This self-directed course features content from the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas' massive open online course (MOOC) titled “Mental health and journalism: How journalists can responsibly report on it and take care of themselves.” The five-week course took place from June 27 - July 31, 2022.
The course was taught by Kim Brice, Mar Cabra, and Stephanie Foo. They created and curated the content for the course, which includes video classes, readings, exercises, and more.
The course materials are broken into five modules, along with an introductory module:
We encourage you to watch the videos, review the readings, and complete the exercises as time allows. The course materials build off each other, but the videos and readings also act as standalone resources that you can return to over time.
We hope you enjoy the materials. If you have any questions, please contact us at journalismcourses@austin.utexas.edu.
Kim Brice is co-founder of The Self-Investigation. She provides personal leadership coaching and mindfulness-based stress reduction and resilience trainings to a broad public, including journalists and change makers from around the world. Prior to starting her personal development work, she served as a global freedom of expression activist and later as a funder and then organizational advisor to many media, journalism and social justice support programs around the world. She believes creating a more balanced, compassionate and sustainable world starts with nurturing those qualities in ourselves.
Mar Cabra is co-founder of The Self-Investigation. She is a Pulitzer prize-winning journalist, digital wellness educator and Acumen fellow working on raising awareness on how technology is changing the way we interact with ourselves, each other and as a society. She writes a column in Spanish newspaper El Confidencial on this topic. She’s committed to creating a healthier working culture in journalism to prevent others from burning out like she did after leading the technology and data work for the Panama Papers investigation.
Stephanie Foo is a writer and radio producer, most recently for This American Life. Her work has aired on Snap Judgment, Reply All, 99% Invisible, and Radiolab. She is the author of What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma. A noted speaker and instructor, she has taught at Columbia University and has spoken at venues from Sundance Film Festival to the Missouri Department of Mental Health. She lives in New York City.
In the introductory module, you will get an overview of the course structure. After watching the welcome video, please explore the rest of the introductory materials, including the syllabus and recommended readings.
Introduction
Materials
1. Self-care tips for journalists — plus a list of several resources [Nasseem S. Miller, The Journalist's Resources]
2. Digital Wellness: Your Playbook for Surviving Thriving in the Remote Work Era [Digital Wellness Institute]
3. Journalism Resource Guide on Behavioral Health [The Carter Center]
How can we take care of our mental health? This module equips you with some basic theory, facts, and tools about stress and other common mental health issues and what to do to address them. You will learn how to be more aware of when your physical and mental health is at risk and how to take better care of yourself under pressure. This module will also provide you with some basic concepts that are fundamental to mental health reporting.
This module will cover:
- Healthy versus unhealthy levels of stress
- How to manage your stress levels at work
-Key concepts that are fundamental to preserving your well-being and to mental health reporting
-Basic self-care skills and burnout prevention in the newsroom
Guest speakers:
Caroline Clauss-Ehlers, professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology and the Ph.D. Program in Clinical Psychology in the School of Health Professions at Long Island University, Brooklyn. She’s also a former Rosalynn Carter Fellow for Mental Health Journalism and currently serves as an advisory board member for this program.
Video Classes
1. Learn about common mental health issues with Caroline Clauss-Ehlers
2. What’s keeping you stuck in unhealthy habits #1
3. Understanding stress
* This video is part of The Self-Investigation Academy course. You will need to register here for access.
4. Healthy and unhealthy levels of stress
* This video is part of The Self-Investigation Academy course. You will need to register here for access.
5. Centering: a practice to calm and ground yourself
* This video is part of The Self-Investigation Academy course. You will need to register here for access.
Readings
1. Taking Care: A report on mental health, well-being and trauma among Canadian media workers [Matthew Pearson and Dave Seglins, May 2022 (especially Chapter 3: Wellbeing at work)]
2. Managing our Mental Health: A guide for journalists and media professionals [Headlines network in collaboration with Mind]
3. How to deal with burnout: Signs, symptoms, and strategies for getting you back on track after burning out [Rescue Time]
4. How to stay in touch with The Self-Investigation [The Self-Investigation]
How can we stay healthy in an always-on culture? In this module you’ll get the facts about how digital technology could harm your physical and mental health if not used correctly. We’ll also cover why it’s essential to your well-being to set boundaries with yourself and with others in the newsroom. You’ll learn practical tips and tools about how to work remotely and how to have efficient digital communications as a team. Finally, we’ll also address the increasingly common issues of vicarious trauma and online harassment.
