THE DIGITALISING OF THE MEDIA. NEW COMPETENCES, POLYVALENCE AND

PROFESSIONAL SKILLS IN CATALAN JOURNALISM.

Carlos Scolari (UVic)

Héctor Navarro (UVic)

Hugo Pardo (UVic)

Josep L. Micó (UVic – URL)

Ignasi Coll (UVic)

ABSTRACT

This work forms part of a series of investigations that set out to analyse the

consequences of the processes of digitalisation in the communication media in

Catalonia (Spain). In this case, the paper deals with the transformations that have

affected the role of the journalist, especially the taking on of new tasks and functions.

Following an introduction that describes the theoretical and methodological framework

for the research, the article describes the main trends observed within Catalan radio

and television companies, news agencies and online media. The article also presents a

series of reflections on polyvalence, reskilling and other processes that affect

information professionals. Finally, a classification is proposed of the forms of

journalistic polyvalence in the information media.

INTRODUCTION

This article is the result of a one-year research project undertaken by the Grup de

Recerca d’Interaccions Digitals (the Digital Interaction Research Group) of the

Department of Digital Communication of the University of Vic for the Consell de

l’Audiovisual de Catalunya (the Audiovisual Council of Catalonia). The research is part

of a line of work that began in 2003 with the project Comunicadores Digitales (Digital

Communicators) for the ICOD Network - part of the Alfa Programme of the European

Union - and is continuing in 2006 with another study, as yet unfinished, that focuses on

the local printed media, for the Associació Catalana de Premsa Comarcal (the Catalan

Local Press Association). Beyond the specificity of each of these projects, the overall

aim of these projects might be defined briefly: the aim is to analyse the consequences

of the processes of digitalisation within the communication media.

1. THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS

While the study of the cultural industries has a long tradition in the Communication

Sciences, the founding text by Adorno and Horkheimer (1979) dating from 1947,

research into the media workforce took some years to appear. Having concentrated for

several decades on the content and effect of the media, it was not until the late 1960s

that studies began to appear that dealt with the productive routines and professional

roles of the communicators themselves (Wolf, 1985).

1.1. Political economy of communication and culture

It was English researchers from the field of Cultural Studies who picked up on the

Frankfurt tradition, stripping it of its apocalyptic connotations and using it as a

theoretical basis for the development of what became known as The Political Economy

of Communication and Culture (Golding & Murdock, 1992, 1997). Within this

theoretical framework, the 1970s saw the beginning of the study of the productive

processes and the workforce of the English press. Professionals working in radio and

television remained relatively marginal to these earliest studies, though media such as

the BBC slowly began to feature on the research agenda (Kumar, 1981; Elliot, 1981).

With regard to the relationship between information professionals and the successive

technologies that were introduced into their productive sphere, it might be said that

the journalistic profession has been marked by an apparently infinite process that

involves an almost constant redefining of specialities and sub-professions. Each

technical innovation - telegraph, typewriter, radiotelegraphy – has brought tensions in

its wake and acted as a catalyst for the appearance of a new way of doing journalism

(Smith, 1981). In this sense, we might say that reprofessionalisation – understood as

the undertaking of new tasks – has been a permanent and ongoing process.

In the second half of the 19th century, with the spread of rotary presses and steam

engines the printing production processes underwent enormous change, just as

happened with the arrival of electronic technology in the 20th century. The spread and

popularising of the World Wide Web and the digitalisation of information production

processes, together with other social, economic and cultural transformations, have led

to a series of changes in the profile and competences that the information professional

has had to take on board. At present, the working routine of the journalist revolves

totally around their computer and the World Wide Web. Journalists “spend most of

their time in the newsroom in front of their computer for research and reporting and

rarely leave the editorial floor” (Deuze & Paulussen, 2002: 243). The use of Internet as

a research tool made journalists independent of their newsroom archives. According to

Garrison “many journalists have become avid online researchers. With the Web, there

is less dependence upon other individuals, such as news librarians, to conduct

background research” (2001: 71). It might even be said that, as in many other sectors

of the economy and society, a knowledge of digital technologies has become a kind of

lingua franca amongst information workers in the 21st century.

1.2. The digitalisation of the news production process

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Digitalisation has brought about changes in both the actors who participate in the

cultural industries, and the production processes they employ. The impact has been

particularly felt in the large production units (for example, in the large radio and

television companies), where a Taylorist industrial division of labour existed. Amongst

other things, digitalisation has led to changes in the workplaces, the professional

competences of the workers, and in the quality of the working environment (Rintala

and Soulanen, 2005). When talking of digitalisation we are referring to that process

which can be characterised by the appearance of:

- Text supports based on the binary code (which, unlike traditional supports, allow

the text to be infinitely manipulated without any loss of information).

