Journalists and mental health: An API resource guide

A collection of insights, tips and intelligence for a challenged profession

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Journalists these days face stress from several directions all at the same time — they’re covering an increasingly violent world, they are the target of threats and harassment both online and in person, and they deal with mistrust from the public — stoked by politicians who call their work “fake news.” The Covid-19 pandemic beginning in 2020 brought illness, death, grief and uncertainty, all of which were a challenge to cover. The difficulty is compounded for marginalized groups.

Add in that the industry is under extreme financial pressure, and that newsroom leaders often aren’t trained to manage through all these challenges, and it is easy to see why some journalists would consider a new line of work altogether.

Therein lie the stakes if the profession does not come to terms with the many pressures facing journalists. In a study of first-person narratives of people who left the business, “Why I quit journalism,” authors Nick Mathews, Valérie Bélair-Gagnon and Matt Carlson wrote that journalists had become “haunted by an always-on mentality, strained mentally overall, and unsupported by the industry and colleagues,” but that they also achieved a sense of power by giving advice to their peers.

“These former journalists left journalism partly because they felt that they were failing their audiences. While not surprising, these results showed how these former journalists felt that journalism fostered an environment where they were always-on and overdriven,” Mathews said in a Twitter thread when the report was published. 

The good news is that there is a growing recognition of the problem, and a proliferation of resources to help. The guide that follows is an effort to point to and organize these resources in ways that can be helpful to journalists looking to put words to what they’re feeling and manage those stresses. 

We’ve also included resources for managers, where available. One place for newsroom leaders to start is with Samantha Ragland’s “Leadership Reset” series, a thoughtful and thought-provoking guide on how newsroom managers can respond to the myriad stresses of modern journalism — the “always on duty” pressures, the flood of negative news and the toll of the industry’s financially precarious state.

This guide also includes first-person accounts from peers because one of the most crippling emotions journalists can feel when they’re under stress is isolation — the feeling that they are alone. We hope these pieces will help show that they are not.

Finally, a word about some of the information here that is labeled “self-care,” the big and small ways that we can be kind to ourselves to alleviate stress. These methods can be helpful, but no matter how intentional or intensive you are, it is important to note that not every problem can be managed with self-care. In fact, some experts caution against the “self-care” framing altogether.  

There are two reasons for this. First, while self-care is helpful — we need to give ourselves room to contemplate and heal — it puts some burden on you to address a problem that may not be of your making. Second, the “self” in self-care implies you can do it alone. In many cases, working with a therapist or confidential employee assistance program is the best course of action. Some organizations offer financial assistance for journalists in paying for mental health support. Links to those resources are included at the end.

This guide is organized in a way that allows journalists exploring specific challenges to find them easily. But it’s important to know that none of these challenges exists in a vacuum. One can be mistaken for another (e.g., PTSD or moral injury), one can lead to or contribute to another (e.g., bad management can play a role in anxiety about the future of the business) or they can exist in combination with one another (e.g., marginalization contributes to burnout). 

This guide will be updated periodically as more resources become available or come to our attention. Please let us know if you are aware of resources that you’d like us to consider for inclusion in the guide.

Dealing with trauma

Journalists are good at making their jobs look easy — they’re used to showing up at a crime or disaster scene, notebook in hand, game face on. After a difficult story, though, they can face a sense of bewilderment and despair. This applies to journalists back in the newsroom as well — those editing footage, sending alerts, figuring out how to frame sensitive stories — where indirect exposure can lead to vicarious or secondary trauma. As these resources show, there are ways to prepare for these assignments, to manage through them and to cope with the aftereffects. 

