Publication details
MY WORKSTATION, MY CASTLE? CHANGING SPACES OF CREATIVE LABOUR
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2016 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| Citation | |
| Description | The paper is exploratory in nature and it discusses changes in journalists’ work spaces and their impact. It discusses three case studies to propose that the nature of media professionals’ work spaces and the degree of control that they have over such spaces influences their understandings of the creative and autonomous nature of their work. A number of European governments have included creativity in their policies for economic growth and employment, however, those working in the creative industries have faced the consequences of neoliberal approaches, including precarious contracts and worsening conditions of work. In addition, little attention has been paid to the changing nature of work spaces which – we argue – actually influence how media professionals perceive the nature of their work, particularly in relation to creativity and autonomy. Our first case study explores changes in local journalism. The decline in advertising revenues during the economic crisis led to redundancies and also to shrinking spaces in which journalists work and/or to changes in the uses of work spaces (such as hot desking). This spatial ‘re-alignment’ highlights the increased uncertainties related to the conduct of the journalistic profession. The second case study focuses on Europe’s largest live newsroom – the BBC’s newsroom in the Broadcasting House in London – with work spaces for over 2,000 journalists. We argue that this is an example of a highly controlled open plan spatial environment with an unintended consequence – journalists’ (perceived) loss of the ability to shape their work spaces. The final case study contrasts these changes in journalists’ work spaces with examples from a local community radio station in which individual journalists exercise a high degree of control over their work spaces. |