“Should I Stay or Should I Go?”

Abstract

Against the background of the crisis in the journalism industry, many journalists have decided to leave the occupation for other activities. We examine the reasons journalists give for leaving journalism, or remaining in it; the exit mechanisms they use; the destinations they choose and broader repercussions for Israeli journalism and the cultural industries. We base this examination on a sample of 60 life histories of active and former Israeli journalists, analyzed through the use of the “Exit, Voice and Loyalty” (EVL) typology developed by Albert Hirschman. Additionally, we investigate specific exit mechanisms and destinations using Bourdieu's notions of capital. We argue that applying the EVL typology to the data suggests the easy availability of exit routes out of journalism together with journalists' difficulty in voicing their occupational concerns within news organizations, given their chaotic organizational structure, contributed to news organizations' passive response to the crisis.

KEYWORDS:

• careers
• cultural capital
• culture industries
• journalism
• labor
• life histories
• social capital

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We wish to thank Yael Oppenheim, Oshrat Sassoni Bar Lev, Sharon Ringel and Liron Aharonson for their research assistance.

FUNDING

This work was supported by the Israel Science Foundation [grant number 307/11].

Notes

1. Quote from The Clash (Headon et al. 1982).

2. Usher (2010, 924) notes in her study that the public laments of departing journalists do not include “the reflection of the fighters staying in the industry.”

3. We collected demographic and occupational data using a pre-interview questionnaire for 53 of the 60 interviewees. Some of the 53 questionnaires had additional missing values.

4. We assigned all interviewees pseudonyms.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Israel Science Foundation [grant number 307/11].