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Coping with traumatic stress in journalism: A critical ethnographic study
Abstract
Journalists who witness trauma and disaster events are at risk for physical, emotional, and psychological injury. The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a critical ethnographic study among 31 Canadian journalists and photojournalists with regard to coping strategies used to buffer the effects of being exposed to trauma and disaster events and work-related stress. The findings are the result of in-depth individual interviews and six workplace observations with journalists across Canada. The most commonly reported coping strategies were: avoidance strategies at work, use of black humor, controlling one's emotions and memories, exercise and other physical activities, focusing on the technical aspects, and using substances. Recommendations for addressing the effects of work-related stress within this population are provided.
... Stress, albeit believed to be an overall negative experience (Greenberg 2002;Hobfoll 1988;Krantz, Grunberg, and Baum 1985;Hristova n.d.;Akinola et al. 2019), could be beneficial to an individual's work performance and creativity (Miraka and Tritsaroli 2019). Recent studies point to the positive effects of stress or "good stressors" to individuals (Hon, Chan, and Lu 2013;Miraka and Tritsaroli 2019;Buchanan and Keats 2011). We note here that a disruption in one's stature allows one to grow and develop their skills and knowledge. ...
... Journalists vary in their coping habits when doing news work. Journalists cope with stress differently depending on their personal history and the context of the trauma environment they were involved in (Buchanan and Keats 2011). Some journalists use humor and physical activities or self-care strategies (e.g., taking a break or leave of absence) to de-stress while some use substances to numb out and self-medicate psychological stress (Buchanan and Keats 2011). ...
... Journalists cope with stress differently depending on their personal history and the context of the trauma environment they were involved in (Buchanan and Keats 2011). Some journalists use humor and physical activities or self-care strategies (e.g., taking a break or leave of absence) to de-stress while some use substances to numb out and self-medicate psychological stress (Buchanan and Keats 2011). ...
Work stress is a double-edged sword to creativity. Some analysts call stress a creativity killer while others describe it as a creativity driver. Journalists face a myriad of daily work stresses that forces them to establish a coping mechanism that could evolve over time. The Covid-19 pandemic is a new problem in itself and has also brought new challenges to the daily work stresses of journalists. This phenomenological study, anchored on the Transactional Model of Stress and Coping, had explored the changes in 13 Filipino journalists’ work stresses and coping mechanisms and how these developments affected their creative processes during the Covid-19 pandemic. The study yielded six themes that described the changes in journalists’ work stressors and their coping mechanisms, as well as the reasons behind their attempt to remain creative despite the stressful nature of the profession. The study also puts forward a definition of daily work stress in journalism and establishes an inventory of identified work stresses under the “new normal.” Study findings will help newsrooms adopt and implement necessary measures that would ease their employees’ negative stressors, while improving the work environment to induce creativity through positive stressors.
... Prior studies suggest that these professionals that infrequently encounter death may use various behavioral, adaptive, and maladaptive techniques in response to their work (Adams, Anderson, Turner, & Armstrong, 2011;Buchanan & Keats, 2011;Koch, 2010). It is important to note that any particular behavioral response a person employs to deal with trauma can be either adaptive or maladaptive depending on the specific circumstance (Kirby, Shakespeare-Finch, & Palk, 2011). ...
... The authors defined "personalization of trauma" as "familiarity with the victim, finding resemblances of one's own family in the victim" (p. 6). Conversely, other studies suggest that cultural norms and professional practices develop to prevent first responders from personalizing an event, mainly when the professional is in the throes of the case (Adams, Anderson, Turner, & Armstrong, 2011;Buchanan & Keats, 2011;Carpenter, Tait, Quandrelli, & Thompson, 2016;Howard, Tuffin, & Stephens, 2000;Koch, 2010). ...
... Casas and Benuto (2022) discussed this as a tension between initial job idealization and subsequent job disillusionment following occupational trauma. Buchanan and Keats (2011), Koch (2010), and Howard, Tuffin, & Stephens (2000) identified that criminal justice and related personnel are often ill-equipped to handle and address the emotional aspects of the profession and that engrained professional cultural norms exacerbate the experienced trauma of death work. An important implication of this study and prior qualitative research is that agencies should work to establish a mechanism to communicate to new professionals in the field about the complicated physical and emotional toll of the work before they experience it directly and endeavor to create a culture that supports ongoing communication, self-care, and wellness. ...
... The results of this review confirm its hypothesis that news journalists would report the onset of PTSD in the course of their news reporting duties. Three studies provided estimates of probable PTSD of 6% [14], 12% [16], and 8% [31] with 8% and 12% being greater than the lifetime prevalence in the general population [8]. Each of remaining studies reported PTSD symptoms of varying intensity. ...
... However, there were subsets of studies had common methodological approaches that permit some limited comparisons. Three studies employed quasi-or semi-structured interviews [14,16,26]. These interviews covered a range of topics, such as general stress, news organizational policies, and self-reported symptoms of PTSD. ...
... Most studies utilized the BDI [9] and reported a range of disruptions from none too severe. Other papers evaluated substance use [8,14,19,21,22,25,32]. Here the instruments varied substantially in format from short checklist to self-reports with very limited or no data on validity and reliability being reported. ...
Research has demonstrated that first responders may develop psychological trauma/ posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the performance of their duties. Often overlooked in these studies of police, firefighters, and paramedics is an additional group of providers who also respond to these same events: news journalists and photo journalists. Although limited in scope, the research literature from 1980 to 2010 assessed an association between PTSD and some news journalists. The strength of these findings are limited due to serious methodological limitations. The present paper reviewed the journalist/PTSD literature from 2011 to 2020. There were 4558 subjects in 23 studies, which were world-wide in scope. There were 2633 male reporters (58%) and 1925 female journalists (42%). The average age of subjects was 34.37 years and the average length of experience was 10.68 years. Many reported either PTSD, PTSD symptoms, depression, and/or substance use. A detailed methodological critique is presented.
... Although the study of coping is fundamental to an understanding of how stress affects people (Skinner et al. 2003), the knowledge on how journalists deal with occupational stressors is still limited (Monteiro and Pinto 2017). To the best of our knowledge, previous research has only examined the coping mechanisms used by the journalists who cover and report on traumatic events (e.g., Seely 2019; Englund 2018; Monteiro and Pinto 2017;Jukes 2015;Novak and Davidson 2013;Buchanan and Keats 2011). However, with the rare exception of Soerjoatmodjo (2011), who focused on the resilience process of Indonesian journalists after a bomb attack on their newsroom, we do not know much about how journalists cope with stressful and traumatic situations when they themselves or their colleagues have been the targets of aggression, threats, intimidation, and violence. ...
... Available studies suggest that journalists often resort to denial and avoidance strategies. They operate on "autopilot" and control their emotions and memories to distance themselves from the situation (Seely 2019;Jukes 2015;Buchanan and Keats 2011). This may be a consequence of the objectivity norm that suggests that journalists should remain unemotional, detached, and "check their feelings at the door" (Seely 2019;Jukes 2015;Beam and Spratt 2009). ...
... Protective factors for dealing with stress and trauma also appear to be respecting the purpose of their occupation, the sense of professional duty (i.e., to provide the public with timely and accurate information), and identifying with the professional role (Seely 2019;Novak and Davidson 2013;Soerjoatmodjo 2011). The list of coping mechanisms also includes substance use (Seely 2019;Buchanan and Keats 2011), the use of black humour, exercise and other physical activities, avoidance strategies at work, focusing on the technical and practical aspects (Buchanan and Keats 2011), and purging emotions, such as crying (Seely 2019). ...
In this contribution, using a case-study approach, we focus on the assassination of Ján Kuciak and his fiancée and explore the impact and consequences that it had on the community of investigative journalists in Slovakia. By conducting a series of semi-structured interviews with top investigative journalists (N = 12), we seek to answer two questions: How have they coped with the murder of their colleague? And, how has this incident changed their everyday journalistic practices and routines when it comes to achieving and maintaining safety? We identified 12 coping actions which, based on their function, were organised into five higher order families of coping: emotional purging; sharing and support seeking; avoidance and displacement; defiance and defence; and spreading the legacy and giving meaning to the tragedy. Regarding safety and security practices, the journalists claim that their approach has fundamentally changed. A variety of measures to stay safe, both online and offline, were adopted both on the organisational and on the individual level. However, many of these measures are not used consistently, mostly because they are not deemed necessary when covering non-sensitive topics, but also because of their impracticality in everyday journalistic work, and sceptical and fatalistic approach of the journalists to safety.
