Emotional Wellbeing of Journalists

Happiness in Journalism as a Public Good

Herman Wasserman

In: Happiness in Journalism

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

London; New York: Routledge (2023), pp. 190-192

"This chapter argues that research and teaching on happiness in journalism should be considered important areas to focus on to improve journalism as a public good." (Abstract)

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Journalists Considering an Exit

Jana Rick

In: Happiness in Journalism

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

London; New York: Routledge (2023), pp. 11-18

"This chapter examines the results of a number of studies that considered whether and why journalists sought to leave the profession. They found that freelance, female, and low earning journalists were the most likely to leave." (Abstract)

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

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

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

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

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Workplace Happiness, Journalism and COVID-19 in South Asia

Achala Abeykoon, Archana Kumari, Mohammad Sahid Ullah, Pallavi Majumdar, Sajjad Ali, Mou Mukherjee Das, Santosh Kumar Biswal, M. C. Rasmin, Shilpa Kalyan, Mohd Shahid, Mamunor Rashid

In: Happiness in Journalism

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

London; New York: Routledge (2023), pp. 166-174

"This chapter explores some of the positive strategies employed by South Asian media institutions to enhance workplace happiness and help journalists to cope with stress and traumatic experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. Happiness is crucial for media institutions because journalism is one of t ... more

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

Magdalena Obermaier, Annemarie Wiedicke, Nina Steindl, Thomas Hanitzsch

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

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

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Managing Emotions in Journalism: A Guide to Enhancing Resilience

Maja Šimunjak

Cham: Palgrave Macmillan (2023), xi, 223 pp.

"This textbook offers the first practical guide to managing emotions in everyday journalism work based on interviews with more than 30 British journalists. It raises awareness of emotional situations and stressors journalists may face, so practitioners are better able to recognise these and prepare ... more

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Building Resilience Through Trauma Literacy in J-Schools

Lada Trifonova Price, Ola Ogunyemi

In: Happiness in Journalism

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

London; New York: Routledge (2023), pp. 47-56

"This chapter explores what educators can do to help students cope with trauma that they are likely to experience during their studies and in their future practice." (Abstract)

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Developing Psychological Capital to Support Journalists' Well-Being

Maja Šimunjak

In: Happiness in Journalism

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

London; New York: Routledge (2023), pp. 69-77

"This chapter seeks to enhance journalists’ psychological capital with targeted interventions." (Abstract)

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Has Journalism Forgotten the Journalists?

John Crowley

In: Happiness in Journalism

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

London; New York: Routledge (2023), pp. 187-189

"This essay argues that more qualitative research is needed to assess why journalists are reporting burnout, taking time off work, and in some cases leaving the profession." (Abstract)

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

Jiyan Faris, Pieter Maeseele, Yazan Badran, Kevin Smets

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

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

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Safer Vox Pops and Door Knocking

Kelsey Mesmer

In: Happiness in Journalism

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

London; New York: Routledge (2023), pp. 138-146

"This chapter overviews the harmful nature of these reporting practices and provides alternative reporting strategies and solutions that can improve reporters’ safety and increase their happiness in the profession." (Abstract)

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“Living a lie at the workplace”: Ghanaian Media Practitioners’ understanding of emotional labour and response patterns

Collins Badu Agyemang, Maxwell Asumeng, Benjamin Amponsah, Christopher Charles Mate-Kole, Feikoab Parimah

IFE PsychologIA, volume 31, issue 1 (2023), ?? pp.

"The authors saw the need to explore the emotional labour experiences of media practitioners owing to the sparse literature on the phenomenon from an African perspective. The study explored how media practitioners explain emotional labour, the factors that predispose them to emotional labour experie ... more

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Establishing Individual, Organizational and Collective Practices for Journalists' Well-Being through Disconnection

Diana Bossio

In: Happiness in Journalism

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

London; New York: Routledge (2023), pp. 96-104

"This chapter explores broader use and negotiation of online connection and disconnection within news organizations and professional bodies. It argues that improving the happiness of journalists means centering methods of care in the profession, within individual practice and organizational editoria ... more

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Happiness in Journalism

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

London; New York: Routledge (2023), xi, 204 pp.

"This book examines how journalism can overcome harmful institutional issues such as work-related trauma and precarity, focusing specifically on questions of what happiness in journalism means, and how one can be successful and happy on the job. Acknowledging profound variations across people, genre ... more

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Teaching Student Journalists to Refill their Happiness Tanks

Alexandra Wake, Erin Smith

In: Happiness in Journalism

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

London; New York: Routledge (2023), pp. 147-156

"This chapter suggests methods for encouraging well-being among journalism students and refers to ground-breaking court cases that have put media organisations on notice, requiring them to provide psychologically safe workplaces for journalists." (Abstract)

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What Psychology Can Offer in Understanding Journalists' Well-Being

Jennifer M. Ragsdale, Elana Newman

In: Happiness in Journalism

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

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

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

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Cognitive Dissonance in Journalistic Trauma

Danielle Deavours

In: Happiness in Journalism

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

London; New York: Routledge (2023), pp. 127-137

"The chapter proposes solutions for unhealthy coping techniques, such as ignoring, only positive focus, and diminishing negatives, and modifying only the dissonance-inducing behavior are not long-term solutions for most individuals." (Abstract)

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