Journalism Today. 23 Apr 2025

By Eduardo Suárez

🚨 New report

Today we published a new report on UK journalists: who they are, how they work, and what they think. Edited by Professor Neil Thurman, Dr Imke Henkel, Dr Sina Thäsler-Kordonouri and our own Dr Richard Fletcher, it is based on a survey conducted in 2023 with a representative sample of 1,130 UK journalists. The report documents increased precarity in the profession, lingering inequalities, and changing conceptions of ethics and journalism’s relationship with society. Here are the 10 top findings:

1. On UK journalists’ diversity.

Most UK journalists are White (90%), university educated (91%) and non-religious (71%), and come from a privileged background (71%). Most of them are left-leaning and, as a group, have moved further to the left since our previous survey. Around 54% identified with the political left in 2015; this percentage had risen to 77% by 2023. 

What about class? Only 12% grew up in a working-class household. Those journalists who had a parent who worked in one of the three most privileged categories of occupation (71%) were more likely to be employed by the national media. A higher percentage of UK journalists were privately educated (13% at primary, 22% at secondary schools) than the general population (6%). | Read this chapter by Dr Imke Henkel

2. On their employment conditions.

The proportion with permanent contracts dropped from 74% in 2015 to 65% in 2023. Over the same period, the proportion of freelancers grew from 17% to 28%. Men, those aged 40 or over, those whose main employer was a broadcaster had higher salaries on average. Men earned higher salaries and were more likely to have a permanent contract and hold a top management role. | Read this chapter by Dr François Nel

3. On the media platforms and formats they use.

The distribution platform UK journalists were most likely to produce journalism for was websites (97%), followed by social media (80%), print (74%), email newsletters (62%), podcasts (56%) and others. The single media format UK journalists were most likely to produce was text (95%), followed by photographs (77%), video (69%), audio (67%) and others. Up to 84% of UK journalists had a main employer from a legacy media background. | Read this chapter by Prof Neil Thurman

4. On their perception of news automation.

Only 7% of UK journalists worked in newsrooms that used automated news text production, and 10% in newsrooms that used personalised news distribution. Our survey shows that journalists who were aware of the use of automation for text production or personalised news distribution in their newsrooms felt less secure in their jobs and less free to select news stories they worked on. | Read this chapter by Sina Thäsler-Kordonouri

5. On their use of social media.

Almost three-quarters of UK journalists said they regularly used social media to discover news stories and 57% said they regularly used it to promote their journalism. Those working for internet-native media were more likely to use it for discovering news and promoting their journalism than those working for media with a print background. | Read this chapter by Dr Richard Fletcher

• Not everyone uses analytics tools. Only 35% of UK journalists said they ‘always’ or ‘often’ used newsroom analytics in their work. A similar number (36%) said that they used them ‘sometimes’ or ‘rarely’, and 27% said that they ‘never’ used them.

6. On their safety and well-being.

Journalists who used social media to promote their journalism were more likely to have experienced some hateful speech and attempts to discredit their work. Only 18% reported they had ‘never’ experienced safety threats related to their work over the previous five years. The most frequent forms of safety threats experienced were ‘demeaning or hateful speech’ (45% at least ‘sometimes’), followed by ‘public discrediting’ (39%). 

• Not everyone is attacked equally. Lower-ranked journalists experienced hate speech and public discrediting of their journalistic work much more frequently than higher-ranked respondents, and were also more likely to worry about losing their jobs. | Read this chapter by Dr Ayala Panievsky and Dr Lindsey Blumell

7. On their editorial autonomy.

More than half of UK journalists believed they had a good level of editorial autonomy in choosing stories (63%) and selecting story angles (67%). They perceived political and commercial influences as much weaker than news production and editorial processes. For example, 61% of respondents saw government censorship as having no influence at all, with 62% feeling the same about the police, 51% about politicians, and 41% about businesspeople. | Read this chapter by Dr Jingrong Tong

8. On their views of truth and objectivity.

Up to 82% of UK journalists agreed that interpretation is necessary to make sense of facts and 69% believed it is possible to represent objective reality in reporting, with older and more experienced journalists expressing higher confidence than their younger colleagues. Only 50% of UK journalists believed they could withhold their personal beliefs from their reporting, suggesting a split view on this matter. 

• A divided group. Almost half of UK journalists (48%) believed that truth is inevitably shaped by those in power, with younger journalists and those left-leaning more likely to agree with this statement. Only 17% of UK journalists believed that things are either true or false with no in-between. | Read this chapter by Dr. Craig T. Robertson

9. On their perception of their role in society.

UK journalists continued to ascribe importance to their roles as informers and watchdogs, but they gave increasing importance to activist roles compared with in 2015. Journalists saw their top three roles as to educate the audience (88% considered this role ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ important), to counteract disinformation (71%), and to be a detached observer (69%). | Read this chapter by Dr Imke Henkel, Dr Lea Hellmueller and Dr Rana Arafat

10. On their ethics.

Our survey showed a stunning growth in the number of journalists that expressed a weakened commitment to a universal professional ethos. Fewer than 60% agreed that professional standards should always determine ethical behaviour, compared with the 94% who agreed to a similar statement in 2015. 

• Is it OK for money to change hands? Accepting payments from sources was considered unacceptable by almost all UK journalists. Freelancers and staff journalists shared broadly similar views on ethics, but we found gender disparities: 60% of female journalists disapproved of payment for confidential information, compared with 48% of male journalists.| Read this chapter by Dr Lea Hellmueller, Dr Glenda Cooper and Dr Jane Singer

🙋🏾♀️ Our supporters.

You’ll find many more findings in the report, which is part of the Worlds of Journalism study, and is supported by the Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität, München, City St. George’s, University of London, the University of Leeds and Birbeck, University of London. | Explore the report in full 

_________

The Reuters Institute has more than 🌟28,000🌟followers on Bluesky! If you haven't followed us yet, please do so by clicking on this link.

_________

📬 Sign up for our newsletter now

Sign up for the Reuters Institute's newsletter to ensure you get everything we do. Original reporting, evidence-based insights, online seminars and readings are sent twice weekly. |Sign up now