Explaining the Traumatic Sufferings of Journalists: An Application of Bronfenbrenner’s Socio-ecological Model

Media practitioners on day to day basis, endeavour to capture the moments and suffer traumatic experiences in their quest to shoulder work-related responsibilities. Every step of a media practitioner is in itself news and tend to invariably affect their psychological wellbeing. There seems to be an attack on media personalities, especially journalists. This paper explains the pull and push factors accounting for the traumatic sufferings of journalists using Bronfenbrenner’s socio-ecological model. The effect of emotional labour on the psychological health of media practitioners can be viewed as an interplay between the multiple levels of influences from the industry level to the personal level. The interplay between macro-level, intrapersonal level, and interpersonal influences tend to impact greatly on the individual practitioner. At the structural level, industry requirements or occupational display culture dictate what is professionally accepted or not and how media practitioners ought to exhibit their emotions. This macro-level requirement fed into the individual organizations’ ideals, values, expectations and demands. The organizational level orientation is subtly passed on by colleague employees, friends, and family. Unfavourable feedbacks from the general public, strengthen the descending pressure to labor emotionally. The three-tier level pressure to demonstrate professionalism (to keep faking by enhancing or suppressing ones’ emotions), culminating on the individual employee at the personal level. The inability to navigate through the challenges from the various levels tend to affect the psycho-social wellbeing of journalists. There is, therefore, the need to provide psychological services to support journalist.