- Information production and distribution systems based on the binary code (desktop

publishing, non-linear video editing, etc.).

- Exchanges of information through networks that are based on the transmission of

data packages (the conceptual and technological basis of Internet).

- New forms of organising production (company-network) and new logics of

information creation and transmission (peer-to-peer, open-source, etc.).

- Convergence of languages, media and companies.

To these transformations in production should also be added the changes in the

distribution systems and reception processes. In this context, mass communication

becomes fragmented and atomised into millions of situations involving individual

consumption, often via mobile devices and in an asynchronic way. In the last decade,

the spread of new media (like the online editions of newspapers) and forms of

production and consumption of information (such as the weblogs) have ended up

transforming, in a definitive way, the workplaces of journalists brought up in the

culture of the typewriter and teletype.

Apart from the term digitalisation, this article revolves around two other concepts that

should be analysed before we continue: polyvalence and reskilling.

1.3. Polyvalence and Reskilling

With the arrival of digital technologies in newsrooms, journalists have found

themselves obliged to take on new tasks and learn to produce information

simultaneously for different media. This type of convergence of tasks, or polyvalence,

has taken a central place in the academic and professional discussions about digital

communication. According to Pineda (2005), digitalisation has led to a reclassification

of the tasks and functions of journalists, with new professional profiles appearing. This

researcher argues that information and communication technologies “are opening up

new fields of work for the communicator; though not displacing the traditional fields of

work in the mass media, they are bringing about a redistribution of tasks and a

reclassification of functions” (Pineda 2005: 87). Rintala and Suolanen, on the basis of

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the research they carried out in Finland in the period 2001-2002, which picked up on

the line of work previously developed by Slotterøy Johnsen (2004) that dealt with the

situation in Belgium, synthesise these transformations in the profiles of information

professionals as follows:

Transferral of tasks: the functions previously performed by a particular professional

are now taken on by another, for example, when a radio journalist takes

responsibility for sound editing (Rintala & Suolanen, 2005: 57).

Fusion of professional roles: activities previously undertaken by two or more

professionals are now carried out by just one, for example, when the traditional

profiles of the television managing editor and the online managing editor end up

being merged into just one figure, that of managing editor (2005: 57-58).

Increase in workload: the emergence of new media generates new tasks for the

traditional journalist, particularly in the requirement to produce the same piece of

information in different formats and languages (2005: 58).

In short, polyvalence implies that the journalist assumes new functions and tasks,

some of which were previously performed by other professionals.

The adaptation of workers to these technologies and functions is obviously not a

problem that only effects the cultural industry. In the new economy, workers must be

able to retrain themselves so as to acquire new skills, knowledge and ways of thinking

in a business environment that is constantly evolving (Castells, 2001:109). In this

context it is no longer enough for workers to apply a single body of knowledge

throughout their working life: it will be necessary for them to keep up-to-date in order

to overcome the obsolescence of that which was learnt during the initial phase of their

career. According to Slotterøy Johnsen, “a central issue in processes of socio-technical

change at work is what happens to the skills of employees. Sometimes management is

accused of wanting to ‘de-skill’ the workforce in order to increase flexibility and

control. Defenders of change often claim that what is happening is actually an

‘enskilling’ of the employees, which will increase their job satisfaction. In the case of

journalism, new technologies and ways of working can be seen as a challenge to

journalists’ professionalism” (2004: 253). This reskilling affects both workers in the

traditional media (radio, television, press, etc.) and news agencies – where the staff

were trained in the ‘old’ technologies – and those who have grown up within the

sphere of the new media and digital communication (Kotamraju, 2002).

2. OBJECTIVES AND METHODOLOGY

The main aim of this research was to identify the changes in the professional profile of

journalists following the introduction of digital technology into the newsrooms of

Catalan radio, television and online media. Amongst the specific objectives were:

To analyse the consequences of digitalisation on the work of journalists in the

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Catalan audiovisual and online media.

To describe the new competences of the journalists.

2.1. Previous studies in Catalonia

This study was undertaken within a context in which, in the last five years, an

increasing number of researchers have examined the relationship between digital

technologies and the journalistic profession within the Spanish and Catalan media. In

this sense, mention must be made of the pioneering work by Armañanzas, Díaz Noci

and Meso (1996), and of early attempts to define the profile of the digital journalist

(Gil, 1999). In terms of the studies dealing with the Catalan reality, the main lines of

research explored to date are as follows:

Use of Internet as a source of information, or the use of e-mail within the sphere of

work (Luzón Fernández, 2003; Masip, 2003, 2005)

New production routines and functions of journalists (Domingo, 2005; ICOD

Network, 2006; Micó, 2003, 2005; Soriano, 2004)

New professional profiles within the world of information (Micó, 2003, 2005)

Relations between journalists in online and off-line newsrooms within the same

medium (Domingo, 2006).

