Burning out for Journalism

The project is sponsored by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)

German journalists: how mentally demanding is the profession?

The project investigates the psychosocial health of German journalists, stress and occupational strain in journalism, and factors that can exacerbate or alleviate these issues. The project is exploring these questions through an online survey of over 1,300 media professionals throughout Germany.

Findings

The findings show that journalists perform worse than the average population in terms of stress levels, mental well-being, and risk of depression and burnout. Experiences with mental health issues—either personally or in the workplace—are widespread in journalism. Working conditions and workload are perceived as particularly stressful. In addition, a significant proportion of journalists feel they are subjected to hostility in their professional lives and suffer from discrimination and bullying in the workplace. Despite their undisputed positive effects, organizational assistance and support services are rather rare in German newsrooms and media companies.
It is hardly surprising that, against this backdrop, almost two-thirds of the media professionals we surveyed have considered leaving the journalism profession in the past 12 months.