Deceived Middle Class? Media Workers in the Face of Neoliberal Transformation
Author: Krzysztof Lepczynski, krzysztof.lepczynski@gmail.com
Department: Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences
University: Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toru, Poland
Supervisor: Arkadiusz Karwacki
Year of completion: In progress
Language of dissertation: Polish
Keywords:
journalists
, middle class
, quality of life
, media
Areas of Research:
Professional Groups
, Work
, Stratification
Abstract
The main aim of the study is a comprehensive analysis of the quality of life of media workers as a category experiencing structural tensions that affect the entire middle class. My interest is not only in the phenomena taking place in the media field, but in their more broadly defined roots and causes. The research questions focus on the relationship between experienced and expected quality of life, structural crises and the 'middle class promise' hovering over them.
In my study I intend to look at media workers, a group that is an important part of the so-called 'new middle class'. The economic collapse of 2008 highlighted the economic, technological and social changes already taking place, creating a new face of the media and deepening the so-called 'middle-class crisis'. I indicate numerous analogies between media workers and the broader middle class: their important function in a democratic state, the threat of crisis in cognitive capitalism, being defined by ‘ideal types’ created under specific conditions.
I understand the middle class itself not so much as a group determined by economic criteria, which is the dominant approach in empirical studies, but as a cultural frame on which the edifices of modern societies are built. I argue that the middle class assumes the character of a hegemonic ideology, around which individuals, institutions and whole societies orient themselves. In this sense, the middle class becomes not a homogeneous group with a certain level of income, but rather a set of norms, values and practices.
The framework for considering the transformation of the condition of media workers and members of the middle class will be the concept of quality of life in seven dimensions: material well-being, health, work, social ties, security, community and emotional well-being.
Existing analyses of the media crisis have focused on journalists' role in the political system, autonomy or professed values. There is little research on journalists' working conditions, and the transformation of the media is often analysed in isolation from broader social trends. I intend to go beyond these limitations by analysing quality of life in its broad sense.
I will sketch a portrait of the socio-professional group of media workers as a part of the Polish middle class which is experiencing deep tensions. The analysis of the journalistic field will serve to exemplify the phenomena affecting broader layers of the middle class and influencing its quality of life.
The research will be a case study based on self-conducted 40 individual interviews, a quantitative survey and (ancillary) desk research. Reaching for a mixed methods approach will enable in-depth analysis of well-being, subjective feelings, emotions and experiences and placing them in a broader context.