Situation of digital journalists (GPD/SPC, 2003).

Unlike other studies that focus on a small number of media in order to analyse their

production dynamic – as in Masip (2005), where three media are studied, or Domingo

(2005, 2006), where four media were analysed – in this research we set out instead to

create a national map that would integrate a series of different media that are

representative of the Catalan panorama.

2.2. Methodology and planning of the study

The media system in Catalonia is made up of a complex web or public and private

companies. Some of these are only present within the Autonomous Community of

Catalonia, while others are part of Spanish networks. Similarly, there are dozens of

small and medium-sized media scattered across a territory that has a population of 6

million people. This pattern is repeated in radio, television and the news agencies.

With regard to online media, in general these are either satellites of the large printed

media, or else small companies, some of which are funded by public money, but which

despite their size operate with high levels of technology. One publicly funded Catalan

company (CCRTV Interactiva) is seen as one of the most innovative such companies in

Spain in terms of its production of contents for online media.

This research covers 25 media from the Catalan panorama 35 in-depth interviews were

carried out, a number which is not very different from those undertaken in other

similar pieces of research done in this territory (Soriano and Cantón, 2005; Soriano,

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2004). The approach is qualitative and is based on unstructured interviews. The

construction of the sample was undertaken bearing in mind a series of variables of

segmentation that allowed us to define the clusters or typologies of participants:

Professional profile of those interviewed: Editor or Section head, Journalist or

Reporter.

Media: news agencies, television channels, radio stations and online newspapers.

Geographical area: in order to ensure a balanced view of the whole territory,

media were chosen from all the four provinces that make up Catalonia

(Barcelona, Girona, Lleida and Tarragona).

Ownership of the medium: public capital, private capital.

Age: recently created media, long-established media.

Size of the media (number of staff): large, medium, small.

The interviews were subjected to content analysis based on the use of a systematic

descriptive procedure. This procedure consisted of three phases: 1. Pre-analysis (initial

reading of the texts, identifying indices, elaborating indicators, establishing rules for

delimitation, categorising and codifying); 2. Analysis of the material (operations of

codifying, breaking down, enumerating); and 3. Treatment of results and interpretation.

The research was undertaken between September 2005 and September 2006, with the

interviews being carried out between January and May 2006.

3. FINDINGS

The technological transformations and the proliferation of new information media are

generating new professional profiles. In the smaller media, these transformations are

making themselves felt, above all, as new competences that information professionals

are expected to assume. In the larger production units, where both resources and

tasks to be performed are greater, they may bring about both a confluence of

functions in the traditional journalist and the appearance of new autonomous profiles.

In this article we shall be concentrating on the figure of the polyvalent journalist.

The taking on of greater responsibilities and functions by the journalist is not a linear

process nor can it be verified in the same way in all the media. Rather, the degree of

polyvalence that each professional is required to display varies according to the type

of medium, the economic model (public/private), its dimensions or its evolution as a

company. We should, then, analyse the situation in the different media studied.

3.1. Polyvalence of journalists in different information media

3.1.1. News agencies

The news agencies are increasingly opting for a polyvalent professional profile. In the

Agència Catalana de Noticies (ACN), the leading agency whose capillary network of

correspondents covers the whole of Catalonia, the same journalist writes a news story,

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obtains and where necessary retouches the photographs before sending them to the

headquarters of the agency and, last but not least, records and edits news and

information in audio format. While this research was being undertaken, ACN

incorporated the use of video: its journalists have now been equipped with digital

cameras and have received training to enable them to integrate this medium into their

information production. “Our reporters” explains one interviewee from this agency “as

well as being able to take photographs, have the means to record sound bites. We

want them to be equipped with a high quality camera that allows them to capture

images”. In this case, the same journalist generates information for different media

and covers diverse events, for example, political, sports or social events. Most of these

professionals work from home (teleworking) and use the digital network to send their

production to the agency headquarters. According to one director, the same polyvalent

philosophy is to be found in the agencies that cover the whole of Spain: “our staff are

almost all journalists, some camera operators and photographers […] Of the 55 people

we have, 8 are camera operators, 3 photographers and the rest are reporters […] It is

the reporter who edits the material […] What we do is ‘clean-up’ the video, since the

final editing is done by the agency’s client (that is, the medium that buys the

material).”

In these agencies, as happens with journalists in the other media who cover local

news, teleworking is becoming more and more common. The reporters work from

home or from the site where the news has taken place, using technical equipment

and software supplied by the company. The equipment with which these agency

journalists go out onto the streets is similar to that used by their colleagues working

for online publications (laptop, editing software, photographic camera, recorder,

video camera, etc.). To facilitate the management of its news production, the EFE

agency has introduced a kind of online editorial meeting via an instantaneous

messaging system. Using this system, the agency journalists comment on the stories

they are working on, the events that need covering, etc. without having to physically

visit the head office.