... Feinstein, Owen, and Blair (2002), for instance, reported that around 30% of the interviewed war correspondents had developed PTSD at some point in their careers, which puts them in a range similar to combat veterans. The use of healthy coping strategies has a significant impact on PTSD prevalence (Buchanan and Keats 2011;Shah et al. 2022). However, we need to examine more closely how journalists deal with the emotional fallout from traumatic experience. ...
... Few studies have identified the coping responses of journalists who were exposed to trauma. Through problem-focused (engagement) coping, journalists try to prepare as best as possible to report potentially traumatizing events and thus control the experience (Buchanan and Keats 2011). Yet, because journalists presumably cannot change the fact that potentially traumatic events may occur and that they inevitable have to report on them, emotion-focused coping seems to dominate. ...
... Two studies investigated the acceptability of exercise intervention for people experiencing trauma or disaster events. Buchanan and Keats (2011) conducted an ethnographic study among 31 Canadian journalists and photojournalists who frequently faced trauma and disaster events and the results showed that exercise and other physical activity were generally viewed positively, along with avoidance strategies and use of dark humour, were regarded as effective strategies to buffer against personal trauma, disaster events and work-related stress. The results of a structured interview study conducted by Smith et al. also showed that active physical exercise, good nutrition and adequate sleep were the preferred physical and mental health care measures for medical staff involved in the rescue of the 9.11 terrorist attacks (Smith et al., 2019). ...
... The results showed that the psychological symptoms such as individual anxiety, depression and PTSD were significantly improved after exercise intervention, the degree of mental distress was reduced, and individual quality of life and subjective well-being were improved. Two other articles (Buchanan & Keats, 2011;Smith et al., 2019) also reported that individuals who had experienced a variety of traumatic events tended to take exercise as the preferred nursing measure to relieve mental stress and maintain physical and mental health. In the remaining 23 articles, except for the report by Kondo et al. (2019), the other studies all found that physical activity was positively associated with individual psychological health, mental resilience and subjective well-being in different degrees after traumatic events, which was a protective factor to maintain individual psychological health. ...
Background: Traumatic events can cause social tension, anxiety, panic and other psychological crises, and can even cause post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicide. Physical activity has a good role in promoting mental health, and has a great application prospect in individual psychological intervention after traumatic events. However, no systematic review of the relationship between physical activity and individual mental health after traumatic events affecting many people has been published so far, which makes it impossible for people to understand the research status in this field from a holistic perspective.
Objective: This review explores the relationship between physical activity and individual psychology, physiology, subjective quality of life and well-being after traumatic events, so as to provide some valuable clues or enlightenment for individual psychological intervention after traumatic events.
Method: Relevant literature was searched in five databases, summarised, sorted and studied.
Results: Thirty-three study papers were included in this review, the main study findings include: (1) Physical activity is positively correlated with individual mental resilience and subjective well-being after traumatic events, and negatively correlated with anxiety, depression, tension and PTSD. (2) Individuals with higher levels of physical activity have better mental health status after traumatic events than those who do not regularly engage in physical activity. (3) Physical activity can promote sleep quality, self-efficacy, subjective quality of life and various physiological functions of those experiencing traumatic events. (4) Physical activity (including exercise) is regarded as one of the preferred nursing measures to buffer against mental stress and maintain physical and mental health for those experiencing traumatic events.
Conclusion: The level of physical activity is positively correlated with individual physical and mental health before and after traumatic events. Physical activity can be used as one of the effective measures to improve individual mental health after traumatic events.
... Feinstein et al. (2002) showed in their studies that traumatic coverage of incidents leads to PTSD, depression, and alcoholism among journalists. Separate studies have also found a correlation between coverage of trauma with psychological injury, burnout, thoughts of guilt, hopelessness, and despair among journalists (Backholm & Björkqvist, 2012;Browne et al., 2012;Buchanan & Keats, 2011;McMahon, 2001;Pyevich et al., 2003;Teegen & Grotwinkel, 2001). According to studies, over two-thirds of journalists feel unprepared for their first trauma-related reporting assignment (Amend et al., 2012;Simpson & Boggs, 1999). ...
... Academics and professionals have praised trauma or crisis reporting education as a valuable tool for aspiring journalists (Amend et al., 2012;Beam & Spratt, 2009;Buchanan & Keats, 2011;Johnson, 1999;Maxson, 2000;Melki et al., 2013). A 2000 study discovered that enrolling in a training program gave students self-assurance and confirmed their job choices (Maxson, 2000). ...
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.
... This paper focuses on the pedagogical response to the impact of witnessing traumatic events on journalists and the challenges to embedding trauma informed literacy in journalism curricula globally. This is a pertinent research enquiry because two decades of research on journalists by social psychologists supply overwhelming evidence that journalists who witness trauma and disaster events are at risk for physical, emotional, and psychological injury (Buchanan & Keats, 2011). Some scholars argue that the prevalence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is higher among journalists than the general population, with up to 33% of journalists reportedly suffering from probable PTSD (Aoki et al. 2012;Backholm & Björkqvist 2012;Dworznik, 2011). ...
... Journalists most likely to be at risk of experiencing depressive symptoms were those who had greater exposure to work-related and personal potentially traumatic events (PTEs); experienced threats to themselves or their family; and had reduced levels of family and peer support, social acknowledgement, and education (MacDonald et al., 2021). Some of the symptoms of exposure to traumatising events are guilt, compassion fatigue, burnout, avoidance, helplessness, mental health breakdowns, depression, flashbacks, intrusive experiencing, increased arousal, desensitization or numbing (or sensitization), and anger outbursts (Buchanan & Keats, 2011;Seely, 2020). ...
Literature notes that most journalists will witness trauma and human suffering during the course of their careers, yet journalism education is lagging behind in preparing students to cope with the effects of exposure to traumatic events. This paper examines the attitudes of journalism educators/trainers towards trauma literacy through a questionnaire survey of 119 journalism educators globally. The findings show that a high percentage of educators have a good understanding of the risks that arise from exposure to critical and potentially traumatizing events but there are some barriers to teaching trauma including lack of knowledge/confidence, resources, time and teaching materials.
... This perspective is in contrast to Smith et al. (2015) and Tandoc & Takahashi (2018) who have emphasized that journalists are involved in traumatic situations and difficult challenges that weaken their physical immunity (Smith et al., 2015;Tandoc & Takahashi, 2018). In like manner, it is justified in the study of Buchanan & Keats (2011), Ikizer et al. (2019, and Seely (2020) that they usually display feelings such as guilt, depression, fatigue, pressure, and many others (Buchanan & Keats, 2011;Ikizer et al., 2019;Seely, 2020). However, in the study of Moran et al. (2019) andSerrano Sarmiento et al. (2021), it has been mentioned that they have developed coping mechanisms that enable them to display resilience, decisiveness and adaptability to the present environmental situation of the world. ...
... This perspective is in contrast to Smith et al. (2015) and Tandoc & Takahashi (2018) who have emphasized that journalists are involved in traumatic situations and difficult challenges that weaken their physical immunity (Smith et al., 2015;Tandoc & Takahashi, 2018). In like manner, it is justified in the study of Buchanan & Keats (2011), Ikizer et al. (2019, and Seely (2020) that they usually display feelings such as guilt, depression, fatigue, pressure, and many others (Buchanan & Keats, 2011;Ikizer et al., 2019;Seely, 2020). However, in the study of Moran et al. (2019) andSerrano Sarmiento et al. (2021), it has been mentioned that they have developed coping mechanisms that enable them to display resilience, decisiveness and adaptability to the present environmental situation of the world. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic affected the human beings in the community. Student journalists are the ones who endured many challenges in their published work. They acquired experiences that develop their capacity to cope from difficult situations. Hence, this study ascertained the experiences of student journalists during the COVID-19 pandemic. The qualitative-phenomenological approach of research design was employed using a researcher-made written interview form administered through messenger and email among five (5) purposively selected editors-in-chief from different universities and state colleges. The environmental, technological and psychological experiences of the student journalists were revealed. There were six (6) meaningful categories taken from data transcripts. Student journalists were able to (1) manifest positive outlook in life and (2) render democratic community empowerment services as their environment-related experiences. Besides, their media technology-related experiences included (3) adjust to unprecedented working transition and (4) encounter misinformation and disinformation. Finally, they earned psychology-related experiences such as (5) confront social communication disparity and (6) endure from self-efficacy enervation. Since student journalists facing many challenges, they still show their willingness to serve the school and the community during hard times. Thus, student journalists" roles and responsibilities are to deliver factual information and help the people in the society.
