An Analysis of Scotland’s Post-COVID Media Graduate Landscape

Abstract

This article explores the challenges surrounding the Scottish media graduate landscape after the COVID-19 pandemic. Contributing factors that impact Scotland-based students and educators include a shift in the jobs market, altering pedagogies during and post-pandemic, and social drivers including fewer students choosing media pathways of study due to the cost-of-living crisis. This study draws on insights from 40 students at five Scottish universities, all of whom graduated in the summer of 2023. The research presents a window into the mindset and expectations of this post-pandemic graduating class while drawing on current and relevant literature. In addition, the paper includes reaction from industry and academic experts in Scotland and questions what can be done to address trends surrounding the stability and sustainability of journalism education. The experts include senior broadcasters, an established media educator who has worked across further education and higher education in Scotland while also being a national news editor, and one of Scotland’s most experienced journalism educators who is the chair of the World Journalism Education Council. This work is predominantly qualitative, drawing on a mixed research approach of expert interviewing and surveys while providing recommendations for journalism educators.

1. Introduction

Half a decade ago media scholars Mark Deuze and Tamara Witschge described the journalism profession as “post-industrial, entrepreneurial and atypical” (Deuze & Witschge, 2018). Their views held true as the UK has since undergone a precarious and often frustrating period of social and economic change influenced by Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic, the wars in Ukraine and Israel, and now a cost-of-living crisis. With this has come significant downsizing and restructuring from major employers including Reach Plc, Newsquest, and the BBC (Maher, 2023). Some growth has occurred in digital roles including LinkedIn News and in sports journalism, with in-house club media taking on a new lease of life when fans were unable attend live sporting events during the COVID-19 pandemic (McCarthy et al., 2022).

Scotland currently boasts more than 300,000 students in higher education, a nation where there is significant financial support for third-level studies (Scottish Funding Council, 2022). However, just over an hour drive from Glasgow in England, the situation is shifting. Fewer students are enrolling in university courses, and those that are have selected subjects away from the creative industries and humanities. Concern regarding media employability and how students learn and what they learn is generating more discourse, including in UK doctoral studies (Evans, 2022).

While there are currently six universities teaching journalism and a further three offering media-related courses in Scotland, there are fewer graduate journalist roles now available. Media-related opportunities that do exist in the country of 5 million people are often in social media/PR/comms or sports club media roles (Mahon, 2024).

Looking back, Scotland’s media landscape has been dominated by newspapers and political coverage for most of the 20th century (Dekavalla, 2014). During this time, training courses at colleges were the normal route into media employment. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, BA journalism degrees and subsequently post-graduate qualifications became more commonplace (Frith & Meech, 2007). Concurrently, along with an increase in media education came the demand for different types of journalists in Scotland, with greater coverage of sports from Setenta and Viaplay as well as new channels including GB News and Sky Sports Scotland, creating different paths to employment. STV adopted a hyperlocal approach in 2017 and 2018 with small regional hubs, and BBC Scotland created a dedicated Scottish news channel, all in the years leading up to the global pandemic; however, neither have had long-lasting success (Brooks & Sweney, 2018; Dickie, 2022).

The UK media landscape in the years prior to the global pandemic was also one of significant challenges, especially surrounding working conditions and pay (Thurman et al., 2016). More than a quarter of UK journalists had to augment their media incomes with other work to stay afloat, and while those with undergraduate university degrees did earn more than those without, the landscape was one of short contracts and worrying workplace trends (Thurman et al., 2016).

There have also been concerns surrounding diversity in Scottish media employment, with some legacy issues relating to both gender and race (Boyle et al., 2022). However, what has become more apparent is that the issues facing the industry were amplified and exposed during COVID-19 and have since left the current state of the UK media landscape as one in flux with limited contracts, regular layoffs, and freelance options now the norm (Newman et al., 2023).

2. Literature Review

2.1. The UK Media Graduate Dilemma

A growing number of Scottish students of media and journalism are struggling to gain employment upon graduation. These graduating classes have either begun their studies during lockdown or undertook most of their academic assessment and education through remote and virtual delivery. Further research into this area has demonstrated that an emerging group of students who struggled during this time were those from other countries who had just arrived in the UK and were unable to return home (Bista et al., 2021).

