Five recommendations for supporting journalists’ well-being

Photo: Pixabay

The Middlesex University from London published a set of Recommendation for supporting journalists’ well-being. The publication consists of five recommendations and includes links to useful courses and resilience programs.

Set of recommendation was developed by a working group on journalists’ well-being within the project “Journalists emotional labour in the social media era” led by Middlesex University. The working group met in the Spring of 2022 featuring a dozen key stakeholders – including representatives of the BBC, British National Union of Journalists, Centre for Media Monitoring, European Federation of Journalists, Headlines Network, Reach, Rory Peck Trust, Society of Freelance Journalists and UNESCO, as well as researchers from Middlesex University, Sheffield Hallam University, University of Amsterdam, and University of Lincoln – to exchange knowledge and discuss the ways in which journalists’ well-being could be supported to benefit their mental health and job satisfaction, as well as the quality of journalism.

The key recommendations are:

  1. Acknowledge the well-being issue and contribute to the culture change
  2. Educate and train in emotional & mental health literacy
  3. Create and deliver fair and transparent support systems within news organisations
  4. Ensure well-being practices and systems are accessible and sustainable
  5. Build and join coalitions to support evidence-informed solution

How to implement these recommendations and other information on journalists’ mental health can be found here.