%0 Journal Article %J Journalism Practice %D In Press %T Implications for hybrid newswork from the activities of local US television journalists during COVID %A Kevin Crowston %A Keren Henderson %A Kian Loong Lua %A Raghav Raheja %X

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, many local television (TV) newsrooms decided to have employees work from home (WFH) or from the field rather than from the newsroom, creating a kind of hybrid work characterized by flexible work location. From a review of research on telework and WFH, we identified possible impacts of WFH on work and on workers, with a particular focus on news work and news workers. Data on the impacts of hybrid work are drawn from interviews with local television news directors and journalists in the United States and observations of remote work. We found that through creative application of technology, WFH news workers could successfully create a newscast, albeit with some concerns about story quality. However, WFH did not seem to satisfy workers’ needs for socialization or learning individually or as a group. Lifted restrictions on gatherings are mitigating some of the experienced problems, but we expect to see continued challenges to news workers’ informal learning in hybrid work settings.

%B Journalism Practice %G eng %> https://futureofnewswork.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/Implications%20for%20hybrid%20newswork%20from%20the%20activities%20of%20%20%20local%20US%20television%20journalists%20during%20COVID.pdf %0 Conference Paper %B Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences %D 2022 %T Communicating with the masses from isolation: What happened when local television journalists worked from home %A Keren Henderson %A Raghav Raheja %A Kevin Crowston %X

In response to the COVID-19 crises, many local TV newsrooms decided to have employees work from home (WFH) or the field rather than from the newsroom. From a review of research on telework, we identified possible impacts of WFH on worker effectiveness, conceptualized as including output, individual satisfaction and growth, and group well-being. From a case study of a local TV newsroom and interviews with news directors, we found that WFH was successful in creating a newscast, albeit with some concerns about story quality. However, WFH did not seem to satisfy workers individually or as a group. The current lifting of restrictions on gatherings might mitigate some of the experienced problems, but we expect to see challenges to news worker learning with continued WFH.

%B Hawai'i International Conference on System Sciences %C Virtual due to COVID %8 1/2022 %G eng %R 10.24251/HICSS.2022.858 %> https://futureofnewswork.syr.edu/sites/crowston.syr.edu/files/Journalists%20work%20from%20home_HICSS%20Version_Final%20Submission_Unlinked.pdf