Professional wellbeing and economy of work
Eighty-five percent of women respondents reported an effect on their mental health as a result of their jobs, as against 66 percent of men. Mid-level journalists at English news organisations and digital platforms reported “more effect” on their mental health than their counterparts.
Three out of four journalists said their jobs affected their physical health. According to the report: “Journalists who were young and journalists who belonged to the English language industry reported more cases of poor physical health. The cost of their professional overload also affected the relationship of the journalist with their families.”
After the Covid pandemic and global economic slowdown, the media industry was hit by layoffs. Forty-five percent of journalists said people in their organisations had been “asked to leave in order to cut the cost and maintain the economy of work”. This was echoed by 69 percent of middle-aged journalists and 77 percent of journalists in the English media industry.
Three-fourths of journalists in media organisations said they were worried about losing their current jobs – this worry was more prevalent among mid-level journalists.
Media and politics
On the news media’s intersection with politics, the study found that three-fourths of journalists surveyed “agreed that there is favouritism towards one party”. Eight-two percent of independent journalists believed media organisations “favour a particular party”.
When asked which party their media organisations supported, 82 percent said the BJP. This increased to 89 percent while including the opinions of independent journalists. Among English news organisations, four-fifths of journalists surveyed said “news media organisations generally favour BJP”.
Additionally, 16 percent of respondents said people in their organisations “were asked to quit the job due to political leanings”. More than half of the journalists surveyed were worried they would lose their jobs due to their political leanings.
Eighty percent of journalists said the media covers Modi “too favourably” while 61 percent said opposition parties were covered “too unfavourably”. On the coverage of opposition parties, 71 percent of independent journalists surveyed were more likely to “perceive an unfavourable bias” compared to journalists with news organisations.
According to the report, this means independent journalists “generally hold a stronger belief that the media portrays the Modi government in a favourable light and provides unfavourable coverage of opposition parties”.
In digital media, 69 percent of journalists saw the coverage of opposition parties as unfavourable – higher than print journalists (57 percent) and TV journalists (42 percent).
