COVID-19 compounded journalism’s mental health crisis
Journalists are suffering mental health consequences from covering the pandemic
Journalists are suffering mental health consequences from covering the pandemic.
COVID-19 is hurting journalists’ mental health according the Reuters Institute, which considers news outlets should help them now as many reporters are struggling to cope with the emotional demands of covering the pandemic.
Journalism and the Pandemic: a global snapshot of impacts.
The debate
Stress, anxiety, depression, sleep and eating disorders or burnout are just some of the mental health issues that many journalists covering the Covid-19 pandemic suffer every day. Mental health in newsrooms needs to be given greater attention and journalists' unions can play a key role in protecting media workers' mental well-being.
Let’s talk about… Mental Health and COVID
The Daily Beast’s former lead COVID-19 reporter Olivia Messer writes on why her struggles with mental health associated with her role led to her resignation. “Despite the spate of headline-worthy media departures, the industry has failed to examine how and why COVID reporters in particular are struggling so much — or what can be done about it,” she writes at Study Hall.
When covering covid-19, underprepared journalists risk doing more harm than good.
News avoidance can be a symptom of ‘worry burnout’. After almost two years of stress and vigilance driven by the pandemic, psychologists say some people are experiencing fatigue and growing detachment from this sustained worry. One sign of worry burnout is news avoidance, which can stem from a reluctance to emotionally cope with updates on topics like the Omicron variant.
Trauma Journalism in the Time of Coronavirus
Journalists know trauma, but COVID-19 might expose them to anticipatory trauma according the Poynter Institute.
Increased attention has been paid to the trauma of journalism in recent years, more so since the pandemic hit. Journalists have been referred to as “vicarious first responders” in articles by the American Psychological Association.
As pandemic restrictions begin to lift around the world, journalists are beginning to face the mental health consequences of the past two years. Psychologist Esther Perel says journalists are “in a state of collective trauma” from covering such a difficult news story while personally suffering the consequences of the isolation and fear imposed by the pandemic. Some blame the “macho culture” of journalism, which rewards bravado and danger and fails to help workers cope with the stress and trauma of the job.
For some journalists, the marathon of covering disasters — from climate events to protests to COVID-19 — brought on post-traumatic stress disorder, but they feel unsupported by their newsrooms.
The research
Journalists are struggling with mental health, financial hardship, and disinformation, according to a “startling and disturbing” survey.
Three quarters of journalists experience lockdown-related stress according a global survey whose findings are published in a report entitled ‘Journalism in the Time of Covid’, which urges news leaders to heed concerns from staff about their mental well-being.
The Journalism and Pandemic Survey conducted by the ICFJ revealed that 82 per cent of journalists reported at least one negative emotional or psychological reaction as a result of the pandemic and nearly three quarters (70%) said the emotional and psychological impacts of dealing with covid-19 were the most difficult part of their work.
According to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll conducted in mid-July, 53 percent of adults in the U.S. reported that stress and worry over COVID-19 has negatively affected their mental health. On top of dealing with those same concerns, science journalists also take on the emotional toll and physical risks of covering the pandemic.
Mental health is a concern for British journalists
Mental health is a concern for journalists in the UK and Ireland according the National Union of Journalists. More than half of NUJ members say they have had mental health concerns during the pandemic.
Many British journalists suffered stress, frustration and burnout during the pandemic. A research on British journalists’ work in the Covid-19 pandemic has revealed that it was the digital transformations, such as virtual newsrooms and digital newsgathering, that had the biggest impact on journalists’ wellbeing and job satisfaction in this period, rather than trauma reporting. The research based on in-depth interviews with more than 30 journalists found that shifts to working from home and digital newsgathering had bigger impacts on their wellbeing than covering the trauma of COVID-19.
It is argued the examination of journalists’ emotional labour matters as it can impact journalists’ workplace wellbeing and mental health but also work commitment and quality of journalism. Interviews were conducted with 34 British journalists covering politics in the spring of 2021. The findings indicate that journalists experienced a range of negative emotions working in the pandemic, with anxiety and frustration being among the most commonly reported ones but also important was the feeling of pride in their work. The inability to access established, albeit informal, support systems, tied primarily to a physical newsroom space but also other socialisation spaces, such as working on location, removed opportunities for emotion management and induced new, and often persistent, emotions of anxiety, frustration, loneliness and nervousness related to work.
The tools
Reporting and Covid-19
How can journalists take care of themselves and their colleagues during the pandemic?
The news cycle is once again dominated by harrowing stories about Covid-19. Reporting the pandemic is stressful and at times, overwhelming. The steady stream of coronavirus figures and reports can take a toll on journalists’ mental health. This, combined with working from home, can mean that journalists are left feeling isolated and in many cases stressed and anxious. As stress and anxiety in the newsroom are a growing concern, try these free and simple ways to take care of your mental well-being.
The pandemic has taken a huge toll on adult mental health, causing businesses and employees to suffer. Fortunately, improving mental health in the workplace is becoming increasingly important and according to the CDC, the workplace is a great place to host activities that improve adult wellbeing, as almost 63% of Americans make up the US workforce. SoCal Empowered has created an ultimate guide to mental health in the workplace which discusses how mental health affects businesses and employees and what employees and employers can do to support mental health.
Unions have a critical role in addressing mental health issues at work. They can make a difference by surveying workers to identify mental health challenges, pushing employers to proactively address workers’ mental health and provide them with support and resources.
Since 2020, journalists have covered an onslaught of troubling stories without the option to tune out. On Newsbreak, a site and social media feed created by Tom Hourigan of the BBC, journalists can discuss the strain placed on their mental health while covering the pandemic. On the site, journalists share their mental health experiences during the pandemic as well as tips on dealing with anxiety, grief and depression.
More than nine months into the pandemic, newsroom leaders at the Financial Times knew that their workers were struggling to connect with each other while working from home. So they began taking actions to help its journalists build resilience during the pandemic. From live-streaming editorial meetings to providing self-management training, the Financial Times upped its efforts to support its staff through gloom and exhaustion helping its journalists during the pandemic.
How KATU News made space for mental health training
KATU News in Portland, Oregon, did not air its usual morning and afternoon shows. The entire news team was attending a seminar, led by the Poynter Institute, on how to deal with on-the-job stress and trauma.
How journalism can make ‘space for healing’
Over the course of 2020, Oakland news outlet El Tímpano collected and published stories from audience members — who subscribe via SMS — about how they were managing the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic, and whether they had found a bright side to their struggles.