Journalism challenges after the COVID
Many journalists have dealt with secondary trauma during the pandemic
An API report examines several distinct challenges news organizations are facing as they attempt to rebound after the pandemic — from retaining those “Covid readers” to making up for diminished staff and resources — and offers concrete tips and replicable solutions from a range of news outlets, so local organizations can take steps to recover from the trauma.
Let’s talk about… the COVID-19 Pandemic
It’s not uncommon to hear about reporters who experience secondary trauma after covering horrific news events. It’s something many journalists have dealt with during the pandemic, which has claimed more than 800,000 U.S. lives in the two years since the first cases were identified. How do we as reporters cope with trauma encountered while working? Ginny Monk spent three years reporting on child deaths in Arkansas, and the experience haunted her. In this column, she provides practical advice for reporters struggling to cope and shares lessons for coping with tough assignments.
The debate
The mental health of journalists has been steadily deteriorating since the pandemic; a broken business model, rapid digitalization and the emotional difficulty of the content we cover are only exacerbating a real mental health crisis in the media. However, on the bright side, more and more people and organisations are becoming aware of the issue and taking action to reverse it. A meet-up facilitated by The Self-Investigation’s co-founder and executive director, Mar Cabra, and its operations director, Paula Montañà Tor, will be held Saturday 20 April 11:00 - 13:00 in Perugia. The event is open to all but capacity-limited and you can fill in this form to join.
The research
Healthcare workers are at elevated risk for suicide; though it has yet to be studied, this risk may be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. News media coverage of high-profile suicide is associated with an increased risk of subsequent suicides, even if no analysis has yet been published of US media practices for reporting on healthcare worker suicides during the pandemic until now. The researchers aimed to evaluate pandemic-era media practices by investigating adherence to best-practice suicide reporting guidelines in coverage of Dr. Lorna Breen's death. Every media outlet violated an average of at least 5 of 15 suicide guidelines in reporting on Dr. Breen's death; some abided by as few as 2 of 15 recommended guidelines. Seven of 15 guidelines were adhered to by fewer than one third of articles. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number, notably easy to include, appeared in only 75% of articles. These violations highlight a range of opportunities to improve suicide prevention in the media, which has a responsibility to ensure reporting does not exacerbate the risk of suicide. Improved adherence to these guidelines could reduce harm for healthcare workers during the pandemic, according the authors of the paper “Violations of Suicide-Prevention Guidelines in US Media Coverage of Physician's Suicide Death During the COVID-19 Pandemic”.
The resources
The National Press Foundation will hold a two-day training fellowship on covering workplace mental health May 21-22, 2024 in Washington, D.C. This is a competitive program open to U.S. journalists only. The deadline to apply was by April 10, and I’m sorry to haven’t shared with you in time. I hope you can attend, as I’d love to.