We need to build out our skills with the insights of trauma psychology—deepening reporting on survivors of tragedy at the same time as we foster our own resilience, pushing back against the silent censorship of burnout.
Featured image: Evgenios Kalofolias
Recognizing and addressing burnout in the newsroom
Speaking to iMEdD, experts warn burnout in journalism goes beyond exhaustion and now poses serious risks to press freedom.
In early April I was on a panel at the International Journalism Festival in Perugia when investigative reporter Natalya Gumenyuk, founder of Ukraine’s Public Interest Journalism Lab, stood up with a question. How can trauma awareness become essential to the shared culture of journalism around the world?
Natalya’s nonprofit newsroom focuses with pinpoint accuracy on war crimes and the human cost of conflict. But across Europe, covering this time of violence and democratic crisis is straining both the craft and personal capacity of news professionals whether local or international. How can we manage news cycles in which stress and trauma never stop? How do we report ethically on people who’ve been through hell, without exploiting or re-traumatizing them? How can journalists avoid burnout, PTSD, or other psychological injury while doing a job that brings so much harassment and abuse?
The answers to Natalya’s question begin, I am convinced, with frank journalist-to-journalist conversation. We need to share challenges and innovations and shore one another up. And we need to build out our skills with the insights of trauma psychology—deepening reporting on survivors of tragedy at the same time as we foster our own resilience, pushing back against the silent censorship of burnout. It’s time for human-centered journalism innovation.
