 49.4 percent said "sometimes" and 44.4 said "often." (HA/VK)