... Scholarly studies on journalism and trauma consistently conclude that journalists who witness trauma and disaster events are at risk for physical, emotional, and psychological injury (Buchanan & Keats, 2011;Keats & Buchanan, 2012). ...
... Other types of effects include guilt, depression, compassion fatigue, burnout, avoidance, intrusive experiencing, increased arousal, desensitization or numbing (or sensitization), helplessness, and emotional lability including anger outbursts (Buchanan & Keats, 2011;Ikizer et al., 2019;Seely 2020). Guilt, for example, is associated with moral injury, that is, the injury done to a person's conscience or moral compass by perpetrating, witnessing, or failing to prevent acts that transgress personal moral and ethical values or codes of conduct (Litz et al., 2009). ...
We investigated the claim in literature that exposure to work related traumatic events affects the wellbeing of journalists. We did this through a scoping review of studies on practising journalists; studies on journalism curriculae and reflections on findings of a questionnaire pilot study of journalism students’ experiences of exposure to traumatic events through teaching materials. We found evidence to suggest that practising journalists who are regularly exposed to traumatic events are susceptible to a range of adverse psychological reactions including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); and that the teaching of resilience is not widely included in journalism curriculae. The pilot study indicates that teaching materials did not evoke adverse psychological reactions with damaging effect to students’ wellbeing. Nevertheless, we recommend the inclusion of resilience training in journalism curriculae to be taught by an interdisciplinary team of scholars in order to build resilience among journalism students and equip them to cope with the increasing risk of journalism practice in the twenty first century.
... Throughout the literature and industry reports it seems that media organizations tend to take little or no responsibility for the mental health of their employees -let alone for the growing army of freelancers and otherwise atypically employed professionals that make up the bulk of the workforce. Furthermore, the culture of the business -with its roots in a 'tough-nosed' style of management, relentless focus on deadlines, an overall lack of diversity, equity and inclusivity, coupled with a normalization of stressful working conditions -is not particularly conducive to the development (and implementation) of mental health literacy (Buchanan and Keats 2011;Hopper and Huxford 2015). One could add to this kind of literacy particular to media work the development of a nuanced notion of mental health and well-being as outlined earlier, including the critical awareness that the very elements that can contribute to mental illness -a pressured, dynamic, informally organized and overall intense working environment -also explain the attractiveness of the work. ...
All is not well in the studios, agencies, newsrooms and on the sets of the media we love so much. Reports on the mental health and well-being of media professionals suggest that they tend to score high on depression, stress and burnout, and considering suicide. Documented causes tend to be particular to the working conditions of the media industry – such as unusually high work intensity and tight deadlines, little or no work-life balance in the context of precarious careers, experiences of toxic working environments and an over-identification of the self with work. The industry furthermore lacks resources and corresponding capabilities to recognize when and how its people are in distress, and offers little in the way of opportunities to discuss or otherwise meaningfully address mental health and well-being at work. This contribution explores ways we can map, explain and tackle the mental health crisis in media work through interventions in research, theory, teaching and practice.
... Their emotionally disengaged posture has been called 'cool-detached,' 'autopilot,' 'right distance,' or 'cynicism' (Backholm, 2017;Jukes, 2017;Kotišová, 2017). The process of journalists' self-distantiation from the traumatic events they cover, during which they suppress or postpone any 'genuine' emotions, and develop a viable, professionally beneficial emotional posture, can be seen both as emotional labor (Hopper and Huxford, 2015;Wahl-Jorgensen, 2018) and a coping mechanism (Buchanan and Keats, 2011). ...
This paper investigates the epistemic injustice in conflict reporting, where foreign parachute reporters collaborate with local producers and ‘fixers.’ Drawing from existing research on ‘fixers’ and other media professionals covering conflict zones and the philosophy of emotion and knowledge, I address the following questions: What is the role of local and foreign media professionals’ affective proximity and professional distance in the social epistemology of conflict news production and the epistemic hierarchy among the collaborators? What implications is this particular social epistemology believed to have for conflict reporting accuracy and ethics? Based on 36 semi-structured to in-depth interviews with foreign and local media professionals covering Ukraine, Israel, and Palestine and further online and offline contact with the Ukrainian ecosystem of foreign/conflict news production, I argue that the collaboration between foreign and local media professionals is sometimes marked by identity-prejudicial credibility deficit granted to local media professionals because of their affective proximity to the events they cover. This epistemic injustice mirrors other power vectors and the dominant journalistic professional ideology that values disinvolvement, distance, and detachment. In practice, the (local) media professionals’ affective proximity to their contexts is often appreciated as embodied knowledge beneficial to the nuance, accuracy, and ethics of journalistic practices and outcomes.
... Journalists have been found to cope with occupational stress using a number of different strategies based on their years of professional experience and their experience covering traumatic events (Monteiro, Marques Pinto, and Roberto 2016). Buchanan and Keats (2011) found they used avoidance, such as lying, so as not to accept or be given tasks; withdrawing from the situation; black humor; compartmentalization of their emotional reactions; substance use, exercise and other physical activities to relieve tension or justify leaving the organization's premises; and a focus on technical or practical aspects of the job at hand. Researchers investigating sexual violence were found to rely on preparation in order to reflect on what might be involved and if they wanted to pursue the research; formal and informal support such as colleagues, friends, and therapy; and time management, where breaks to reduce exposure was seen as important (Coles et al. 2014). ...
Commercial content moderators are exposed to a range of stressors at work, including analysing content that has been flagged as harmful. However, not much is known about their specific coping strategies. Depth interviews were conducted with 11 content moderators exposed to child sexual abuse material (CSAM) as part of their job, and thematically analysed to investigate both individual coping strategies and those deployed organisationally. Results highlighted the importance of social support and validation of the role, as well as creating boundaries between work and home life. Moderators expressed a preference for mandatory, individual therapy with professionals who had specific experience supporting those exposed to CSAM. How content moderators cope and can be further supported are discussed.
... Coping strategies can be adaptive and maladaptive (Buchanan and Keats 2011). Adaptive coping strategies are typically problem-oriented and include active planning and seeking social support. ...
Killings, as the most extreme form of violence against journalists, receive considerable attention, but journalists experience a variety of threats from surveillance to gendered cyber targeting and hate speech, or even the intentional deprivation of their financial basis. This article provides a comprehensive, interdisciplinary framework of journalists’ safety, summarized in a conceptual model. The aim is to advance the study of journalists’ safety and improve safety practices, journalism education, advocacy, and policy making - vital as press freedom and fundamental human rights face multifaceted challenges, compromising journalists’ ability to serve their societies. Journalists’ occupational safety comprises personal (physical, psychological) and infrastructural (digital, financial) dimensions. Safety can be objective and subjective by operating on material and perceptional levels. It is moderated by individual (micro), organizational/institutional (meso), and systemic (macro) risk factors, rooted in power dynamics defining boundaries for journalists’ work, which, if crossed, result in threats and create work-related stress. Stress requires coping, ideally resulting in resilience and resistance, and manifested in journalists’ continued role performance with autonomy. Compromised safety has personal and social consequences as threats might affect role performance and even lead to an exit from the profession, thus also affecting journalism’s wider function as a key institution.
... Otras perspectivas han intentado mirar críticamente estas formas de caracterización de la experiencia mostrando, para el caso de los periodistas, otras dimensiones emocionales desmarcadas de la caracterización diagnóstica (Himmelstein y Faithorn, 2002;Buchanan y Keats, 2011;Keats, 2005Keats, , 2010Dworznik, 2006). Y otros, aun cuando se sostienen en esta psicologización de la experiencia, han empezado a mostrar la relevancia de atender a métodos de corte cualitativo y narrativo con el fin de no reducir dicha experiencia a un dato sobre la morbilidad en salud mental, sino ampliándola a la riqueza de la singularidad de cada periodista (Feinstein, 2006). ...
This paper analyzes the forms of emotional management of journalists who have covered the Colombian armed conflict. The article discusses, from a critical approach to the psychodiagnostic studies -inheritors of the notion of post-traumatic stress disorder-, the modes of involvement of journalists in the context of war, pain and suffering and the repertoires deployed to emotionally manage the impacts of conflict in their own lives and to narrate them with modesty and dignity.
