TY - JOUR
T1 - Labouring the news
T2 - Management control strategies and work intensification in the digital newsroom
AU - Hayes, Kathryn
AU - O' Sullivan, Michelle
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2023.
PY - 2024/6
Y1 - 2024/6
N2 - Using a labour process lens, this research focuses on the structured antagonism that characterises the employment relationship. This article seeks to further our understanding of how news organisations employ control strategies to extract the labour power of journalists and achieve organisational objectives, and we pay particular attention to the role of editors in this regard. We also explore the responses of journalists as workers to managerial control which can include accommodation, resistance, compliance, or consent. The findings are based on an empirical case study of a local newspaper incorporating interviews with editors and journalists. The case study reveals how journalists’ work intensified with the turn to digital content, and because of reduced staffing since COVID-19, but editors ensured high levels of productivity through distribution of digital analytics and constant monitoring.
AB - Using a labour process lens, this research focuses on the structured antagonism that characterises the employment relationship. This article seeks to further our understanding of how news organisations employ control strategies to extract the labour power of journalists and achieve organisational objectives, and we pay particular attention to the role of editors in this regard. We also explore the responses of journalists as workers to managerial control which can include accommodation, resistance, compliance, or consent. The findings are based on an empirical case study of a local newspaper incorporating interviews with editors and journalists. The case study reveals how journalists’ work intensified with the turn to digital content, and because of reduced staffing since COVID-19, but editors ensured high levels of productivity through distribution of digital analytics and constant monitoring.
KW - COVID-19
KW - Labour process theory
KW - analytics
KW - digital
KW - management control
KW - news editors
KW - workload
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85159089186&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/14648849231174059
DO - 10.1177/14648849231174059
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85159089186
SN - 1464-8849
VL - 25
SP - 1346
EP - 1364
JO - Journalism
JF - Journalism
IS - 6
ER -