A research on the behaviours of journalists after retirement in Turkey

In this research, the decisions after retirement, and their causes were aimed to investigate on a journalists group. The research was designed according to the "scanning model" which is one of the quantitative research methods. The population sampling in this study consists of retired journalists and journalists who deserved retirement by working with the definition on the press law in Turkey. 194 journalist members of Journalists Confederation of Turkey, Progressive Journalists Association, Parliament Correspondents Association and Photo journalist Association of Turkey, who were chosen by research group, completed a questionnaire that included measures of describing the behaviors after their individual retirement decisions. The results of the research shows that the majority (64.7%) of the journalists who re-started working after retirement returned back to journalism as a profession. Those who do not work as journalists (72.1%) also work in journalism-related jobs. 36.3% of the journalists in the sample wanted to work in retirement, due to financial difficulties and inadequate pensions, 27.4% want to use professional experience, 22.6% being productive, 4.1% continuation of social status, 4.8% not being able to find leisure time activities and being bored at home want to work. 54.5% of these retired journalists, spend their leisure times by dealing with their families, 21.4% by doing sports, 15.9% by writing stories, novels or poems, 6.9% by making handicrafts and 1.4% by drawing. The research also revealed differences between men and women in retirement and the vital decisions after retirement. Female journalists (28.6%) prefer to work in non-governmental organizations after retirement than men (17.9%). The majority of male journalists (47.3%) do not work because they cannot find a job after retirement, the majority of women (56%) does not work by the reasons as spending time with the family, living life, mentally ending journalism, getting bored with busy work pace, not doing their job properly, and the deformation of the profession.