... According to Nelson and Simmons (2003), coping is a transactional process where an individual tries to act specifically to overcome an external or internal threatening condition (cited in Monteiro & Pinto, 2017). People in extreme conditions, as Buchanan & Keats (2011) think, try to cope up differently with situations based on personal experiences and contexts. Though debates exist over the coping techniques of journalists due to a shortage of available knowledge on the topic (Monteiro & Pinto, 2017), some scholars argue that journalists pursue different coping strategies in situations of trauma and stress (Urbanikova & Hanikova, 2021). ...
This paper is about newspaper journalism practices under the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. Based on two separate theories-Communication Competence Theory, and Risk and Crisis Communication Management Theory, this study intends to understand the challenges that newspaper journalists faced while discharging their professional responsibilities and governing the newsroom operations during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh. In addition, this paper explores the strategies that journalists followed to adapt to the changed working environments and engage themselves in the processes of news production and publication. The authors conducted in-depth interviews with 12 journalists including three news managers from three national dailies-daily Prothom Alo, daily Samakal, and The Daily Star. Standing on findings, the discussion progressed around six areas-governance of newsroom operations, preparations, communication, newsgathering, restrictions, insecurity and protection. The key findings are: i) the COVID-19 crisis appeared as a blow before the newspaper journalists of Bangladesh due to a policy-level shortcoming in terms of formulating plans beforehand to govern the newsroom operations in the face of the challenges that emerged along with the pandemic; ii) the journalists were not comfortable in adapting themselves to the working from home strategy as they struggled in gathering and verifying information, and doing required communions using the virtual communication methods while working from distance; and iii) the journalists experienced psychological pressures * Associate Professor,
... A possible explanation for this might be that virile values transcend the journalistic professional culture and make it taboo for journalists to publicly express job-related traumas (Kotisova 2019;Le Cam, Libert, and M enalque 2021). It is a professional culture that fosters silence about emotional distress (Feinstein, Owen, and Blair 2002;Buchanan and Keats 2011). ...
The online harassment of journalists is a phenomenon which has been on the rise in Europe over the last decade and it affects journalists' working lives. As an expression of mob censorship, online harassment raises questions about how media organisations react to online aggressions targeting their journalists, the consequences on the victims’ well-being and on the role of journalism in society. Yet, previous research has shown the lack of support mechanisms provided by journalists’ employers. In this article, we explore the hypothesis that the lack of organisational support towards targeted journalists is partly due to the challenges faced by media managers when trying to make sense of the phenomenon. This article offers a unique viewpoint on how 22 Belgian media managers from five media organisations struggle to define what online harassment is and how to respond to it. In turn, it shows that the vague understanding of what online harassment is seems to favour case-by-case organisational responses. Missing words and unstructured actions related to online harassment impede media managers from addressing online harassment as a collective issue in journalism and its consequences on the democratic debate.
... These journalists were having less chance of recovering from such trauma attacks which had affected them. Buchanan et al (2011) conducted a study on post traumatic disorders in which the findings of this study indicated that journalist were physically and mentally at a negative position due to the impacts which were possessed the events which were shocking and unusual for the journalists. Whereas the solution to such unhealthy problem the journalists adapted several ways such as starting to exercise, trying to forget memories, getting control over the thoughts which were from the traumatic situation. ...
The present study dealt with a common and detrimental (PTSD) disorder. The aim of the study was to identify the influence of traumatic events experienced by journalists. Stress, anxiety and trauma are major psychological problems observed within people associated with different professions. This study specifically worked on journalists aiming to evaluate the impact of traumatic events on work performance, stress, anxiety and depression among them. The research was based on quantitative data in which 200 respondents were selected for survey data through questionnaire. The quantitative study used non-probability sampling technique in which purposive sampling was used for data collection. According to hypothesis testing depression is a prominent factor within the journalists that witnessed horrific incidents, further initial depression among the journalists led to PTSD among them. Similarly anxiety and stress showed positive influence over PTSD therefore the study revealed that such incidents are significant factors in affecting the psychological wellbeing of journalists.
... In addition, reduced energy expenditure also contributed to the development of obesity [45]. Since we found that frequency of physical activity makes significant contributions to explaining both life satisfaction and emotional distress, exercise is the most useful prevention tool for traumatic stress [46], as well as for weight control and overall immune system health [45]. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted almost every aspect of life, especially daily physical activity and healthy eating habits but also mental health. Our study aimed to examine the relationship between the physical activity level, eating habits and mental health of Serbian adolescents during the COVID-19 pandemic. A total of 3506 students from the territory of the Republic of Serbia participated in this study. IPAQ-short version and HBSC-FFQ were used to assess physical activity level and eating habits, along with self-rated health. Moderate correlations were identified between physical activity, eating habits and mental health, along with average physical activity, very high life satisfaction (β = 0.177, p < 0.01) and very low emotional distress (β = −0.150, p < 0.01). A significant predictor of mental health was the frequency of breakfast on weekdays (β = 0.167, p < 0.01 for life satisfaction and β = −0.153, p < 0.01 for emotional distress), but not on weekends. Since the pandemic’s course is uncertain, the focus should be on maintaining good physical activity, nutrition and well-being.
... Those studies examined journalists' emotional problems after exposure to violent or traumatic events (Beam & Spratt, 2009) and how earlier generations of journalists endured stress (Fedler, 2004). Buchanan and Keats (2011) note that "most reports are anecdotal with few empirical studies" (p. 129); qualitative studies were published on the effects on journalists who cover trauma and disaster-related events. ...
This chapter examines the prevalence of corruption in the Kenyan media and its implications for the practice of journalism in this Eastern Africa nation. It explores five important aspects of corruption among journalists: (a) their perception of how common corruption is in local media; (b) major sources of an orientation toward corruption among journalists; (c) major bribe-givers to journalists; (d) major forms of corruption in journalism; and (e) whether corruption adversely affects objective reporting.
... From hurricanes to armed conflicts, journalists in these stages must face human suffering and material destruction on a frequent basis (Pantti, Wahl-Jorgensen, and Cottle 2012). Research examining disaster reporting has documented the ways journalists approach those scenes, as well as the psychological consequencesmany studies report consequences of direct trauma, which affects their performance in the long-term (Buchanan and Keats 2011;Tandoc and Takahashi 2018). Others have researched the affirmative duty of journalists to protect human life and property before a hazard strikes (Wilkins 2016). ...
This study examines the use of interpersonal touch by television reporters in their interactions with sources — mainly residents and government officials — before Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico. We used a qualitative approach, which allowed four functions to emerge inductively but aligned with concepts from haptics and journalistic roles research. The functions — engagement and participation, empathy and caring, easing tension, and collective empowerment are described in relation to the literature on touch across cultures. Implications for the emotional turn in journalism are discussed.
... Emotionfocused coping terbagi dalam enam jenis, antara lain; menjaga jarak dari permasalahan yang ada (Distancing), mengendalikan diri pada situasi sulit (Self-control), menghindar dari permasalahan yang ada (Escape-Avoidance), menghadapi masalah dengan pendekatan religius (Positive Reappraisal), mengkonfrontasi masalah sebagai reaksi (Confrontive Coping) dan mencari dukungan dari lingkungan sekitar (Seeking Social Support). Pada jurnalis ada beberapa strategi yang digunakan dengan emotionfocused coping, seperti menghindar dari peliputan berita yang berkaitan dengan trauma, menggunakan black humor atau komedi hitam yang dilontarkan satu sama lain untuk mengubah suasana agar tidak terlalu tegang, mengontrol emosi dan memori, olahraga dan aktivitas fisik lainnya untuk mengalihkan kelelahan emosional ke fisik, berkonsentrasi penuh pada pekerjaan dari segala aspek baik secara teknik, praktik maupun mekanismenya, dan penyalahgunaan narkoba dan alkohol menjadi cara yang paling mudah untuk menghindari emosi yang berlebihan dan tekanan psikologis yang dirasakan (Buchanan & Keats, 2011). ...
... The emotional challenge refers to the states of nervousness, tension, confusion, anguish, or stress experienced by journalists and other news professionals, as well as sources (Puente et al., 2013a(Puente et al., , 2013b while performing their role during a disaster with high emotional impact (Colón, 2005;Potter & Ricchiardi, 2006;Zelizer & Allan, 2011). According to the literature and experts, these professionals' mental structures are often not prepared to be exposed to such stressful situations (Buchanan & Keats, 2011;Freedy et al., 1994;Himmelstein & Faithorn, 2010). ...
