Multiskilling in the newsroom – de-skilling or re-skilling of journalistic work?

Abstract

Multiskilling in a journalism context is not a case of “de-skilling” as the profession. There are problems concerning related to the quality in newsrooms adapting that are adapting multiskilling strategies, but in general multiskilling is more correctly to defined as a re-skilling or an up-skilling. This is thea conclusion from result from a survey to of 1,500 journalists in Poland, Russia and Sweden and interviews with 60 journalists in these three countries. Multiskilling in journalism gives more space room for creativity and more power to the individual journalist, according to those with experience of working as multi-reporters. It allows them more freedom to make their own decisions in their daily tasks, i.e. choosing subjects and stories. At the same time, from the perspective of the media company, multiskilling is a strategy to increase production in the newsrooms. Multiskilling is also changing the journalistic culture, putting more focus on production and adapting content for different channels.