Intergenerational conflict in the newsroom between Gen Z and their seniors
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Generation Z is entering the American newsroom as the next generation of journalists. Research shows they are the most diverse generation to date, and the demographics of higher institutions are becoming more female. They have also come of age in a world marked by COVID-19 and omnipresence of social movements, online and offline. This study seeks to answer how these shifting dynamics may contribute to friction in the newsroom on the basis of behavior and differing priorities in terms of journalistic processes and values. answers to these questions will provide a road map for current journalists and incoming journalists, to where conflict may arise in the newsroom, and why it might arise appertaining to Gen Z's differing priorities, values and environment. It will also look at Gen Z in the context of professional environments, rather than solely students, which previous literature on the subject has limited itself to. Data was collected through a series of 20 semi-structured interviews of Baby Boomer, Gen X, Millennial and Gen Z journalists over a course of two months, then analyzed in a thematic analysis framework, through the lens of Durkheim's functionalism theory. It was found that Generation Z had looser ideas of what makes someone professional, the application of technology and business in journalism, and prioritized different journalistic roles. Conflict arose in the newsroom in the spheres of work-life balance, understaffed newsrooms, political expression, underestimation of skill, and areas of prejudice. This research shows that the next cohort of journalists will be entering the newsroom with a different foundation of understanding of what makes journalism and a good journalist.
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M.A.