In November of 2023, a further 450 jobs were cut by Reach Plc, coupled with more roles lost at the News Movement and downsizing in broadcast outlets including the BBC in England, creating fewer pathways into the industry for graduates (Ponsford, 2023; Maher, 2023). There also growing concerns regarding those already in media employment, often established practitioners with 20 to 25 years’ experience; their views also came to the fore through coverage by print outlets in the UK throughout late 2023 and early 2024, further highlighting the worries of those in the media sector (Bartholomew, 2023).

Media scholars have outlined through significant bodies of work the precariousness of the pandemic period for those in the creative industries, namely, Comunian and England (2020). Their research shows how many graduates from media and creative fields will live on the breadline and accept lower wages; their body of work also demonstrates that often only those from wealthier backgrounds are in a position to accept these lower conditions due to already having economic support to pursue creative careers. This is relevant to journalism graduates and also this particular study, as Hudson (2023) points out that there has been an even larger increase in those with private education working in journalism post-pandemic than those before, in a profession traditionally considered white and elite. Comunian and England (2020) point to the fact that many of those who remained working during the pandemic in creative fields were freelancers and that industries as a whole were decimated including ones where the workforce had family commitments or were from minority backgrounds.

2.2. The Pandemic Impact for Journalism Education

An emerging body of work has emerged surrounding the challenges surrounding student abilities impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic (Salarvand et al., 2023). The shift from in-person to virtual teaching and the subsequent removal of more interpersonal relationships forged in the classroom has shown to have negatively impacted student bodies and educators (Miguel & Silva, 2023).

While some research has demonstrated that while students experienced less anxiety and concerns surrounding remote and virtual delivery at the beginning of the pandemic in the UK, the same investigators have discovered that a significant number of students were unable to receive any help or support due to limits on access to mental health and counselling services (Yang et al., 2022). A 2023 study by Scherman et al. (2023) has also pointed out that students felt overwhelmed throughout virtual and remote teaching, citing screen time and lack of in-person learning resources as reasons for poor academic performance. The same study highlighted how challenging female students felt their HE experiences were throughout 2020 and 2021 in the UK.

Women have continually outnumbered male students in media and journalism degrees in the UK over the last 15 years (Reid, 2015; Spilsbury, 2023), and this has in turn translated into front-page stories and presenter and on-air roles in the UK and in Scotland, yet media editor positions still remain predominately held by men across the home nations. A 2022 University of Sheffield study from Posetti and Shabbir (2022) has also suggested that a further impact of the pandemic has been a growth in online abuse and attacks on female journalists in the UK. This research worryingly pointed to a rise in stalking incidents and links between online abuse and physical attacks. Deuze (2023) points to mental health issues in journalists post-pandemic, citing how they often put all of themselves into their jobs and their reporting. He further outlines how journalists face an array of pressures from employers, audiences, peers, and themselves—these are all areas where journalism educators need to better prepare students for an ever-evolving creative economy. Comunian and Gilmore (2016) suggest that UK universities are not adequately equipping students for the rigours and instability of the creative industries pre-pandemic regardless and refer to how much of the most compelling creative work including video and audio production and freelance and investigative journalism is done in relative isolation. Similar concerns exist globally, as highlighted by Severijnen and Yan de Haan in their 2024 study that does not draw on student experiences but instead highlights concerns for Dutch media educators on what to teach and how to teach, with technological progression dictating curriculum trends and also audience expectations leading the way post-pandemic for what they describe as a fragmented approach to journalism teaching (Severijnen & De Haan, 2024).

2.3. The Scottish Undergraduate and Postgraduate Landscape

Scottish university students are allocated a fee status—this allows for home students to pay much lower tuition and get state support to pay through the Student Awards Agency Scotland, or SAAS. A second category exists for the rest of the UK who normally pay four times the cost of a home student, and a further category exists for internationals who can pay up to 35k in tuition fees (Lewis, 2023). There are merits to the system in that it encourages all school leavers to attend HE or FE due to fees as low as GBP 1800, which are offset with student loans; however, the same system often creates funding challenges for institutions who then need to put a greater focus on bringing in high international fee-paying students, mostly at the postgraduate level. Almost one in three students in Scotland is a fee-paying international student (Forrest & Watson, 2024). During the course of this study, the majority of those surveyed were domestic students at the undergraduate level, and some at the postgraduate level; those from Glasgow University were international students from China and made up one-eighth of the survey-takers.

