The Medill Media Industry Survey, conducted online from Nov. 30 to Dec. 31, 2021, measured the opinions of 1,543 people in the U.S. news business who completed the questionnaire.
The survey was conducted by Associate Professor Stephanie Edgerly of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. Edgerly collaborated with Danielle K. Brown, the Cowles Professor of Journalism, Diversity and Equality in the Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Minnesota. Providing logistical support was Medill Senior Associate Dean and Professor Tim Franklin, the John M. Mutz Chair in Local News, who leads the Medill Local News Initiative.
Medill used Cision, a media listings database, to obtain email contact information from individuals who had at least one of the following keywords in their profile: columnist, correspondent, director, editor, producer, reporter, writer.
From that list, Medill removed anyone who was not currently working at a U.S. company that met at least one of these criteria: A newspaper or magazine with a print circulation above 30,000; An online news website with monthly traffic above 30,000; A television program or station (national or regional); A radio program or station (national or regional); A cable/satellite program.
Medill then randomly selected 25,000 people and invited them to participate in the survey. Respondents work for a variety of media categories: 30.1% newspapers, 31.5% digital-only, 15.2% television, 9.3% radio and 12.8% magazines.
About 42.4 percent of participants were supervisors. Their mean age was 46.6 years old, with the youngest 19 and the oldest 87. About 49.9% identified as a man, 47.8% as a woman and 0.7% as non-binary.
The respondents were predominantly white. The breakdown: 86.9% White, 4.9% Asian, 4.1% Black, 4% Hispanic, 0.8% American Indian, 1.5% another race. Some checked more than one race, and some declined to provide their race.
About 63.3% had a bachelor’s degree, and 31.1% had a graduate degree. More than 60 percent held degrees in journalism.
Some questions for the survey were drawn from past research. Questions about the pandemic were adapted from a Journalism and the Pandemic Project survey of global journalists in 2020. Questions about social media were taken from a 2019 Pew survey measuring the public’s view of social media sites.
This is Medill’s second annual media survey.
Article image by J. Kelly Brito used under Unsplash license (Unsplash)
