Factors Pressuring Worker’s Personal Wellbeing At Media Workplace Environment

Abstract

Work and the environment of today's human life often cause stress. Media convergence has changed the media industries, which in turn, acquires new technological systems, organisational structure and patterns of production processes. Changes in the way we work in today's digital technology era continue to create work stress. One of the industries associated with extreme work stress is the creative media industry. A working culture based on business profit orientation had always been about productivity in producing creative ideas and creative products. Unfortunately, there may not be many employers who are particular about ensuring workers' mental and emotional health as part of their efforts to inculcate employee productivity. Therefore, this paper seeks to identify factors affecting the wellbeing of media workers in Malaysia, the extent to which these factors shape their wellbeing, and how these media workers manage such challenges. The qualitative research approach was executed through an online interview to collect data among media workers of several electronic and print media. Data were analysed using thematic analysis approach. The findings had identified factors influencing the wellbeing of media workforce and strategies to manage pressures within media work environment. Factors relating to production management, workplace policy, organisational leadership and technology transformation constraint are the challenges faced by Malaysian media practitioners affecting their wellbeing.

Keywords: Creative industries, media workers, talent management, wellbeing

Introduction

Creative Industries is one of the currently evolving and promising sectors in the global economy. Creative industries and cultural industries are often perceived as the soul of the creative economy (Daubaraite & Startiene, 2015). At the moment, it accounts for great opportunities that drive for foreign direct investment; thus, foster economic growth. According to NESTA, the creative industries sector account for 10 per cent of the UK's GDP, and around two million people work in this industry (Armstrong & Page, 2015). Sixteen per cent of all employment in London is in creative industries (Cultural Economy Development Agency, 2019).

UNESCO defines creative industries as 'industries that relate to creativity, production and commercialisation of a product. The UK government perceives creative industries as 'involving skill-based and creative talents to create wealth through the exploitation of intellectual property' (Joffe, 2010). The industries include the print and electronic media industry, namely television, radio, publishing companies and film, telecommunication, arts and culture.

In the Asian region, studies are primarily focused in Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia. Most of these countries had already established regulation, policies and guidelines concerning creative industries potentials growth and direction in their countries. Impactful efforts were established in Asian regions for developing economic prosperity for national creative industries. For instance, Indonesia's creative industries sector has increased between 7 to 9 per cent between the year 2009 to 2015, which worth 19 billion dollars (Ramadhilla & Donald, 2014).

In Malaysia, Cultural Economy Development Agency (CENDANA) was established to prepare Kuala Lumpur as a creative hub. CENDANA had classified six strategies to achieve the objectives which focus on building a strong cultural sector to champion creative jobs in a competitive market. Fair regulation and strategic planning, high-quality creative education and professional development programmes, dedicated creative business incubation and services are among the aims of the Malaysian creative industries (Cultural Economy Development Agency, 2019). With impactful economic and sociocultural opportunities for Kuala Lumpur, we need to look into the issues surrounding the talent management in local creative industries mainly related to radio, television and film industries. Hence, this paper focuses on the current condition of the Malaysian creative media industries and the wellbeing of the creative workforce.

In order to map the factors pressuring media workers at their workplace, the conceptual framework of this article is based on literature from media sociology and cultural studies tradition that explores media production and creative labour. A combination of these traditions offers a better understanding of the working life and dynamics of power in the creative industries (Hesmondhalgh, 2013) and factors that shape the creative decisions in media workplace (Karim, 2015; Karim & Ahmad, 2018). Moreover, it also suggests how technological challenge affect creative labour (Karim, 2019). By drawing on a combination of media sociology and cultural studies traditions, the next section addresses the challenge facing the Malaysian creative industries, which subsequently, shape the wellbeing of media workers.

Problem Statement

In the 1980s and 90s, working in the media industry was a privilege. Media workers are considered a unique workforce because they can produce creative ideas and works. However, the influence of the Internet and media convergence had gradually changed the landscape of the media industry to be more technological-oriented. Media workers lost their privilege to the Internet and digital technology. Now the Internet is crucial to the execution of work that is not only effective but also increases productivity and innovations. Media convergence has changed the media industries, which in turn, acquires new technological systems, organisational structure and production processes. Sociocultural, religiopolitical and technological factors have changed the working life in creative industries (Karim & Ahmad, 2018). The Fourth Industrial Revolution (IR 4.0) has not only also affected the health but also the emotional wellbeing of media production workers (Karim, 2019). To identify the problems relating to the wellbeing of creative media workers, we have drawn on the literature from media production and management studies that elaborate on factors that affect the wellbeing of creative media workers. 

