Journalists keep an eye on everything but are unconscious of their mental health.
What causes the increase in mental health problems among journalists?
Journalism is an attractive and powerful profession, whose glamour quickly draws young and new alike. Many embrace this profession with passion but ignore some of the challenges and problems associated with it that are not anticipated at the original level.
Journalism is a very influential field for young people, but they are not aware of its challenges.
Much is said about journalism and journalists in Pakistan, but the subject we will be discussing today has not been discussed much.
In Pakistan, people only talk about political and economic pressure on journalists, but few people, and even less so journalists themselves, talk about mental pressure.
Pakistan is considered a difficult country for journalists, with physical violence and loss of life and property, but mental stress and psychological issues are often neglected.
Journalists are there to report directly after the police and medical volunteers to deal with any emergencies and accidents.
How do these accidents and incidents affect journalists’ mental health? To what extent have journalists become aware of mental health? What types of challenges are they facing? How do we address those issues? To answer these questions, the comments of journalists and psychologists are presented in the form of this article.
Fariha Fatima, a reporter associated with the well-known television channel, explains.
“The biggest problem for journalists when it comes to mental health is that they face not only bad news but all sorts of news.”
The common person has the opportunity to ignore bad news and not watch television or read the news, but journalists have to deal with this situation. Unfortunately, in our country, the bad news is described as “big news”.
All of these issues greatly affect the mental health of journalists, which numbs them to some extent. It takes its toll in personal life, but in professional life as well, you progressively lose your concentration and skills. There is undue stress in our media and in our newsrooms, with the fear that journalists will be affected mentally and psychologically much more than normal human beings.
Working journalist Sameer Ajmal told. It is common for a journalist to suffer from illnesses like depression, lack of sleep, and mental stress in the working conditions of journalists in Pakistan. But it is a sad fact that because of working pressure, economic conditions, and other factors, Journalists with mental illness are not aware that they have also experienced mental illness.
The reason for this is that they do not get any facility from the media organizations to get their check-up done by a good psychologist. One of the causes of mental illness among journalists is the lack of a structure of service and hours of work for journalists.
Due to the lack of service structure, journalists get less salaries depending on the work, while due to the lack of fixed working hours, most of the journalists suffer from low sleep.
Regarding the working hours of journalists, it is common to say that there is a set time for journalists to come to the office, but there is no time to leave. Be it a bomb blast, a murder, or an accident, journalists have to go to the spot and report.
They have a very serious impact on their mental health as well. Considering the mental health of journalists, journalism institutions, governments, and organizations that work for journalists should organize such activities, awareness campaigns, and training workshops.
That may give them the opportunity to entertain themselves and occasionally mentally, and a medical checkup should be done to evaluate mental health.
Sheema Siddiqui expresses her views;
“When it comes to mental health, our working conditions are very challenging, especially for women journalists. For the journalists who work in the newsrooms, the number of women is very low. In our society, the responsibility of managing the house is given only to the woman.
There is no career guidance or job support system, so women journalists face enormous difficulties. lack of support from the family and social system, professional responsibilities along with other responsibilities cause mental stress for women. We still have a traditional reluctance to accept the talent of female journalists. Home, society, and institutions should support them mentally, socially, and educationally in every way.
Zia Rehman, a freelance journalist, and researcher, said:
“The biggest problem facing mental health and journalists is financial issues. According to the 2020 report by PUJF, 8,000 people were fired from various media organizations in Pakistan.
After the Covid situation, this issue is even more worrying. The salaries of many journalists have been reduced, and in many institutions, salaries are delayed by two or three months. Due to the decrease in people, the workload of journalists has increased. This is one of the main and most important reasons why journalists are mentally ill and often many journalists suffer from depression. The situation is the same in small and large cities. Another important reason is the transition from traditional style to digital.
Senior journalists face significant challenges due to a lack of familiarity with technology. The challenge for them is to stay relevant in their work. Technology is easy to use for the new generation of people, so they easily adapt to it. In addition, journalists, especially crime reporters and DSNG staff, have to deal with domestic political issues and cases of terrorist attacks. They need special help and guidance in this matter.
Naeem Qaiser, the senior journalist, said: We all hear the talk of modernizing the world. The media play a key role in the modernization of this world and the people associated with this industry have played an important role in the making of a global village.
Today, such the term “Reporter Never Sleeps” originated in the electronic media compared to the print media, which increased economic, social, and mental pressure.
Today, journalists are under pressure to find contacts and news in their sector on social media. When I switched from print to electronic, I didn’t take a single leave of absence for 18 years.
Let’s say that I was so engrossed in this race of filling my stomach with news on the screen all the time that I never even thought of meeting my home, relatives, and happiness. Due to this situation, not only I started suffering from mental stress, but also, I was unaware of the life and the problems of a common man. I think people associated with the media are under a lot of pressure and especially mental pressure in the present era compared to the past.
Center for Excellence in Journalism, IBA’s director and lead journalist Amber Rahim Shamsi said.
Journalism in Pakistan should be done by those who are mentally strong and prepared to endure challenging times in this area. People who want to be journalists have a lot of passion because there are so many difficulties and problems to face, and if you are not passionate and you do not have a big heart, you will give up very quickly.
Journalists are forced to work on time if they work 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. With a pressing deadline, there is no precise working time. Because of the nature and demands of the job, many journalists suffer from mental illness. Within the newsroom, pressure is also being exerted to outstrip colleagues and other organizations. In this situation, journalists should be very strong mentally.
Clinical psychologist and trainer Dr. Ayesha Badar said to us during a training session:
“Often journalists do not know because of their mental health.
They face many physical problems, including migraines, back pain, acidity, anxiety, anger, hopelessness, and inability to concentrate on their work.
Because they call them physical illnesses and neglect them due to time and sometimes ignorance and very easily hide this condition while keeping themselves occupied. The situation is very dangerous and troubling. It is very important for journalists to be more aware of their mental health.”
Psychologist and author, Dr. Khalid Sohail says:
“Mushtaq Ahmad Yousufi writes in his book ‘Khakim Badhan’, “A great writer makes his voice heard by the public, but a great journalist makes the public voice heard by the public. ”
Journalists shake the conscience of the public, but they have to pay a heavy price for this service.
In my professional life, I have met many journalists who have been exposed to such horrific experiences and painful scenes of war and accidents that they have suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and become psychologically paralyzed.
Some began to have nightmares and others were so sad to recall past events that they began to think of suicide.
We helped them undergo therapy and make a physical and mental recovery. Here are three tips to avoid posttraumatic stress syndrome. The first tip is that they should not go alone to observe and report fights or accidents. Have a friendly person with whom they can speak and ask for psychological assistance when needed.
Another suggestion is to take a few weeks or months off from work and rest for a while at home or go to a recreational place where they can enjoy pleasant things and reduce the intensity of their traumatic events.
The third recommendation is to consult a psychologist as soon as he/ she feels that he/ she is suffering from unbearable stress or a psychological problem.
In my opinion, an individual should carry out his or her professional responsibilities with the utmost zeal and integrity, but it is not wise to risk his or her mental health and life for that.
It is very important that journalists are familiar with some of the basics, if not more, of mental health. Digital wellness and digital fasting along with the 4W and H of mental health.
Remember, whether your organization takes care of you or not, you need to take care of yourself because you need to take care of other people.