Some interviewees described unusual situations of polyvalence, for example, when

journalists are also asked to participate in the day-to-day financial management of

the company using spreadsheets to monitor production costs. In some smaller

agencies polyvalence is not only required of reporters: photographers are also

expected to take on new functions, in some cases even being responsible for writing

the copy. In the case of foreign events, the smallest agencies have no doubts: they

send just one professional who is charged with generating information of all types -

written, audio, photographic and video.

One of the keys to explaining all these changes is digital technology. With lower levels

of investment, more work can be done. In addition, all these functions can be

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performed simultaneously and without specialised personnel. However, digitalisation

does not automatically imply that the working environment is better. Complaints

about the increasing instability of work are constant, especially amongst the

journalists interviewed.

3.1.2. Radio

The situation of the journalists working in the large publicly-owned Spanish radio

stations has not changed despite the technological transformations that have taken

place. Rather, the requirement for journalists to assume greater competences has

been concentrated in the privately-owned media and small communication companies.

In the latter, journalists, apart from looking after programme production, gathering

documentation, writing scripts, selecting music, editing the contents and presenting

them to the listeners, in some cases also take responsibility for short publicity

productions. On occasions, the journalists themselves even intervene in creating and

maintaining the radio website. A series of tasks that were previously performed by

production staff (setting up interviews, preparing sound archives, etc.) are now

undertaken by the journalist. In terms of their knowledge of computer tools, in addition

to text software the polyvalent radio journalist is now expected to have a command of

audio editing software (e.g. CoolEdit or similar).

The head of one local radio station preferred to talk of the “self-sufficiency” rather

than the “polyvalence” of his journalists. According to this interviewee, the

technological components of radio are very easy to use, and journalists should not

have any great problem when it comes to learning to operate them. On the other

hand, the regional head of one of the main Spanish radio networks rejected the idea

of the “all-purpose journalist”, preferring instead the idea of “specialisation in

accordance with the size of the company”.

According to one journalist working on a publicly-owned Catalan radio station “in this

company there has been a qualitative leap forward (…) one important change is the

appearance, within the last ten years, of the figure of the journalist-presenter-

producer, one person who performs all three functions and who, in a studio where

there are no technicians, with a mini-keyboard is able to transmit his/her voice, the

recordings, publicity, etc.” In short, while the large radio stations continue to maintain

a division of labour, in the smaller radios, or those that are most technologically

advanced, the figure of the polyvalent journalist is of growing importance and takes

the triple form of a journalist/presenter/producer.

Despite the technological transformations, certain pre-digitalisation ways of thinking

regarding the circulation of information around the territory are still maintained. For

example, the small local radio stations continue to have a second function as news

agencies, since they provide information to the large communication companies that

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are situated in large urban centres.

With regard to the total number of staff, digital technologies have not reduced the

number of radio journalists, but rather have brought about an increase in the quantity

of information produced and handled by them. Some of the editors interviewed

during our research even mentioned the possibility of increasing staff numbers in the

future.

3.1.3. Television

Most of the television companies that took part in this research require their reporters

to be capable of intervening in all the phases of news production. In this sense, the

portability and ease with which digital equipment and non-linear editing systems can

be used are leading to the development of a new profile for the polyvalent television

journalist.

The new companies, or the smaller local televisions, have not had to retrain their staff

since they have always worked in this way. The larger companies, however, have had

to go through a process of transition that has often proved traumatic. In some of these

large production units, such as the publicly-owned Televisión Española (TVE), owing to

their size, the rigidity of their employment contracts or their slowness in adopting the

new technology, these processes of transition are still underway.

Other realities are to be found in the vanguard of the new forms of polyvalence. For

example, in TV3, the large publicly-owned Catalan television station, the figure of the

polyvalent journalist has existed for many years now. In this company, a model for

many local televisions, the concept of ENG (Electronic News Gathering)is well

consolidated: two journalists alternate the functions of camera operator and reporter,

and even carry out the final editing of the piece to be televised. In order to undertake

the editing, the journalist does not need to move from their workplace at any time

since all the necessary material can be accessed through the interactive screen. As

one journalist put it, here all the reporters edit their stories: “they go out onto the

streets, come back and put the story together themselves. They need to have basic

knowledge of three different types of software that have been adapted to their

needs, but the editing they do themselves”. In this publicly-owned television

company (TV3) the polyvalent journalist is known as an ‘informer’. This figure

performs three tasks: “films the images, edits them and leaves them ready for

broadcasting… (this professional)needs to have, at the very least, knowledge about

how to film, a capacity to write the story, and a knowledge of editing processes. With

time it is possible that they will need to have knowledge of infographics and technical

skills in telecommunications, so that they will be able, at a given moment, to connect

up to a fibre optic network”.

