As in other industries, the pandemic is exacerbating existing problems in journalism – especially for freelance journalists. This is the result of a study by a research team from Bremen, initiated by the Otto-Brenner-Foundation. According to this, many freelancers had to accept severe financial losses, especially at the beginning of the pandemic, but the situation returned to normal for most after the first corona wave. Above all, according to the study, the existing differences within the industry were even clearer than usual.
Prof. Dr. Barbara Witte (University of Bremen) and Prof. Dr. Gerhard Syben (BAQ Bremen research institute) interviewed seventeen freelance journalists from Bremen for the study “Erosion of the Public Sphere – Freelance Journalists in the Corona Pandemic”, both full-time and part-time freelancers. In guided interviews, the researchers examined the working conditions of journalists during the pandemic. They also interviewed people from the management level of eleven media houses in Bremen who work with freelance journalists. Here, too, the researchers only included Bremen: They see a “microcosm” of the nationwide media landscape in the small federal state. They see the results as valid nationwide because: “Because the media region of Bremen and the media structure of the city reflect on a small scale what applies to the republic on a large scale,” explains Jupp Legrand, Managing Director of the Otto Brenner Foundation, the selection. “All the relevant questions raised by the pandemic are condensed in the media region of Bremen like in a magnifying glass.”
According to the study, freelancers from local and daily newspapers experienced the greatest permanent losses, as orders collapsed together with the sporting or cultural events. Although freelance journalists from public service broadcasting had to accept losses at the beginning, they were not affected as intensively and permanently as colleagues from the press. During the pandemic, some freelancers in public broadcasting even worked longer and thus earned more than before. The freelancers were initially excluded from financial aid from the federal government to cushion the consequences of the pandemic. The study concludes: “Anyone who needed help received it – partly privately, partly through the aid fund of the State of Bremen. The study does not reveal whether this aid balance sheet is representative nationwide.
The inequality between freelance journalists from local and daily newspapers compared to their colleagues in public broadcasting was already a problem before Corona. The respondents criticized: Daily newspapers often paid freelancers below the minimum wage level. This makes social security impossible. Because of the poor pay, more and more freelancers are considering getting out of journalism and, for example, accepting job offers in public relations.
For many, the pandemic has only made these already existing considerations more urgent. At the same time, according to the study, more and more editorial offices are considering reporting less about events in the future and thus working less or not at all with part-time freelance journalists. The researchers warn: These developments could mean the end for much of the local reporting – “with serious consequences for the democratic public,” as study author Barbara Witte writes.