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Prioritizing mental health in the newsroom: How to create a culture of well-being

Today’s journalists are under a tremendous amount of stress. The news cycle is incessant, and reporters and editors are routinely exposed to trauma. The news industry, especially local news, faces an uncertain future. And online harassment of journalists, especially women and journalists of color, is a huge and growing problem. Studies have found that journalists’ work can impact their mental health. Research suggests that between 80 to 100% of journalists have been exposed to a traumatic event on the job, according to the Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma. Last year, the results of a survey of more than 1,200 Canadian journalists confirmed that they face an “alarming amount of stress,” and many suffer harm as a result of repeatedly covering traumatic stories, yet, “those harms are often not met with appropriate support.”

There are practical steps that newsrooms can take to protect their journalists’ mental health. In this session, four experts will draw from their personal and professional experiences to share advice on how newsrooms can make mental well-being a part of their culture. Experts include public media station WITF Director of Journalism Scott Blanchard, Texas Tribune Editor-In-Chief Sewell Chan, Research Director at Dart Center for Journalism & Trauma and McFarlin Professor of Psychology at the University of Tulsa Elana Newman, and Dave Seglins, an investigative journalist and well-being champion at CBC News. The webinar will be moderated by Naseem Miller, senior health editor at The Journalist’s Resource.

In this one-hour webinar you’ll learn:
– How to create trauma-aware newsrooms.
– How different types of newsrooms can create a culture of well-being.
– How to care for reporters and editors before, during and after difficult stories.
– How Canadian journalists are leading the way to bring mental health into newsrooms.

Jan 17, 2023 12:00 PM in Eastern Time (US and Canada)