The addition of functions and the increasing speed of production led many of the

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journalists who were interviewed to display a highly critical attitude with respect to

the work they do. On the one hand, they recognise that they do not make the best

use of the technology available to them; on the other, they are aware that the pace

at which they have to work affects the quality of the information they produce.

Another peculiarity that came to light in the research is that some large privately-

owned Spanish televisions, such as Atlas/Telecinco, have already digitalised the

production processes at their headquarters in Madrid, but continue to use linear

(analogue) editing technology in their offices in Catalonia. To this should be added the

double function of the Catalan office, which supplies contents to the Madrid

headquarters while also functioning as television news agency for other broadcasters.

This means that the journalists are working with a double register, since they are

simultaneously preparing news stories for two distinct circuits.

As happens in some news agencies, if television journalists work for a group that

owns a printed medium, they will be expected to produce the same news story for

two different media, with two very specific languages. The editors of some media

claimed that, until now, the quality of the two information products has ended up

being unequal: if the written story is good, the audiovisual version is rarely

satisfactory (and vice versa).

3.1.4. Online media

It is in the most recently created media, for example, the new news agencies that

sprang up alongside the spread of Internet in the 1990s, such as ACN, or the

companies that produce multimedia contents for the web or for mobile phone users,

such as CCRTV Interactiva, that the figure of the polyvalent journalist can most

clearly be seen. Here, the starting point is that the journalist “does everything” and

needs to be capable of producing all kinds of contents (written, photographic, radio,

audiovisual and interactive).

The online media that were set up in the ’90s have evolved swiftly. In general, these

are small structures within which journalists perform different tasks, and polyvalence is

considered to be something that is almost natural. The case of CCRTV Interactiva

might be considered to be paradigmatic. This publicly-owned company, set up as an

offshoot of the Corporació Catalana de Ràdio i Televisió (CCRTV), had a staff, in May

2006, of 62 people (35 multimedia reporters –journalists and graphic reporters, 12

computer technicians and 4 editors, with the remainder being administrative staff).

The work of CCRTV Interactiva is exclusively that of redirecting the contents produced

by the television and radio channels of CCRTV (TV3, Catalunya Radio, etc.) into the

new information channels (web, mobile phones, etc.). In this company, thematic

specialisation (by sections, that is politics, society, international, sports, etc.) is

maintained. Nevertheless, having a command of different languages (radio,

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audiovisual, graphic), the use of software (Dreamweaver, Flash, Photoshop, etc.) and a

basic knowledge of the techniques of programming, all form part of the package of

competences required of these multimedia journalists. To these competences, it is

common to add others, such as a capacity to moderate virtual forums and

communities - meeting spaces for users created and managed by the medium itself.

In other words, the CCRTV Interactiva journalists who work on the political section only

cover this type of news, but they produce the stories in different languages and

formats. One of the editors explained that “we look for people with the most polyvalent

profile possible, we look for people who have skills in using the new technologies: But

once they are in the company it’s necessary, for example, that the sports coverage is

stable and of a consistently high quality. For this reason, we need a stable team. A

reporter can not be doing sports on Mondays, general news on Tuesdays and on

Wednesdays news about young people”.

As mentioned earlier, ACN also favours this type of multimedia profile in its network

of journalists. However, in the case of CCRTV Interactiva, media polyvalence – the

same journalist is capable of producing written, audio, video and interactive contents,

is not accompanied by a thematic polyvalence – rather, each professional looks after

a specific section (sports, politics, culture, etc.).

In the companies where the information that is produced is multimedia and the

journalist is a polyvalent figure, output is normally organised via a Content

Management System (CMS). This enables the different materials – written texts,

audio, video or photographic materials – to be managed and combined to suit the

characteristics of the channel through which they will be transmitted. Thus,

journalists do not produce information for a particular medium, but rather supply a

database that, subsequently, will provide material suited to the requirements of

television, the web, videotexts, mobile phones, etc.

In the smaller online media analysed during this research the competences required

of journalists are similar: knowledge of software, command of different expressive

languages and information formats, capacity to moderate discussion groups, etc.

Several of the online newspaper editors interviewed coincided in expressing the view

that journalists should be capable of stimulating public participation, and have the

ability to control and channel these user interventions so as to maximise their

effectiveness.

While these online newspapers tend to be connected with other media (city-wide

televisions, local television networks, etc.) the resulting synergy is minimal. Given

that the rhythm and workings of the online media are different from those of a

television or printed medium, the exchanges are normally limited to sharing

information in the editorial meetings each morning. From then on, each medium

pursues its own production process during the rest of the day.

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All the online media editors we interviewed insisted on the necessity for the

polyvalent journalist to work as part of a team and in a coordinated way with the rest

of the staff. In this sense, autonomy and polyvalence should not be confused with the

idea of the professional working in isolation.

