Emotional Wellbeing of Journalists

What Psychology Can Offer in Understanding Journalists' Well-Being

Jennifer M. Ragsdale, Elana Newman

In: Happiness in Journalism

Valérie Bélair-Gagnon, Avery E. Holton, Mark Deuze, Claudia Mellado (eds.)

London; New York: Routledge (2023), pp. 33-46

"This chapter introduces the psychological science of well-being as applied to the work of journalists. This review links the general psychological literature on health and well-being with the emerging literature about journalists’ well-being to enhance our understanding of journalists’ experien ... more

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Media Capture and Journalism as Emotional Labor: How Do Media Professionals Manage Bureaucratic Violence in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq?

Jiyan Faris, Pieter Maeseele, Yazan Badran, Kevin Smets

Journalism Studies, volume 24, issue 7 (2023), pp. 876-895

"This paper focuses on the (in)direct tools of governmental bureaucracy used to control journalistic work in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). It calls for understanding media capture not only through structural-level consequences, but also through the methods used to create an environment of inst ... more

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Teaching Emotional Intelligence for Enhancing Resilience in Journalism

Maja Šimunjak

Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, volume 78, issue 2 (2023), pp. 127–141

"The article outlines an evidence-informed approach for enhancing resilience, one of the key personal resources in labor, and explores the viability of this training for increasing journalists’ ability to manage everyday work-related stressors. The suggested pedagogy is in the form of a microinter ... more

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How Newsroom Social Media Policies Can Improve Journalists' Well-Being

Logan Molyneux, Jacob L. Nelson

In: Happiness in Journalism

Valérie Bélair-Gagnon, Avery E. Holton, Mark Deuze, Claudia Mellado (eds.)

London; New York: Routledge (2023), pp. 78-86

"This chapter draws on a discourse analysis of newsroom social media policies, and in-depth interviews with journalists focused on their reactions to the social media policies within the newsrooms in which they have worked, and their recommendations for how those policies should be improved." (Abstr ... more

Tackling the emotional toll together: How journalists address harassment with connective practices

Anu Kantola, Anu A. Harju

Journalism, volume 24, issue 3 (2023), pp. 494–512

"In this article, we examine how journalists address and tackle online harassment by connective practices that involve joint action with peers and editors that we find are particularly effective in addressing the emotional effects of harassment. Theoretically, we bridge community of practice researc ... more

Post-traumatic Mental and Physical Consequences of Frontline Reporting in the MENA Region

Lakhdar Chadli, Farooq Muhammad Haq, Ahmed Okasha, Rafik Attou

Open Public Health Journal, volume 15 (2023), 12 pp.

"Background: A current need in journalistic frontline work is to understand the potential psychological and physical traumatic consequences that may result from on-duty appointments. Journalists are active in frontline zones to report on conflicts, crises, and natural disasters. In the Middle East a ... more

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Psychological and Physical Lived Experiences of Journalists Covering Terrorism in Kenya

Benjamin Muindi

Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, volume 78, issue 2 (2023), pp. 251-266

"This research is based on 28 in-depth interviews with Kenya-based journalists who report terrorism. The objective of the research was to recount their lived experiences. The theme of safety of journalists comprised psychological and physical safety of the newspeople, and there were various ways in ... more

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Exploring Trauma Literacy Quotient Among Indian Journalists and a Way Forward in Post-Pandemic Era: A Case Study of India

K. Shilpa, A. Kumari, M. M. Das, Tanushree Sharma, S. K. Biswal

Journalism & Mass Communication Educator, volume 78, issue 2 (2023), pp. 267–288

"The American Psychological Association defines trauma as “an emotional response to a terrible event. . . .” Trauma can be experienced as a response to either physical or emotionally disturbing circumstances. The Journalism and the Pandemic Project from the International Center for Journalists ( ... ICFJ) and the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, in their global survey of journalists, have studied the impact of the pandemic on journalists across the globe. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused varying degrees of disruptions in the personal and professional lives of journalists. Traumatic experiences like covering traumatic events up close, COVID-induced health issues, job loss, pay cuts, and insecurity at the workplace have consumed journalists like never before. Overwhelming emotions like shock, helplessness, loneliness, depression, and anxiety are some of the reactions observed by mental health experts. Indian journalists, too, like their counterparts across the globe, have had to take on the challenges posed by this unprecedented crisis. This article intends to study the impact of the pandemic on Indian journalists both from physical and emotional perspectives. The objectives of the study include—(a) to analyze the journalists’ response to traumatic experiences during the pandemic, (b) to study the nature of trauma experienced by journalists during the pandemic, (c) to analyze how traumatic experiences affected the journalists, and (d) to explore and analyze how journalists managed to cope with the traumatic experiences. The study adopts social cognitive theory (SCT) as the framework. SCT comprises four goal realization processes: self-observation, self-evaluation, self-reaction, and self-efficacy. The four components are interrelated, and all influence motivation and goal attainment. Social cognition includes diverse processes linking the perception of social information with a behavioral response, including perception, attention, decision-making, memory, and emotion. The post-traumatic reactions include re-experiencing the traumatic event in flashbacks, recurrent nightmares, and intrusive memories, hypervigilant arousal, impaired concentration, depression, sleep disturbances, self-devaluation, avoidance of reminders of traumatic experiences, emotional detachment from others, and disengagement from aspects of life that provide meaning and self-fulfillment, which impair intrapersonal, interpersonal, and occupational functioning. The scope of the study covers the journalists’ responses to traumatic experiences specific to the pandemic. The study adopts a mixed research method with a thematic analysis of the qualitative data from interviews of journalists followed by a factor analysis of the quantitative data from the survey of the journalists." (Abstract) more

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Reporting Trauma: Conflict Journalists’ Exposure to Potentially Traumatizing Events, Short- and Long-Term Consequences, and Coping Behavior

Magdalena Obermaier, Annemarie Wiedicke, Nina Steindl, Thomas Hanitzsch

Journalism Studies, volume 24, issue 11 (2023), pp. 1398-1417

"Due to the nature of their jobs, journalists reporting from theaters of war, destruction, and violence are frequently exposed to potentially traumatizing experience. This study explores how journalists go about trauma exposure, how they deal with its emotional fallout, and what support they get in ... more

Trauma-Informed Journalism

Kevin J. Becker, Lori Shontz

In: Trauma in Adult and Higher Education: Conversations and Critical Reflections

Laura Douglass, Aubry Threlkeld, Lisa R. Merriweather (eds.)

Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing (2022), pp. 205-220

"Covering stories of tragedy and trauma is commonplace for journalists. To date, no organized or consistent approaches for teaching journalists about the impacts of trauma on their own lives, and the lives of those that are impacted by tragedy, have been developed. Journalists are left on their own ... more

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Trauma exposure and post-traumatic stress disorder among regional journalists in Pakistan

Sayyed Fawad Ali Shah, Jan Faizullah, Tamar Ginossar, Patrick J. McGrail, Danish Baber, Rahman Ullah

Journalism, volume 23, issue 2 (2022), pp. 391-408

"This study sought to examine work-related exposure to trauma and predictors of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms among regional journalists in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, a conflict-ridden area in northwest Pakistan. We recruited 216 KP journalists. Analysis of the surveys re ... more

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Contextualizing Psychological Outcomes for TV News Journalists: Role Differences in Industry Culture, Organizational Hierarchy and Trauma Exposure

Jasmine B. MacDonald, Rachael Fox, Anthony J. Saliba

Journal of Constructivist Psychology, volume 35, issue 1 (2022), pp. 255-279

"Research indicates that TV news journalists’ ongoing exposure to trauma can result in psychopathology. However, we currently know little about potential differences in trauma exposure between individuals in varying journalistic roles. The aim of this study is to contextualize the existing knowled ... more

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Journalism and Mental Health: Ugandan Journalists’ Perspectives

Angella Napakol, Samuel Kazibwe, Ann Mugunga, Elizabeth Kitego, Osborn Ahimbisibwe, Joseph Kiva

In: COVID-19 and the Media in Sub-Saharan Africa: Media Viability, Framing and Health Communication

Carol Azungi Dralega, Angella Napakol (eds.)

Leeds: Emerald Publishing (2022), pp. 147-162

"In the midst of a public health crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, journalists play an important role of sharing information of consequence with the public. As first responders to precarious events, they work in close proximity to the threat they are reporting on yet at the same time struggle with ... more

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Economic crisis and trauma journalism: Assessing the emotional toll of reporting in crisis-ridden countries

Lambrini Papadopoulou, Theodora A. Maniou, Eleana Pandia

Communications: The European Journal of Communication Research, volume 47, issue 3 (2022), pp. 350-374

"This article discusses the relationship between the post-2008 global economic crisis and trauma journalism through a quantitative study of reporters covering austerity’s everyday manifestations and examines the effects on the media professionals involved. The findings indicate that journalists wh ... more

Associations among traumatic experiences, threat exposure, and mental health in Pakistani journalists

Suzanna M Koster, Hans M Koot, Jamil A Malik, Marit Sijbrandij

Journal of Traumatic Stress, volume 35, issue 2 (2022), pp. 581-592

"Pakistan is considered to be relatively unsafe for journalists; however, little is known about how working in situations that involve a high risk of trauma exposure and personal threat impacts journalists' mental health. The present study aimed to examine the associations among reporting on topics ... more

Live from my Living Room: Perceived Organizational Support Among TV News Workers During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Rebecca Coates Nee, Lourdes M. Cueva Chacón

Electronic News, volume 15, issue 3–4 (2021), pp. 75–94

"As members of the media, TV news workers were considered essential employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many employees went into the field to cover stories related to the pandemic, which included anti-mask and lock-down protests. This mixed-methods study explored the extent to which TV news work ... more

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Journalism and Emotional Work

Mervi Pantti, Karin Wahl-Jorgensen

Journalism Studies, volume 22, issue 12 (2021), pp. 1567-1573

"This essay introduces the special issue entitled Journalism and Emotional Work. It argues the need for a context-sensitive understanding of emotional work in journalism profession. Contributions to the issue elucidate the social context for and the social consequences of emotional work. It demonstr ... more

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An investigation into Risks to Mental Health of Bangladeshi Journalists

Md. Aminul Islam, Sarkar Barbaq Quarmal, Apon Das

In: Handbook of Research on Discrimination, Gender Disparity, and Safety Risks in Journalism

Sadia Jamil, Baris Çoban, Bora Ataman, Gifty Appiah-Adjei (eds.)

Hershey, PA: IGI Global (2021), pp. 167-193

"Mental health in workplaces is a global concern today, and Bangladesh is not an exception to that. It is a big concern in journalism as good journalism depends on healthy journalists and news organizations. Most of the scholarships on the topic have been done from the perspective of western and dev ... more

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The emotional well-being of journalists exposed to traumatic events: A mapping review

Jonas Osmann, Jeffrey Dvorkin, Yoel Inbar, Elizabeth Page-Gould, Anthony Feinstein

Media, War & Conflict, volume 14, issue 4 (2021), pp. 476–502

"This article presents a mapping review of the available literature on the emotional well-being of journalists exposed to traumatic events. The review consists of three parts: (a) a summary of the results of trauma-related literature; (b) identification of the limitations of studies to date; and (c) ... more