Par Francesca Barca

Version anglaise de l’article, version française en cours de rédaction.

Journalism, a bourgeois profession?

Does journalism have a class problem? While the question may seem overly provocative, it points to an undeniable social reality: becoming a professional journalist requires many years of precarity, poor pay and sacrifice, making the profession almost exclusive to those with the necessary cultural, economic and social capital.

Access to the profession: how does one become a journalist?

It is often said that anyone starting out in journalism must be prepared to take risks: to spend time researching the stories and angles that interest editorial staff, that are relevant and original, or to bear the costs of a report without even being sure that anyone will run it. “We’re told that it’s better to go freelance at first, to take risks, etc. But taking risks when you have the means is easy; doing it when you struggle to pay the rent is not only complicated, it’s impossible. It is inconceivable to think that you have to end up on the street in order to do your job. » This is Sarah Ichou, director of the Bondy Blog, an independent French newspaper founded in the wake of the French banlieue riots in 2005, precisely to represent those working-class neighbourhoods – the banlieues – and the voice of the people who live there.

A solution for diversity in the media

In 2009, the Bondy Blog created the “Prépa égalité des chances” in collaboration with the Ecole supérieure de journalisme de Lille (ESJ Lille), one of the most prestigious schools in the country. This “equal opportunities” training course is free of charge and open to young people from low-income families. “Although the results have been very positive,” Ichou explains, “it does not mean that the problem has been solved: integration in editorial departments remains very complicated. And once a certain amount of experience has been acquired, access to certain positions of responsibility remains very, very complicated”.

Since 2007, La Chance has been providing training to young people with less access to these schools. Every year, thanks to around 350 volunteer professional journalists, the association prepares around 80 fellows for the competitions of the journalism schools in Bordeaux, Paris, Marseille, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Grenoble and Rennes. “The competition is a compulsory step for aspiring journalists wishing to enter a school. The problem is that not all young people have the same chances of passing it. The duration and cost of the studies discourage those of more modest means,” explains Baptiste Giraud, who is in charge of student placement in the Paris office.

Vous pouvez retrouver la suite de notre contribution à cette article ici : https://voxeurop.eu/en/journalism-bourgeois-precarity/