The American Journalist in the 1990s

U.S. News People at the End of An Era

David H. Weaver, G. Cleveland Wilhoit

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000149180
• Subtopic: Journalist Biographies
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Who are U.S. journalists? What are their backgrounds and educational experiences? Why did they choose journalism as an occupation? What do they think about their work? What are their professional and ethical values? What kinds of work do they consider their best? Do men differ from women on these questions? Do ethnic and racial minorities differ from the majority? Do journalists working for different print and broadcast news media differ?

This book uses findings from the most comprehensive and representative study ever done of the demographic and educational backgrounds, working conditions, and professional and ethical values of 1,410 U.S. print and broadcast journalists working in the 1990s to answer these questions, including separate analyses for women and minority news people. It also compares many of these findings with those from the major studies of the early 1970s and 1980s. As such, it should be the standard reference on U.S. journalists for years to come.

In addition, this study goes beyond the previous two in adding more open-ended questions to explain and enrich quantitative findings, in the belief that the numbers by themselves are not enough to provide explanations for the patterns that emerge. This book includes more of the journalists' own words to fill this gap, as well as an analysis of samples of their self-selected best work.

Chapter 1

Basic Characteristics of U.S. Journalists

It is risky to write in general terms about the traits of U.S. journalists in the early 1990s, as was true in the early 1980s, because they comprise such a large and diverse group. The statistical “profile” of the typical U.S. journalist in 1992 was much like that of 1982-1983: a married White Protestant male with a bachelor’s degree in his 30s. However, some changes occurred between 1982 and 1992. The typical U.S. journalist in 1992 was 4 years older, more likely to be of a race other than Caucasian, somewhat more likely to identify with the Democratic party, less likely to claim to be a political Independent, and more likely to hold a college degree. Of course, this picture, based on the central tendencies of demographic measures, masks many of the important differences and changes in U.S. journalists.

This chapter looks at the size of the journalistic workforce in the United States in 1992 compared with earlier years, the geographic dispersion of U.S. journalists, their age and gender, their ethnic and religious origins, their political views, and their media use patterns. (See Appendix I, this volume, for details of the survey methods.)

SIZE OF THE JOURNALISTIC WORKFORCE

In 1971, Johnstone and his colleagues estimated the total full-time editorial (journalistic) workforce in U.S. English-language mainstream news media to be 69,500, with more than half employed by daily newspapers.¹ In late 1982, we estimated this workforce to be 112,072, an increase of 61%, with slightly less than half employed by daily newspapers.² In 1992, we estimated the total number of journalists working for mainstream news media to be 122,015, an increase of just under 9%, with more than half employed by daily newspapers (see Table 1.1).

TABLE 1.1
Estimated Full-Time Editorial Workforce in U.S. News Media

News Medium	April 1971^a		November I982^b		June 1992
	Number	%	Number	%	Number	%
Daily newspapers	38,800	55.8	51,650	46.1	67,207	55.1
Weekly newspapers	11,500	16.5	22,942	20.5	16,226	13.3
News magazines	1,900	2.7	1,284	1.1	1,664	1.4
Total print media	52,200	75.1	75,876	67.1	85,097	69.8
Television (and combined radio and TV stations)	7,000	10.1	15,212	13.6	17,784	14.6
Radio	7,000	10.1	19,583	17.5	17,755	14.5
Total broadcast media	14,000	20.2	34,795	31.1	35,539	29.1
News services	3,300	4.7	1,401	1.2	1,379	1.1
Total workforce	69,500	100.0	112,072	100.0	122,015	100.0

^aFrom John Johnstone, Edward Slawski, and William Bowman, The News People (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1976), p. 195.

^bFrom David H. Weaver and G. Cleveland Wilhoit, The American Journalist (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986 and 1991), p. 13.

Compared with the 1970s, the growth in number of full-time mainstream news media journalism jobs in the United States in the 1980s was very small— almost stagnant. As New York Times columnist Russell Baker put it, the newspaper business is often referred to as “a mature industry.” Baker wrote that when people use that term, “they are breaking the bad news gently. What they mean is that your industry is not long for this world, pal.”³

Although we don’t agree that U.S. newspapers are not long for this world, we do suspect that, during the 1980s, there was more growth in news and information jobs in specialized magazines, newsletters, computerized information services, and various cable television programs than in daily newspapers and the other more traditional news media included in this study (news magazines, wire services, weekly newspapers, radio and television news departments).

Although it is difficult to obtain estimates of employment for all branches of the mass communication field, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Foreword: Background Check—Why the Public Needs to Know More About News People
• Preface
• 1 Basic Characteristics of U.S. Journalists
• 2 Education and Training
• 3 Job Conditions and Satisfactions
• 4 Professionalism: Roles, Values, Ethics
• 5 Women Journalists
• 6 Minority Journalists
• 7 Journalists’ Best Work
• 8 Conclusions
• Afterword: A Calling at Risk?
• Appendix I: Methods
• Appendix II: 1992 Journalists Survey Questionnaire
• Appendix III: Coding Schedule for Journalists’ Best Work
• Bibliography
• About the Authors
• Name Index
• Subject Index