2.4. Justification and Similar Studies

In the 2021 book Journalists and Job Loss, the research focus is on established career professionals during and prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, often in Global South communities (Marjoribanks et al., 2021). In some respects, this study aligns with the work produced by the editors of the 2021 research through highlighting the challenges and issues facing the media industry as well as themes including digital disruption, but this work is focused more on graduates and early career practitioners using just one example of Scotland as a smaller and more forensic case site focus.

Similar studies involving surveying of students have been undertaken by the Open University, including one that also focuses on employability by Brennan et al. (1999). Their research explores similar fears in student bodies regarding their job sector, incomes, and in a more in-depth way progression and promotion potential. Their body of work focuses on part time students across multiple disciplines.

Mansfield (2011) also conducts survey research with students and graduates regarding employability and queries the impact of final year work placement on their potential employment pathways and graduate destinations. Her work shows that placements do impact student job attainment and that graduating classes are concerned with their ability to get employment in their study and field, but his work also shows that students who performed poorer in the years prior to the final year struggle to gain final-year placements and that this in turn impacts their short- and long-term job prospects.

This study is post-pandemic in nature and focuses on a group in a more precarious graduate position, those undertaking media and journalism studies, at a challenging point for their industry with significant instability and job loss. This study provides valuable insights into the views of this prospective labour market while they are still undertaking university education.

3. Method

The researcher is predominantly a university journalism educator over the last decade who still works in the media industry in Scotland and England as both a freelance TV journalist and through supporting recruitment and employability as both an educator and a media professional due to working towards widening access institutions, particularly for those from vulnerable social groups.

3.1. Participants

This study drew on both qualitative and quantitative approaches while garnering insights from 40 students, predominantly Scottish natives. The students were asked 9 questions with the online survey disseminated in the 6 months prior to their summer 2023 graduation. The cohorts included BA Sports Journalism students at UWS, BA Multimedia Journalism students at Glasgow Caledonian University and a similar cohort at Edinburgh Napier, MA International Journalism students at Stirling University, and students from an international background undertaking MA political communication studies at the University of Glasgow.

The students were given the chance to express their attractions, interests, and concerns regarding the media industry, which most of them were hoping to enter in 2023 and 2024. One area of the survey focused on income and salaries, considering the cost-of-living crisis impacting almost 1 in 3 people in Scotland post-COVID-19.

3.2. Procedure

The survey was disseminated digitally between January and May 2023 using hyperlinks and QR codes to faculty and to class reps/class leaders. More than half of the respondents undertook the survey in January and February. Ponto (2015) highlights the benefits to survey research that adopts both a qualitative and quantitative methodology but explains when discussing study samples like this that it is vital to remember this is only a representative sample, which in this case is approximately 10% of the more than the 400 students of media and journalism who graduated in Scotland during summer 2023. O’Connor (2022) suggests surveys have their merits and focuses on the importance of the wording of each question to extrapolate and enhance data gathering.

In addition to these insights garnered through survey form from the 40 students, analysis and reaction was drawn upon through focused and recorded 15- to 20-min-long audio interviews with 4 Scotland-based media education experts who reflected on the findings and survey results as well as their own journalistic experience coupled with their current roles in Scottish higher education to provide expert analysis and reaction to the current state of the graduate media landscape. These interviews were conducted in the 4 weeks prior to summer graduation 2023 in mid-May and early June upon 40 respondents completing the survey. Doringer (2020) points to the valuable role expert interviewees as shown in

Table 1. Expert interviews.

