Living in the Market: How Freelance Web Journalists Manage their Careers in the U.S. and France

• In Event: 171 - Section on Organizations, Occupations and Work Paper Session. The Changing Nature of Work in the Twenty-First Century

Abstract

Existing sociological research on independent work is divided into two camps that are not easily reconciled. On the one hand, researchers studying contingent work emphasize the precariousness and scarring effects of non-standard work. On the other hand, the literature on artistic occupations highlights the freedom associated with freelancing. Negotiating the terrain between these divergent approaches requires greater attention to the lived experiences of independent workers: how do they handle the uncertainty associated with unstable employment in an open market?
I focus on the case of freelance web journalists in the United States and France, two countries with different traditions of support for freelancers. Drawing on 99 interviews, I show that they organize their careers in highly similar ways in the U.S. and France in spite of the structural differences between the two countries. Freelance writers try to balance four simultaneous concerns when making choices about their careers: passion, economic survival, exposure, and networking. Most of these activities now take place online, yet the internet does not significantly change the organization of freelancers’ careers. The main difference that emerges between U.S. and French web journalists is their discursive repertoire.

Author

• Angele Christin, The New School for Social Research