When the workday never ends: journalists discuss the pandemic’s mental health toll
They discussed the reporting roadblocks posed by physical distancing and personal protective equipment. But apart from the practical challenges of interviewing subjects and otherwise gathering news in the era of COVID-19, the four panelists gathered for a discussion on “Covering the Pandemic Safely” also examined the debilitating effect that the pandemic has had on the mental health of journalists.
The Zoom session with four journalists — including the CBC’s Adrienne Arsenault, veteran foreign correspondent and co-host of network’s flagship newscast, The National — took place Thursday at Carleton University’s Journalism in the Time of Crisis conference.
The other panelists were Wall Street Journal reporter Erin Ailworth, South African journalist Paula Fray of Frayintermedia and Italian broadcaster Stefania Battistini of RAI News.
Arsenault, who won the 2015 News & Documentary Emmy Award for her coverage of the Ebola virus epidemic in Liberia, has years of experience reporting on crises around the world and said that many journalists “who did not sign up for being faced with trauma were faced with it” with COVID-19.
“That training should be applied to people every day,” she said. “Trauma is sticking with people who weren’t prepared for that . . . I’m worried about how robust it will be when people go home.”
The message was echoed by Fray, who noted that work-from-home conditions can also play a role in affecting the mental health of journalists.
“The workday never ends,” she said. “You wake up and you’re doing the story, you work all day in your living space, and I think when it comes to self-care we have got to be very intentional about checking in with our colleagues.”
Battistini said that journalists’ obligations to the public and to the truth are more important now than ever, which naturally puts pressure and stress on the reporters when it comes to holding those in power accountable.
“In Italy, some institutions had to play down [the crisis] to avoid panic, and others had to emphasize the situations to raise citizen awareness,” she said. “You’re in the middle and you have to tell the truth.”
Working at the Chicago bureau of the Wall Street Journal, Ailworth has reported on shootings, wildfires and other disasters, but says that the pandemic has been new territory.
“We are victims and survivors of this disaster,” she said. “As journalists, we’re not usually those things. We get to leave at the end of the day. But now, we’re in it.”
Ailworth lives alone and says that while she would normally return from covering a traumatic event to her calm home and have time to recover emotionally, since COVID-19 she hasn’t been able to escape the intensity and stress of the crisis.
“This is stressful, traumatizing work not only for the people we’re reporting on but for us,” she said. “We need to be very conscious as we do this work (that) it is very hard to do the necessary self-care that comes with this kind of reporting.”
Fray explained that in her experience, the pandemic has taught journalists how to discuss mental health in the newsroom.
However, reporting from South Africa, Fray said the pandemic has “exposed” the social, political and financial divides in society and “extremely high levels of inequality” that the country is navigating. Coupled with the infection danger and serious health risks associated with COVID-19, Fray says this has created a massive shift in her approach to journalism.
“We are now willing to talk about the mental health impact of covering the lockdown,” said Fray. “Not just for the reporters who go out every day, but also the newsroom manager who has to make the difficult decision that the story is worth telling and therefore is worth potentially putting someone at risk.”
Find the whole panel discussion here.
