A Narrative Study On The Professional Identity Of Young Paper Media Journalists Under The Theory Of Life Course

Under the background of media transformation,traditional media represented by paper media are facing unprecedented difficulties,which are further transmitted to ordinary individuals and trigger a crisis of professional identity among news practitioners.The profession of journalist is quietly changing from the "uncrowned king" to the "news worker",shedding its professional aura.Accompanying this has been a frequent wave of resignations in traditional media in recent years.In the wave of resignations,young journalists are the absolute mainstay.Individuals inevitably experience changes and reflections on their professional identity behind leaving their job.To study the dynamic changes in professional identity during the individual career mobility process of young journalists,from a small perspective,and from an individual perspective,to glimpse the micro landscape of the rise and fall of traditional media and talent development in China’s media transformation process.Based on this,this study is guided by the life process theory and adopts narrative research methods.Young(paper media)journalists with four typical types of career mobility,namely transformation,career change,entrepreneurship,and return,are selected for narrative interviews.Starting from the perspectives of career motivation,career emotions,career cognition,and career value,they are asked to tell their personal career mobility journey and extract their perception of career identity from their career mobility stories.In terms of paper structure,starting from the timeline of the embryonic and developmental stages of young journalists’ professional identity,this paper analyzes the narrative theme and value pursuit of young journalists in the embryonic and developmental stages of professional identity;Secondly,introducing concepts such as trajectory and turning points from the life process theory,outlining the trajectory of changes in the professional identity of young journalists,and focusing on exploring the turning points of professional identity of young journalists;Finally,based on the life process theory,analyze the influencing factors of young journalists’ professional identity.Research has found that "interest" narratives-vague professional preferences and "reality" narratives-the first professional contact facilitated the germination and beginning of young journalists’ professional identity,and also became the most important emotional foundation connecting the career mobility process and changes in professional identity of young journalists;The professional value orientation of young journalists is a dynamic process that runs through the entire stage of their professional identity development.The change paths of value orientation can be divided into four types: personal value turning to social value,social value turning to personal value,personal value deepening and reshaping,and social value deepening and reshaping;The trajectory map of the changes in professional identity of young journalists can be divided into three types: fluctuating upward,fluctuating downward,gradually increasing,and gradually decreasing;Leaving traditional media units has become an important turning point for young journalists’ professional identity;Different young journalists have different trajectories of professional identity changes,and multiple factors such as opportunities and risks for journalists in a spatiotemporal context,interactive social relationships and surrounding environment,self change and subjective choices of journalists,and professional identity and needs of different age groups are interrelated and cumulative,shaping the dynamic process of professional identity changes for young journalists.