Global Science Journalism Report
Global Science Journalism Report
2.2.4 Job Satisfaction: specific freedoms and overall Doing a good or bad job is one thing; whether you like the job that you are doing is another. When it comes to job satisfaction for those working in the field of science journalism (Q11), the bugbears are likely to be freedom of and access to information (Table 6), with 24% and 34% dissatisfied to some extent with these aspects, respectively. Of the 592 people asked, 72% were satisfied with their jobs overall and only 10% were dissatisfied (Q37). In rough correlation, when asked if they would recommend a career in science journalism to a young student, 86% said they certainly or probably would do so, while 11% would probably or certainly not (Q38).
Table 6: Satisfaction at work
Q11 Satisfaction
% (completely, very satisfied or satisfied)
% (dissatisfied, very satisfied or completely dissatisfied)
N
Q11c Access to scientists
66
16
953
Q11a Freedom of press Q11e Freedom in the discharge of your duties as a media organisation
60
24
953
60
16
361
Q11g Other
43
17
361
Q11b Access to information
42
34
953
Q11d Personal safety
41
11
592
Note: Question was worded: To what extent are you satisfied or dissatisfied with the situation in your country regarding …?
All specific aspects of satisfaction are highly related to each other, and they jointly form an overall dimension of work satisfaction. 'Freedom of the press' and 'personal safety' are the most important components of this dimension (see appendix A). This means that if a respondent is dissatisfied with one element, he or she will also be dissatisfied with the others, and vice-‐versa. Also, overall satisfaction and giving positive career advice to a young person are highly correlated, and what people say on one set of questions will be reflected in responses to the other. This constitutes the second dimension of the job satisfaction of a science journalist. Combining our observations into two dimensions of satisfaction, with the specifics (i.e. freedom of the press; personal safety; access to information and scientists) and satisfaction overall (i.e. overall job satisfaction; would recommend the job), we find that science journalists in USA, Canada and Europe are more satisfied with the specifics of their jobs, but
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