Journalism can, at times, be a particularly challenging profession: the tragic or disturbing stories being covered; the scenes being viewed and visited; the shocked, distressed and bereaved people being encountered; even the unmistakeable smells of an incident that may linger long afterwards.
Image: It’s nighttime and a cluster of outside broadcast vans fills the car park of the Beaconsfield mine in 2006 as attempts go on for 18 days to rescue trapped miners.
Media workers are human beings first. Experiencing physical, psychological and emotional reactions to such atypical or ongoing stimuli is perfectly normal.
Four decades ago, in his book Trauma and its Wake, traumatology expert Charles R. Figley noted that reaction to trauma exposure is “an emotional state of discomfort and stress resulting from memories of an extraordinary, catastrophic experience which shattered the survivor’s sense of invulnerability to harm”.
While you might consider yourself resilient and able to weather difficult stories – based on what you have already experienced in your career – the impact of continued exposure to traumatic stressors can be cumulative and even single instances can trigger unexpected reactions.
You might find yourself struggling while covering the dreadful loss and fallout from a natural disaster, from ongoing violence and conflict, or it could be when sitting through protracted court cases or lengthy inquiries involving confronting, even graphic, details that assault your senses and values, exposing you to images and information that are morally repugnant.
Image: Five evacuating locals make their way through massive mounds of debris in Iwate Prefecture, Japan, after the devastating 2011 Magnitude-9 earthquake and tsunami.
Or you might find yourself torn between something you are expected to do or experience, as part of your news coverage, and your personal values and beliefs, putting you in danger of “moral injury” from a betrayal of one's core values, such as justice, fairness and loyalty.
It doesn’t need to be a criminal or court incident that exposes news media workers to moral injury either. It can also happen in the aftermath of a natural disaster, as the Dart Centre Asia Pacific explained after the 2023 Türkiye-Syria earthquake.
What are some steps that you can implement now to help sustain you through days, weeks, months – or even longer – of challenging coverage?
Image: News media personnel crowd around then union official Bill Shorten at a press update during the Beaconsfield mine rescue attempt.
Firstly, take breaks. Don’t be a hero and try to be the one to stay longest at the scene of a tragedy. Ask to be rotated off the story if you are struggling. There is no shame in such a request.
We know from British research done with first responders almost a decade ago, that the amount of “time on site” is correlated to the development of mental health issues: Those who arrived on scene early and were around longer reported higher levels of mental health injuries.
This is also true for the sometimes forgotten first responders: news media personnel.
Step away from the scene of a tragedy. Take a walk somewhere calm. Sit and gather your thoughts. Have a bite to eat and a drink. If you find you are highly stressed or sad, let yourself yell or cry. Then compose yourself by remembering positive things that remain important to you.
Understand the value of what your journalism is doing for those most closely affected as well as for those around them and the wider community.
Secondly, it may help to establish some daily routines, ones that connect – or reconnect – you to a more normal time and help you put a full stop on your work day.
Exercise is great for increasing your levels of dopamine, the feel-good hormone, and for relieving pent-up stress. Whether that’s a daily run or swim, lifting weights (even stand-in ones), cycling, stretching or yoga – whatever is your personal preference – as long as you can remain safe while doing your chosen activity.
If you’re away from home, perhaps touch base with loved ones, either by phone, SMS or email. If you know that they know you are safe and thinking of them, they will worry less.
Likewise, touch base fairly regularly with an appropriate person in your newsroom, whether that be your line manager or a trusted peer or mentor.
The trick is to maintain your regular routines to ensure protective physical, psychological and emotional benefits.
Thirdly, talking through your concerns can help alleviate some of these and, at the same time, ensure appropriate responses are taken early, rather than allowing those issues to become debilitating and, potentially, career-limiting.
This is where having a peer support system in place in your newsroom can be helpful.
In the absence of such a system, having a trusted, trauma-informed person to speak to is valuable. This might be a trauma-trained counsellor (for instance via your company’s Employee Assistance Provider), or psychologist who specialises in the impact of trauma, or it might simply be a trusted someone who has done that kind of work previously – perhaps they are now retired or even work outside of the industry or your newsroom.
On the other hand, it may be that the exposure has happened to a colleague and you are concerned for their welfare. This is where you can use your journalistic skills to listen rather than lecture or solve.
In such cases, it helps to employ active listening, where you reflect back what was said, and to invite the person themselves to suggest how they might best respond. If their distress is palpable or undiminished, it would be wise to suggest they seek advice from a trauma-trained professional.
Caveat: The above suggestions and links are provided for information purposes only and should not be considered professional medical or psychological advice. Never disregard advice from a medical or allied health professional, nor delay in seeking advice because of something you read here or elsewhere on the internet.
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By Trina McLellan, the chair of the Dart Centre Asia Pacific, a regional charity that works with journalists and newsrooms to mitigate psychological injury among media professionals, their audiences and subjects. For further information, email admin@dartaspac.org