Wellbeing is a concept that relates to the satisfaction experiences and healthy lifestyle (Baharudin et al., 2019). Most studies on wellbeing concentrated on increasing productivity and workforce performance, as they assist in improving human capital quality and welfare at a workplace. Kalthum Hassan et al. (2017) outlines eight critical areas of life that signify work-life balance. Most often issues related to work, finance and spiritual. Other individual-related issues concerned on hobbies and one’s self. Health, family and social are perceived as critical amongst individual and societies. Each individual usually achieves a balance work-life within these sections, particularly work and family domain. Conflict usually arises when these two domains collided against each other. Such a conflict includes emotional, psychological and social wellbeing that affects thinking, feeling and action in which influence individual behaviour. Among issues related to mental illnesses are depression, anxiety and emotional distress, which is central to cases related to work impairment (Bregman, 2019, 4). Working long hours leads to burnout instead of improving productivity or creativity. Burnout occurs specifically among people working in high demand, challenging sectors like creative industries (Bregman, 2019, 6). Working long hours and low salary negatively influence employee’s job satisfaction and life satisfaction (Ryu, 2016).

A study on motivational factors and constraints related to creativity in journalistic work is another example of research into the wellbeing of media workers. Digital transformation highlighted that the media workforce is motivated by opportunities to develop new skills and competencies, including possibilities to create new product and practices (Malmelin & Virta, 2016). The result suggested that media workers are always eager to learn and adapt to new environment and opportunities. Rising advantages for a new skill and knowledge transfer raise greater competition for workforce and organisations.

Another example may be drawn from a study of post mortem of a news production meeting, which is a significant phase in developing creativity among the creative team. New ideas often develop during meetings. However, generating ideas often occur in non-formal settings. Nylund (2013) added that most production meetings particularly in newsrooms discussed on the coverage of their competitors. Ideas are usually based on reporters' personal experiences. They usually demonstrate ideas to the producer-in-charged based on their knowledge before seeking additional assistance for added values. Such a production phase may also affect the wellbeing of media workers as it involved decision-making. The limited creative autonomy of media workers, to some extent, affect their emotional wellbeing (Karim, 2015; Karim & Ahmad, 2018). 

Unpredictable schedules, especially for those working in the newsroom, increases tense, which are strongly associated with their wellbeing. Uncertainty of schedules affects worker wellbeing, particularly in influencing economic-driven insecurity that triggers work-life conflicts. Time and period are strongly associated with work and life experience that determines an individual's wellbeing (Schneidera & Harknettb, 2019). In light of these problems, the next sections outline the questions that this paper seeks to answer and the purpose of the research project.

Research Questions

This study asks the following questions:

• What are the factors pressuring creative media workers at their workplace?
• How do the factors affect the wellbeing of media workers?
• How does media worker manage such pressuring workplace environment?

Purpose of the Study

We have discussed the factors that shape the wellbeing of creative media workers in section 2, where we outline problems relating to the wellbeing of these workers. The primary aim of this study is that we seek to: 1) find out the extent to which such factors affect the wellbeing of media workers and 2) how do these workers manage such pressuring factors.

Research Methods

A qualitative research approach was executed among 24 media practitioners in the local media industry that represented electronic and print media to answer the research questions. These informants were chosen among those who had more than five years of work experience. Online interview form link was distributed through Whatsapp and electronic mail for a week in February 2019. We asked about the main challenges of working in media industry, and also the strength and strategies in handling work pressures. Thematic analysis based on Clarke and Braun (2013) procedure was used to construct the themes that emerged, which help us identify the challenges and strategies that media workers adopted in managing their pressures in a workplace.

Findings

This research identified several interest, advantages and disadvantages facing workforces in local media industries. Most people work in the media industries because of its attractiveness and opportunities in establishing networking. Media workforce dominantly enjoyed meeting people during covering events, planned or unplanned. However, many factors affect media workers wellbeing. This paper will discuss factors affecting the wellbeing of creative media workers and their strategies for coping with such challenges.

Conclusion

This study has established key factors that are internal and external to the working life of media workers. These include time constraints and the complexity of production tasks, workplace relations, organisational leadership and technological challenge. Communication is vital to ensure a pleasant workplace environment, in particular, the relationship among leaders and between their subordinates within the production team and across units. Communication and strategic planning are the most common factor in ensuring work-life balance. A healthy workplace culture depends highly on strategic planning. In the operational process of media product (time management, autonomy and technology) influence employee behaviour, which in turn, affect their work performance and quality. Producing the best journalistic content or a programme is crucial for the survival of parties, the employee as well as media organisation. Human/self-management, ethical leadership and governance are among the best practices for enhancing creative media workers' mental and physical wellbeing. 

Acknowledgments

This research is supported by the Malaysian Ministry of Education Fundamental Research Grant nos. USIM/FRGS/FKP/50916.

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