	Dr Margaret Hughes	David Holmes	Dr Andrew McFadyen	Tom McConigley
Education	Cardiff University University of Glasgow	UWS University of Glasgow	University of Edinburgh University of Glasgow	University of Strathclyde University of Glasgow
Academic experience	Creator of UWS Journalism/Sports Journalism BA course director Chair of the AJE UK and WJEC global chair	UWS broadcast journalism lecturer Glasgow University MSc supervisor Stirling University lecturer	Visiting lecturer Glasgow University MSc supervisor Media trainer	Adobe InDesign tutor PR lecturer Glasgow Caledonian University Stirling University visiting lecturer
Industry focus	Magazine journalism and PR consulting	Radio journalism and podcasting, national news coverage	TV news, live broadcasting, political coverage	Football coverage, print and digital media
Industry experience	Public relations consultant Regional and national magazine editor	BBC and STV producer QTV Sports founder Glasgow University comms	Sky News editor, Al Aljazeera editor, Channel 4 producer, BBC News producer	Newsquest group editor, Clyde and Forth Media editor, comms specialist

, can have in helping in qualitative researching, showing how studies like this can allow experts to provide analytical perspectives regarding groups. Detailed information about these expert analysts is presented below.

Invitations were also sent to educators with industry experience at Stirling and Napier universities, but these staff did not participate. Those who partook have worked across the print, digital, radio, and TV outlets of Scottish journalism coupled with a combined 50 years in higher education. All due to their roles in media and media education and public facing body of work, none were concerned regarding anonymity and felt transparency would add credibility to the study.

3.3. Measurements

Baker (2012) questions how many qualitative interviews are enough and refers to how often smaller numbers of interviewees with authority on specific subjects may be sufficient when dealing with a focused field of specialism. This research included 4 interviews with media academics and drew upon insights from a survey of 40 graduating students of journalism. Etherington (2017) explains that stories are reconstructions of people’s experiences which are told at a particular time and to a researcher at a certain point in their lives.

In this study, the students and media experts were able to reflect on their respective journeys while also looking to the future regarding the insights garnered from the survey. Adopting this mixed approach allowed for deeper analysis and provided a greater window to express how and where the total of 44 contributors felt the graduate media landscape post-pandemic was in their country.

Participants were unpaid and the students were granted anonymity throughout. The expert interviewees were chosen based on their subject area knowledge, their experience of teaching graduating classes, and the diversity of institutions they have worked for which encompassed the student participants and which were also among the most established media schools in the central belt and west of Scotland.

All of the 4 expert interviews were audio recorded to provide transcripts and allow for a range of insights; this approach draws on similar studies I have undertaken with journalists and some journalism educators during doctoral work (Mahon, 2021b) pre-pandemic surrounding journalistic identity (Mahon, 2021a) and further studies which focus on the internationalisation of journalism education post-COVID-19 (Mahon & Alam, 2024). Each of the 4 expert interviewees was in turn shown the results dashboard of the survey on a large screen in a secure and quiet learning environment. They could then react to each survey result and add context to the first part of the research. Upon completion of all 4 expert interviews, their recordings were then transcribed and presented thematically based on their reaction to each of the 9 individual results presented in the survey.

All interviewees were given 20 min to review the individual survey results, and any final thoughts they had were also included regarding the views of the graduating classes of 2023. Pertaining to the rationale for this approach was to give a more rounded perspective on the key findings from the study and add context. Each of the experts had both academic and industry experience and could relate to and provide a more rounded view on what the student survey findings meant for media education and how that in turn related to employer expectations post-COVID-19. Future studies could flip the approach and give more weight and voice to the students and less context to the experts.

4. Survey Findings

The survey results are presented here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/results/SM-NrBfyzVjvGKW58zLEQ41cg_3D_3D/ (accessed on 1 August 2023). For this publication, I provide a summary of the key findings.

The students were upbeat about their employment prospectives based on their education and skillsets despite the industry’s instability. They were also measured in their responses regarding how COVID-19 had shifted the industry they were entering, and the majority were cognisant of the limitations on salaries, but also aware of the income streams needed to sustain life upon graduation. What was quite apparent was a growing level of uncertainty from students about whether they would gain consistent and sustainable media work, but regardless, they still felt equipped and ready for their graduate journey and were determined to make use of their qualifications.

To further explore the student survey findings, the reaction and analysis from the experts follows in the next section.

5. Discussion and Analysis

A total of 60% of respondents as shown in Figure 1, felt that the impact of COVID-19 has not made them regret their decision for third level media studies. This comes after a series of UK universities chose to close their BA offerings in humanities subjects in the years during and just after the pandemic (McNamee, 2022). However, this has not happened in Scotland at the time of writing. Dr Andrew McFadyen, a national news editor from the greater Glasgow area, has been buoyed by this study’s findings,

“Your results are heartening; the industry was severely restricted over the time period of their study”.

