Hur skapas en journalist?
En biografisk studie på nyexaminerade journalister
JournalisterNyexamineradeBiografierLivshistorierLivsloppEgenskapsöverenstämmelseKulturellt kapitalHabitusOsäkerhetstolerans
The study - Hur skapas en journalist? - examines why so many people choose to turn tothe journalist profession when the conditions for a secure position on the labor market ispoor. The study also highlights how recently graduated journalist perceives their temporary and insecure position on the labor market.The study was performed trough ten biographical interviews with recently graduated journalists. Via the interviews I examined what has formed the individuals to perceive journalism as a rational or pragmatic choice for a career. The study shows that journalists, who come from families with high cultural capital, have been shaped by a particular culture of education, which focuses on education as a step towards selfrealization. The individuals have therefore taken career decisions among what they find developing. In the study, I found that the journalists have undergone two different types of life courses. There are the journalists who followed a more linear life course to the profession, and the ones who have undergone a more ?crooked? life course. The linear life course is characterized by the fact that the individuals relatively early after highschool started to study journalism. These individuals, who followed the linear life course, have had a more straight forward way to the occupation mainly because of their social network. They have, through their social network, had the journalistic profession placed on their horizon of action because they either have parents who are journalists or because they have worked with the profession at some point. Those individuals whohave followed a crooked life course have not seen journalism as an obvious career choice, but the profession has progressively placed itself on their horizon of action because of past experiences. They have traveled, moved, worked and studied a variety of classes, mainly classes whit focus on languages and creative writing, before they started to study journalism. These past experiences have formed the individuals to perceive journalism as a pragmatic or rational career choice.I also find indications that the journalists who have undergone a more crooked life course find their insecure and temporary situation on the labor market less problematicthan the ones who have followed a linear life course. I suggest that the journalists whohave undergone a crooked life course have developed a higher tolerance towards a precarious and temporary situation on the labor market, their previous flexible life course have given rise to a higher tolerance of uncertainty. In other words, their pastlives has partly formed them to want to become journalists, but also made them more suitable for a temporary labor market.