Media Recruitment and Employment Practices

Abstract

A number of researchers in recent years have focused on the changes in employment patterns within the media industry that have resulted in the decline of what was seen as relatively secure full-time employment substituted by an increase in informal, temporary and freelance work, raising concerns about the increased precariousness of media work, with strengthened polarisation between core and peripheral jobs. Yet there has been very little research into the impact of these changes on the recruitment of migrant workers and on the cultural diversity of the workforce. -The main objectives of the study were (a) to examine the issue of workforce diversity in the European media, with specific reference to migrants; (b) to highlight the many aspects of the recruitment process which can pose barriers to those outside the mainstream of society; (c) to explore whether policies in relation to anti-discrimination measures in recruitment were evident within the media sector and the extent to which they have improved employment opportunities for migrants; (d) to establish whether media companies adopted outreach schemes with the aim of recruiting migrant workers and whether they had monitored their implementation; and, (e) to ascertain the issues of discrimination in the industry. -There is no agreement in Europe on what constitutes the ‘economy of culture’, with the media being part of it. Economy of culture is defined for the purpose of this study in terms of David Throsby’s understanding of ‘cultural activities’, which are those characterised by creativity in their production and their output potentially embodies at least some form of intellectual property. When the creative sector enters into the production process of other economic sectors and provides the inputs for the production of non-cultural goods, the resulting activities are referred to as the ‘creative sector’.