3.2. Map of competences

The following table presents a summary of the competences of the polyvalent

journalist that have been identified during our research. This professional profile is

becoming consolidated in the online media, in some large information companies and

in the more recently established media. With respect to the small media, journalists

have always performed numerous functions; however, these tasks are now

multiplying while, at the same time, are becoming easier to perform thanks to the

digitalising of the production processes.

News agencies Radio TV OnlineWRITTENWriting of news stories x x x xAUDIOWriting scripts xAudio recording and editing

x x x

Music editing x xVoice xGRAPHICSInfographic production xPHOTOGRAPHYTaking photos x xRetouching photos x xVIDEOWriting scripts xVideo recording and editing

x x x

Voice xSOFTWARE and PROGRAMMINGOfimatics x x x xPhotoshop (or similar) x xCoolEdit (or similar) x xFinalCut (or similar) x x xDreamweaver xFlash xHTML – JAVA (basic) xOTHER COMPETENCESCMS management x xTeleworking x x xInformation management x x x x

3.3. The polyvalent journalist

Throughout this research, the process that most stood out was that of the journalists

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taking on functions that had previously been performed by other professionals. What

began as almost a game in the printed media – reporters who went out from their

newspaper equipped with a digital camera - has accelerated to the point that it now

affects all the media. One of the key concepts in this process is what is known as

‘polyvalence’.

While polyvalence is spreading in the printed media, news agencies, radio and

television, the natural working habitat of the multimedia journalist is in the online

interactive media. It is there, in the midst of the digital network, that these

professionals can apply all their multimedia competences to working with information

in different formats and languages. In the new companies whose work involves

generating contents for the latest channels of communication (web, mobile phones,

etc.) the figure of the polyvalent journalist is crucial.

In the small media the journalist has always been polyvalent: the same professional

was required to produce news for different sections and/or news channels. In the large

media, however, where professional profiles and the division of labour have always

been clearly differentiated, the situation is uneven. In some large television

companies, production teams continue to be formed by the same professionals as in

the pre-digital era.

Another element to have emerged in this research is the increasing distance between

the journalist and the object of the news story. The professional now tends to inform

without leaving the newsroom. One radio reporter told us “I believe the arrival of

digital technology in journalism has been positive in all senses; I don’t believe there

have been any negative factors, quite the opposite. But the thing is – and it’s a

generalised vision of journalism – that we are now producing a more aseptic

journalism, in the sense that we can present a piece of news without having had to be

out there on the ground”. This trend is particularly evident in the online media, where

the normal sources of information are the other traditional media (radio, television,

etc.). Some interviewees consider this growing distance from the site of the news story

to be a step backwards in professional practice, and one that affects the quality of the

information produced.

It should also be pointed out that the effect of the technological transformations is not

limited to modifying the professional profile of journalists and the information

production routines they follow. Relationships between professionals are also being

transformed. For example, the relationship between a journalist and a computer

technician is different today from what it was in the 1970s. Digitalisation, amongst

other things, brings with it a greater dependence on computer technicians. In some

way or another, journalists have always depended on technical figures, from the

expert in photomechanics to sound technicians, but in this new phase, computer

technicians have become transversal figures whose presence is required in all the

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large information production units (radio, television, digital media, etc.). One journalist

working on an online newspaper explained that the computer technician has a central

role: “we depend on them much more because anything that goes wrong involves

them”. On the other hand, this closeness between journalists and computer

technicians sooner or later sets in train processes of hybridisation. According to one

interviewee who works in public television, many professional figures “are somewhere

between computer technology and journalism, perhaps with some journalistic

knowledge but leaning more towards computer technology, at least that’s how it’s

been up until now”. As can be appreciated, the range of professional profiles is

complex and remains open to further mutations and contaminations.

Finally, the concepts of ongoing training and reskilling appeared constantly in the

interviews carried out for this research. In this sense, it is clear that the competences a

communication professional has are unlikely to be enough to see them through their

whole working life: it will always be necessary to update their skills with respect to

both the use of new technologies and the introduction of new working procedures.

3.3.1. Migrant digital journalists: the reskilling path

One aspect has emerged quite clearly during our research: there is a generational gulf

that divides the youngest journalists, for whom polyvalence and the use of digital

technologies is a natural fact (native digital journalists), from those professionals who

were trained in the traditional media and who have had to go through a process of

reskilling (migrant digital journalists).