Resources for journalists 

• Conflict zones: Reporters Without Borders provides a guide for reporters entering conflict zones or any other settings where they might encounter danger. It includes a PDF checklist for what to do before, during and after reporting in high-risk situations.  
• Psychosocial self-care: The international development organization IREX provides tips on psychosocial self-care for journalists as part of its Security Access to Free Expression initiative. (IREX, August 2019)
• Self-care tips for covering community trauma: Some strategies from the Dart Center’s Bruce Shapiro. (NBCU Academy, March 2021)
• Covering Trauma, a Facebook group started to help journalists who’ve covered mass shootings, has a comprehensive tip sheet. 
• Pandemic-specific resources: GroundTruth, working with Beyond Conflict, examined the emotional toll of the Covid-19 pandemic on reporters. It suggests strategies to self-regulate and other coping methods. (Cynthya Gluck, GroundTruth, April 2020)
  • Videos on conscious movement and humming from Beyond Conflict.
• Vicarious trauma: Journalists can experience “vicarious trauma,” the emotional residue of covering traumatic stories and experiences of others. Those who use avoidance mechanisms can make it worse. (Wendy L. Patrick, Psychology Today, January 2023)
• After-effects: The International Journalists’ Network has published a list of tips for coping after covering a distressing story. (Cristiana Bedei, November 2020) 
• Critical stress incident help sheet: The National Press Photographers Association offers a guide for what to do after covering a critical incident. (NPPA, July 2018) 
• What is PTSD? The Department of Veterans’ Affairs provides detailed descriptions, including definitions, diagnostic criteria and triggers in a PTSD Essentials document.
• Seeking therapy: The Journalist Trauma Support Network, a program of the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma, offers a directory of therapists and other therapy resources and advice on finding a therapist in your community.

How managers can help

• In-house therapist? Hearst Newspapers has an in-house therapist available for all its employees in California and Texas. (Angela Fu, Poynter, February 2023) 

• How to be an ally: While not for journalists specifically, four academics write for Harvard Business Review about how managers can be an ally to employees who have faced violence in their community. (Melanie Prengler, Kristie Rogers, Nitya Chawla, and Angelica Leigh, HBR, February 2023)

• How editors can support writers with mental health conditions: Learning the signs, reaching out and providing support (April Reese, Open Notebook, February 2021) 

• What bosses can do: Strategies for helping people deal with acute and repeated trauma. (Anne Godlasky, National Press Foundation, January 2023)

Stories from peers 

• ‘You have to let yourself feel’: Reporters who covered the mass shootings in Texas described the difficulty in covering tragedies in their own communities. (Liliana Soto, The Texas Observer, June 2022)
• After Jan. 6: A reporter’s account of the mob surge at the Capitol and her resulting trauma. (Kate Woodsome, The Washington Post, January 2022)
• How others cope: Some 20 journalists share how they take care of themselves while covering trauma, (Kari Cobham, Poynter, May 2019)
• In their words: Reporters around the country explain how they manage, in their own words, compiled by ProPublica’s Ken Armstrong.
• A journey with PTSD: A reporter diagnosed with PTSD writes about her journey for Poynter. Here is her follow-up. (Hannah Storm, Poynter, 2020 and 2022)
• The pandemic exit: Journalists tell their stories of how the pandemic caused them to leave the business (Sara Guaglione, Digiday, September 2021)

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Facing anxiety amid industry turmoil   

Journalists give their all to an industry that sometimes seems to abandon them all too cavalierly. Journalism may, indeed, be a “calling” for some people, and that calling contributes to the resilience they need to perform, and even thrive, amid extreme stress. But, as Simone Stolzoff wrote in The New York Times about jobs of passion, “love, unfortunately, doesn’t pay the bills.” That adds to journalists’ stress and general angst about the industry they’re in.

Resources for journalists 

• Build resiliency into your career: The National Press Foundation offers tips to build your career so that you can bounce back if you get laid off, noting that a layoff is a measure of industry — not individual — performance. (Erika Filter, NPF, March 2023) 

• If you get laid off: These resources from Poynter may help. (Lisa Goodnight, Poynter, March 2019)

• Feel good about the skills you’ve built: Journalism management expert Jill Geisler wrote for Poynter that journalists have enormously transferable skills, even if they don’t stay in the business. (August 2022)

• Should you be in this business? Six professionals talk about what it takes to survive in journalism. (Evelyn Nam, Harvard Business Review, November 2022) 

• Take pride in your work: Journalists continue to report that they are fulfilled in their jobs, despite uncertainty, according to a broad survey by the Pew Research Center. (Jeffrey Gottfried, Amy Mitchell, Mark Jurkowitz and Jacob Liedke, Pew, June 2022)