This work aims to identify, classify, and categorize relevant activities regarding professional journalistic work in major disaster coverage, and develop a conceptual model that organizes them theoretically. We conducted a series of empirical data collection stages (background gathering through in-depth interviews and content analysis) and later applied the theory-building block approach that uses concepts to create and operationalize constructs. The main result is a six-dimension model based on the traditional questions of the journalistic process: How, why, who, when, what, and where. It comprehensively addresses the multiple aspects involved in disaster coverage: emotional, logistic, professional, and ethical challenges, as well as timing, key actors/roles, and their needs and demands according to the disaster type and stage they face. The model also brings together a group of potential activities journalists must confront and carry out when covering major disasters or highly significant social crises. Its main contribution is to make a useful theoretical tool available to academia and the media, striving for a versatile matrix management approach.
... Journalists turn to diversion strategies if they lack skills or knowledge about how to overcome a traumatic situation. For example, using dark humour to make light of the situation, tempering their emotions and memories, (over) exercising, focusing on the technicalities of the situation, or using substances (Buchanan and Keats 2011), all contributing to the "thick skin" discourse culture in newsrooms. ...
Several studies have established that female journalists experience (sexual) harassment and online abuse considerably more than their male colleagues. Understandably, this has resulted in a gap in research-male journalists' experiences with abusive online communication have not yet been thoroughly studied. This paper seeks to understand how abusive communication is contextualised and defined by male journalists in the context of hegemonic masculinity, and to explore which coping strategies are employed to overcome such experiences. From qualitative in-depth interviews with male journalists (n = 15), we found that participants considered different forms of abusive online communication from readers/sources a normalised practice, "feedback" that one must just ignore or overcome. Experiences are interpreted predominantly in the frame of hegemonic (complicit) masculinity, but the results also indicate that shifts in these rigid norms are emerging and can be embraced when acknowledged and supported by surrounding structures.
... For the individual receiving care, however, it may be that the consequences are more severe, going beyond decreased satisfaction. Mental Health Nurses experiencing Compassion Fatigue may disengage to protect themselves from other's suffering (Buchanan & Keats, 2011), leading to individuals experiencing poor; and possibly even harmful care, as evidenced by the Francis inquiry (Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, 2013). Medical and clinical errors, poor care planning, negative attitudes, and a lack of communication (Cetrano, et al. 2017;Mangoulia, et al. 2015;Sinclair & Hamil, 2007) may all result from Mental Health Nurses experiencing Compassion Fatigue. ...
For mental health nurses, a core component of the nurse–patient relationship is compassion. Bearing witness to patients' distress may lead to the manifestation of compassion fatigue; a decrease in compassionate and empathic responses because of prolonged contact with patients with mental ill health issues. Mental health nurses, particularly those who work in areas where they are exposed to frequent crisis presentations, such as inpatient settings and crisis teams, are at risk of developing compassion fatigue, yet there remains a paucity of research into the impact on those delivering mental health care in the UK. This article highlights the importance of identifying compassion fatigue, advocates for open honest and supportive discussions without fear of reprimand, and argues that possible workplace causes should be effectively addressed by nurse leaders and organisations, not just for sake of the mental health nurse and their employers, but also to ensure positive patient outcomes.
... As in our previous study, low exercise habits were also a high risk for mental health problems [11]. Buchanan and Keats reported that exercise is one of the most useful coping strategies after trauma and disaster events [27]. Carter et al. reported that regular exercise could improve the health status of children [28]. ...
The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station (NPS) accident, which occurred in March 2011, is having long-term effects on children. About 3 years after the accident, we identified three patterns of peer relationship problems and four patterns of emotional symptoms using group-based trajectory modeling. As a result, we reported that different factors might be related to very severe trajectories of peer relationship problems and emotional symptoms. In this study, we used five waves of data from fiscal year (FY) 2011 to FY2015 from the Mental Health and Lifestyle Survey, a detailed survey of the Fukushima Health Management Survey started in FY2011. We analyzed 7013 residents within the government-designated evacuation zone (aged 6–12 years old as of 11 March 2011) with responses to all items of psychological distress in at least one wave from FY2011 and FY2015. We planned this study to describe the trajectories of peer relationship problems and emotional symptoms in children and to examine potential risks and protective factors over the 5 years following the NPS accident. We identified four patterns of peer relationship problems and five patterns of emotional symptoms using latent class growth analysis. For peer relationship problems, male sex, experiencing the NPS explosion and lack of exercise habits were associated with the severe trajectory group. For emotional symptoms, experiencing the NPS explosion, experiencing the tsunami disaster and lack of exercise habits were associated with the severe trajectory group. Exercise habits are very important for the mental health of evacuees after a nuclear disaster.
... Many previous studies, such as Buchanan and Keats (2011), reported that exercise is one of the most useful coping strategies after trauma and disastrous events. Despite many reports that physical activity has a significant correlation with mental health among children and adolescents under psychological stress (Sagatun et al. 2007;Zhao et al. 2013;Sloan et al. 2013;Culver et al. 2015;Duberg et al. 2016;Endrighi et al. 2016;Phillips et al. 2019;Tajik et al. 2017;Lucas-Thompson et al. 2019;Tonorezos et al. 2019;Vandendriessche et al. 2019), our review also demonstrated that some studies found no such correlation (Holmes et al. 2016;Opdal et al. 2019). ...
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is causing disruptions in the global social system. Japanese children and adolescents have had their schools closed, government-mandated activity restrictions imposed, and interactions outside the home reduced. These restrictions can have a considerable psychological impact on children and adolescents. This review aims to describe the impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on physical activity and psychological status of this population. The review was conducted by searching PubMed for information on the impact of COVID-19−related activity restrictions on children and adolescents. The search identified 11 articles, three of which contained data on anxiety and psychological problems due to physical inactivity. Next, a PubMed search was conducted about physical activity and psychological status in children and adolescents under psychological stress. The search identified 368 articles, 28 of which were included in the review. For children, data that revealed a correlation between physical activity and psychological health and sedentary time leading to mood disorders were included. For adolescents, there were nine studies that reported a correlation between physical activity and psychological health and four studies that reported no correlation between physical activity and psychological health. Of the studies that reported a correlation, seven reported that physical activity improves psychological health. The impact of psychologically stressful situations such as COVID-19 on children and adolescents has been experienced worldwide. Physical activity has been correlated with psychological health, and it may improve psychological status; physical activity should be recommended to better support the psychological health of children and adolescents under the influence of COVID-19.
... = 0.13 with t=-1.532). Most of the researchers worldwide found it common (Al Muala, 2017;Azad & Hussain, 2016;Huda & Azad, 2015;Buchanan & Keats, 2011). On the other hand, learning opportunities 1(k) for the journalists are minimal as this hypothesis is also found to be rejected (sig. ...
Purpose: The main objective of this study is to explore the degree of maintaining QWL issues in the newspaper publishing houses of Bangladesh.
Methods: This study had endeavored to expose the practices of QWL of 15 newspaper publishing houses through a questionnaire survey conducted on 75 full-time news reporters. The survey results were further endorsed by senior executives of three well-circulated newspapers of Chattogram, Bangladesh.
Results: The study revealed job stress as a high priority indicator of QWL. However, the newspaper publishing houses are found somewhat weak in maintaining the QWL issues, such as job security, harmonious relationship, experience sharing culture, and social pride.
Implications: This paper recommends few interventions to enrich the QWL practices in the newspaper publishing industry of Bangladesh.
Originality: QWL practice of newspaper publishing houses is somewhat missing in the existing literature. Therefore, the current study will inspire the researchers to discuss and debate the issues.
... = 0.13 with t=-1.532). Most of the researchers worldwide found it common (Al Muala, 2017;Azad & Hussain, 2016;Huda & Azad, 2015;Buchanan & Keats, 2011). On the other hand, learning opportunities 1(k) for the journalists are minimal as this hypothesis is also found to be rejected (sig. ...
Purpose: The main objective of this study is to explore the degree of maintaining QWL issues in the newspaper publishing houses of Bangladesh. Methods: This study had endeavored to expose the practices of QWL of 15 newspaper publishing houses through a questionnaire survey conducted on 75 full-time news reporters. The survey results were further endorsed by senior executives of three well-circulated newspapers of Chattogram, Bangladesh. Results: The study revealed job stress as a high priority indicator of QWL. However, the newspaper publishing houses are found somewhat weak in maintaining the QWL issues, such as job security, harmonious relationship, experience sharing culture, and social pride. Implications: This paper recommends few interventions to enrich the QWL practices in the newspaper publishing industry of Bangladesh. Originality: QWL practice of newspaper publishing houses is somewhat missing in the existing literature. Therefore, the current study will inspire the researchers to discuss and debate the issues.