The journalists who have migrated from the traditional system to the new forms of

information production need to retrain in order to learn how to use the new

technological instruments and to become familiar with the changes in production

dynamics. During our research a difference became apparent between the large

publicly-owned media, such as TVE or the CCRTV, and the rest of the companies. In the

former, training courses to keep staff knowledge levels up-to-date are organised on a

systematic basis. In contrast, in almost all the smaller or privately-owned media, this

type of training activity is practically non-existent and any reskilling that takes place is

normally done by the workers themselves on their own initiative. At the moment, the

predominant method of learning is that of doing so ‘on the job’, when new equipment

is introduced that obliges the journalists to develop new competences.

In some publicly-owned media the transition has been slow and natural: the old

professional figures gradually give way as generational change takes place.

According to one public radio journalist this medium “is very paternalistic; there

are moments when this paternalism is fantastic because it means that all these

processes are lived naturally”. In another publicly-owned medium, one of the

most important paradoxes to be seen is this research is being lived out. While the

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Instituto Oficial de Rádio and Televisión (IORTV) lays on very complete training

courses, it is almost impossible for workers at TVE to apply that which they have

been taught owing to the very rigid classification of categories that still reigns in

this company. In the large production structures, the employment contracts

clearly define each professional profile and effectively prevent workers from

doing any tasks that are not listed as being within their competence.

Amongst the editors interviewed, few complaints were made about the capacity of

workers to retrain. However, they did coincide in pointing out that the most reticent

at assimilating the changes were the ‘veterans’ of their company; on the other hand,

young university-trained workers swiftly adapt to changes in work organisation.

3.3.2. Native digital journalists: natural polyvalence

During our research, one piece of information emerged, though at present of only

marginal importance in quantitative terms, and often limited to the new online media,

but which is nevertheless indicative of a trend: the media are increasingly staffed by a

new generation of young digital journalists with no analogue past. These professionals

are less than thirty years old, entered the media after the arrival of Internet, and have

only ever known production systems marked by polyvalence, permanent reskilling and

teleworking.

The editor of a local television remarked on the ease with which the new university

graduates (or, even, students of journalism) adapt to these new forms of work.

However, for one our interviewees, a journalist working on an online publication, this is

not particularly remarkable: “[…] I have been a digital journalist since the beginning.

When I finished my university course my first job was outside the world of

communication […] and when I started in the media, first I worked in specialist media,

and then went on to a generalist and local medium like the ‘Diari de Barcelona’, but

always working on Internet. I can say that, if it hadn’t been for Internet, I would never

have got into journalism […] I’ve always worked with Internet”.

One radio journalist working in a publicly-owned company (Catalunya Radio) explains

that, in her workplace, the staff “are quite young. I’m 37 and I’m one of the oldest in

the newsroom, we’re still at an age when it’s relatively easy to adapt to new

technologies. Here we have some people who are ‘super digital’ and evidently they

have no problems”. Whether it is because they are young and it is easier for them to

adapt, or because they already possess the necessary skills, it seems highly likely that

generational change will bring about a consolidation of polyvalent professional profiles

in the information media.

3.4. Some initial reflections on polyvalence

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The acquisition of new competences, and the consequent development of polyvalence,

is not a simple process nor a quick one. In general, the media begin by slowly adding

functions to those already borne by the journalist; in some more recently created

companies, such as the online newspapers, the process takes place in a way that is

quicker and almost natural. For example, the journalists working for ACN began

covering stories for the graphic media and the radios (that is, they produced written,

photographic and audio contents) and during 2006 they have also incorporated the

recording and editing of videos.

However, the list of functions a journalist performs seems likely to continue to

lengthen. According to one of the ACN editors, they are also looking for “journalists

who are experts in the network, experts in information technology and who can search

for subjects and produce a more globalising journalism based on Internet.” Others

prefer to highlight the processes of selecting information. One interviewee working in

an online medium claims that “here there is a new profile of professional whose task is

to select, I do not say censure, but rather to select messages and contents”. In other

words, the polyvalence of the journalist is not a stable characteristic and it should not

surprise us that tasks an information professional performs, and consequently the

competences required of them, continue to be added to.

3.4.1. Towards a conceptualisation of polyvalence

Throughout this research we have seen how, in some media, the journalist, apart from

producing contents for radio, television, the web or mobile phones, is also expected to

cover different types of events (sports, cultural, political, etc.) or to perform various

functions (news-writing, photography, editing, etc.). For this reason, the concept of

multimedia (as in multimedia journalist) is insufficient to describe this spectrum of

functions and tasks. In the same way that different types of convergence have been

detected, for example, business convergence, communicational convergence, etc.

(Salaverría 2003), we might also argue for the existence of varied forms of professional

polyvalence in the world of journalism. Based on the material gathered during our

research, we would propose the following classification of types of polyvalence that

may affect journalists:

Technological polyvalence: journalists use instruments (both software and

hardware) that allow them to produce and manage contents on different supports.

For example, journalists are capable of operating programs for text processing,

photographic retouching, non-linear video editing, network and database

management systems, etc.