In the context of aforementioned literature from Yang et al. (2022) and Scherman et al. (2023) who describe the student experience as challenging and negative during the pandemic, this survey result also points to the fact that Scottish-based media students had a more positive learning experience as a whole.

These insights and views are also supported by Dr Margaret Hughes, who has spent more than 25 years creating and delivering journalism degrees in the greater Glasgow area,

“What comes across are, these are people who have thought about what they want to do, they feel the job of a journalist is important”.

All the students involved were in some way impacted by the pandemic either through blended or remote delivery or through their application process and journey to the UK to commence studies similar to so many others in the creative industries who experienced a period of instability (Comunian & England, 2020). Other interviewed experts including national news editor and university lecturer Tom McConigley feel this study reflects industry trends towards online content creation,

“People needed news way more during the pandemic, we all became more digital”.

McConigley’s points were expanded upon by BBC broadcaster and university lecturer David Holmes, who feels this is reflected in Scotland’s post-pandemic graduating class who turn to social media first for their news content,

“The way they consume news is very different, so different to other generations, out of my 55 students none sit down and watch the evening news”.

In the 2023 Digital News Report, the shift away from print and TV has remained strong, but Newman et al. (2023) suggest that online and social media consumption is not making up the gap. Audience trends and dynamics are continually in flux, with younger audiences often only relying on TV for sports coverage.

Dr Margaret Hughes added that while the Scottish news cycle and agenda has become more digitally focused, it has also shed light for trainee and student journalists on some of the risks that now exist and which in turn can impact their prospective careers,

“Journalists are subject to a lot of abuse online and in person in their real lives, news media is getting better, we need to talk about it more in education”.

This echoes the 2022 pandemic study from Sheffield university by Posetti and Shabbir (2022), who point to the vulnerability of female journalists and rise of abuse during COVID-19 for media professionals as a whole. David Holmes, who taught at the University of Stirling in 2023 at the tail end of COVID-19, believes that the pandemic also kept a spotlight on journalism as a career option, and this in turn would have encouraged students to enrol and to engage with media studies as a third-level study option,

“The pandemic provided a reason for the media, coming off the back of the Trump years and Brexit, facts seemed to matter, people needed to have good reliable accurate information particularly broadcaster, this was a climate of deliberate disinformation and misinformation”.

With downsizing and newsroom dynamics shifting over the last 36 months (Newman et al., 2023), the graduating class of 2023 in Scotland have demonstrated through their responses that they are acutely aware of the fluctuating nature of the sector they are aiming to work in. For Dr Andrew McFadyen this period of change was equally disruptive outside of the classroom,

“The pandemic accelerated certain technologies within our industry, Sky and other broadcasters invested very heavily to help people work from home to do the job they needed to do, the pandemic changed the nature of the industry, fewer journalists are required to do the job, day after day we did 1 story programmes, travel to foreign country was stopped, it meant for a period of 2 years, companies stopped recruiting, we stopped student internships”.

While students in Scotland incur less debt than those in England due to government support and lower tuition fees (Lewis, 2023), the cost-of-living crisis and lower wages offered by media outlets based away from London have led to fiscal factors playing a role. In the next set of responses, students and media experts react to the impact of the cost-of-living crisis.

6. The Financial Challenges Facing the Post-Pandemic Generation

Debate around what is a living wage and pay rises have dominated the Scottish and UK media for the last 12 months (Singh & Uthayakumar-Cumarasamy, 2022), with strikes and industrial action occurring monthly. Into this period of instability come the graduating class of 2023 surveyed in Figure 2, who through their survey findings suggest their starting salaries should be above minimum wage at between 24 to 26,000 pounds a year, with more than one-fifth feeling GBP 30,000 is a reasonable salary.

Reaction to the data has been mixed from the expert interviewees, with many stressing that the media sector in Scotland is not suitable for those interested in earning big salaries.

“I think we never got into media for the money, it could always be higher, there are opportunities out there, any profession would say no it can’t cope with cost-of-living crisis” added national news editor Tom McConigley.

Comunian and Gilmore (2016) point to this in their body of work by suggesting that in many cases, creative professionals have second jobs to augment their media role and therefore were probably more exposed during COVID-19 than other sectors.