... Due to limited literacy and language barriers (Shah et al., 2019), these journalists also cannot benefit from the online resources and services offered by organizations such as the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma. Understanding the prevalence of trauma exposure and PTSD among these journalists and their coping strategies is imperative for designing interventions in their communities (Buchanan and Keats, 2011;Ikizer et al., 2019). ...
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 revealed a high prevalence of trauma exposure and PTSD symptoms. All of the participants had covered at least one trauma inducing event. Exposure to work-related trauma, active emotional coping and avoidant emotional coping were statistically significant factors associated with PTSD symptoms. This study is the first to highlight the severity of the impact of trauma on regional journalists in Pakistan.
The introductory chapter defines key terms and concepts that are discussed in the book, including emotional labour, resilience as an element of psychological capital, and the ‘stop, think, choose’ model of emotional intelligence. The relationships and interactions between emotional labour, emotional intelligence and resilience are explored, as well as key stressors and emotion management strategies in journalists’ everyday work. The chapter ends with practical exercises aimed at establishing resilience levels and key values.
Scholarly calls surrounding the need to prepare journalism students for hostile encounters and harassment are emerging. Using in-depth interviews with 28 early-career journalists from across the United States, this project underscores a need for content related to hostility within journalism courses. Findings also highlighted a tension between early-career journalists’ beliefs about how journalists are supposed to act and how they coped with hostility in practice. This created hesitancy to speak up and have discussions about hostility with editors, especially among women journalists. Therefore, I argue for a shift in how we talk about hostility toward journalists in our classrooms.
Bu araştırma, öznel zindeliğin psikolojik sağlamlık üzerindeki etkisinde zihnin istemli ve istemsiz gezinmesinin rolünü belirlemeyi amaçlamıştır. Araştırmada nicel araştırma modellerinden ilişkisel tarama yöntemi kullanılmıştır. Araştırmanın örneklemini spor bilimleri fakültesinde öğrenim gören basit tesadüfi örneklem yöntemi ile seçilmiş 303 öğrenci oluşturmaktadır. Araştırmada veri toplama aracı olarak öznel zindelik ölçeği, kısa psikolojik sağlamlık ölçeği, zihnin istemli gezinme ölçeği ve zihnin istemsiz gezinme ölçeği kullanılmıştır. Yapılan araştırmada, öznel zindeliğin istemsiz zihin gezinmesini azalttığı ancak öznel zindeliğin psikolojik sağlamlığı arttırdığı ortaya çıkmıştır. Yapılan araştırmada, zihnin istemsiz gezinmesinin psikolojik sağlamlığı azalttığı ortaya çıkmıştır. Zihnin istemli gezinmesinin psikolojik sağlamlığa anlamlı bir etkisi bulunmamaktadır. Araştırmada istemsiz zihin gezinmesi aracılık rolünde; öznel zindeliğin psikolojik sağlamlığı arttırıcı etkisinin olduğunun yanı sıra bireylerde zihnin istemsiz gezinmesi durumunun yüksek olması halinde psikolojik sağlamlığa ciddi düzeyde düşürücü etkisinin olduğu görülmektedir. Zihnin istemli gezinmesinin aracılık rolü bulunmamaktadır.
This study examined the negative impact of vicarious exposure to trauma (VET) and its transformation into vicarious post-traumatic growth (VPTG) among a particular type of journalist in China: emotional livelihood journalists. These journalists are often exposed to indirect trauma and have a high degree of emotional involvement with their subjects. Utilising cluster sampling, 126 such journalists (F = 92, M = 34) were selected to participate in this study. VET, secondary traumatic stress (STS), empathy, social support, and VPTG were measured through an online questionnaire to provide a moderated mediation model. Linear regression analysis showed that (1) VET directly predicts VPTG in reporters, and indirectly predicts VPTG through the mediating effect of STS; (2) when empathy is high, VET has a greater impact on STS levels, but when empathy is low, its effect is non-significant in the relationship between VET and VPTG; and (3) social support was not a significant moderator in the model. This study is among the first to link VET to VPTG among journalists, demonstrating that STS mediates this relationship and that empathy moderates the association between VET and STS. The results imply that dealing indirectly with trauma can lead to positive psychological changes in journalists. Media organisations can facilitate VPTG by offering comprehensive psychological support for journalists exposed to indirect traumatic events.
Many journalism students cover stories about tragedy and violence (trauma). Yet few journalism schools offer trauma training despite growing agreement among educators that early journalists need to learn about the impact of reporting trauma on victims, the community, and the journalists’ themselves. This contrast is puzzling This study aimed to identify what trauma-related topics are valued and which are taught. First, 156 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) members completed a survey rating the importance and extent of course coverage of self-care, trauma-informed interviewing, trauma’s impact on the community, and best trauma community reporting practices. The commonly deemed highly valued topics include ethics of accuracy, sensitivity, respect for survivors, and privacy rights. Self-care was deemed important but often not covered. Qualitative interviews provided context on pedagogical techniques, experiences, and barriers to teaching trauma.
Australia and New Zealand have reputations as countries prone to catastrophic and frequent natural and man-made disasters. Therefore, it is no surprise that antipodean academics want trauma-informed education for their journalism students. This study presents the Australian-New Zealand results of a 2021 survey exploring educators’ attitudes toward embedding trauma literacy into journalism curriculum. It mirrors a survey from the UK-based Journalism Education and Trauma Research Group. The Australian-New Zealand results confirm that educators want more training to effectively embed trauma-informed reporting into their curricula. The discussion notes the availability of local, research-based teaching materials, and identifies barriers to implementation.
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 microintervention, informed by literature on psychological capital and primary research based on interviews with British journalists. The test of concept is based on 13 workshops carried out with journalism trainees and professionals. The postworkshop survey ( n = 80) suggests that the proposed pedagogy has the potential to contribute to development of participants’ resilience as well as their wider psychological capital.
This study aimed at recognizing the professional consequences of the tension caused by Palestinian confrontations with the Israeli forces on the Palestinian journalist, as the study followed the descriptive and analytical approach and used the questionnaire as a tool to collect data from a sample of (90) and retrieved (55) questionnaires, which are valid for analysis. (43) A questionnaire, where the study concluded that it is clear from the results of the study that there is a statistically significant correlation at the level of significance (0.05) between the level of psychological tension and the professional performance of Palestinian journalists in covering confrontations between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli occupation soldiers, where the correlation coefficient reached (0.4). Whereas, the level of psychological tension affects, by (13.9%), the professional performance of Palestinian journalists in covering confrontations between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli occupation soldiers. In light of the results of the study, a set of recommendations was raised, the most prominent of which is the necessity to influence the media institutions in adhering to the principles of occupational safety (physical and psychological) for field journalists. Conducting training courses for journalists in the field of psychological safety. Moral support for journalists through a system of rewards and incentives. Organizing courses on the psychological and physical safety of journalists, and training journalists in methods of dealing with exceptional circumstances and dangerous situations.
Journalists confront terror and war to report and document what is happening. Covering traumatic events is dangerous for the reporters on the scene and may leave them with distress responses. The aim of this study is to investigate the coping strategies journalists use to deal with danger and traumatic stress and to build resilience. Through in-depth interviews with journalists covering crisis and violent events, the article looks at the physical, practical and trauma aspects of crisis journalism, and contributes to the complex understanding of risk and resilience for journalists. The study is based on interviews with nine reporters from five countries. Between them, they have covered several conflicts, terror attacks and wars. The study shows that they use a variety of strategies. Memories from unpredictable assignments stick with them. However, eight would cover traumatic events again, and the majority have experienced post-traumatic growth. My results show that informal peer support is crucial, but media organizations have a long way to go to ensure adequate support.
IT HAS BEEN A DIFFICULT YEAR FOR CHILDREN, ADOLESCENTS, AND FAMILIES. THEY HAVE BEEN FLOODED WITH A ROLLERCOASTER OF ABRUPT CHANGES. SPORADIC LOCKDOWNS, PROLONGED SCHOOL CLOSURES AND DRASTIC RULES WERE IMPOSED UPON CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS.