How managers can help

• Ways to manage amid uncertainty: Tips for supporting employees’ mental health amid uncertainty. (Kelly Greenwood and Natasha Krol, Harvard Business Review, August 2020)

• Dealing with layoff fears: Tips for how managers can respond. (Lisa Rabasca Roepe, SHRM, November 2022)  

• When managers are struggling: Insights on how to lead through anxiety. (Morra Aarons-Mele, Harvard Business Review, May 2020)

Stories from peers

• Sharing layoff news: What a laid-off journalist learned from sharing on social media (Kathy Lu, Poynter, December 2019) 

• Returning to journalism: A teacher returned to journalism and found out how the field had changed. (Carly Flandro, Kappan Online, January 2023)

• “All in – until I wasn’t”: Theola DeBose, a former Washington Post reporter, writes about leaving the business altogether. (Medium, October 2018)

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Fighting back against marginalization

Newsrooms today place heavy burdens on people of color, LGBTQ+ journalists and people from other marginalized groups. The discrimination, microaggressions and reliance on these groups for emotional labor and other kinds of unpaid work all take a toll on mental health. 

Resources for journalists 

• Self-care: The National Association of Black Journalists Monitor offers tips from experts on self-care, starting with “listening to yourself.” (Whitney Hughes, NABJ Monitor, August 2021)
  • It also has a collection of resources for coping and safety. 

• Reimagining coping strategies: Self-care for Black journalists. (Patrice Peck, The New York Times, July 2020)

• Understand why marginalized journalists burn out: Dissatisfaction is part of it. (Nylah Burton, NBCU, January 2023)

• Allyship: Investigative Reporters and Editors asked five journalists for tips on how to be an ally in the newsroom. 

• For women and nonbinary journalists: The Global Investigative Journalism Network has compiled an eight-chapter resource guide. (GIJN, 2019)

• AAPI resources: The Asian-American Journalists Association has a list of mental wellness resources (Alice Nguyen, AAJA, updated February 2021)

• LGBTQ+ journalists: How to survive this difficult moment in American politics. (Mike De Socio, Poynter, May 2023)

• Shifting newsroom culture: Exploring potential solutions to making equity a reality. (Philip Clapham, Colorado Media Project, June 2020)

How managers can help

• Be a better ally: How managers can embrace allyship for women from marginalized racial and ethnic groups. (Lisa Rabasca Roepe, Society for Human Resources Management, March 2023) 

• Use an inclusion index: How it can help improve coverage of communities of color. (Letrell Crittenden, API, August 2022) 

• Lighten the burden: Journalists of color cannot do all the work. (Doris Truong, Poynter, June 2020) 

• Protect that DEI budget: Erin L. Thomas writes about how to prioritize DEI initiatives. (Harvard Business Review, May 2023)

• Combat marginalizing behaviors: Don’t contribute to the “death by 1,000 cuts” phenomenon. (Jordan Bryan, Gartner, September 2020)

• Rebuild the pipeline: Newsrooms need “new entry points” for young journalists from diverse backgrounds. (Clio Chang, Nieman Reports, February 2022)

Stories from peers

• I’m a Black reporter. Covering America almost broke me. A reporter tells his story. (Jesse J. Holland, Foreign Policy, June 2020)

• AAPI journalists reflect: Asian American journalists on reporting on the pain in their community (Zoe Christen Jones, CBS News, March 2021)

• “I was suppressing trauma and anger I didn’t even know I had.” The “special hell” for Black journalists after the killing of George Floyd. (LZ Granderson, Los Angeles Times, May 2020)

• Black journalists are in a uniquely challenging position. Nine journalists tell their stories. (Jarrett Hill, Self, July 2020)

• Navigating a white newsroom as a Black female reporter. Tyra L. Jackson wrote an autoethnography for Journalism Practice detailing her experiences of bullying in a white newsroom. She talked about her report in the J Word podcast. (The interview with Jackson begins at minute 36:00)

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The impact of mismanagement and lack of leadership in newsrooms

Newsroom culture is not known for superb management. News managers tend to be trained in journalism skills, less so in people skills. The product — getting the story out the door — often comes before the staff, meaning a lot of bad management is committed under cover of deadline pressure. The unpredictability of news can put a beat reporter on top of the world one day, and on the back bench the next. All this adds up to demoralization or burnout. The resources here are targeted as much at management as the rank and file, since managers can work to prevent stressful situations in the first place.