Media polyvalence: journalists design and produce contents for some (or all) of

the following media: radio, television, online, etc. For example, having covered an

event, the journalist prepares the whole of the written text (for a printed medium

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and/or online newspaper), produces a radio piece and edits a video for televising.

This polyvalence demands a series of technological (knowledge of the technical

means) and semiotic (knowledge of the languages of the different media) skills.

Thematic polyvalence: journalists produce news for different sections (sports,

politics, culture, etc.). For example, the same journalist might cover anything from

a football match to a political event.

The forms that polyvalence takes are not mutually exclusive, since they are presented

as different levels of analysis. A single journalist may be capable of producing contents

for different media and, at the same time, generating contents on politics, culture and

sport (as happens at the ACN or in the online publication ‘Diari de BCN’). Elsewhere,

the journalist might have a mastery of the different media and languages but

specialise in one particular section (for example, sport). This is the current situation of

the journalists working for CCRTV Interactiva.

4. CONCLUSIONS

The main aim of this research was to detect the transformations in the professional

profile of the journalists working in the Catalan audiovisual media that have resulted

from the introduction of digital technology into the newsrooms of news agencies,

radios, televisions and online media. This study is complemented with a description of

the new competences of journalists working in these media and a more profound

conceptualisation of the concept of polyvalence. Below is a presentation of the main

characteristics of digitalisation and journalistic polyvalence in the Catalan news media.

4.1. Digitalisation

Digitalisation is a process that affects the processes of production, editing and

distribution of information. Its principal characteristic, apart from the transformation of

the information support (from paper or electromagnetic tape to bits), is the way in

which it integrates Internet and all its applications and services into the work of the

journalist. The digital network is changing the way of working, but also the way of

understanding journalism.

The digitalisation of news production is a process that is as yet unfinished and its

recent consequences are still being verified. This process, while taking place on a

global level, takes on specific characteristics in each and every reality. Digitalisation is

lived in one way in the large media and in a very different way in the smaller media, in

the public or private media, etc. In many Catalan media, the process of digitalisation

began in the head office (normally in Barcelona) and only later was extended to the

local outstations. This technological change has favoured the financial management of

the media networks, a fact that allows costs to be reduced thanks to the smaller

17

number of staff required to operate the news-gathering apparatus. In addition,

management is simplified.

Digitalisation is bringing about a whole series of transformations in production routines

and professional profiles. In this context, professions change (for example, that of the

journalist, who is now becoming polyvalent), as do the relations between professions

(for example, between journalists and computer programmers).

Digitalisation is leading to the disappearance of a series of professional figures that

have long been a part of the media, from the sub-editor to the music editor, the

camera operator, etc. If we see these extinctions from the perspective of the social

history of technology, we might say that this is almost a natural process: every new

technology reshapes the media ecosystem and decrees the disappearance of some of

its actors. Digitalisation is, however, modifying traditional professional profiles. In

some radios, the head of the sound library is now becoming a manager of its contents,

and television set designers are now creating and developing virtual spaces.

Obviously, the central figure in all these transformations, at least from the perspective

of this research, is that of the polyvalent journalist.

4.2. Polyvalence

Journalistic polyvalence takes different forms. In the small media, the journalist has

always been polyvalent. In the new online media, the journalist assumes polyvalence

in a very natural way. Finally, in the large traditional electronic media, the taking on of

greater functions by the journalist is an unfinished process, and one that is often a

source of conflict and still unstable.

Amongst some of the interviewees, a certain preoccupation can be detected about the

increasing distance between the journalist and the object of the news story. The

journalist now tends to inform without stepping outside the newsroom since verifying

the information and checking sources is done online.

In this context, the native digital journalist has mastered the technology, adapts easily

to the digitalised production setting and has the capacity to work with different

formats and languages at the same time. Migrant digital journalists are professionals

who are obliged to retrain, to learn how the new tools of their work function and to

assimilate the new production logics.

In this framework, a classification has been proposed of the competences that a

journalist is required to assume in a digitalised workplace: technological polyvalence

(information professionals use software and hardware that allow them to produce and

manage contents on different supports), media polyvalence (information professionals

design and produce contents for different media) and thematic polyvalence

(information professionals design and produce contents for different sections).

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5. FUTURE WORK

New research – in which different methodologies and focuses can be integrated – will

be necessary in order to fully apprehend the transformations being wrought by digital

technologies in the news media in Catalonia. The taxonomy of forms that polyvalence

takes presented here should be put to the test in future studies and, eventually, be

checked against the situation in other areas of production that have undergone

processes of digitalisation. On the other hand, studies dealing with the production

process should be complemented by analyses of information products and their

consumption. Two themes stand out as meriting particular attention in future research:

the merging of newsrooms and the quality of the information produced in contexts

marked by the polyvalence of the journalist.

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