THE CHALLENGES OF JOURNALISM IN THE REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

The research question was defined as: “What are the challenges of journalism in the Republic of Macedonia during the pandemic? What did journalists actually face in the process of providing timely information to the public?” The definition of the research problem was aimed at examining how the pandemic affected journalism in terms of the safety of journalists' physical and mental health, changing working conditions, use of information sources, exposure to pressures and influences from various factors and / or institutions.

Sample

The sample consisted of 29 journalists (62.1% female and 7.9% male). The largest percentage of respondents have the status “full-time employee (82.8%). Out of those, 51.7% are editors, and 41.4% are journalists. The biggest percentage of journalists have many years of relevant work experience (69% of respondents have been employed by a medium for more than 10 years, 20.7% have between 5-10 years of relevant work experience, and none of the respondents is at an entry level position). Primary domain of reporting for 58.6% of respondents are the national media, whereas journalists reporting for local media and those who primarily cover international media are equally represented at 13.8%. The respondents were primarily publishing online articles (58.6%), where as the press media and TV are covered in equal measure at 17.2%.

Main Findings

The analysis of the primary and secondary data point to the fact that freedom of speech, the influx of disinformation, professional, responsible and ethical reporting, the readiness and level of education of journalists on reporting during crises, physical and mental health of journalists and other media workers, as well as the economic crisis, are the main themes, that is to say, the aspects of the COVID-19 communication ecology in Macedonia. It can be said that the top challenge for journalists in the Republic of Macedonia today is the infringement of their freedom of speech. In addition infringements to the freedom of speech, the influx of disinformation and hate speech were the next big challenge for Macedonian journalism.