For academic Dr Margaret Hughes, taking stock of other graduate roles from other sectors is also vital,

“I would be really surprised if anyone in any sector was earning more than 30,000 pounds in any job in their first job after graduating”.

Her views are echoed by broadcaster David Holmes, who feels that salaries for non-graduates are not high in Scotland,

“I know of senior journalists at BBC who are perhaps to 30–40,000, too many graduates are thinking that should be starting salary, whether it should be or not, the reality is entirely different, there is a lot of misconception as to what people are earning, most ANEs (Assistant News Editors) are in high 40s”.

Like other graduate roles and careers including nurses, doctors, and teachers, those aspiring to work in media-related fields believe that their jobs should be better paid considering the current cost-of-living situation in Scotland as demonstrated in Figure 3.

Lecturer and PR specialist Tom McConigley feels that more of the roles that will get close to a 30k starting salary for a graduate position will not be in traditional media but more aligned to PR and comms roles, and for others, it is often about working towards this salary bracket,

“People will get jobs on 30 grand yes, but you have to take the opportunity and build yourself up, the money will follow”.

However, all the experts agree that while salaries are lower for media graduates it doesn’t mean they should remain that way.

“Starting salary for a teacher is 28k, has qualifications, have a masters, journalists have similar background, both important roles in society, I think these are broadly comparable professionals, young graduates have every right to expect 26-30k a year but whether they will get it is entirely different” suggests national news editor Dr Andrew McFadyen.

David Holmes believes that the actual graduate salaries of many of Scotland’s post-pandemic class will be at or just above minimum wage, and he finds this disheartening,

“Most journalists started graduating are lucky if they start on 20k, that’s not comparable with other graduate salaries”.

Expanding from a duty of care and pastoral approach, Dr Margaret Hughes is concerned that while the survey result show aspirational salaries, she believes many students will struggle to earn a living wage upon graduation in 2023, especially with rising costs for travel, food, and energy bills all impacting graduates,

“There are probably people earning good salaries and rubbish salaries, for entry type positions they do need to get paid better, I am worried if folks were having to take jobs at night to offset their journalism jobs”.

What was clear at this point in the study is that there were mixed emotions regarding the graduate paths and futures for those studying journalism and media courses in Scotland. This echoes the pandemic writing of Deuze (2023), who outlined the pressures and mental health risks for those in media during this period. The concerns relating to wages presented in the survey take significant precedence for both the participants and the experts who feel the fears are merited in part, and this in turn reflects wider worries from graduates entering other sectors. Some key takeaways are the pathways into PR and comms roles which can pay higher and are now more plentiful; focusing on this type of curriculum development could lead to greater graduate successes.

7. The Pressing Concerns of the Classes of 2023

Aside from the economic worries from graduates, they also responded to a further open-ended question about the drawbacks to the sector they were trying to gain employment from upon graduation. These included fears about low wages, job stress, fewer opportunities, and how they believed quality would not be appreciated.

Dr Andrew McFadyen feels these anxieties are warranted and reflect many of the issues he in turn sees working to help graduates get into journalism jobs,

“The industry is renowned for people wanting to work for nothing, that needs to change but that needs to have changed for decades, there is a class issue in journalism, white middle-class men predominately get the best jobs”.

Experienced broadcaster and lecturer David Holmes is concerned that a lot is being asked of students upon leaving university in graduate roles and less support is being given to them in their first jobs, where it is more quantity over quality. He draws reference to the workload of a newspaper reporter in Scotland,

“Another example is The National in Scotland, Judith Duffy had written about 10/12 articles, it’s across a wide remit including non-political item”.

These trends are seen in recent studies including the Digital News Report of 2023, where online outputs from newspaper titles are dominated with audiences still using traditional social media channels including Facebook to obtain online journalism, despite algorithm concerns (Newman et al., 2023).

In addition, more than a quarter of respondents admitted they were not considering working in the sector they had studied in due to the small number of jobs available in Scotland. Conversely, 60% were still undecided on where their futures lay upon graduation. Lecturer and news editor Tom McConigley has actively been involved in recruitment for national news titles in Scotland for more than a decade and believes there are still opportunities out there in 2023 and 2024,

“I know from my experience working the academy and industry, is that digital desks are very hungry for young journalists, with multimedia and social media skills”.

