Commitment to Journalistic Work: Do High School and College Activities Matter?

Abstract

This article proposes a model of commitment to journalism among recent entrants to the occupation. The model is based on the concept of continuance commitment from the sociology of work literature. It is expected that workplace-related factors should affect level of occupational commitment, but it also is expected that greater investments made in pursuit of a journalism career during precollege and college years should lead to a higher level of commitment. The data show that job sentiments are strongly predictive of commitment, but precollege and college investments generally were not predictive in a direct way. Early socialization did indirectly predict pursuit of journalistic work. Once in the field, however, new journalists assess dedication to the occupation by extrapolating from organizational experiences. In general, data also suggest that commitment to journalism is predicted much like commitment to other types of communication occupations.