What do South African journalists earn? Do men earn more than women in our newsrooms and at management level? What is an entry-level salary? Does colour play a role in remuneration?
These are some of the questions being posed by HacksHackers in Cape Town, which is conducting a survey to find out what journalists in South Africa earn. HacksHackers is a network of journalists (“hacks”) and technologists (“hackers”) who rethink the future of news and information. The collection and analysis of data is a key element of its mission.
“Besides collecting valuable information on the state of our industry, the intention is to also use the data we collect as an exercise to show journalists how easy it is to gather, interrogate and visualise data using simple, free tools,” says Cape Town convener, Raymond Joseph.
“You’ll notice there are questions that ask for details of age, gender and ethnicity. The reason is that we suspect that there may be major disparities hidden in those areas and the only way to find out is to collect the data and compare,” says Joseph.
The survey looks at the state of freelancing too, questioning how much freelancers earn in terms of rate per word and per hour, how many assignments they’re being commissioned per month and what kind of monthly income freelancers are earning.
It differentiates between the various sectors too, from newspapers and magazines, to online, television and radio.
“So please take the time (it only takes a few minutes) to complete the anonymous form – and once you’ve done it there’s another very quick form to fill in to ensure that we send you the results of what we find in the survey,” Joseph says.
Go here to complete the survey.
