| dc.description.abstract | Local news research has shown rampant turnover in the industry, with journalists pointing to factors such as pay, schedule, management, direction of the industry or content, increased workloads, and family. Over the past three decades, corporate media companies have continued to acquire local news stations across the country, leading to personnel cuts that leave those leftover with the additional responsibility and stress with zero reward for the extra daily effort. While the number of TV news employees in the industry reached a peak in recent years, some newsroom leaders saw journalists leaving more than ever before. As turnover is a consequence of perceived organizational support (POS), this study looks at these experiences between the station and the journalist and the corporation and the journalist to understand the current experience, the role it plays in turnover, and where those in the field wish changes were made. In this qualitative study, the researcher provides a narrative analysis of TV journalists' experiences associated with POS with their stations and corporations, their decisions to stay or leave, as well as industry fixes they believe could retain employees. In all, the participants' experiences vary greatly. Commonalities in station POS experiences show that supervisor support, peer support, and journalistic integrity are areas stations can develop to increase perceived support. The findings prove points of research stating supervisor support is critical for retaining young professionals in an industry, peers support is effective in retaining workers locally, and the journalistic profession is of higher importance than the workplace for local journalists (Hill, 2018a; Pease, 1991, Russo, 1998). Disconnect, labor contracts, and again journalistic integrity are areas the corporation could look at to increase POS. These findings are consistent with research stating journalists have a greater connection to the profession versus the employer (Russo, 1998) and that journalists want salary increases as incentive to stay (Reinary, 2014). Journalists who experienced low POS often left the industry or the station. Journalists with positive POS experiences were more likely to re-sign contracts with their current stations, but sometimes personal life plays a role in their decision to stay or leave the station. Like journalists of previous studies, these participants point to needed changes in areas of pay, managerial support, career growth opportunities, the quality of their news product, and human resources practices. This information adds to the understanding of why TV journalists leave their stations and/or careers by pointing out areas of POS that are lacking from either the stations or the company that owns it. It also adds to POS research, by focusing specifically on the TV news industry post Covid-19. The importance of journalistic ethics and products are important to journalists, which is not a POS antecedent in any other industry. Additionally, the study - while limited in participants, points to industry fixes these journalists agree need to happen to keep experienced journalists in the industry providing needed information to the public. Future research should expand to learn of POS experiences of other newsroom employees such as producers, editors, production personnel, and assignment editors. Additionally, future research should focus on the POS of news stations' middle management to better understand the support newsroom leadership receives from the executive level to support newsroom employees. | |
