Stigma around burnout
‘If you worked harder or smarter, you would not burn out.’ Burnout stigma exists because we all have internalized messages like this. Those messages become beliefs, which, at a social level, become a stigma. Moreover, it becomes a barrier rooted in prejudice, avoidance, rejection, and discrimination due to a lack of understanding. Social acceptance plays a significant role in our confidence, leading us to burnout for months, if not years—those who don’t believe this phenomenon may believe the statistic. Approximately 70% of journalists surveyed experienced personal and work-related burnout. Most exposed to experience burnout are women and young professionals, which leads to leaving their jobs. Furthermore, we wanted to do our fair share of breaking the stigma and present an article about the factors impacting this mental health issue.
When we talk about burnout in the journalism field, we have to take into consideration the constant information flow they handle daily. Keeping that in mind, we understand that global events like the COVID-19 pandemic, elections, and abort discussions are part of their information intake throughout the workday. Finding the primary source of burnout among young professionals and journalism students is hard because this career can face many challenges. For starters, we must acknowledge the most significant responsibility journalists have for our society, and dealing with that at the beginning of your career path can be challenging. The following factors are examined from the point of view of young professionals or students just about to start their careers.
When we talk about burnout in the journalism field, we have to take into consideration the constant information flow they handle daily. Keeping that in mind, we understand that global events like the COVID-19 pandemic, elections, and abort discussions are part of their information intake throughout the workday. Finding the primary source of burnout among young professionals and journalism students is hard because this career can face many challenges. For starters, we must acknowledge the most significant responsibility journalists have for our society, and dealing with that at the beginning of your career path can be challenging. The following factors are examined from the point of view of young professionals or students just about to start their careers.
Post pandemic factor
Communication is in our nature, and sometimes it gets complicated when you must be isolated for an unknown period. And when your whole career is grounded by contact with people and telling stories, it gets even more complex. During the pandemic, many young journalists started their job when nothing was secure, and the working flow significantly changed. Recent graduates quickly become disillusioned when they find that the values they were taught are no longer applicable. Those who adapt fast can survive, the others tend to change career paths. And for the future generations of journalists, that meant no practical classes, which will make the transition into work life even harder, if not impossible, for some of them. Everything is back to normal, but the pandemic left a legacy of social pandemic burnout. No separation line between home and work, and more screen time during the day strongly influences your mental health. The scare was among all societies, and even then, journalists had to be on top of every uncertain information and tell about unpleasant events.
Layoff
Meanwhile, journalists often have had to juggle an increased workload with longer, more irregular hours while their incomes have also decreased. Continuing turbulent economic conditions led to a host of layoffs in 2022-2023, including in national outlets like NPR, Vox, and CNN, as well as in local and regional Gannett-owned newsrooms. Short staff means more work for the rest of the team, meaning they have to cover more topics. Unfortunately, this change has also been associated with deteriorating mental health. All those factors connected to the working environment make the journalism career even more attractive for the future generation. The industry trend is to replace many roles and services with freelance modes, meaning less security and organizational support and increased isolation for journalists.
Work enviroment
Staff experiencing symptoms of burnout are a potential liability for organizations if they don't provide appropriate support. As the world is changing, so should company policies to prevent the resignation of employees. Things that should be considered are adapting trends like flexibility or a hybrid approach to working, with the option of accessing space. Employees who feel their company needs to catch up on technology or only use it after it becomes mainstream are likelier to feel burnout compared with more innovative companies. The company's lack of mental health support can contribute to isolation and distress among young journalists.
More about the challenges in front of the working students and young professionals in the journalism field in the video. We talk with Ariana Araiza, multimedia journalist, and Cydeni Carter, former journalist and now exploring the career of public relation specialist.
More about the challenges in front of the working students and young professionals in the journalism field in the video. We talk with Ariana Araiza, multimedia journalist, and Cydeni Carter, former journalist and now exploring the career of public relation specialist.
Survey
We asked a dozen young journalists with less than five years of experience and working journalism students at the start of their careers about their interpretation of burnout and the factors that cause it. Most of the time, we conduct surveys to confirm the information and phenomena that we think exist and to give us a more precise overview of the representative group.
Open questions gave us the data to conclude a definition of how our audience describes media burnout - the constant need to stay on top of the news until desensitization to the worst information. Some mentioned that social media addiction is part of media burnout. We all suggested this, but now we can confirm the impact of social media on our mental health. Recommended screen time is around five hours per day. 10 out of 13 people said they spend more than that in front of the screen. Moreover, social media is a leading source of information for journalists, not only in their free time and while working. Consuming too much information can lead to anxiety and overwhelming feelings. Also, we managed to highlight the main reasons for burnout among working journalism students and young professionals. Moreover, they mention as main factors are the lack of a clear schedule, overload with transformation, juggling work, school and personal life, and media layoffs. That brings on to the next important point - the consequences of burnout. Dozen of young professionals think burnout leads to a lack of motivation to engage in media/ news or even change a career path. Looking into the bigger picture that can influence media literacy among the youth when it comes to following the news. On the other hand, this is a threat for the media outlets to suffer from staff shortages if they don’t adapt to the needs of their employees. Indeed we managed to disclose surprising trends among our target audience. As we mentioned, the pandemic impacts widespread burnout, but we also found out that young people used this time to concentrate on their families and, at some point, realize that they have to put their health first. Moreover, it made them more sensitive to fake news and manipulation. The second thing is that although they are not completely satisfied with the salary and almost 70% think they have experienced burnout, most still need to change their career path at this point in their journalism journey. |
Solution
Google Analytics gave us the insight that the most searched combinations of words, including burnout, are “why is so hard to fix burnout,” “solutions for burnout,” and “how long it takes to get over a burnout.” This mental health issue is real, and people need more information about the condition and how to deal with it. Some of the most mentioned ways to cope with stress among our target group can be summarized in four big groups:
- Activities: going out with friends, traveling, exploring new hobbies;
- Relax: sleep, read books, turn off all electronic devices;
- Balance: schedule, leave work-related devices at the workplace;
- Journal: writing, self-reflection to better understand where the stress comes from.
Conclusion
The stigma around burnout has been compounded over many decades by our economy, systems, and societies’ worship of work. Like cleaning up a massive oil slick or undoing air pollution, destigmatizing burnout will not be an overnight job. But positive signs are there. As courage, openness, and honesty are increasingly displayed and valued in the workplace, psychological safety will replace stigma.
Written by Viktoria Spasova & Fatlinda Zekjiri
Infographics & visualization by Viktoria Spasova
Blog design by Viktoria Spasova
Interviews by Viktoria Spasova & Fatlinda Zekjiri
Infographics & visualization by Viktoria Spasova
Blog design by Viktoria Spasova
Interviews by Viktoria Spasova & Fatlinda Zekjiri