He added this graduating class also have more freedom than other generations of graduates and feel there is a window of opportunity in Scotland to be capitalised on.

“They have a lot of autonomy now, which we never had in the olden days, I can see it is as a positive, you are guided by senior members of staff, you are now it when it comes to having full control of the story” suggests McConigley who has taught at both Glasgow Caledonian University and the University of Stirling.

Dr Margaret Hughes believes that the uncertainty around career choices and graduate destinations reflects cohorts of students who have lived through a period of instability politically, socially, and economically, but she remains hopeful for journalism and media graduates in Scotland,

“Being cognizant that there are opportunities to do journalism differently, what coming through that is it is still a market that has massive potential, even it is not particularly well paid”.

For broadcaster David Holmes, the lack of jobs has come about due to changes in structuring and how journalism is created, he draws reference to the shift in staffing numbers for political coverage at the BBC, “I remember when I worked in the Scottish parliament, and we had two political reporters and a separate TV reporter”.

Echoing the downsizing of newsrooms, Dr Andrew McFadyen refers to how the small number of vacancies has been a concern over the last decade, but the cost-of-living crisis and pandemic has merely brought it more into focus, with fewer jobs now available to media and journalism graduates in Scotland.

“BBC Radio Scotland used to produce a weekly political programme, then it became a daily programme, now that programme no longer exists”.

Further expanding on the student concerns, the survey results showed that more than two-thirds of the graduating class of 2023 are worried about the instability in the media landscape, one where short or freelance contracts are the norm. Maher (2023) highlights these in their reporting and describes the constantly changing job market. At the time of writing in late 2023, there were 13 jobs available in Scotland in journalism-related roles. However, significantly more opportunities are available in PR and comms roles.

Dr Margaret Hughes is not wholly sympathetic and adds that the media landscape has been unstable for most of this century,

“Some of their answers there show some of these graduating students haven’t thought meaningfully about what the jobs market and need to”.

Reaction from the other media and academic experts also remained sceptical to the responses, including lecturer and national news editor Tom McConigley,

“I would say instability as in you thought you were going to stay somewhere for 25 years, then yes but we live in a gig economy, you need to move around, if it’s instability of will you be working then it’s a no”.

He believes that from this uncertainty can come opportunity and that there are gaps to be filled,

“If you even wanted to start up your own idea or niche, you can, the ability to travel to work in sport, go in different directions”.

David Holmes, a broadcaster who helped establish a sports streaming platform during the economic downturn in 2010 and 2011, believes there are still roles in Scotland for graduates to excel,

“If you have a look at sports journalists, the number of jobs has fallen, but the number of roles where media skills are used, I founded QTV sports, a lot of what we were doing was PR for organisations, for the sporting agency or the governing body, a lot of jobs are now opening up in terms of sports journalism using the same skills”.

Holmes believes self-starters and graduates with entrepreneurial flair can excel in this unstable time,

“Journalism is very broad in what it covers and conveys, from information journalism to fashion journalism to crime, current affairs, but if you have a look at the number of magazines that are out there. I booked a contributor to talk about railways, I tracked down 2 journalists one of those railway journalists is VAT registered, so he is earning in excess of 70k pounds a railway journalist, freelance, writing about trains and railways, so yes, it’s a very wide area, there are opportunities out there”.

Yet, National news editor Dr Andrew McFadyen is worried for the graduating class of 2023 and feels their fears surrounding instability are justified,

“Students are right to be concerned about graduating, one of the stories of journalism in Scotland over the last 25 years is cutback after cutback after cutback, from newspapers like the Herald to the Daily Record, I don’t know what the solution is going to be, there are some success stories, some of the best football writing I’ve ever read is in Nutmeg a cooperative, there’s great investigative work by the Ferret”.

McFadyen believes the graduating class of 2023 may be let with two options either not pursue journalism jobs or move south of the border.

“This has been a problem in Scotland for decades, these students can go to a job in PR, double their salaries and half their workload, people in order to make a living wage shouldn’t have to leave home, to leave Scotland, to London”.

