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Psychosocial factors associated with the desire to leave the media industry in Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela

Abstract:

Working conditions in Latin American media have been impacted by various crises such as the Covid-19 pandemic, political-social violence and the economic crisis. For this reason, we are interested in determining the demographic and psychosocial factors that influence the decision to stop working in the media. In a sample of 288 journalists from Ecuador (34.4%), Peru (28.1%) and Venezuela (37.5%), two ad-hoc surveys were applied: one for demographic variables and the other for psychosocial risk/protection factors. Bivariate analyses were carried out to compare those who want to leave their jobs with those who do not, and it was found that those who want to leave their jobs are characterized by being young, women, residing in capital, have received more threats of dismissal, workplace harassment, feel that their health has worsened and negatively evaluate their bosses. Workers who do not wish to change jobs experience significantly more intimidation and political confrontation. In addition, binary logistic regression found that being older, residing in Venezuela, and presenting greater political confrontation are protective factors. Poor internet connectivity, perceiving a greater impact on their health, and negatively valuing the concern they perceive from their immediate bosses are risk factors. These results are discussed in relation to the importance of psychosocial risk prevention to improve the retention of workers in the media in contexts of multisystemic crises.