The study “Survival Games: Understanding Journalistic and Extra-Journalistic Practices and Pursuits of Small-Town Stringers in South India” by Nimmagadda Bhargav from Indian Institute of Management and John Downey from Loughborough University looked at the issue of precarity of labour in South India by conducting an ethnographic research on stringers working in Indian-language newspapers.
In the Global North, the precarious nature of the work by stringers, freelancers and such has been a concern and has been studied. The precarity has been labeled the “new normal” in Global North. In contrast, it is simply “normal” in the Global South – the precarity has always been there.
The paper had three research questions (RQs). They were: RQ1: What strategies do stringers adapt to survive and continue in the profession, considering their modest socio-economic background? RQ2: What does the blurring of boundaries between professional and social identities as well as journalistic and extra-journalistic practices mean for the nature of journalism in small-town India? RQ3: How do the material and non-material exchanges in the profession by stringers contribute to the examination of escalating journalistic precarity across the Global North and South?
The researchers began their fieldwork for the study in 2012. The study was ethnographic in nature and also incorporated field theory in the methodology and made heavy use of Bourdieu’s concepts. The data was a combination of ethnographic field notes, transcribed and English-translated interviews in Telugu (42 total), and minutes from three working journalists’ meetings.
The ethnographic observation revealed that many stringers carried out the duties of pyraveekars, a word that denotes middlemans and fixers, working as mediators between the government officials, local politicians, and the local public. They facilitated meetings between villagers and local officials or politicians about various grievances and benefits. The stringers generally eschewed cas payments for petty pyravees, preferring instead small favors such as snacks and tea.
The stringers also worked as local political publicists and to-go guys, tasks that overlapped with pyravees. Many stringers gave briefings or even wrote speeches to local politicians before filing it to newspapers. The researchers colorfully describe this as an “ventriloquist act” by the stringers. Striking a balance between the demands of local politicians and the professional guidelines of the newspapers was delicate – with experienced stringers often opting to work for small or medium-scale newspapers that offer more freedom.
Gift-giving, a recurring theme in the work of Bourdieu, was then a part of the life of stringers and shared meals and cups of tea to share concerns over were a part of their work culture. The tea in meetings serves a symbol of amicable relations and the absence of it signals displeasure. According to the authors, the shared meals also mirror the collective nature of newsgathering. Material and non-material exchanges are routinised in local journalism.
The understanding of the unwritten rules of the “game” was then central to the work of stringers and the lack of understanding made the job even more precarious. Here, Bourdieu’s concept of illusio helps in understanding why stringers continue to be stringers. Here, the illusio is not merely of one field, but of many related fields that the stringers navigate to accumulate cultural and social capital.
The interviewed editors referred to stringers in negative terms, showing that in their understanding the stringers did not live up to the journalistic illusio. Caste also played a role in possibly hindering advancement, but the stringers could mitigate this accumulation of cultural and social capital.
In conclusion, the Bourdieusian praxeological approach allowed the authors to develop a field-based understanding of survival strategies employed by the stringers. The contribution here is novel, as the authors constructed an illusio of stringers. Comparative studies should be carried out between the Global North and the South. Thus, the construction of “normal” in the Global South has implications for understanding the “new normal” in the Global North.
The article “Survival Games: Understanding Journalistic and Extra-Journalistic Practices and Pursuits of Small-Town Stringers in South India” by Nimmagadda Bhargav and John Downey is in Journalism Studies. (free abstract).
Picture: Untitled by Karthik Chandran.
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