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Journalism event streamed by Sky News addresses mental health in the field.

By Katie Hoggan (Communications Officer (Corporate)), Published

Five years ago, I was covering a riot and was standing beside a fellow journalist who was shot dead. That very traumatic experience changed my life and my perspective.

Newsrooms aren’t a great place to admit that you have mental distress. That inspired MediaStrong.

These are the words of Leona O’Neill. As a journalist, author and Head of Ulster University’s Undergraduate Journalism programme, Leona has used her expertise to create MediaStrong, an annual symposium that explores the impact of journalism on the mental health of those working in the field.

This year’s symposium was hosted at City with academics from the journalism department. The event was live streamed across newsrooms and NGOs around the world, including Sky News, BBC and the Rory Peck Trust.

BBC's Jeremy Bowen and Leona O’Neill, founder of Media Strong.
BBC's Jeremy Bowen and Leona O’Neill, founder of Media Strong.

Newsrooms aren’t a great place to admit that you have mental distress. That inspired MediaStrong.

“I burnt my career in journalism to the ground and started again in academia. I found peace in academia and helping students going into the field.

“We’re trying to make the newsrooms that students go into healthier places to work," said Leona.  She added that she was looking forward to potential collaborations between journalism students from City and Ulster in the future.

City collaborated with Sky News, Safely Held Spaces and Ulster University to host the event. John Schofield Trust helped design the programme. Journalists gave powerful testimonies on the impact that crisis reporting and witnessing suffering can have on those within the industry and discussed the need for more mental health support.

James Scurry, senior producer and assistant editor at Sky News and co-founder of the non-profit mental health organisation Safely Held Spaces,  spoke of the importance of journalists looking after not only themselves and the wellbeing of those they interview but also making sure that they do not mistake “being numb” for being resilient.

He said, "As journalists we are often told that we need to be resilient, but often when we talk about being resilient what we're actually asking journalists to do is cut themselves off from their emotions and feelings.

“We know that creating a strong empathic bridge with those we write about is a crucial part of the craft of journalism, and so what we're hoping to achieve is a greater degree of emotional regulation when we're at work.

Conference attendees practicing embodied movement
Conference attendees practicing embodied movement

It's about teaching journalists how to breathe, how to witness the pain of others in such a way that they don't need to dissociate and numb themselves out, and ultimately it's about helping journalists to stay sufficiently in touch with their emotions that they don't miss out on understanding what the story they're covering is actually about.

“In a nutshell, the skills taught at MediaStrong have been about creating a relationship of safety and trust between journalists and the people at the heart of the stories.”

Broadcast journalist Allan Little gave a keynote speech at the event, reflecting on his decades of experience at the BBC, and Sophia Alexandra Hall of the Big Issue spoke about trauma-informed journalism relating to those with care experience.

Dr Lea Hellmueller, Director of Research and Reader (Associate Professor) at the Journalism Department , helped organise the event with fellow City academics Dr Zahera Harb and Dr Pauline Renaud. She said it was an excellent opportunity for City to collaborate with key organisations to host an important conversation on mental health in journalism.

Dr Lea Hellmueller speaking at the conference
Dr Lea Hellmueller, Director of Research and Reader (Associate Professor) at the Journalism Department , helped organise the event with fellow City academics

“It was a very powerful event and certainly a discussion that needs more follow-ups,” said Dr Hellmueller.

“I’m inspired by the changes such an event could bring to newsrooms and particularly the state of freelancers around the world when it comes to ethical decision-making and dealing with trauma in our journalistic careers.

I think there is an important change happening in the industry where we can have an open discussion about mental health and trauma.

“I’m also hoping to bring this discussion to the forefront in the classroom, so we can best prepare our students for their careers. I was so glad to see many students attending the event and hearing their feedback.

"I would like to echo what Saima mentioned at the end of the day about our next potential event focussing on the trauma of women and journalists of colour in the newsroom and beyond.”

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