Resources for journalists 

• Dealing with a toxic boss: Some strategies from Faima Bakar. (Journo Resources UK, June 2022) 

• Ways to survive until you can leave: Six toxic boss signs and how to deal with them. (Claudia Guthrie, The Muse, April 2023)

• Understand the stakes: Not all bad bosses are the same, but they all take a toll on mental health. (Carolyn Gregoire, HuffPost, January 2017) 
• For introverts: How to be a journalist even when you’re not the “loudest person in the room.” (Omar Gallaga, Poynter, June 2023)

What managers can do

• Tell people where they stand: Adopt a ‘progress bar’ mindset for your team members (Jill Geisler, National Press Club Institute, March 2022) 
  • Related video: Managers overestimate the amount of feedback they think they are giving. 

• Be an excellent leader in news: Ten tips from Alexandra Borchardt. (Reuters Institute) 

• Feedback loop: How to implement a feedback culture in your newsroom (Morten Frich, Reuters Institute, April 2022) 

• Eight media leadership tips: From the authors of two books on media leadership. (Charlotte Tobitt, Press Gazette, September 2022) 

• Create ways for people to lead without pushing them into management (P. Kim Bui, Sincerely, Leaders of Color, April 2022)

• Generational tensions: Understanding the differences in values and priorities among younger and older professionals. (Lucy Kueng, Reuters Institute, 2020) 
  • Related video: Why our youngest employees want feedback. (Jill Geisler, 2022)

Stories from peers

• An ‘honest look’ at the job: When being a journalist is terrible for your mental health (Philip Eil, Vice, August 2017) 

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Combating threats and harassment online 

Journalists are expected to be online in a public way, but that also makes them vulnerable to online attacks. A climate reporter/meteorologist, for example, quit the business after receiving threats online. Women bear the brunt of online abuse. In early 2023, API partnered with the International Women’s Media Foundation to assemble an inclusive guide to help journalists respond to harassment and threats online. 

Resources for journalists

• Tips for protecting yourself online: The IWMF and API guide includes five tips. (API, IWMF, March 2023)
• Online violence response hub: The Coalition Against Online Violence has a guide for journalists who need psychological, legal or physical support after being doxxed, harassed or abused online. 
• How to respond: A practical guide from IWMF, Thomson Reuters Foundation and Unesco. 
• Mental health support: IWMF has also published a mental health guide for journalists facing online violence.

How managers can help

• Newsrooms’ responsibility: Journalist’s Resource included advice for managers in a piece on how newsrooms should do more to protect people from online harassment. (Naseem S. Miller, Journalist’s Resource, February 2023)
• Holding editors accountable: When editors support employees who are being harassed, “the climate in the newsroom brightens,” writes Michael Bugeja. (Poynter, November 2020)
• Resourcing the most marginal journalists: Tara Pixley explores the need for identity-aware safety and security training. (Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute, December 2022)

Stories from peers

• Just doing their jobs. How female journalists were targeted online as part of what Taylor Lorenz calls a “global epidemic of online harassment.” (The Washington Post, February 2023) 

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Recognizing moral injury

Moral injury among journalists has increasingly been a focus of attention in recent years. Important work on this topic has been done by University of Toronto psychiatrist Anthony Feinstein, who, writing in the Toronto Globe and Mail, defined the condition as one “arising from perpetrating, witnessing or failing to prevent acts that transgress one’s ethical code of conduct.” In this piece by Janine di Giovanni for Harper’s, he said it is “a wound on the soul, an affront to your moral compass based on your own behavior and the things you have failed to do.” 

Resources for journalists 

• Repairing moral injury: In this webinar from the General Earth Institute at Columbia University, Feinstein and di Giovanni describe moral injury, how it differs from PTSD and how to approach it. (Columbia University, September 2020)
  • Related article (Dale Willman, Columbia University, September 2020)

• Refugee crisis case study: Feinstein and Hannah Storm describe how journalists covering the migration crisis faced moral injury. (Reuters Institute, July 2017) 

How managers can help

• Value your assets: The VIA Institute on Character’s strengths assessment can give journalists a broad look at identifying and applying 24 strengths, such as curiosity, hope and perspective. Taking the assessment may point journalists toward which character strengths are under attack, so they can begin to unpack why and how they and others in their support network might begin to combat the attack and repair the damage. 

