In a media system that functions under market logic, an industrial crisis directly affects working conditions of journalists. Massive firings of journalists have become more frequent in the last few years. This has been a consequence of industry decisions, such as closing magazines, merging work teams from two media houses within one holding, and externalising production of content and other services to third-party companies.
Meanwhile, academia has reported for years that this is a work sector with “precarious” conditions when it comes to working hours, salaries, and benefits from employers. Instead of improving, such a situation has become worse (Lagos & Faure, 2019; Lagos & Cabalin, 2013), with journalist unions becoming news subjects in 2019 (El Desconcierto, 2019; El Dínamo, 2019). The employment rate of journalists in the first year after graduating is 71.9 per cent, while it is 81.3 per cent in the second (Mifuturo, 2020). Of these persons, 80 per cent have a full-time contract, 60 per cent long-term contracts, and 24 per cent fixed term, while some do not have any formal contract (Mellado, 2014). While these numbers seem high, it must be noted that not all graduate journalists work in media, but in other fields such as corporate communications. There are editors who, in the interviews, agreed on the difficulty of retaining journalists who, after two or three years in a media house, decide to start working in communication agencies, because they have better work hours, contracts, and conditions, in addition to higher wages.
Journalists’ salaries grow slowly. In their first year after graduation, without considering income tax or other deductions such as health insurance and pensions, gross average monthly income is CLP 681,896 (EUR 746); the fifth year after graduating, it reaches CLP 1,061,515 (EUR 1,160) (Mifuturo, 2020). Lawyers, by comparison, earn an average income after graduating of CLP 1,073,253 (EUR 1,174) in the first year, reaching an average of CLP 1,896,175 (EUR 2,073) (Mifuturo, 2020) the fifth year after graduating.
