Download This paper reports the results of a survey of job benefits available to

Job Benefits of Indian Journalists: All they want is all they’ve got, all they’ve got is all they
need
Bridgette Colaco
Assistant Professor
Hall School of Journalism
Troy University
Troy, AL 36082 USA
Voice (571) 435-1754
[email protected]
Bridgette Colaco is Assistant Professor in the Hall School of Journalism at Troy
University. Her research interests include international communication, gender and
media, newspaper research, and popular culture. She has more than 700 bylines in her 12
years of journalism experience; and was most recently assistant editor of Hindustan
Times in Mumbai. She received a Doctoral Fellowship and a University grant for her
dissertation research based on Indian journalists.
and
Jyotika Ramaprasad
Associate Professor
School of Journalism
Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, IL 62901 USA
Voice (618) 536-3361
Fax (618) 453-5200
[email protected]
Jyotika Ramaprasad is Associate Professor in the School of Journalism at Southern
Illinois University Carbondale. Her research interests are currently focused on
communication for social change. She has published in the Journalism Quarterly,
Journal of Asian Pacific Communication, Asian Journal of Communication, Gazette,
Mass Communication & Society, The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics,
Journal of Advertising, Journal of Advertising Research, Journal of Current Issues &
Research in Advertising, Social Marketing Quarterly, and other journals. She has
produced a TV documentary on Asian Indians in Carbondale and worked on a campaign
for flood preparedness in Vietnam. She has received US State Department grants for
work in South Asia and East Africa.
Keywords: India, Journalist Survey, Job Benefits
Job Benefits of Indian Journalists: All they want is all
they’ve got, all they’ve got is all they need
Submitted to the Education and research Division of the Arab-U.S. Association for Communication
Education for presentation at Twelfth Annual AUSACE International Conference, Dubai, October 2007.
1
This paper reports the results of a survey of job benefits available to Indian
journalists. While modeled after Weaver and Wilhoit’s (1996) study of American
journalists, this paper includes benefits specific to India and also gauges whether the
importance assigned by journalists to these benefits differs from their availability.
The benefits, rated for importance, coalesced into two tangible factors –
Professional Rewards, Material Benefits, and two intangible factors – Professional
Advancement, and Personal Rewards. Tangible benefits include pay, perks, job security,
long-term contract, flexible working hours, education, and training opportunities.
Intangible benefits include a chance to advance in the profession, to be in a happening
profession, and to meet celebrities, interesting, and important people.
All the benefits were rated above average in importance, and ranked in the
following order: Professional Advancement, Material Benefits, Professional Rewards,
and Personal Rewards.
Three job benefits – Personal Rewards, Professional Advancement, and Material
Benefits – were rated above average for availability, while Professional Rewards rated
below average. Specifically, Material Benefits were less available and Professional
Rewards were more available compared to how much importance journalists assigned to
them.
Indian journalists in this study are highly satisfied with their jobs; Job satisfaction
is related to job benefits, specifically to Professional Rewards and Personal Rewards but
in different ways. Firstly, the more professional rewards journalists get, the more they are
satisfied with their jobs. Secondly, and surprisingly, the more personal rewards
journalists get, the less they are satisfied with their jobs.
2
The study’s contribution lies in 1) its inclusion of job benefits specific to Indian
society and press as culled from the literature, 2) its finding of the importance placed by
Indian journalists on the intangible Professional Advancement benefit, 3) its finding of job
satisfaction being related to job benefits, and 4) the benchmarks it establishes for
communication research in India.