ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the professional and entrepreneurial ideologies of digital journalism. Professional ideologies include the injunction to be objective, accurate, and autonomous, but they also extend to attitudes about work ethic or prescribed attitudes about work. Reporters are encouraged to consider themselves entrepreneurs. That is, to see themselves as brands and their careers as businesses. For freelance journalists, the ethos of entrepreneurialism has long been necessary to remain competitive in a precarious industry, but this expectation has been expanded to other types of news workers. The entrepreneurial journalist sets their own high expectations and engages in subtle forms of self-exploitation. Entrepreneurial journalism promises intrinsic fulfillment: meaning, rewards, and identity. It also means taking on risks that were once saddled by employers and engaging in continual self-discipline. These risks and forms of self-management converge with other aspects of journalists' identities including gender, race, and class. This chapter focuses on journalists' attitudes toward work and the risks they shoulder in a precarious industry.