• Create psychological safety: This report can help you better understand psychological safety, one of the most important characteristics of a thriving team. If you can trust your manager, and likewise, your reports trust you, the vulnerability and openness that comes without social consequence won’t just create effective teams. It will create healthy teams. Learning how to cultivate psychological safety can give news leaders valuable insight into what is happening to — and in — their journalists. (McKinsey, February 2021)

• Apply layered listening: Solution Journalism’s complicating the narrative layered listening strategy works when a reporter enters a contentious interview and conflict, but it also works when news leaders are trying to navigate the hazards of being in journalism. (Solutions Journalism, February 2019)
  • Related: Listen for facts and feelings, but also listen for values, and always loop for understanding. (Cheryl Carpenter, Poynter, March 2019)

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Confronting burnout

Burnout, according to the World Health Organization, is “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” Journalists experience it at high rates, according to a 2023 survey by the Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill. Burnout can result from a combination of many of the other issues outlined in this guide. It’s also unsustainable, as Elizabeth Djinis wrote for Poynter. 

Resources for journalists 

• A starter pack to address burnout: API’s Samantha Ragland offers thoughts on how newsrooms and employees can reassess and repair journalists’ relationships with work. (API, May 2023)

• Identifying burnout: Signs to watch for, from a trauma therapist, social worker and former photojournalist. (Holly Butcher Grant, National Press Club Journalism Institute, April 2021)

• What burnout looks like: Christina Maslach, a psychology professor and foremost authority on burnout, describes the phenomenon and offers a roadmap for dealing with it. (Jason Pohl, UC Berkeley, February 2023)

• Overcoming burnout without quitting: Some tips for dealing with it, also from Christina Maslach, are included in this article. (Catherine Zuckerman, New York Times, April 2021)

• Creativity and burnout: What is the correlation? (Berkeley Extension)  

• Tips for addressing workplace burnout: Both for employees and managers from the Society for Human Resource Management (Matt Gonzales, June 2022)  

How managers can help

• Rethink your newsroom: This API report outlines how news leaders can consider “work design” as a way toward a healthy newsroom. (Jane Elizabeth, September 2021)

• How to talk with employees about mental health: Ways for managers to meet their responsibility to create an open environment at work. (Deborah Grayson Riegel, Harvard Business Review, November 2020) 

• Stressful environments harm people (video): Jill Geisler on strategies for leaders to reduce stress in the workplace. (University of Denver Executive Education, YouTube, February 2018) 

• Self-care tips: Building resilience, and paths for self-preservation and repair. (Naseem S. Miller, Journalist’s Resource, July 2021)

• Recognizing burnout: Understanding symptoms and misconceptions about it. (Jakub Górnicki, Mixer, 2020) 

• Preventing burnout: How journalists can ward it off (Samantha Ragland, Poynter, November 2020)

• Steps you can take: Some tips from a stress reduction coach (Brianna Hatch, GroundTruth, August 2021)

Stories from peers

• What drove them away: Former public media employees tell about the burnout they experienced before leaving. (Tyler Falk, Current, January 2023) 

• The COVID reporters are not okay. Extremely not okay: How covering “the story of a lifetime” has driven people away. (Olivia Messer, Study Hall, May 2021)

• A story of exhaustion: The former editorial director of The Texas Tribune, Stacy-Marie Ishmael, explains why she left that job (and others), and why she doesn’t see quitting as failure. (Jaden Edison, Poynter, August 2021)  

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Financial resources

Several organizations have established or sponsored funds for journalists who might need financial help for mental health support.

• Black Journalists Therapy Relief Fund: Provides assistance for Black journalists facing hardship in paying for mental health support. (International Women’s Media Foundation) 
• Mental wellness assistance for AAPI journalists: Journalists can apply for mental health funding assistance from the Asian American Journalists Association. 
• Support for independent journalists: The Rory Peck Trust has a therapy fund to help freelance journalists who would benefit from professional support.

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