Students becoming Entrepreneurs, a study of Identity Development of Journalists

Creating a strong identity is important for entrepreneurial journalists as jobs within the media sector are increasingly being replaced by contracts for freelance workers. A clear entrepreneurial identity gives journalists a better chance in getting jobs and creating a successful career. For this, students of journalism need to learn best practices for creating their entrepreneurial identity and be well prepared for their working lives. However, much of the creation of identity of workers in the creative sector, and in particular journalism is not known. To get more insight in this creation process of identity in students of journalism 14 qualitative interviews were conducted at the School of Journalism at the University of Applied Sciences Utrecht. The analysis shows that the students struggle with various value tensions, like working for commercial or journalistic employers. At the same time they tend to use their skills in storytelling to present themselves but the students are very mindful to be as authentic as possible. This results in an unplanned, somewhat chaotic process of identity building in which the students look for milestones in their studies to form their identity. At the same time the students seem to lack reflection on their identity work and storytelling abilities. This research concludes that a more plan based curriculum, which integrated opportunities for reflection could aid the students of journalism in creating a more conscious entrepreneurial identity, allowing them to be more successful in the creative industry.