As the journalism industry faces increasing risk and insecurity in the digital environment, there is still much to know about how journalists are reacting to and internalizing online harassment, and what the consequences are for their routines. Approaching the problem from a socio-technical perspective and using focus groups with Latin American journalists, this study identified the dimensions of social media violence against journalists, and the actors and coping strategies involved in responses to social media violence. This study shows that social media violence against journalists permeates all stages of news production stages. The study also identifies new and changing actors—such as the social media agent provocateur, who, working on behalf of governments and parties, stirs up mob censorship as part of orchestrated online harassment to try to dictate what news is told—, as well as actants, such as messaging apps that journalists use to create support networks. Implications for Latin American journalism are discussed.
The COVID-19 pandemic, global economic downturn, anti-press violence and worsening situation of labour precarity for journalists around the world have led to increased stress, trauma and burnout in the profession, which raises questions at the heart of media sustainability and approaches to media development in a global context. Our study builds on the conceptual framework of professional and collective resilience research to analyse the content of media development work on publicly facing websites of a census of implementing organizations represented on the Center for International Media Assistance website ( N = 18). Our findings suggest that donors and other sponsors of media development work should consider making resilience a core component of global programmes in support of media democracy and journalism. Though programmatic agendas in global media development are crowded with multiple goals in response to complex problems, we believe that resilience should be prioritized. This work cannot be done without a nuanced analysis of local causes of emotional distress as well as local understandings of emotional labour and repair. Working with journalists’ support organizations and employers in conducting diagnoses, identifying suitable actions and promoting sustainable practices is imperative. Recommendations and actions need to be sensitive to local conditions, demands and opportunities. While immediate remediation actions are important, it is also important to keep attention on long-term structural matters that cause emotional distress.
The political and media rhetoric of the pandemic is that of conflict and a call to arms in face of a hidden enemy. But this is not a distant war where journalists are parachuted in to report on the action for a few weeks and then fly home. It is on our own doorstep. Many of those covering the global crisis do not correspond to the popular image of hardened conflict reporters and may have little experience in dealing with distressing stories of death, grief and mourning. How are journalists coping with the everyday diet of trauma when the corona frontline may be affecting their families, friends and colleagues? this article explores these issues through narrative interviews with UK-based journalists covering the pandemic for broadcast, print and digital media. It seeks to capture their “emotional labour” and explore possible differences in their practice and the coping strategies they employ. The paper locates this discussion within the context of an industry that has paid relatively little heed to these issues and considers what long-term implications the coronavirus may have for the next generation of digital journalists.
Guided by the transactional theory of stress and coping, this study documents and examines how journalists in Singapore experienced covering the COVID-19 pandemic. Through an interview with 22 journalists, this study finds a variation in how journalists experienced covering the crisis, and how changes in their work routines shaped such experiences. Forced to work from home, many journalists experienced a blurring of work and home boundaries. An important determinant of their experience is how well they were are able to cope, and the interviewees underscored the importance of organizational support in their coping process. These experiences and coping processes, however, were also shaped by their work status. While those working for mainstream organizations received sufficient support, freelancers and those affiliated with small media startups had a different experience, as COVID-19 magnified pre-existing disparities among journalists.
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 who cover economic crisis-related incidents suffer specific symptoms of trauma. As such, the study re-conceptualizes the economic crisis as primarily affective for media workers, it establishes a direct correlation between the economic crisis and emotional trauma, and provides an insight into the kind of trauma that stems from covering austerity and its impact on society. A regression analysis of symptoms indicates trauma journalism as an emerging field of research into the economic crisis.
A number of studies have demonstrated that journalists will experience traumatic events during the course of their careers. Yet a gap in the research exists regarding newsroom organizational leaders and the impact of trauma on their work and emotional health. This study used a grounded theory approach to learn how newsroom leaders experience trauma and how they learn from events such as disasters and terror attacks to translate that knowledge into the work of management. The study also analyzes peer-reviewed research on journalism, trauma, and PTSD to understand how the newsroom organizational leaders in the study can contribute and amplify the recommended trauma responses for newsroom leaders. The data reveal that news organizational leaders can experience symptoms of PTSD and other negative emotional impacts and that news organizational leaders experience an emotional double bind, where staff is encouraged to openly show emotion and be supported, but the organizational leaders believe they will be perceived as weak if they show emotion. Findings from the study are valuable, because they lead to practical guidelines regarding counseling, supervisor support, and training and extend our understanding of how trauma can impact the entire newsroom ecosystem.
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 demonstrates that journalists' emotional work is shaped by the changes in the industry and specific contexts in which they carry out their work.
This case study documents a large, 4-year university magazine’s transition to virtual instruction during the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Using theoretical frameworks from Kuh’s work on high impact practices (HIPs), this analysis offers empirical evidence that virtual student newsrooms may provide impactful learning experiences during crisis situations. Based on interviews, surveys, and newsroom observation, 23 magazine staff members reported improvements in their professional self-efficacy as they overcame logistics challenges and interpersonal hurdles similar to working media professionals. The case study also identifies strengths and weaknesses of crisis pedagogy. Implications for post-pandemic pedagogy and course planning are discussed.
Journalists are among the many professionals whose daily work involves emotional labor, or the manipulation of their emotions in front of others, in orderto do their jobs. This study explored the tenets of emotional labor in the context of natural disaster– a scenario when the emotional burden is high and the energy to cope with it is low. Qualitative analysis of 30 interviews with journalists who covered hurricane Harvey revealed journalists actively engaged in emotional labor during their coverage. Furthermore, their choices for emotional display were based on a shared understanding of professional guidelines and expectations mandating emotional distance in order to maintain objectivity. Implications for news coverage planning and journalists’ mental and emotional health are explored.
Photojournalists must document events that involve death, injury, and pain. In order to understand the impact of this work upon journalists, this study examined how often photojournalists covered assignments that involved exposure to death and injury, and the psychological consequences of these assignments. The study also explored factors that increased risk for the development of post‐traumatic stress disorder. Of the 875 photojournalists who completed this survey, 98% reported they had been exposed to events that mental health professionals would deem traumatic; automobile accidents, fires, and murders were the most common assignments. Close to 6% met the criteria for a diagnosis of post‐traumatic stress disorder. Number of traumatic assignments, personal trauma history, and decreased social support increased the risk of post‐traumatic stress disorder among photojournalists. The study argues for inclusion of emotional risk in theories about the relationship of photojournalistic practices to the creation of images.
Based on the available literature, this review article investigates the issue of resilience in relation to trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder. Resilient coping to extreme stress and trauma is a multifaceted phenomena characterized as a complex repertoire of behavioral tendencies. An integrative Person x Situation model is developed based on the literature that specifies the nature of interactions among five classes of variables: (a) personality, (b) affect regulation, (c) coping, (d) ego defenses, and (e) the utilization and mobilization of protective factors and resources to aid coping.
Journalists often complain about stress, but stress in the newsroom is not new. Earlier generations of journalists also endured it and received no help far it. This study explores how early journalists coped with stress through an historical analysis of autobiographies, biographies, and magazine articles written by and about early U.S. newspaper reporters and editors. Results reveal that early journalists blamed nine factors for their stress and responded to the stress in four primary ways.
The literature indicates that journalists, who have been exposed to traumatic situations, risk developing Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Certain temperament traits, such as neuroticism and compulsiveness, have been found to increase vulnerability to the development of PTSD amongst police officers. Few research studies have investigated temperament and a sense of coherence as factors mediating occupational stress in journalists exposed to trauma. The aim of this study was to address this dearth by investigating whether differences in the experience of trauma, temperament traits and a sense of coherence amongst journalists will influence the degree of PTSD experienced. The Impact of Event Scale-Revised was used to divide journalists into three groups, namely, those with minor reactions (n=10), moderate reactions (n=24) and severe reactions of clinical importance (n=16). Analyses of variance followed by Scheffé post hoc multiple comparisons technique indicated statistically significant differences between the three groups regarding experience of trauma as measured by the Trauma Questionnaire, temperament traits as measured by the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire and sense of coherence as measured by the Sense of Coherence Questionnaire. The results show that various factors could have an impact on how journalists deal with the traumatic stories they cover, as well as their personal outcomes after covering these stories. Journalists who develop severe PTSD differ in terms of their perceptions of the trauma, temperament profiles and sense of coherence, which impacts on their way of coping with the traumatic situations they face daily.
