Den utländska skölden – En kvalitativ intervjustudie om kvinnliga frilansjournalister i Mexiko

Abstract

Titel: Den utländska skölden – En kvalitativ intervjustudie om kvinnliga frilansjournalisters i Mexikos yrkeserfarenheter Author: Lisa Axelsson Tutor: Gabriella Sandstig Number of pages: 51 Number of words: 24 215 Course: Bachelor thesis, Journalism Period: Fall 2017 University: Dept. of Journalism, Media and Communication, Unviersity of Gothenburg Purpose/Aim: The aim of the study is to map and analyze the working conditions, limitations and possiblities for female freelance journalists in Mexico. Material/Method: This thesis is based upon semi-structured deep-interviews with seven female journalists who work for different kinds of media, with different background and different nationalities. The interviews are based on theories about self-cersorship, gender, intersectionality, the freedom of freelanece journalists and the integrity of journalists. Main results: By analysing the answers of my respondents I have concluded that the main possibility with the working conditions of female freelance journalists in Mexico is their flexibility. As long as they feel like they are somewhat financially and physically safe, they can do the type of journalism they prefer. Female freelance journalists are however limited by the financial scarcity of media world wide, which often don’t pay them enough and offer lacking support. The worst case seems to be with the Mexican media, who not only pay bad but often also censor a lot of reporting due to corruption. Freelancers are therefore reluctant to work with Mexican media, and Mexican freelance journalist preferably turn to work for foreign new agencies who also offer better conditions in terms of safety. Another finding of this study is that female freelance journalist are less likely to have experience of harassing comments, threats and violence related to their work compared to regular journalist in both Mexico and Sweden. This is probably due to a mixture of freelance journalist being harder to track, that working with globally known news outlets comes with a certain safety, and that the freelance journalists in the area rarely dig as deep as local journalists do in sensitive subjects. However, sexual harassment is a big part of the every day life.