This module will cover:
- Setting digital and physical boundaries to reduce stress and frustration at work
- Experiencing why multitasking is bad for your brain and learning how to be more productive through deep work
- Best practices when working remotely
- How to prevent vicarious trauma and deal with online harassment
Guest speakers:
Video Classes
1. What’s keeping you stuck in unhealthy habits #2
2. How the digital world is stressing you out
* This video is part of The Self-Investigation Academy course. You will need to register here for access.
3. Quick practice for releasing tension in your body
* This video is part of The Self-Investigation Academy course. You will need to register here for access.
4. Learn about online harassment with Nadine Hoffman
5. Learn about vicarious trauma with Dean Yates
6. Panel: The importance of digital wellness for our mental health
Readings
1. The COVID Reporters Are Not Okay. Extremely Not Okay [Olivia Messer, Study Hall]
2. It’s Time to Embrace Slow Productivity [Cal Newport, New Yorker]
3. Digital Flourishing Survey [Digital Wellness Institute]
4. Online Violence Response Hub [Coalition Against Online Violence]
Optional Resources
1. Resources [The Self-Investigation]
There continues to be stigma and discrimination around mental health issues. Within newsrooms, there’s a belief that you cannot be a reliable and good journalist if you have mental health challenges. This module focuses on what you can do to support your colleagues, raise awareness in the newsroom, and integrate well-being into company policies.
This module will cover:
- You can be an excellent journalist and have mental health challenges
- How to introduce conversations about mental health in your newsroom
- How to influence the integration of well-being into company culture
Guest speakers:
Video Classes
1. Towards a more sustainable culture of care in the media #1
2. Towards a more sustainable culture of care in the media #2
3. How diversity, equity and inclusion relate to mental health, with Sisi Wei
4. Panel: Introducing the conversation in the newsroom and in the industry
5. Bonus: How the CBC is approaching wellbeing
Readings
1. Community Q&A: As a white manager, how do I build trust and be a good ally to my colleagues of color? [Members of the DEI Coalition, Source]
2. Let’s Talk: Personal Boundaries, Safety & Women on Journalism [Ariel Ritchen, The Dart Center]
3. Supporting our colleagues: A guide for journalists and media professionalsk [Headlines Networ]
4. Changing Company Culture Requires a Movement, Not a Mandate [Bryan Walker and Sarah A. Soule, Harvard Business Review]
Optional Resources
1. Resources [The Self-Investigation]
This module describes the dangers of pathologizing mental health conditions, explores the idea that mental illness is a social construct, and suggests general storytelling practices that build nuance and empathy.
This module will cover:
- The long-term impact of trauma on our brains and bodies
- How mental “illness” is in many ways a social construct, and how it can come with real advantages
- Learning about how pathologizing mental health conditions prevents people from healing, and how to prevent pathologizing and stigmatizing in your work
- Storytelling tips for creating nuanced, empathetic hopeful work
Video Classes
1. How trauma impacts our brains and bodies
2. How do good storytelling practices counter pathology and introduce empathy?
Readings
1. How Trauma Became the Word of the Decade: The very real psychiatric term has become so omnipresent in pop culture that some experts worry it’s losing its meaning [Lexi Pandell, Vox]
2. My PTSD can be a weight. But in this pandemic, it feels like a superpower [Stephanie Foo, Vox]
3. Anxious Mess [Allison Behringer, Bodies Podcast (34 minutes)]
This module delves into how we can respect and care for our subjects and their communities in our reporting process, in order to keep them safe.
This module will cover:
- How to research mental health conditions ahead of time, and basic tips on respectful terminology
- Best practices for interviewing someone with a mental health condition
- How to communicate and collaborate with your subject and their community
- The ethics of how to care for your subject’s mental health before and after your story comes out
Guest Speaker:
Alia Dastagir, a reporter for USA Today and a former Rosalynn Carter Fellow for Mental Health in Journalism. In 2020, she won the American Association of Suicology’s Public Service Journalism Award for her responsible coverage on suicide.
Video Classes
1. Respecting and caring for our subjects and their communities
2. Conversation with Alia Dastagir on responsible reporting on suicide
Readings
1. Style Guide: Reporting on Mental Health [SPRC]
2. Carter Center Journalism Resource Guide on Behavioral Health [The Carter Center]
3. The Lifesaving Lesson Suicidal People Can Teach A World in a Pandemic [Alia Dastagir, USA Today]
Optional Resources
1. How a Sesame Street Muppet Became Embroiled in a Controversy Over Autism [Lindsey Bever, Washington Post]