This meta-analytic review examines the role of optimism, social support, and coping strategies in contributing to posttraumatic growth. Results from 103 studies showed that all three systems of variables yielded significant effect sizes. Religious coping and positive reappraisal coping produced the largest effect sizes. Social support, seeking social support coping, spirituality, and optimism were moderately related to posttraumatic growth. Acceptance coping yielded the smallest effect sizes. Moderator analyses showed that effect sizes did not differ according to time elapsed since trauma, gender, and type of posttraumatic growth measure (posttraumatic growth vs. benefit finding). Age and gender were significant moderators of religious coping, whereas study design (longitudinal vs. cross-sectional) significantly moderated the effect of positive reappraisal coping. Implications for research and interventions on posttraumatic growth are also discussed.
This study is an attempt to build support for including trauma training in the journalism classroom. Qualitative interviews with students who covered a death-penalty murder trial and results from a quantitative survey of journalism students are combined to show that preparing students for the emotional reactions they may experience while covering the news is not only needed but wanted by the students themselves. Implications and directions for future research are also discussed.
The purpose of this article is to present the results of a qualitative study on assignment stress injury within journalism. Thirty-one Canadian journalists and photojournalists participated in the research study. The focus of this article is on recommendations offered by our participants to address the effects of traumatic stress within their profession.
Competition for ratings and an ever-increasing public hunger for information have led to an abundance of death and suffering on the local evening news because these topics are both eye catching and attention grabbing. But while a great deal of research exists on journalists who cover war, very little can be found which investigates the local journalist and how they continue to do their jobs in the face of the murders, fatal car accidents and fires which make up the bulk of their daily work. This study sheds light on the subject by applying qualitative research methods to the personal narratives of 26 television reporters and photographers from a large Midwestern television market. By using a framework developed by Baumeister and Newman (1994), this study shows how the way in which these types of experiences are remembered by journalists helps them to continue to do their jobs.
Journalists frequently report on disasters. There is a growing evidence that they are subsequently at higher risk of post-traumatic and depressive symptoms. We conducted an internet-based study with 61 journalists who had covered the tsunami disaster in December 2004 from the affected region. The extent of trauma exposure, symptoms and social variables were assessed. About 8 months after the event, indications of post-traumatic stress disorder were found in 6.6 per cent of the sample. Post-traumatic and depressive symptoms were related to the extent of traumatic exposure and to several social variables, most importantly, a low degree of social acknowledgment by supervisor and colleagues. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Eine Fragebogenuntersuchung zu berufsbedingter Traumatisierung bei Journalisten wurde im Internet durchgeführt. 61 Journalisten
(22 Frauen) machten Angaben zu Art und Häufigkeit hochbelastender Einsätze und traumatischer Lebenserfahrungen, Symptomen
der Posttraumatischen Belastungsstörung (PCL-C), Depression (ADS-K) und Bewältigungsstil (emotionale Kompetenz, FAPK, 3; Kohärenzgefühl,
SOC). 46% der Untersuchungsteilnehmer lebten in den USA, 41% in Europa; sie waren im Mittel 37 Jahre alt und hatten eine 13-jährige
Berufserfahrung. Im Mittel hatten sie 81 Einsätze erlebt, die sie mit Schwerverletzten, Sterbenden, Toten oder eigener Lebensgefahr
konfrontierten. 13% hatten eine vollausgeprägte, 15% eine partielle Posttraumatische Belastungsstörung (PTBS) entwickelt.
Im Vergleich zu gering beeinträchtigten Personen machten Teilnehmer mit PTBS signifikant häufiger Angaben zu Gewalttätigkeit
in ihrer Ursprungsfamilie, depressiven Symptomen und Defiziten der emotionalen Kompetenz.
A questionnaire study on work-related trauma of journalists was conducted on the internet. 61 journalists (22 women) provided
information about the type and frequency of highly stressful assignments and traumatic life events, symptoms of post-traumatic
stress disorder (PCL-C), depression (CES-D) and coping style (emotional competence, FAPK, 3; sense of coherence, SOC). 46%
of the participants lived in the USA, 41% in Europe; their mean age was 37 years and they had an average job experience of
13 years. They reported an average of 81 assignments in which they had been confronted with seriously injured, dying or dead
persons or had worked at the risk of their own life. 13% had developed a full and 15% a partial post-traumatic stress disorder
(PTSD). Compared to less disturbed individuals, the participants with (full or partial) PTSD reported significantly more often
about violence in their original families, depressive symptoms and deficiencies in their emotional competence.
Hundreds of studies have now used standardized checklists to assess respondents' self-reports of coping with naturally occurring stress. This article presents a critical review of the conceptual and methodological issues involved in the use of these checklists. As they are currently employed, conventional checklists render an incomplete and distorted portrait of coping. Specifically, these checklists are grounded in too narrow a conception of coping; the application and interpretation of checklists in the typical study are not faithful to a transactional model of stress and coping; statistical controls cannot eliminate the effects of key person and situation variables on coping; and no consistent interpretation can be assigned to coping scale scores. Researchers are encouraged to consider a broader range of methods for assessing coping, including semistructured interviews, customized checklists tailored to their specific hypotheses and objectives, daily diaries, and traditional trait measures.
War journalists often confront situations of extreme danger in their work. Despite this, information on their psychological well-being is lacking.
The authors used self-report questionnaires to assess 140 war journalists, who recorded symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (with the Impact of Event Scale-Revised), depression (with the Beck Depression Inventory-II), and psychological distress (with the 28-item General Health Questionnaire). To control for stresses generic to all journalism, the authors used the same instruments to assess 107 journalists who had never covered war. A second phase of the study involved interviews with one in five journalists from both groups, using the Structured Clinical Interview for Axis I DSM-IV Disorders.
The rates of response to the self-report questionnaires were approximately 80% for both groups. There were no demographic differences between groups. Both male and female war journalists had significantly higher weekly alcohol consumption. The war journalists had higher scores on the Impact of Event Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory. Their lifetime prevalence of PTSD was 28.6%, and the rates were 21.4% for major depression and 14.3% for substance abuse. War journalists were not, however, more likely to receive treatment for these disorders.
War journalists have significantly more psychiatric difficulties than journalists who do not report on war. In particular, the lifetime prevalence of PTSD is similar to rates reported for combat veterans, while the rate of major depression exceeds that of the general population. These results, which need replicating, should alert news organizations that significant psychological distress may occur in many war journalists and often goes untreated.
American newspaper journalists (N = 906) participated in a study examining a cognitive mediational model for explaining the relationship between exposure to work-related traumatic events and work-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Results indicated (a) greater exposure to work-related traumatic events was associated with work-related PTSD symptoms, as well as negative cognitive schemas; (b) cognitive beliefs partially accounted for PTSD symptoms, but the full cognitive mediational model was not supported. Implications include targeting interventions for journalists who experience traumatic stress and modifying theories about PTSD symptoms in journalists.
It hadn't been a particularly good day. It got off to a bad start when a blustery warlord upset with his press reviews thundered at us that lie would do something obscene to all Western journalists and then throw them in prison. It got worse that afternoon when some Taliban sympathizers in another village plotted to take us hostage to win the freedom of their captured commander. It turned horrific when a Canadian colleague of ours soon afterward was seriously injured in a grenade attack apparently perpetrated by would-be kidnappers. And it seemed to stop, frozen in time, for a few chilling moments later that night when the sky just up in front of us lit Lip with the firecrackers of mortar shelling that sent us diving into ditches.
The current war in Iraq saw an alliance between the media and the military, a process called embedded journalism. The aim of this study was to explore whether this process affected the journalists' vulnerability to psychological distress. Eighty-five of 100 journalists approached agreed to participate; 38 (44.7%) were embedded. There were no differences between embedded and unilateral (non-embedded) journalists on demographic measures or in their exposure to traumatic events. Similarly, the two groups did not differ on indices of posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, psychological distress, and substance use. Based on General Health Questionnaire scores, one third of all journalists were psychologically distressed. There is no evidence from the recent war in Iraq suggesting that embedded journalists are at increased risk for psychological problems.
The identification of adaptive and maladaptive coping strategies following traumatic events has been the subject of much scientific inquiry. The current study sought through meta-analysis to evaluate the relationship between the use of approach and avoidance strategies (both problem-focused and emotion/cognitive focused) following trauma and psychological distress. Thirty-nine studies of coping following two types of traumatic events (interpersonal violence and severe injury) were retained in the meta-analysis. There was a consistent association between avoidance coping and distress, overall r = .37, but no association between approach coping and distress, overall r = -.03, but some important moderators existed. Implications of the results for future research regarding coping and trauma recovery are discussed.