Publication highlights the importance of mental health care for professionals during journalistic coverage of environmental disasters and high-impact collective situations.

São Paulo, June 13, 2024 – Since the beginning of 2020, journalists have increasingly faced events that challenge their ability to cope with stress, working on stories that demand a lot from their physical, mental, and emotional capacities. The pandemic, disasters like Brumadinho and Mariana, landslides and floods like those registered in Petrópolis, Recife, and Salvador, and more recently throughout Rio Grande do Sul, are just a few examples. The Observatory of Communication, Freedom of Expression, and Censorship (OBCOM), a research group at the University of São Paulo (USP), and the communication agency DIX Content and Relationship have developed the Basic Guide for Journalists Covering Extreme Events – Preserving Physical and Mental Health in High-Stress Situations to support professionals and journalism companies who have worked and will continue to work on events with major collective impacts.

“Professionals working in extreme events are exposed to highly stressful situations. This exposure can lead to symptoms of intense stress and even post-traumatic stress disorder, among other psychological conditions. If the journalist is a resident of the area where the events are happening, they may be doubly impacted: by the challenge of the coverage and by the possibility of being personally affected by the event,” says Daniela Osvald Ramos, PhD, professor at the School of Communications and Arts at USP and coordinator of OBCOM.

Most publications guiding journalists on how to handle potential symptoms of intense stress and its consequences for their physical and mental health focus on conflict and war situations and are generally only available in English. Given this reality, the guide was created with the mission of providing information and fostering debate on a topic still under development in Brazil: attention to mental health and the potentially traumatizing work of journalists.

“More than 2,000 journalists lost their lives due to the pandemic, with Brazil ranking at the top of a list of 94 nations. We have seen environmental disasters in the country with increasing frequency, and the same generation of professionals is covering them, repeatedly dealing with the pain of those who lose everything and facing unprecedented situations, such as the one that occurred in Rio Grande do Sul. It is crucial to focus on the physical and mental health care of these professionals and future generations,” emphasizes Elen Petterson, director of DIX Content and Relationship.

The Basic Guide for Journalists Covering Extreme Events – Preserving Physical and Mental Health in High-Stress Situations briefly explains how covering extreme situations can lead to trauma, impacting the health of professionals who are gathering, selecting, and distributing information about these events. It also provides tips on how reporters can protect themselves and how leadership can safeguard their teams.

The guide was developed based on the analysis of articles, videos, and literature on trauma and risk communication, along with OBCOM studies, in a pro bono partnership between the research group and DIX Content and Relationship. The guide also features contributions from illustrator Eloenes Silva and is supported and promoted by the National Federation of Journalists (FENAJ), which has historically produced content on the work of journalists in Brazil and the oldest annual report on violence against journalists and communicators.

For more information:

OBCOM
obcom.net.br/vis

DIX CONTENT AND RELATIONSHIP
Cristina Fernandes
11 95978 7713
cristina.fernandes@dix.inf.br
dix.inf.br

Click here to access the basic guide for journalists covering extreme events.