Journalism in Transition: The Austrian Comprehensive Survey

Ten years have elapsed since the first and, to date, last comprehensive survey of the total population of Austrian journalists. It has been a decade of massive change in the world of communication, a decade of digital disruption which set in motion immense transformation in Austrian and international journalism. The present research project aims at assessing the current situation of Austrian journalists in as exhaustive a manner as possible. A Journalism Transition Matrix has been developed by the researchers to investigate and identify the changes and ongoing processes due to media convergence in the socio- political agenda of media markets and how journalism is financed. The qualities of public discourse and of democracy manifest themselves in the quality of reporting. The question of what functions the media still perform in 2016ff, understanding communication as a social system is becoming increasingly relevant. The new study submitted here utilizes a multi-method approach and is subdivided into four constituent project phases, each with its own method mix. 1) will be the inition of a broad discussion on what defines journalism and its changing role in and for society. 2) will be a new assessment of Austrian journalists by a comprehensive survey (socio-demographic profile, media categories, education etc.). 3) will based on a representative sample (N = 500 journalists) deliver new data on journalists role perception and political self-conception, ethical guidelines, working conditions and qualification perspectives. This quantitative survey will be underpinned by qualitative interviews in the newsroom. The final phase 4) will result in a next step in defining professional journalism, its role in society and finally dissemination and publication of the research results. The earlier studies and data from the survey a decade ago which were provided by members of the team have formed the basis for several further studies and public debates related to media quality, gender in journalism, media-accountability. It had also been an empirical foundation for editors and journalists negotiations leading to a new collective labor agreement for print-media- and online-journalists. The data from our comprehensive survey is still used in the ongoing political debate about defining a new legal framework for press subsidies in Austria. The analysis of trends helped developing new curricula for education and training of media-managers and journalists in several European countries with the participation of researchers from Academy of Sciences and Medienhaus Wien. The new material collected for and from the study again shall be made available for the academic discourse and international comparative studies, making Austrias journalism and state of the news media visible, linking research to international discussion about the future of journalism in the 21st century.

Austria has 5,350 professional journalists working with permanent contracts. This is one of the results of the FWF-funded research project "Journalism in Transition", in which - for the first time since 2006/2007 - a comprehensive survey of the industry and the development of the profession was conducted. According to this survey, the number of journalists has fallen by a quarter in a dozen years. In sociodemographic terms, the detailed survey of more than 300 Austrian media companies revealed significant changes, such as a strong increase in the number of women in journalism: Currently almost half the Austrian journalists are female. Almost every second journalist in Austria has a university degree, far more than a decade ago. One problematic development described by the research team of the Austrian Academy of Sciences is the rapidly increasing average age in the newsrooms to 44.5 years. This is an indication that it is becoming considerably more difficult for younger people to get access to careers in journalism, while at the same time traditional media are having more problems keeping up with young audiences. 60% of journalists in Austria still work in a media company that historically grew out of publishing houses. However, the number of print journalists has been and is declining continuously since 2006. At the same time, the number of journalistic jobs for digital news channels in Austria is growing rather slowly by international standards. The FWF-funded research project "Journalism in Transition" was conducted at the Institute for Comparative Media and Communication Studies (CMC) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences/ University of Klagenfurt from 2017 to 2019. One of the initial goals of the project was also to scientifically redefine the journalistic profession in an international comparison and in discussions with industry representatives and the interested public. On the basis of this definition and the detailed overall survey, 501 of these journalists were interviewed in cooperation with the Austrian Gallup Institute on their personal attitudes, professional realities, journalistic role models and job satisfaction. Thus, journalists describe a strong increase in production pressure caused by digitalization and the shrinking of editorial offices. In their work, Austrian journalists want to focus mainly on fact-oriented news publication, but they also have a strong self-image as "critics" of abuses and maladministration in politics, business and society. The "Austrian Journalism Report", presented as a research summary at the beginning of 2020, now presents thousands of observations and analyses in a long-time comparison and with international classification and comparison. Building on the FWF project, further studies are now being conducted, for example on issues such as diversity in newsrooms or the specific situation of the approximately 600 to 900 freelance journalists in Austria.