These insights have demonstrated the very real fears and worries of 2023 graduates as well as some issues highlighted by the media experts. A House of Commons report from earlier 2023 refers to how more than 300 local newspaper titles have closed in the UK and refers to growing instability in the UK media landscape during and post-pandemic. The review refers to the community and social benefits which journalism provides in the UK for audiences and businesses as well as local charities. However, what the report continually refers to is the impact of business model changes that are leading to increased instability for a sector that was struggling in the two decades prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

8. Final Expert Insights

The experts each reacted to the survey results in 15–20-min-long sit-down sessions with the author of the paper, and their audio recordings also allowed the time and space of a further 5 min for final reflections on the data presented in the survey. Their responses were mixed throughout, with some feeling the future remains bright but also agree with many of the negative responses and worrying insights from the survey.

“Some people will have advantages, my background is newspapers, I have after speaking to some people in TV know that internships can be an issue, you have to work quite a lot and often for free, lot of folks can’t be bankrolled by family, it’s a half-way house, you have to give it 100% yourself, yes there are disadvantages but we all need to fight against them” added Tom McConigley.

Dr Margaret Hughes remains optimistic that from this challenging time, the class of 2023 can emerge into successful careers in some form of media roles, even if they are non-traditional,

“I think what the pandemic has probably shown us how the media industry can be responsive and there are lots of opportunities due to journalism almost having moved itself into a new phase, this is hopeful, you don’t need a big newsroom, you can be very responsive, no longer should be seen as desk-based type operatives”.

Dr Andrew McFadyen believes the post-pandemic generation of journalists are malleable and flexible and have more freedoms than previous graduating classes and need to take advantage of the instability, not fear it.

“All that change is happening, different job expectations, when I worked for Al Jazeera in Doha, we were a TV newsroom that everyone went into the office every day, I know assistant programme editors not only not in Doha during the pandemic but were in London and Glasgow, the pandemic changed expectations, a few centres of news has now created the potential to be a serious grown up journalist and work from wherever you want”.

Sulzberger (2023) writing in the New York Times at the tail end of the pandemic in mid-2023 highlights the continuing importance of journalism in an era of post truth and the striving for objectivity when media has become so challenged. He feels that journalists and those graduating entering the field have an obligation to uphold democratic principles and inform societies. With two ongoing wars in Europe and the rise of the far right it is not only becoming a more difficult profession but one that is facing more and more challenges.

9. Conclusions and Recommendations

When referring to the original research focus, it is clear that Scotland’s post-pandemic journalism generation do not regret their decision to study the courses they have undertaken and feel there are a discernible number of benefits to future media careers, but only a small number, 15% of the overall sample, are clear that their graduate destination lies in journalism. Yet, what still comes through when analysing their responses and the reactions from the interviewees to the findings is that their futures may lie beyond traditional outlets and even beyond Scotland, and that from their array of concerns surrounding income and stability can come some opportunity to specialise and grow in comms or sports media roles or in a more niche journalistic focus.

The sustainability of journalism education in Scotland is in question as industry trends impact study choices. Each of the expert interviewees highlighted that what needs to be the focus moving forward is more open dialogue with recent graduates to shape future pedagogy. A further focus needs to be where journalism and media education will need to pivot towards emerging and transferrable skills jobs markets, which is clearly taking more precedence for a generation of graduates worried about economic drivers and reiterating previous concerns in HE highlighted by Comunian and Gilmore (2016). David Holmes, a BBC broadcaster, believes educators can learn from emerging media projects and start-ups to help support graduates and must include entrepreneurial focuses into media education.

Moving beyond this study’s findings, some recommendations from the research have shown the importance to stay abreast and engaged with student expectations and needs while connecting and engaging with industry recruiters to support students prior to graduating.

When considering the undertaking of a similar study in the months and years ahead, drawing on a wider network of educators and utilising a separate interview program would allow for a greater array of expert insights and provide a more coherent approach to disseminating reaction and views. Overall, the experts were positive about the potential for the graduating students but also realistic about the turbulent space the media industry currently occupies.

A final point about the sustainability and viability of Scottish journalism education needs to look at student recruitment for colleges and universities post-pandemic, which are now based on economic drivers and targets. This is particularly pertinent in Scotland, with universities facing significant financial pressures with mounting debts and staff roles at risk due to drop offs in international student intakes.